Canning Tomatoes The Easy Way

One of the easiest ways to preserve tomatoes is to core them and cut them into quarters, place on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer.  When they are frozen, put them into a gallon freezer bag and you're done.  I do this from time to time when I'm too busy to can and by freezing them, it preserves them for me to cook down into sauce later. 

Every year we can tomatoes and every year I don't look forward to peeling them for the canning process. This year I heard of a different idea that seemed too simple, but I tried it anyway.  Core your tomatoes, quarter them and put into a blender, no peeling required.  I was afraid there would be too much peeling in the sauce, but the blender pureed most of it.  Before you do a whole batch for yourself, just blend a few to see how you like the end result. 

Depending on how many tomatoes you have or how big your pot is, you will need to do this in batches for the blender.  Then just pour them into your pot.  Be sure to use a non-reactive pot, I use a large stainless steel stockpot for this purpose.  Then simmer the tomato sauce for several hours to cook it down.  Cooking it down removes a lot of the liquid and makes a nice thick sauce. 

You can jar up just the basic tomatoes or you can add all of your spices to it while it is in the pot.  I can up just the tomatoes and then use it in many different ways all winter long.  It is wonderful as a base for your spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, and for use in any recipe that takes tomato sauce or paste. 

Be sure to let me know how you like this process and have fun !!

Making Salsa...

The trick to good salsa is fresh heirloom vegetables, picked ripe straight from the vine.  One tomato is not the same as another.  We have tested many tomatoes this year and heirlooms are worth their weight in gold regarding their taste.  The fancy hybrids look just like the perfect tomatoes you find in the government regulated grocery stores, but do not be fooled, they are completely tasteless.  Heirlooms have the richest flavor and

Fresh Garden Veggies for Dinner

Fresh picked sweet corn, there's nothing that says summer more!  We can make a meal out of just sweet corn and we practically did last night except for the fact that we had so many other fresh vegetables to use that we more or less over did it at the dinner table!  There has been a blessing of zucchini, crookneck squash, and sweet peppers......so for the first time this year I put them together in a stir fry.  Delicious!!

When you've made all the Zucchini Bread you care to make, and dried all of it that you will use in soups and stews for the winter....here is a great little throw together recipe