This week brought a lot of tomatoes. Of course, in my house, this means SAUCE time! I like to can my sauce when the tomatoes are fresh and then have it all winter long. Last year I made enough that I had my homemade sauce all the way through early March. I am hoping to do the same this year, even with the tomatoes ripening later than last year.
I have also just received the gift of a Foley Food Mill. Hand grind style. It is wonderful and it means that all of my sauce will NOT be chunky style this year. Last year it was, and I like it chunky, but some things work better with a smooth, chunk free sauce, so I will probably make mine half and half this year.
I like to throw other veggies in my sauce, like chunks of green peppers (which we also got in the @farmthisway distribution) and onion (ditto), to give the sauce some texture. Some of my batches last year got squash and/or zucchini added to them as well.
If you like a little spice to your sauce, you can add one or two of the hot banana peppers as well.
Other than sauce, we have found other ideas for our tomatoes. One of my 13 year old daughter's favorites this week has been to hollow out a tomato a little bit with a grapefruit spoon, and then fill it with cottage cheese and eat it that way.
There are also plenty of nice slicing tomatoes in the box, so some will go toward our Caprese Salad addiction. We just pull the basil from the back deck, slice the tomato and pair with fresh mozzerella. Reminds us that it is still Summer, despite the fact that the kids are back at school.
Fried Green tomatoes are on the menu again this week, and eggplant parm casserole as well.
Happy canning, and happy eating, from my kitchen to yours!
No comments:
Post a Comment