My maiden canning voyage

A few weeks ago, I rounded up my freshest farmers market produce (well, except the mushrooms) and my pup and headed down to my childhood home where I was greeted by over 100 fresh tomatoes from Mom's garden, waiting to be made into a not-yet-determined red sauce.

I knew I wanted something chunky, full of veggies. I wanted something versatile that I could use as chili base, pizza sauce, marinara, and spaghetti sauce. I had a "flavor" dreamed up in my head, but kept reminding myself that since I was going off the cuff and not following any type of recipe, that the chances of my "dream sauce" tasting how I imagined was slim.

However, 6 hours and a lot of taste-testing later, we ended up with JUST what I was hoping for.
Without following a recipe, the chances of duplicating it's exact taste aren't great, but I will certainly be attempting to as soon as next summer's tomatoes are ripe for the picking! Here's an ingredient list of the base-line items we used:

Spice:

italian seasoning
sweet basil (LOTS)
baking stevia
garlic(LOTS)
cracked pepper and salt
parsley
red wine (1/4 cup at a time)
bay leaves

Veggie:

zucchini
mushrooms
carrots
bell peppers(red, orange, yellow, green)

I loved being able to can with some of my Grandma's pans, it definitely made the whole experience much more nostalgic, remembering what a great woman she was!

Look at al those veggies

I love my mom's jar-tightener. So appropriate for this situation. :)

18 jars later!

While at the house, I also had the chance to go on a walk with my mom down to the river by our house. I have walked that path to the river more times that I could count as a child, and it was great to relive those memories, see how the landscape had changed..and also how it hadn't. The river was completely dried up this year, so it was fun to walk in it's basin, remembering times when I'd walk it's length with mom, getting so upset when she'd make us stop and turn around because the water was getting knee high.