Monday, August 8, 2011

All About Tomatoes

Tomatoes - what do you do with them all?

I mainly use tomatoes for saucing but I do love salsa.



Last year I tried my hand at ketchup and BBQ sauce but it did not work out well.  I just decided to do tomato sauce and use it to make other things.  So I canned some tomato sauce.  It took 40 lbs. of tomatoes to make 5 pints of sauce.  Yep, but I like thicker sauce.


I read a great trick from one of my favorite blogs, Home Joys.  She shares how to have the thickest tomato sauce painlessly.

This year, I think I am going to try Mrs. Wages mixes (pizza sauce, pasta sauce, salsa, ketchup and chili base).  I just don't want to waste any sauce since my ketchup didn't turn out last year.

I use my Roma Food Mill and I just wash the tomatoes and cut the tops off.  But now that I am freezing them (per Home Joy's suggestion) I won't even have to do that, just thaw, pour off the water and run through my food mill.  Should be a lot easier . . .

I have said it before but I highly recommend the Roma Food Mill.  It has served me well for a few years now.

Another tip, if you don't grow your own tomatoes you can buy them in bulk for sauce.  I (again) bought some organic tomatoes from Craig's list for about $0.50/lb.  Just do a quick search.

Some of the recipes I would like to try are:

Tammy's Pizza Sauce Recipe

Home Joy's
pizza sauce
ketchup
barbecue sauce
sundried tomatoes
salsa

What do you do with your tomatoes?   Any good tips or recipes?


Raising Homemakers
tammy's recipes


6 comments:

  1. I just love tomatoes! I like to slice them and put parmesan cheese all over them. Mine aren't doing very well this year. I don't know what went wrong. The cherry ones are good, but the others not so good.

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  2. Oh yummy ideas!

    Mine didn't do well this year- in fact- they didn't do anything! But a friend of mine gave me about 50lbs or so and told me how she cans them and I love her method!

    After skinning, drop them whole in sterile jars, put 1 t salt in each quart, fill with water, process in the canner. She says when you take them out and slice, they're almost as good as fresh! (I haven't tried them out yet, I'm still at the phase of just "looking at them"! ;-)

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  3. Thanks for sharing links to my blog. And for the kind words. Best wishes on your tomato canning!
    Gina

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  4. @Sarah
    That sounds delicious. I'm sorry your's aren't doing well.

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  5. @Donna
    Oh, that sounds so good. I will have to try that way of canning them.

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  6. @Gina
    You are welcome, I always love all the information I get from your blog.

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