Feelin' a Little Snaucy

This past weekend I canned a batch of marinara sauce with my mom. The recipe has been handed down from my grandma on my mom's side - a canning aficionado if ever there was one. I have to admit I made a few alterations to accommodate my love of a spicy, garlicky, robust sauce. Even still, it can't get much simpler:

• fresh tomatoes (from grandma's garden)
• onion
• garlic
• jalapeno, red pepper and cayenne pepper
• salt
• black pepper
• sugar
• olive oil
  

This sauce is very versatile - you can use it on anything from spaghetti to pizza, to dipping. Our batch made exactly 8 pints, so that's a little less that one pint per month until next summer, right? I'll see if we can ration it out and make it last.


This was my second adventure into the world of canning and I feel pretty confident in my own ability to "put up" something unsupervised. My grandma's garden is going to have a lot more tomatoes before the season ends, so I'm giving serious thought to picking a half bushel or so and canning some whole tomatoes. I always feel guilty buying canned tomatoes at the store when I know that they could be so much better if I just made a little effort.

My radish that I planted this past Saturday are already up, and it's only been 3 days! I've never seen a seed germinate so fast. The onion are still growing well and I'll be damned if I don't think we're going to have more eggplant on the way.

My fingers are crossed for rain tonight, and I'm sure the garden is crossing its leaves. Things are starting to look a little crispy around here...