Tomato Sauce

Yesterday, Dana and I picked these from my mom and dad's house:

So just to clarify, we picked 2 gallons of cherry tomatoes and a big basket of regular tomatoes. Plus, on top of these lovelies, Kevin's mom gave us a gallon of tomatoes.

And so, since Nora and Dana ask for spaghetti every single night for dinner, I thought it would be smart to can a whole bunch of sauce. (Let me clarify that I do not actually serve spaghetti every single night.)

I halved the cherry tomatoes and sliced the regular tomatoes into thick pieces, chunked up some onions (some from our garden and some from the grocery store), cut the tops off of several cloves of garlic, drizzled it all in olive oil, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, and roasted it for half an hour in a hot oven.

Doesn't it look gorgeous, all browned and juicy?

I carefully transferred the roasted items into the food processor, along with fresh basil (some from my garden and some from the grocery store) and whirled it up.

I did this many times.

I ended up with 16 pints of spaghetti sauce!

I know that some of you can't understand why I made pints instead of quarts. The thing is, a pint of spaghetti sauce is exactly the right amount for two adults and two little girls. Nothing ends up in the garbage, and nothing ends up getting moldy in the back of the refrigerator.

Tomorrow there will be at least 2 more gallons of ripe cherry tomatoes. My little brother has requested salsa with lots of cilantro. I have never made salsa before, much less canned it. I may have to do some research here. Anyone have a good recipe?