Pizza Sauce

We are some makers of homemade pizza around here.  I love some delivery from time to time and nothing beats a Mellow Mushroom pizza in my opinion, they are THE best.  But to save on some money, we try and make a lot our pizza.  I thought I'd help curb the cost by going a bit further and whipping up some canned pizza sauce.  (ahem)

Whip it up...what was I thinking?!  It took ALL DAY LONG!

Luckily, I had a handsome helper to chop tomatoes and lovely babysitter to watch the littlest one.

time saver!  teach your kids knife skills young!

At first it was easy.  Just cut your tomatoes up, pop them through the blender, as well as some sautéed onions, green peppers and garlic.  Find your biggest pot in the house to simmer the tomatoes in, as well as all our spices you would normally put in for pizza sauce.  Seems simple right?

The problem is that it took SO STINKIN' LONG to simmer down to a thick pizza sauce.  Even after four hours it was still to watery!!  After that, I added like 3 cans of tomato paste and let it simmer another 2 hours before it was worthy of being called pizza sauce.  SIX hours!  I started early, but it wasn't until after the kids were all in bed before I could can them!!!  Even then, I gave up and just put a bunch of cans in the freezer.

But it's done and we have enough pizza sauce to last us until next spring probably and the box of tomatoes only cost us $10.

there's more towards the back and in the freezer

My favorite crust:
1 3/4 c flour ( I mix white and wheat)
2 1/4 tsp yeast
Italian Seasoning to taste
1 1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
6T warm milk
6T warm water

Combine all ingredients and knead about 8-10 minutes.  Rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour.  Bake @375.
I use my bread machine to make this in which is a time saver.  This is enough for one large pizza, I usually double it for my crowd.  Except don't double the yeast, I just increase it to 1 T.

The best part of a good pizza, spread a dollop of pesto onto the crust before adding your sauce.  But that's just my little secret between you and me!

weekending

As a stay at home mom, I REALLY look forward to weekends when the hubby is home to help all day to help out.   Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a stay at home mommy, and I love (sometimes) doing the domesticate "stuff", but there are times when it really causes some burn out.

A few weekends ago, I had had it.   The Mister had been out of town for a week and then the there was a sick kid for a week, cabin fever had kicked in BIG TIME.  I decided one Saturday morning after fixing pancakes for breakfast that I was heading to the flea market.  A big woo-hoo to that one.  Somehow I ended up taking the two big kids, I was really worried how they'd handle it considering it was going to be hitting mid-90s later  but they took it like champs and we had a blast.  My favorite find was this little lovely!  Don't you just love the mushrooms?  Love, love, love it!  I have a weakness for mushrooms.  The little basket now houses all my sewing supplies.  Happiness!

This weekend however is NOT for relaxing.  I have these pretty things:

and these

and then some of these

And if I manage to do all that, I get to do this:

I'm super thrilled to tackle it all!  And I say that without a hint of sarcasm, either. :)

Blueberry Jam

***If you look to your right, you'll see some super cute jam labels you can download made just for your blueberry jam.  I'm thinking Father's Day Gift! ****

Yes, I know everyone in blogland seems to be making strawberry jam.  And yes, I made my strawberry jam already this year.  I even tried it without pectin, too!   A first for me, and then it turned out to be HARD as a rock…think hard caramels that pull out your teeth.  But, no fear I did it again with more strawberries and now I have nice soft-set jam. :)

But, I think it’s time we think outside of the jelly jar and make something besides strawberry jam!  Who’s with me?  (please, tell me that’s not crickets I hear!)  I made me some blueberry jam and I think you should try it, too.  How’s that for bossiness?

First you need to get all your “stuff” ready.  Sterilize 6 pt jars and their rings and then I like to keep them in hot water until they’re ready to be used in my kitchen sink along with the lids.  Get a big pot of hot water a’boiling.  Make sure the water is deep enough to have 1 inch of water overtop the jars.
Take 3 pts of fresh picked blueberries, give them a nice shower and make sure to remove all the little stems.  Otherwise you might find a surprise one morning eating your bread and jam.   (I LOVE that book!)
Using a handy potato masher, squish up your blueberries inside a pot until there nice and smooshy.   Don’t turn it into juice though, we want to keep some bits of blueberries.  That’s what makes it jam after all.

Combine those crushed blueberries, a little pat of butter (to   reduce foaming), and a box of pectin in a large pot on the stove, bring to a hard rolling boil while you stir constantly.  You can also stir in a little cinnamon.  So delicious that way, but unfortunately I forgot this time.  Oh well, next year!
Stir in 4 cups of sugar, you can also use honey I just haven’t tried it yet.  While stirring the whole time, bring the jam back to a full rolling boil and boil for exactly one minute.  You can test your jam by placing a bit on a plate and placing it in the freezer.  After a couple of minutes, check it and see if it’s  “jammy” enough for you.  Make sure, though, that you remove your jam from the heat during testing.

Oh so carefully, pour your jam into your jars leaving 1/8 in headroom, or space at the top.  Wipe your jars clean, add a lid and then a band.  Once you fill all your jars, carefully lower them into the boiling water.  Bring back to a boil and process for about 10 minutes.  Remove jars and place towels underneath and on top of your jars so they don’t crack in the cool air conditioning of your home.  Then listen for the poppity-pops of the lids telling you their being sealed.  Once they’re cool, you can press down on the center of the lid to make sure they don’t bounce back.  Love the sound of  jars popping!