View From the Back Forty

It is a great day to do some canning!  On today’s to-do list I’m planning to can tomato juice, whole tomatoes and cucumber- mint jelly.  My family loves the whole tomatoes and tomato juice for chili, goulash, and a few random recipes I have that call for whole tomatoes.  And farmer Brown loves to drink the tomato juice right out of the jar!  The cucumber-mint jelly tastes great on lamb chops, or simply drizzled over cream cheese as an appetizer. To be honest my first plan was to make pasta sauce, but I had to change my plans quickly after one critical error.  I bought a new kitchen gadget for myself, a strainer/grinder for my mixer.  Thought it would be so helpful in preparing sauces and juices for making a lot of what is on my canning list.  And it will, but you cannot use the strainer to make pasta sauce, it turns the tomatoes into juice- hence the tomato juice I’m canning today!  Watching the strainer was amazing!  While watching it I thought how jealous my grandmo