Applesauce, Pepper Jelly & Tomato Sauce - oh MY!

Friday on my way home I hit the produce stand and gathered apples, peppers and the other sundry fruits and vegetables I needed for the fridge. While I got dinner ready, GTot and HandyMan picked tomatoes from the garden.

After supper, HandyMan and I got to work.  The order of business: Applesauce, Pepper Jelly (Hot & Mild), and Tomato Sauce.

I have a great KitchenAid attachment that makes the applesauce a breeze.  GTot was allowed up on the counter to watch the tomatoes squish thorough and thought it was the coolest thing!  "Mommy!! My applesauce!"

Then it was on to the Pepper Jelly.  I used this recipe as it is written for the hot jelly and replaced 5 jalapenos with a 5th bell pepper for the mild jelly.  The mild has very little bite and is fabulous with cream cheese.  I had some for breakfast this morning on fresh bread.  YUM!  I'm too chicken to try the hot stuff.  I'll bust it out when my Dad comes to visit next month.

Finally, we cooked up some tomato sauce.  GTot helping again to get the stems off the tomatoes.  I'm a hack-job of a canner.  I'm making it up as I go along and I really hope that this great stuff I've put into jars actually stays good and we can enjoy it in the months to come.  One of my 'experiments' was the tomato sauce.  I added balsamic vinegar and basil to it while it was cooking.  I'm thinking it should be fine.  The batch I made and had for dinner earlier this week was great, so now I'm just hoping that the canned version will be just as good!

The stash above came from 2 1/2 hours of work in the kitchen.  Not too shabby.

This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.