Spaghetti Sauce canning recipe

20 lbs roma tomatoes, stem area cut out
4 lb ground beef
1 lb sliced mushrooms (could have used 2 lb)
4 garlic cloves (could have done more)
2 huge onions (or 4 regular)
dried oregano, basil, thyme (two palm size amounts of each, ~1 inch diameter in palm)
salt- 4 palms (1 inch diam)
pepper - 1 palm


I did half of this recipe at once since I could only fit 10 lb in my biggest pot. I think 20 lb would fit in a 12 quart, but I only have an 8 qt pot.

Cut tomatoes in half, throw in pot with herbs. Let simmer for a few hours so some liquid can evaporate. Put through blender (for my blendtec I put it on level 5 for 10-20 seconds) in batches. Saute meat, mushrooms, cloves, and chopped onions (i did it one thing at a time and added to blended sauce when finished). Then sauce simmered for more time until thick and flavor was strong enough.

makes 14-16 pints. I can process 4 pints (wide mouthed or regular) in my 6 qt instant pot. I put in the rack, an inch or 2 or water, and push the steam button. Adjust time to 60 minutes for pints, 70 min for quarts (i did a quart on its side). Leave 1 inch head space, pour in hot liquid, put on lid and screw on band (not overly tight).

That's it. I did it over two days, with lots of down time and other stuff going on. It would have saved time if I had a bigger pot and a big pressure canner, but I have neither so made do!

Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/butternut-squash-pasta-sauce

This was ok. I had butternut squash ravioli once at Trio in Salt Lake City, and this was my attempt to recreate it. It did not work. It would have been better if there had been chunks in it, like crunchy fried onion or garlic, or unseasoned croutons or something. I froze what we didn't use and hope to make it into soup another time.