Hittin' the Sauce!

With temps predicted into the high 30's, low 40's by next Tuesday night, thought it might be now or never to get my tomatoes out of the garden and into the freezer in the form of sauce. I did save a few Romas to slice and dehydrate, too- they taste so sweet, like candy, when they're dried. I usually throw them into a freezer bag just to be safe, then crumble them onto pizzas or into sauces when I need them. Thanks to my Victorio strainer I inherited from Mom Dailey, the tomatoes take no time at all the prep for the sauce- in fact, it takes me longer to assemble the strainer, then clean it afterwards, then it does to grind them. The pulp and juice come out the bottom shoot, while the seeds and skin come out another spout, 

Here's the sauce happily bubbling on my stove for the day; it usually takes about 7 hours or so for it to cook down to about 1/2 its bulk. then I cool it and put it in freezer containers. I saute'd a chopped sweet onion, a whole clove of garlic, a tablespoon of ground cloves, and a bunch of dried Italian herbs and added it to the pot along with several stalks of celery and a few bay leaves. My kitchen is smelling quite yummy right now!