You Can Can

'Tis the season to be canning around here. I would love to know how many of you do this and love it. I seriously can't think of a more beautiful, fulfilling project. The whole process is full of wonderful smells, beautiful colors and that wonderful feeling of SAVING A LOT OF MONEY.

The "Domestic Diva" side comes out of me every time I do it...for real! It's one of those projects that really isn't hard but brings satisfaction almost every day. I love looking in the cupboards (or above the cupboards in my case) and seeing all of the bottled goodness just waiting to be enjoyed. It seriously brings me so much joy.

I thought I'd take pictures of the process of turning garden tomatoes into beautiful homemade "Ragu" sauce. Enjoy!

I wish I could say that this beautiful bounty is from our garden but after two years of success, this years garden struggled...really struggled. Thank goodness we have a wonderful neighbor who has more bounty than she can handle and calls us every other day begging us to "come and pick". We've been very happy to help her out ;)

Look at these gorgeous tomatoes!!! Oh the beauty!

I used my trusty Blendtec to blend the tomatoes, skins and all into a wonderful sauce and then added some tomato paste to thicken.
This is my Aunt Coralee's recipe with a few little additions of my own!

Just a tablespoon of lemon give them that little boost of acid just to be safe.

Look at all of those crystal clear bottles...soon to be filled

Bath time!

The finished product! Now I can put them on the shelf and
admire them just like little pieces of art! Oh yeah, and eat them too.

This is what happens to Norah when Mom is busy canning and can't save her from her evil twin sisters....Someday she'll get to taste the wonderful sauce and know it was all worth the torture.