Tomatoes!

Well its that time of year... when my garden is overflowing with veggies! this really has to be one of my favorite seasons... I finally get to reap the rewards from planting/ weeding/ and watering the garden...

remember where we started?

And today...

I remember making sauces with my mother when I was a child... but we had TONS of tomatoes... I just had a bunch ... 

I quick called my grandma to go over the process... what I was suposta do I also wanted to know if there were any tricks ...
She gave me a great tip: put the tomatoes in Hot water then in Cold water and the skin falls off.. and it does! this meant that my little helpers could help me peal the tomatoes with out using a knife!.. this ment playing in water so they were in!

The first step:  get the skin off the tomatoes and get most of the water and seeds out...

 the skins were just falling off ...

Pealed and seeded and squished I put them in a strainer in the sink to get any extra water to drain out before cooking

The second step: add spices and simmer over heat....

...until tomatoes reduce in half...Yes I know my kitchen is messy.. I am not the neatest cook in the world...

The third step:  Once the sauce has reduced place it in canning jars

The fourth step: Put the lids on them and put them in the boiling water for 35 min. Making sure to have at least 1 inch of water covering the jars...  when finished let cool for 24 hours ... then remove outer lid and you are done

The second batch I made I just froze.. instead of putting in jars, let cool and put into plastic baggies and put in freezer I wanna see which way I like better...