Pioneer Woman at Heart

Here is a photo of the waste funnel that goes to my food strainer/sauce maker.  There are 3 plastic tabs that secure it onto the metal strainer.  One tab broke off.  It has happened before, and I have talked to my husband about upgrading to a metal food strainer.  I have now figured out how I broke it off too.  If you are not careful when you slide the  the piece on, that is the splash guard/strainer, it will brake those tabs off. The white tray that drains it off into your pot is what I am talking about.  Now my gasket has gone bad that is inside the metal stand part of it, and where you insert the handle to hand crank it.  Juice from the tomatoes now seeps out, so when I crank I have to wrap a towel around the base.  I could not replace the funnel for a year, as it was out of stock, and now the gaskets are out of stock.  With the amount of paste tomatoes we grow, and the amount of sauce making I do, I think an all metal food strainer/s...

The first year I canned BBQ sauce was 2 years ago when we had a bumper tomato crop.  It was the ball canning recipe. We did not like the taste.  Just something about it. Then, I came across Grit magazines homemade BBQ sauce , made from ketchup (we used home canned), pure maple syrup, dry mustard, black pepper, and cider vinegar.  It's not canned, but I was so excited to find it, because I wouldn't have to can it (just the ketchup). So , while ket chup was reducing to can, I put a pot on another burner and whip ped up a batch.

(early morning, before the sunrise, cup of coffee in a snowflake coffee cup I got from Mom) While I've been busy canning and gardening, the spiders have been busy - webs all over the inside and outside of our home.  I  have been busy and knocking them all down.   I'm still preserving with tomatoes.  This morning's sunrise was beautiful.  It slowly turned into a gray sky today, and rain is in the forecast.  Actually they are telling us to expect strong thunderstorms starting around noon.