Oh tomatoes, how you PISS ME OFF. I know that Roma tomatoes are considered the best tomatoes for making tomato sauce and such, but if the fucking things won’t grow any bigger than two inches long and after peeling and seeding them, I get maybe a pea-sized amount of tomato meat off each tomato, WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT?
I spent two and a half hours on Saturday peeling and seeding tomatoes, and before I began I was all kinds of thrilled because I was looking forward to making this tomato sauce. We never got enough tomatoes to make as much tomato sauce as I wanted last year, so this year Fred planted a million tomato plants and they’ve slowly started coming in and I’ve been popping them in plastic bags and putting them in the freezer, because once tomatoes are frozen and thawed, the skin slips right off and you don’t have to blanch them.
So after two and a half hours of peeling and seeding and chopping out the stems, I ran everything I had through the food mill, because that recipe calls for 10 quarts of tomato puree to start. Know how much tomato puree I ended up with?
Five and a half cups. Not even a quart and a half.
“How is this possible?” Fred asked when I presented him with the evidence. “Ragu is a buck a bottle. It should cost like a thousand dollars!”
No shit.
So I put the puree in a freezer bag and froze it, and maybe after another couple of months and 130 hours of effort, perhaps I’ll end up with enough tomato puree.
UGH.
DAMN YOU, TOMATOES.
What I accomplished this weekend, in pictures.
Dehydrated eggplant slices to rehydrate and use as lasagna noodles this winter.
Dehydrated cherry tomatoes to use in stir-fries and chili this winter.
Canned tomato juice. I don’t know what on earth I’ll use this stuff for (certainly not for drinking), but it seemed a shame to let it go to waste.
Fred made his first batch of strawberry habanero jam of the year. He says it’s particularly good. I myself didn’t try it – I prefer not to sizzle my taste buds right out of my mouth.
Also, I vacuumed the house and did laundry and hung out with the kittens, but I have no pictures of those exciting activities. I also took a Saturday afternoon nap with Kaylee flopped across my stomach. I love that damn kitten.
Summer squash season, at least for the And3rsons, is over. We’ve got enough put away until next year, so we were just eating it as it came in, but the squash bugs completely infested the plants (and the squash), and when Fred brought squash in yesterday, all of it had holes in it (and some even had squash bugs still rooting around inside the squash, yum!), so he spent the afternoon yanking up the squash plants.
We never did get much zucchini, though I got several cups of shredded frozen before the squash bugs had their way with the squash. Squashes? You know what I mean.
Speaking of zucchini, a few weeks ago Webster asked if I wanted her chocolate zucchini bundt cake recipe from Sunset Magazine, and of course I said yes, so she shared it with me, and this past weekend I made it.
It’s really good! Fred tried it, and he said “There’s an interesting flavor… it’s familiar, I can’t think of what it is…” and I said “It’s got orange peel in it” and he said “That’s it!” I like the very slight orange flavor and the slight cinnamon flavor, and the glaze could not have been easier to make and drizzle (I put the glaze in a plastic sandwich bag and cut a hole in one corner and drizzled away, ’cause I’m fancy like that).
So, thanks Webster! In the middle of the winter I’ll pull some shredded zucchini out of the freezer and make the cake again, and it’ll taste like summer to us.
This here is the recipe, if you’re interested.
Previously
2007: No entry.
2006: Y’all are good for my yellow ego!
2005: Maine recap.
2004: Hawaii recap.
2003: Maine recap.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: The cats are suddenly deciding to take closed doors as a personal affront.
WoW I luv the dried eggplant used as noodles idea. I use tomatoe juice with meat broth for the base of my homemade veggie soup. I also cook the small shell maccaroni, drain excess water, then repalce with tomatoe juice and pint of canned chopped tomatoes.
Isn’t it great seeing how each of the kittens develope their own personalities? I don’t understand people who think animals are just “animals”.
Luv reading how you guys are turning Crooked Acres into a little farm.
I just made a batch of freezer sauce from plain old round farmer’s market tomatoes, and I am not going to mess with Romas or other little paste tomatoes again. If you were making it from mass-production commercial tomatoes, it might matter, but any tasty home tomato makes a good sauce.
I recently defrosted some zucchini bread I made months ago and it tasted three times as good as when I made it. The cinnamon and nutmeg got really complex (so much so that I’ll back off a little on the next batch, it was almost spicy) and the texture was richer than when it was fresh. While it takes up more space and heats up the kitchen when it least needs it, I think I may make bread now for eating later rather than freezing shredded zucchini now to make bread later.
I think someone already asked, but I’m going to ask, have you seen “Date My Ex” yet? It totally sucks, but I couldn’t turn it off! What a couple of idiots! The guys she went on a date with were more interesting than she and Slade will ever be. I don’t think I’ll watch it again, but I had to see it one time, just because she was a Real Housewife!
My mom used a Sqeezo when I was a kid to process tomatoes into sauce… Separated the skins and seeds right out. My arm still remembers turning that damn crank for daaaaaaays while she canned. I’ll have to ask my brother if he remembers, too. They still make them; I just googled squeezo to make sure I had the name right.
Every time you post about the wonderful things coming from your garden and the wonderful things you’re doing with the wonderful things from your garden, it makes me want to have a garden so I can have and do those same wonderful things.
Then I come to my senses and go hit my mother-in-law up for some tasty veggies. Man, I love that woman.
No talk about McLovin?
The food mill sold by Lehman saves you much time: you put the tomatoes in the hopper, turn the crank,
and the tomato pulp comes out one place while the skins go another. It wasn’t expensive, if I’m remembering correctly, definitely not expensive considering the convenience. It works for grapes too.
About the tomato juice: it’s good used as a broth base for a veggie soup. Try it with a ham bone and
broth (when you have your pigs done) and plenty of assorted veggies. Anything will work here except
beets. A nice spoonful of thyme, a big onion chopped fine, and let it all simmer for a few hours. If
you want to add noodles or potatoes or whatever, you do it after everything’s simmered down.
Robyn, This has nothing to do with your post today but I saw the big buckets at Lowe’s that you used for litter boxes and I got some. The cats really like them and I do too. Our former litter boxes were covered and I like the uncovered better because of the access. But with the buckets, the sides are high enough to keep everything in. Thanks for a great idea!
By the way, what did you do with your old litter boxes? Our are at LEAST 2 years old…maybe more but each one cost us like…$30 and we are loath to get ride of them right away.
I use tomato juice to make a yummy clam chowder soup. (manhattan style)
with canned or fresh clams, green peppers, onions, bacon, potatoes, hot sauce, oh and celery.
What they said about soup base. I make black-eyed pea or bean soup using about half tomato juice (I use V8, half regular and half Spicy Hot) and half water. Onion, hamhock (this time I was using a smaller pan so I just used chopped ham), whatever spices you please, eventually throw in some potatoes and carrots. Mmmm.
That picture of Zoe sleeping is so lovely that I am dreading the adoption place actually having space for the current batch of cutefaces. She’s so pretty, I feel like I should try to convince Jamie that we should start with a kitten when we move and have you put her on a place to Canada. I will really miss these babies because we’ve watched them so long!
Glad you enjoyed the chocolate zucchini cake, Robyn. I’m always happy to pass on a favorite recipe. Looking at it makes me want a piece NOW! BTW, it freezes well, lest you’re tempted to feed the second half to the oinkers at Crooked Acres. 🙂
When it comes time for the pork cookin’, I have a marinade recipe that is easy, unusual, and that you will love.
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SpEdLaw2
The tomato juice could also be used as a base for gazpacho.