One Way to Use Up Tomatoes
Aug. 19th, 2010 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluesgardenI managed to scorch and therefore ruin a fairly large pot of tomato sauce yesterday, which added to the grumpiness that I woke up with like you wouldn't believe. It's not like I don't have more tomatoes but dirtying the dishes required for no reason was killing me (not to mention the stock pot still soaking outside with quite the mess in the bottom of it). My great accomplishment yesterday was feeding myself something that wasn't manufactured and packaged under the name Little Debbie.
This morning was a new day, though, and I managed to finish the dishes up, find the table under the canning supplies and vegetables, weigh the tomatoes and peppers I picked the day before yesterday, and drag my laptop out to the kitchen so that I could do some work while today's efforts were on the stove. The straightening around, doing dishes, and finding the table helped my frame of mind considerably!
Now all the ripe tomatoes are processed, there's a (smaller - well, medium sized) stock pot filled with tomato juice/sauce reducing on the stove, a bowl with the rest of the juice/sauce next to it to go in the pot when it's reduced enough to fit, the juicer is soaking a bit, and everything else is clean. *deep breath* Granted, there's still 3 pounds of green beans and a good 10 pounds of cucumbers looking at me, but I'm ignoring them at the moment. The green beans go quickly enough that I'll probably manage them later, or tomorrow at the latest, and the cucumbers can just sit there and look pretty for the moment. Oh, and four and half pounds of peppers. Yes, those can wait, too.
In other news (sort of), I actually had to buy jars and lids a few days ago. I had no pint sized jars remaining and 6 or so lids. I didn't have any 8 or 12 ounce jelly jars either, but those were less critical. The price of jars at the store wasn't bad - between $6 - $7 for a dozen, depending on the size, which includes a dozen rings and lids - but it does add up quickly enough when you buy 3 dozen pints, one each of the 8 and 12 ounce jars, and fail to resist the set of 4 half-pint wide mouth cutesy jars for gift giving. (They were only $3.50! They're cute!) Oh, and buy 12 boxes of lids for $1.50 each. Yes, I am paranoid about running out of lids. On the upside, I should be set for lids for the rest of this season. Jars are another matter, but hopefully we (and by 'we', I mean 'D') will come across some at the flea markets/yard sales/auctions going on.
I keep sniffing the stock pot just because it doesn't smell scorched, unlike yesterday's batch.
This morning was a new day, though, and I managed to finish the dishes up, find the table under the canning supplies and vegetables, weigh the tomatoes and peppers I picked the day before yesterday, and drag my laptop out to the kitchen so that I could do some work while today's efforts were on the stove. The straightening around, doing dishes, and finding the table helped my frame of mind considerably!
Now all the ripe tomatoes are processed, there's a (smaller - well, medium sized) stock pot filled with tomato juice/sauce reducing on the stove, a bowl with the rest of the juice/sauce next to it to go in the pot when it's reduced enough to fit, the juicer is soaking a bit, and everything else is clean. *deep breath* Granted, there's still 3 pounds of green beans and a good 10 pounds of cucumbers looking at me, but I'm ignoring them at the moment. The green beans go quickly enough that I'll probably manage them later, or tomorrow at the latest, and the cucumbers can just sit there and look pretty for the moment. Oh, and four and half pounds of peppers. Yes, those can wait, too.
In other news (sort of), I actually had to buy jars and lids a few days ago. I had no pint sized jars remaining and 6 or so lids. I didn't have any 8 or 12 ounce jelly jars either, but those were less critical. The price of jars at the store wasn't bad - between $6 - $7 for a dozen, depending on the size, which includes a dozen rings and lids - but it does add up quickly enough when you buy 3 dozen pints, one each of the 8 and 12 ounce jars, and fail to resist the set of 4 half-pint wide mouth cutesy jars for gift giving. (They were only $3.50! They're cute!) Oh, and buy 12 boxes of lids for $1.50 each. Yes, I am paranoid about running out of lids. On the upside, I should be set for lids for the rest of this season. Jars are another matter, but hopefully we (and by 'we', I mean 'D') will come across some at the flea markets/yard sales/auctions going on.
I keep sniffing the stock pot just because it doesn't smell scorched, unlike yesterday's batch.
