A Weekend of Productivity

On Friday the children and I went grocery shopping. We shop for two weeks at a time. I am used to doing this with my husband (yes I know I'm spoiled). Doing the shopping without him really made me appreciate all the heavy lifting he does for me.

Once I put all the groceries away, I began the process of making homemade spaghetti sauce.

I did one batch of sauce on Friday night and a second batch on Saturday, and ended up with a total of 20 quarts of spaghetti sauce.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

(This is a recipe two ladies from my church taught me last summer)

1/2 Bushel ripe tomatoes

3 pounds onions

3 green bell peppers

2 cups oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup salt

4 Tbsp. minced garlic

1 Tbsp. basil

1 1/2 tsp. oregano

4 bay leaves

4-12 ounce cans tomato paste.

*I use a 12 quart pan to cook this amount of sauce.

*I use the minced garlic that comes in a jar.

*I don't quite use 3 pounds of onions, but pretty close.

Place tomatoes a few at a time in a pot of boiling water and then transfer to ice cold water in sink or dish pan. This allows the tomatoes to peel easily. Peel and core tomatoes, remove any bad spots, and quarter them. Place them in a pot on low heat to begin cooking down for your sauce. Keep adding tomatoes as you peel and quarter them. At this point, I turn the heat up to at least medium. While the tomatoes are cooking down, chop your onions and peppers. When you have room in your pan, add the onions, peppers, garlic, oil, and sugar. Towards the end add the seasonings and then add in your paste. When a wooden spoon can sit upright in the sauce, it is then thick enough to put in hot, sterile jars and begin canning.

Sometimes you have to wait to add ingredients as the tomatoes cook down. It all depends on how many tomatoes you end up with after removing bad spots and what size your pot is. I do not run my tomatoes through a strainer b/c I don't care if it has seeds. Our family really likes this sauce. We use it to dip homemade breadsticks on pizza nights and of course in all our pasta dishes. Lots of stirring is involved during the cooking process to help break up the tomatoes. I even got out my handheld potato masher to help break up the tomatoes.

If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

It was nice having a productive weekend. How did you spend your weekend?