Last summer, we had loads of tomatoes,and we were giving them away like crazy. I even brought a bag to a doctor's appointment last summer in the pure effort to give them away. Even so, there were tomatoes that went bad in our cupboard because we didn't get to them. We only preserved 3 jars of pasta sauce, but didn't think much about it.
Last winter, when our Red Octobers were done, and our tomatoes were all gone, we were sad that we had to start using cans of tomatoes and spaghetti sauce from the store, when we had everything we needed to can and preserve our own when we had a lot of them. (I use tomatoes in dishes all year long, particularly in soups during the cold months.) So when we planned our garden, the question of surplus tomatoes came up. We hated the waste when we had too many, but the thought of having our tomatoes in soups and dishes in the winter was a tempting prospect.
This spring, we planted a lot of tomato plants knowing ahead of time that we couldn't use them all, but intentionally planning on canning and preserving them for the winter months.
In previous posts, I showed the quantity of pasta sauce that we made. So when we picked on Saturday and got another large batch of tomatoes...
... we knew that we needed to preserve them again. However, this time, we decided to just do diced tomatoes for soups. (I also got a few more from my parents too).
Phew was it a lot of work!
First, we had to peel all of them (this bowl of the skins should give you some perspective on just how many we had to skin):
The small ones we kept whole, the larger ones we quartered. Here is what the pot looked like, just filled with tomatoes!
After we brought it to boiling, it was ready to be put into jars and then a hot water bath. Here is the results of our efforts:
Now we have 9 jars of tomatoes for winter soups, and if our plants keep producing, we will likely do another batch this way.
I am fairly sure that the commercial cans of tomatoes don't have seeds or as much liquid. Our jars have chunks still, but honestly are mostly the liquid, but my logic is even a jar of tomato liquid with a few chunks will add that good flavor to the soup.
In other cooking news, we have tried two more Ghanaian recipes... but we didn't love these either...
We made pancakes, but the recipe called for nutmeg, and although we learned from the meat pies and significantly reduced the nutmeg from what the recipe called for, it was still enough that we didn't love them. Edible... but only okay.
Yesterday, we tried a recipe for oven baked fish. It is topped with a mixture of spices, garlic, onion and pepper. Blake enjoyed it, but it really was too strong for me. Blake says he would eat it again, but knowing that it was too much for me, it is less likely that we would make it again.
I am happy that we keep trying their foods, but I am really finding that they like strong flavors. At least, stronger flavors than I like.
Though, I do want to point out in the above picture that my own recipe really turned out good with the green beans. I combined them with leeks, soy sauce, ginger and orange, and I really liked how that turned out.
Last thing of note is that we reorganized our grain/bean section of the cupboard. I like it so much I wanted to post it as well!
This is a significant upgrade from having all those grains in bags. Easier to find, and thus easier to use.
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