Adventures in Tomato Land

Today, Will and I revisited my childhood by canning tomatoes. Granted, we only canned 2 pecks (1/2 bushel) of tomatoes and ended with 10 quarts and 3 pints, plus a little left over, so it's not nearly to the scale that my mother would can with my sisters and me. We used to can for hours, late into the night.

We started out with our Squeezo, with the medium screen. I wasn't sure how pulpy it would be. And it turned out to be pretty runny. So we switched screens, but it was still runny. Then I remembered that blanching tomatoes is super quick, faster than a minute. They go in for a little dunk. In and then out. And so I began doing smaller batches and then rinsing them afterward to loosen the skins. Perfection!

We ended up with a mix of tomato soup, whole tomatoes in juice, tomato sauce, and tomato puree. All of it has fresh basil in there because we like basil in our sauce, and there is just no way that I'm expecting to find fresh basil here this winter.

I may freeze some pesto next week, but I'm exhausted today. We were going to make eggplant parmesan for dinner, but forget that. We're going out.

A quick fiber update- another washcloth was born, this time a basket weave and some crochet finishing around the edge. This one looks more homely, thus encouraging Will to actually use it for dishes.

Also, last night we went to a Toledo Mud Hens game and had a great time. There were fireworks afterward. More importantly, I finished a pair of booties to send to my friend Blaire who just had her second baby.