Cherry Tomato Transformation

The cherry tomatoes are abundant this year so I decided to make some sauce.  I can only eat so many in salads and Tim won't touch an uncooked tomato.

I cleaned them well, cut the large ones in half and put them in the crock pot.  I added a bit of minced onion, minced garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and cooked them overnight on low heat.  This morning I pureed them skins, seeds and all.  When I tasted the sauce it was a bite acidy so I added some sugar to taste.  I processed them 35 minutes in a hot water bath and ended up with 4 pint of yummy sauce. 

I could have grated carrots to sweeten up my sauce but I might have had to resort to using the pressure canner to be sure the proper heat was reached to kill all the enzymes, bacteria, mold and fungus in the mixed veggetables.  I wanted to use the hot water bath method and get the job done!

Did you know that when you open your jars and cook up your home made sauce that a great addition is a half cup or so of uncooked lentils (the more sauce you cook the more lentils you can add and it doesn't matter what color lentils you use either)?  Lentils will give you added protein and make the sauce more fullfilling.  I really like the heartiness of lentil-tomato sauce and even children like it.  Most often people have not noticed they were there until I mention to them what I added.  *I don't can the lentils in the sauce I add them later when I use the sauce.

Tomorrow I have 2 lugs of tomatoes, 2 lugs of green beans and one lug of medium pickling cucumbers coming so guess what I will be doing on Saturday?