MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Today, we worked on making spaghetti sauce.  I got this recipe from Sally, our pastor’s wife.  We really like it. 

Spaghetti Sauce

Scald and peel half a bushel of tomatoes (we used our food strainer instead), 6 cups chopped onions, 4 chopped green peppers, 1 clove of garlic. Cook for 1 and a half hours, stirring frequently. Add 1 pt olive oil, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup salt, 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tbsp crushed basil leaves, 1 tbsp italian seasoning, 1 tbsp parsley, 5-12 oz cans tomato paste, 4 jalopeno peppers. Cook another 45 min stirring frequently. Put in jars. Heat lids and seals to boiling. Put lids and seals on jars. Cover jars with towel and let sit overnight.

The sauce simmering in the pot.   Can anyone guess what we are having for supper? 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday we had 12 more quarts of spaghetti sauce.  I think this will be all the spaghetti sauce we make unless we have lots more tomatoes.  I want to make salsa and maybe try our hand at ketchup.  We also usually just can tomatoes and tomato sauce for use in soup and chili.  Temperatures here have been hot and humid.  Low to mid 90′s. 

Jess talked to her mother-in-law yesterday and she said the name of this apple is Scarlett Apple.  She thinks she ordered the tree from Stark Bros.  I typed it in on Google and found all kinds of information about it.  Very interesting.

Today is bible study day so I better get busy.  We have decided to do it at Barbara’s house.  It is so hot here and Barbara has air conditioning.    Enjoy your day and God bless.

Our spaghetti sauce turned out really good.  We got 12 qts from a half  bushel of tomatoes.  Today we will do the other half bushel.  The recipe we used:

Scald and peel half a bushel of tomatoes (we used our food strainer instead), 6 cups chopped onions, 4 chopped green peppers, 1 clove of garlic.  Cook for 1 and a half hours, stirring frequently.  Add 1 pt crisco oil, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup salt, 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tbsp crushed basil leaves, 1 tbsp italian seasoning, 1 tbsp parsley, 5-12 oz cans tomato paste, 4 jalopeno peppers.  Cook another 45 min stirring frequently.  Put in jars.  Heat lids and seals to boiling.  Put lids and seals on jars.  Cover jars with towel and let sit overnight.  

This recipe does not call for processing as the liquid is so hot when you put it into the jars.  However, if you are uncomfortable with this method you can process in a hot water bath canner or freeze the sauce.  

We better get busy.  Lots to do today.  We need to get busy on the other spaghetti sauce and on cleaning house.  The ladies will come tomorrow for bible study.  Take care and God bless.

I guess this is why I always gain weight in the winter.  There’s just something about winter that makes me want to bake and try out new recipes.  This pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting recipe came from my (and Jessica’s) favorite cookbook.  Mennonite Country-Style Recipes and Kitchen Secrets.  If you get an opportunity to own the cookbook, it is fantastic.  I don’t think I’ve made anything from it that was bad.  All has been good.  I made 15 bean soup for church last night.  It turned out really good.  I basically follow the instructions on the bag except  I add some browned sausage and hamburger to the recipe.  Also instead of canned tomatoes, I use spaghetti sauce.  It is a very affordable soup.  If I didn’t miss count anything, it will feed about 20 people for about .50 cents a serving.  Pretty good huh.  I’m always looking for ways to feed my family inexpensively but healthy.  Sometimes these two words do not go together.  You know,  like at Wendys.  Do we buy the $1.00 chicken sandwich or the $5.00 salad?  Depends on the cash flow this week.  Honestly though we very seldom eat out, so the $1.00 chicken sandwich is a big treat for us all.   Well speaking of eating, time for me to cook supper.  Tonights menu-sauteed (fried) cabbage with hamburger, potatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers, and spinach.  It’s a one dish meal, inexpensive, healthy and delicious.  Of course a meal like this has to have cornbread with it.  Remember I grind my own corn to make the cornmeal, and of course for the dessert, the pumpkin cake.  Gotta go, I’m getting hungry.  God Bless.

I thought you might enjoy the view from our dirt road.  I know lots of you don’t have the luxury of dirt roads anymore.  There are quite a few still around in Floyd.  This one leads to our driveway, turn left at the big barn.  I was coming back from the milk barn and thought how pretty this is.  So I took a picture.  I am getting into this picture taking. (Hubby took the ones for this morning).  Notice the big maple tree, already starting to show some color.  I guess thats what temperatures in the low 40′s will do.  I canned 10 pints of spaghetti sauce today from some tomatoes we gathered last night. (Yes I said last night)  At church they were talking about how it was supposed to be colder than the night before, so we took a flashlight out to the garden and gathered tomatoes.  Hey, I’m not taking any chances.  I want these fresh tomatoes to last  as possible.   I made homemade pizza this evening for supper using the sauce I’d made.  The crust recipe was not as good as I would have liked.  I guess I’ll have to do some more searching.  The sauce, however was very good.  Everyone seemed to like it.  I’m glad.  It was a lot of work.  It sure did make the house smell good though.  It’s getting late.  God Bless.