When I blended the roasted ingredients with the remaining ones, the consistency was just what I wanted. So, the herbs, wine, vinegar, (and the parts of the scallions that were greener) didn't even get cooked. They just got pureed together into almost exactly the sauce I have been yearning to can! So I will once again plague you all with questions before I take a break from the forum for a few days of not-canning, followed by a tiny vacation. I didn't have as many tomatoes as I thought, so I cut the recipe down to a fourth! I didn't process the ONE PINT that resulted :-) but is there a reason I couldn't have? In other words, wouldn't the 35 minutes of processing (40 for quarts) sufficiently "cook" anything that needs to be cooked for safety's sake? Next time I plan to de-glaze the roasting pan with the wine to get more of the caramelized essence into the sauce. As a result it will evaporate a lot of the alcohol in an instant. Last question - at least until next week - I think it would be safe to add some garlic POWDER and omit the sugar. Would one of the experts be kind enough to confirm that?

I disagree (as I have often before --- hi, Dave!) with Dave's characterization of your canning as "very dangerous," which implies that it's a miracle you haven't keeled over yet from it. The kind of illness you could get from improperly canned tomato sauce --- botulism --- is in fact very rare. I think it's important for people to realize that context in discussions about canning safety. You and your son are a lot more likely to get e. coli or salmonella from grocery-store hamburger or even vegetables. BUT here's the thing: botulism may be rare, but it's VERY SERIOUS, and if you do get it, it's often FATAL, as in, it kills you. So the folks who make the guidelines for home canning design their guidelines with a zero-tolerance attitude: follow them, and you are SURE your tomato sauce is safe. And I have to agree that that makes sense. I know a lot of people who, like you, started to be much more serious about food safety when they have children. Amazing how feeling so responsible for ANOTHER person makes us really think, eh? So, if you want to follow the modern guidelines, you have a couple of options: --- make the sauce as you always have, and freeze it, if you have the freezer room --- make a similar sauce, but one that is tested, and process it in a water bath following the guidelines I found a tested recipe on this Michigan State Univesity site, which follows modern guidelines and is quite reliable, that has most of the same ingredients. You can use whatever green peppers you usually use instead of the chile peppers it calls for --- all peppers are v. similar in acidity. And you can use bottled lemon juice instead of all or part of the vinegar for the exact same acidity (I might try red wine vinegar for a nice flavour). I also don't see why you couldn't add some sugar. As Dave says, it doesn't affect acidity. Then you could add anything you felt it was missing when you opened it, like the tomato paste and, if you want, the oil (though I have bee amazed to discover I don't miss the oil in any canning recipes). Good luck! Zabby Here is a link that might be useful: Mexican Tomato Sauce

i like this one: "This super-easy Coney-style meat sauce is just what you need to add that extra little something to a hot dog or some ordinary fries. You don't even have to fry the meat, just put all the ingredients together and simmer." INGREDIENTS: 1 pound lean ground beef 1 cup water 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce 1 (1.25 ounce) package chili seasoning mix 1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard 1 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder DIRECTIONS: 1. Stir lean ground beef, water, tomato sauce, chili seasoning mix, yellow mustard, onion powder, and garlic powder together in a large saucepan; bring to a boil, stirring often. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until ground beef is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. 2. Remove lid and simmer sauce until thickened, about 20 more minutes. Here is a link that might be useful: Chili Style Coney Sauce

Sugar really will crisp up the skin, but not that much sugar! That's candied! And it'll char. If you want the help with crisping the skin, put a couple of tablespoons of sugar in a cup of oil and brush it all over the bird, or use any kind of bottled sauce or dressing that has oil and sugar in it. The most important thing is a good bird. If you buy a good bird, there's no need for butter or other added fats, or brine or any fuss and bother . AllRecipes has a chart for time and temperature, which is pretty much the way I make mine (350° F, 20 min/lb.). I use a deep cast iron roaster with a rack in the bottom for a 22 lb. bird. A heavy aluminum roaster is good too. A smaller bird can go in clay, which has its own set of instructions. If you only have a more shallow pan, or the bird is too big for the lid, make a tent of heavy duty foil, shiny side out. If your roaster doesn't have a rack, you can make one out of carrots and sliced roots, and/or the stems of herbs. Just cover the bottom of the pan so the bottom of the turkey isn't touching the heat conductivity of the roaster, which can make it cook too fast and get soggy. Don't pack in the stuffing or the middle of the bird won't cook. Stuff loosely, or make all the dressing in a separate pan, and put aromatics in the bird. That's the only way I do it nowadays. Sometimes I'll put a lemon in halves or an apple, plus herbs. I've done just a three foot tall sprig of tarragon broken up to fit, and it was delicious. And seasoning. Seasoning the inside of the bird is effective. I always dump a bottle of white wine over it, once the bird is in the roaster. It only has to be palatable. Nowadays I only use Two(and a half) Buck Chuck (Charles Shaw $2.49 from Trader Joe's). The wine steams the bird while it's roasting and helps keep it from getting too dry, while helping the skin to crisp. Remove the cover for the last hour or so. Judging by how much they eat of it, and the enthusiasm of the compliments (and my own lack of thoughts that it could be better), I judge it to be quite successful. And dead easy. The turkey should be good, but it should be easy! If you want to change it up, look at the other posts from this week, where you'll find instructions for roasting it butterflied (spatchcocked) over the stuffing, and other ideas for making parts.