Sunday, August 16, 2009

Amazing new gadget

This is called a sauce maker and it is used to get the juice out of fruits for canning and preserving. I remember my mom borrowing one when I was younger and we made applesauce to can. After using it, I vowed to someday have one -- it made a laborious task so easy! No more peeling and coring the apples, just cook them down and put through the sauce maker.



I found a few different models on Amazon.com and bought one a few months ago, in preparation for a huge amount of canning I anticipated doing while 8 months pregnant -- it was a beautiful dream. Our tomatoes are ripe, so the girls and I tried it out yesterday. Emma picked the tomatoes, carrying them in the front of her dress just a like a little pioneer girl. I assembled the confusing contraption and we filled the hopper with the tomatoes.

The objective is to put soft fruit in, squish it down with the plunger and turn the crank to deliver the juices and pulp in one bowl and the skins and seeds to another.




It worked beautifully! But don't just take my word for it....




It was a site to behold. The reviews from Amazon said that it splattered a lot, so I took precautions with the girls' clothes and I wore an apron. I didn't think it splattered at all actually and was very impressed with the product -- I give it 5 stars! The crank turned easily and my scantily clad children took turns making sauce. We were all a bit more excited than would be considered normal. ;)




Sauce in one bowl and skin and seeds in another....

We had about 20 ripe tomatoes of all sizes and varieties and they made about 5 cups of sauce. I cooked the sauce down  at a simmer with added garlic, salt, a bit of sugar, and italian seasonings. It was so yummy, I had to take a picture of my dinner.




Cheese filled ravioli, fresh tomato sauce, and summer squash.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

fun! My dad hooked ours up to the power drill when I was growing up. Sounded like a good idea, but in reality was really loud and kinda stressful. :) Kelsey

Sara said...

Wow, fresh out of the garden tomato sauce - I've never had that before! I'm impressed with the gadget and I'm also impressed with you! Now, if you tell me you made that cheese ravioli from scratch as well, I'll be way, way, way impressed. =)

Andee said...

I'm really excited to try it out!

Peters Family Farms said...

It's so exciting when gadgets work like they are supposed to! Very cool!

Aly sun said...

Sara, the ravioli are the frozen kind. I am not into making ravioli when a bag of them is $2.50 and feeds for 2 meals. Very delicious and NO work.

Sara said...

Good. I'm glad you have some limits. =) By the way, where do you buy it for that price?

Lindsay said...

I liked the looks of your dinner so much I went out and bought myself a bag of ravioli. Yum!

Applejacks32 said...

Your food looks so good, it doesn't even look real. Yum!

Linds and Manda said...

Wow! That has just made it onto my birthday/Christmas/just because people like me list. :) I have two crab apple trees in our yard and although this year the weather hasn't been good for them, other years I definitely could have used such a thing.