Adventures in canning (no, there really was an adventure!)

So last week my sister Kelly and I canned 29 quarts of yummy spaghetti sauce. That's 5 GALLONS of tomato juice/pulp to crank out. But we love this little machine I bought on Amazon (Roma fruit/vegetable strainer). You just quarter the tomatoes, throw them in, and turn the handle. The seeds and skins go out into one bowl and the juice/pulp into another.

Well, we borrowed a couple of steam canners, which we had never used before. We loved them until we realized that we forgot to refill one of them with water between batches. The pan had been on high, for who knows how long and had no water in it! It started to melt the stove and had completely melted a hole in the bottom of the pan! Luckily none of the jars broke. So Kelly got to buy her friend a new steam canner and I got to buy myself a new stove!!

We didn't get just any stove though. KSL classifieds found us this fun toy--2 years old for $1000 less than it is selling currently at RC Willey. A Maytag gemini with 5 burners, TWO ovens, and the bottom oven does convection. So yesterday my friend Teresa and I tried it all out by canning applesauce.I have some friends who were nice enough to buy a house nearby with 5 apple trees. So they let us come pick 6 bags full of apples--and they are good apples! (Thanks Aliesha and Jeff!)

We baked the apples in the ovens (hehe, I'm loving writing ovens, plural). Cranked them out on the Roma strainer, and made 24 quarts of applesauce. Whew.


I'm going to throw this picture in this post too. Bryndi celebrated her birthday with the family and my sister-in-law Jessica made her this tinkerbell cake. Isn't it cute!? Click here for a link to Jessica's website: www. couturespecialtycakes.com