Using Leftover Tomatoes
If you have mounds of tomatoes you have just recently picked from the last of your garden, here is one more idea about what to do with them:
Vegetable Juice
Wash, core and puree the tomatoes in a blender. Add a little lemon juice, onion and celery to taste. This tomato puree makes a great vegetable juice to drink or to cook down and use as spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce, adding extra seasonings.
You can easily freeze tomato puree.
Ketchup Lids
Ketchup lids get so nasty sometimes and are hard to wipe off. Save a lid from an empty bottle of ketchup and run it through the dishwasher. When the lid from the new one gets gooey, replace it with the clean old lid and then run it through the dishwasher so you always have a clean one handy.
Photo By: Luke Addison
Tomatoes are also really easy to can up. I did more than 100 jars this year, we LOVE home-canned ‘maters here. Just peel, core, and chop, heat to a rolling boil for 5 minues, stirring constantly, then fill the jars, wipe the rims, add the lids and rings, and water-bath for 20 minutes.
An easy way to peel them, if you have a lot, is to cut a small X on the bottom of the tomato, dip in boiling water for about 1 minutes, or until the X starts to split up the sides, then put in an ice water bath. The skins slip right off. This also works with ripe peaches.
How super! I wanted to say my daughter started canning this summer and all she had to do was put out the word at work and people gave her CASES of canning jars.
One nice man brought her a case of jars AND a case of grapes (JELLY!, yeah!). Also a gorgeous box of old fashioined blue jars (can’t can anymore but storage will be great and use for presents!.)
People really can still be so thoughtful!