Spicy Bloody Mary Mix

When I was little, my mom used to make delicious tomato juice. (I remember picking tomatoes by the wheelbarrow load, so she had to do something with them.) She put peppers and onions in it to add a little extra flavor. I started my batch over the weekend by cooking tomatoes (mostly San Marzano), bell peppers and a bunch of jalapeno peppers. I put it through the food mill and have it in the refrigerator. (I like using a lot of roma/San Marzano tomatoes for this recipe so that the juice is thick-ish so it doesn’t become too thin when you add the vodka, etc.)

Today, I cooked another huge batch of tomatoes and onions to finish the recipe.

I cooked these until everything was really soft.

Then I put it through the finest blade of the food mill.

I started my hot water canner and put my quart jars in the microwave. I washed my largest pot, and mixed my two batches of juice together and brought it to 190 degrees.

Once my jars were hot, and my canner was up to temperature, I added 2 tbsp lemon juice and one teaspoon salt to each quart jar and filled with tomato juice, leaving 1/2″ headspace.

I processed the filled jars for 45 minutes in my hot water canner and removed them to a towel to let them cool completely. I had to process the juice in two batches because it made 9 quarts and my canner only holds 7 quarts. If you have to do two batches, only fill the jars that will fit in the canner in the first batch so that they don’t cool during the 45 minutes of processing.

All set for my next brunch!