Why You Should Can Your Own Fruits and Vegetables?

Canning season is officially over for me. In the past two weeks I have managed to pack 40 jars of tomato sauce, 10 jars of peaches and 20 jars of salsa. I'm tired. I know for some of you the idea of canning your own fruits and vegetables is considered old-fashion and outdated. Many argue with me. If you can buy a can of tomatoes for 99cents why would you put so much time and effort into canning your own?
A couple of reasons, first if you are productive and efficient and your timing is just right you can do it for a little cheaper then store bought. But more importantly, I control what goes into my food, salt, sugar, preservatives. But the real reason I love it so much is because in the dead of winter, when you can saunder down to the your cantina and grap a jar of tomatoes that you have grown yourself or simply bought from your local farmer, cleaned, cooked, pressed etc.etc. there is nothing like it and nothing can compare to it.
If you really want to eat clean and healthy then you should seriously consider turning back the clock to the days of your grandmother and great-grandmother and consider taking up the lost art of preserving and canning.
I'm going to share with you today my recipe for canning tomato sauce. I consider this recipe to be my greatest treasure it belonged to my Italian mother-in-law. It was the quick thinking of my sister-in-law to it write down on one such occasion when she was canning with her.  We all took our turn learning the ropes and I continue the tradition today using the very same separator that belonged to her.

Nonna's Sauce
Your tomatoes should come fresh from your local farmer if not from your own garden. Roma tomatoes or if you can get your hands on San Marzano tomatoes are ideal.
Wash your tomatoes genereously, remove the stem and any dark or white spots.
Hand cut the tomatoes and put them into a blender.
Pour the blended tomatoes into the separating machine. This machine will separate the skin and seeds on one side and send the juice in a pot on the otherside.
Once you have filled a large pot with juice you can begin boiling it on the stove. You can add some salt at this time. This juice will boil for a couple of hours.
Meanwhile I wash my jars and lids in the dishwasher on sanitizing setting. If they finish before the sauce I will then hold them until the sauce is ready in oven. The lids I boil on the stove and hold in the hot water until ready to jar.
Before you jar place 3-4 fresh basil leaves (from your garden) and fill the jars with the hot sauce. Leave at least 1 inch head room. Attach lids and secure tightly, turn upside down to sit and seal. 


When you are ready to use your sauce.
saute up a little chopped garlic in olive oil, add a jar of sauce, let simmer for 20-30 minutes adding again some fresh or "frozen fresh" basil about 1/2 way through your cooking time along with kosher salt to taste.
This will make a lovely marinara sauce for your favourite pasta.

My Famous Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today is the first day back to school. For my girls, long gone are the days of watching them with their lunch pail in hand walking to the bus in their new school outfits. Today, my 18 year old started her first class at college studying business. My youngest is 13 and started her first day of high school. Life is changing in our household. However, I thought today I would hold true to a tradition I have enjoyed for the last 30 years. I am making my famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

The first batch is baking in the oven as I write this post. I wish you could smell them. When I was young, my mother would make these very cookies. My fondest memories were of coming home from school and smelling these freshly baked morsels. Still warm, moist and tender waiting for us to consume. I began the same tradition for my own girls. Throughout their school days they have often commented on how much they have enjoyed coming home to my freshly baked cookies. Their reactions when they came in from school was reward enough. So although only one daughter will be here at 3:30pm today to enjoy them I am holding true to the tradition. Some will just have to go into the freezer for my college student.

Why are they famous you ask? Mostly because whomever I have made them for over the last 30 years aways loves them and wants the recipe. Secondly, no matter how many other cookie recipes I have made over the years this one is always the tried and true favourite. I originally got this recipe from my Mom. She doesn't know where it came from. I have lost it many times over the years but I have made it so often I can recreate it from memory. I have made some adjustments each time I lost it and had to rewrite it. But now it is recorded and I hope you enjoy them as much as my family. I'm passing it along now to my nephew's wife. She has requested it. With a toddler and infant, I hope she looks forward to many years off baking these cookies for her boys.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chips Cookies
by Lynn Palermo
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of soften butter
2 cups of brown sugar
1 tbsp. of vanilla
1 tsp of baking soda
1 cup of boiling water
4 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F
Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add vanilla. In a measuring cup add 1 tsp of baking soda, add one cup of boiling water. Add water mixture to butter mixture. Stir well. Add oats, mix well by hand. Then add flour, again mixing well by hand. Add chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoon onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until edges of cookies begin to brown. Let cool for a few minutes and then move to cooling racks. They are delicious warm right out of the oven, or once cooled package in an airtight container and freeze.