Nothing tastes like homemade

Every year we have had a garden, we say we are going to can/preserve some of the veggies we grow. So far, we have never had the chance to actually follow through. This year, however Matt was insistent that we have a go at canning homemade tomato sauce. It was labor-intensive, but really rewarding (and very delicious!) We both really enjoyed doing it and decided that it should become an annual event. I think having all the kids help when they get older will also be fun. They can each have a "station" and help with blanching, peeling, squeezing, etc. I am looking forward to trying again. We ended up using a spaghetti seasoning packet this time, but decided we would follow the Ball blue book recipe next time. We learned a lot about the water bath canner since we don't have a pressure canner. One thing we discovered is that you can't really use a water bath canner with a glass top oven because there are mechanisms built in to the oven which make it impossible to heat up (not to mention the bottom of the pot is not flat which makes heating difficult). We improvised by using the gas burner on our grill and it worked beautifully!




We processed about 20 pounds of tomatoes and ended up with 7 pint-size jars plus a little extra to eat the next day. We added some sausage and ground beef and it was sooo yummy!



Feeling adventurous, I decided to break out the ice cream maker we got as a wedding present almost 8 years ago (sorry to whomever gifted that to us!) and made homemade vanilla ice cream. My Grandpa Warren always made homemade ice cream growing up and I have a lot of great memories of him cranking the handle for what seemed like forever to a kid, but we ended up with such yummy results! This one was electric and much easier, but still had a learning curve. Matt and I finally got the right amount of ice to salt to make a very delicious homemade vanilla ice cream. The kids loved it even though they did not get to see it being made because I didn't realize the mix had to chill in the fridge for 2 hours before you could put it in the freezer (oops!) Truthfully, as long as they could enjoy the results they didn't miss too much! This picture of Grant says it all!

I think it has his seal of approval!

Matt and I were up until around 1:30am making tomato sauce and ice cream, but it was something really fun to together and rewarding to see what you can do on your own. We will definitely be doing both again!