Yogurt making

Yogurt is always in our fridge. I'm not sure how we would survive without having it in the house. One problem, any of the fruit flavoured yogurts that I've found here, without paying an arm and a leg for it, all have way more sugar in them than I want! So a while ago I came across this blog: http://stephanieodea.com/ and she had a recipe for slow cooker yogurt!

Now my mom has made her own yogurt off an on through out the years so I'm not unfamiliar with the concept of the yogurt making process. I just haven't done it now that we've been married. Time to bite the bullet don't ya think?!? So I decided that today was the day! Right now I've got the milk warming up in my slow cooker, I can't wait to see how it turns out! :)

Anyway for those of you who are interested the link is below, so you can try it yourself if you so happen to have the desire too!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html

Tomato Sauce Making

Well I decided that this year, unlike last year, I am actually going to tackle making my own Tomato Sauce! John's dad has a ton of tomato plants in his garden, so many that he doesn't know what to do with half of them other than give them away LOL :) Anyway so I went over there on Monday night with John and picked almost a 5 gallon bucket full of tomatoes, some regular peppers, and a bunch of Jalepeno peppers, Habanero peppers etc. so today was the day to start making sauces!

So here is what I used/did to make it.

5 gallon pail of tomatoes - Wash and blend well, this takes care of the need to peel, and un-seed them

Put into large pan(s)

Bring to a boil then add the following:

2 1/2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped - that was my final measurement after it was cut
1 TbspBasil
2 Tbsp Oregano
1/2 cup Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Butter - keeps foaming down
1 Habenero Pepper (optional)
2 small Jalepeno Peppers (optional)

Simmer for a few hours stirring occasionally, or you can cook it less depending on how much of a fresh tomato taste you like (a tid bit of info I found somewhere).

Once finished simmering, you can either can the sauce, or cool and put in Quart size freezer bags, then freeze.

Also another tip: if canning use less onions/garlic because you can always add more later when using it. :)

Anyway here are some pictures!

Peppers galore!!

Fresh Parsley out of my vegetable garden.. now I have my work cut out for me and then I need to dry it.. even though I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with that much of it... I'll probably cut it until I get sick of it and then throw the rest out.

The Tomato Paste can's that I emptied for the sauce... looked so cool standing in a row that I just had to take a picture of the! :D

Anyway that is my story for the day.. tomorrow I'm going to see if I can't get the Hot Pepper sauce made!