If you've never tried tomato jam, just know it's one of my favorite things to do with tomatoes. It's both sweet and spicy...a little like a very elegant ketchup. I love it on eggs, but it's sweet enough to spread on toast. If you're interested in giving it a try, you can find the recipe right here.
Also, I managed another 7 quarts of chunky basil pasta sauce for a two-day total of 14 quarts. That ought to hold us until next year.
This is the recipe I use for that. It's the best-tasting pasta sauce...way better than Ragu!
So altogether, my weekend's effort yielded 4 pints of salsa, 14 quarts of pasta sauce, and 8 half-pints of jam.
Also, I reprocessed a jar of the peach barbecue sauce (from a few weeks ago). Mike and I were sitting in the living room when we heard the distinctive "plink" of a seal letting loose. I reprocessed it when I did some jam a few days ago, but the seal let loose again. Knowing I was going to be doing more canning, I put it in the refrigerator. Yesterday I got it out and poured the contents into a new clean jar. Then I checked the rim on the old jar and danged if I didn't find the tiniest little nick in the rim. I took it outside to show it to Mike and then it became obvious that the jar was the problem. The nick was almost not visible, although it was much easier to see in the sunlight. Anyway...hopefully, that problem is solved and that jar is in the recycling bin now. (Cue the playing of Taps.)
So we're two weeks away from the start of our trip. Between now and then I want to make a batch of applesauce, and I'm going to make a batch of green tomato salsa from our green tomatoes. By the way, I harvested exactly four ripe tomatoes from our own plants and included them in our tomato jam. That makes 40 lbs. plus 4 tomatoes laid waste this past weekend. And, fingers crossed, the plums are turning purple and softening up. I might just get to make that plum torte when we have the kids over for dinner next weekend.
Today I'm taking a well-deserved day off to spend sewing. I want to finish off the block for Its Raining Cats and Dogs, and then I'll get on with the next row for Mulligan Stew. Time's growing short, and there's much to do in preparation for our trip. I'm afraid my sewing days are coming to a close for a while, and so I'm soaking it up while I still can.
