Yesterday morning, Rick had to get up around 4:30 for work; he had to do a bit of OT. So I got up with him.
I spent about an hour or so on TCS while drinking a mug of coffee, then headed out to the kitchen.
To this......
And to this.....
So I cleaned tomatoes and skinned them. Got a big pot of tomatoes simmering on the stove. I really wanted to try to make Tomato Powder, so I got out the food dehydrator. And did this....
And this.....there were five trays of tomato skins total.
While the skins were drying (it took about 8 hours and I switched the order of the trays after 4 hours), I simmered down the tomatoes and got about 2 quarts of tomato puree for the freezer. Then I got another 1-1/2 quarts from more tomatoes that I roasted in the oven.
While the tomatoes were simmering, drying and roasting, I cleaned and chopped all the peppers for the freezer. I got maybe a scant quart, more like a little over 1-1/2 pints or so.
Then I started in on the Old Farmhouse Chutney. 16 nice half-pints for the canning pantry in the basement....that involved a lot of chopping onions, apples, and dried apricots. But by this time, the kitchen was smelling absolutely wonderful with the aroma of all those spices in the chutney!
And then started in on Honey-Glazed Red Onions. I have to use the pressure canner for those, so we do them outside on the side burner of the grill. More slicing of onions. And by this time, my eyes were really watering from all those onions. But we got this....
And by the time we were done with the red onions, it was time to check the tomato skins again. They're done. Very brittle and ready for the food processor....
And the finished Tomato Powder.....maybe 1/3 of a cup.....
I'll probably try tomato powder again, simply because I think it will come in handy sometimes. It's not powder like we're used to seeing as I couldn't get it ground down to a powder in the food processor. I can't take the skins from peeled tomatoes and then roast the tomatoes; there's entirely too much water involved and it would have taken forever to get all that liquid roasted off. So I simmered those tomatoes on top of the stove with minced garlic, green peppers, some chopped hot peppers, some basil, oregano, and marjoram. It will make a nice base for pasta sauce this winter.
It was a very busy day and nothing else got done yesterday at all. But it was fun and I really enjoyed my day in the kitchen!
I spent about an hour or so on TCS while drinking a mug of coffee, then headed out to the kitchen.
To this......
And to this.....
So I cleaned tomatoes and skinned them. Got a big pot of tomatoes simmering on the stove. I really wanted to try to make Tomato Powder, so I got out the food dehydrator. And did this....
And this.....there were five trays of tomato skins total.
While the skins were drying (it took about 8 hours and I switched the order of the trays after 4 hours), I simmered down the tomatoes and got about 2 quarts of tomato puree for the freezer. Then I got another 1-1/2 quarts from more tomatoes that I roasted in the oven.
While the tomatoes were simmering, drying and roasting, I cleaned and chopped all the peppers for the freezer. I got maybe a scant quart, more like a little over 1-1/2 pints or so.
Then I started in on the Old Farmhouse Chutney. 16 nice half-pints for the canning pantry in the basement....that involved a lot of chopping onions, apples, and dried apricots. But by this time, the kitchen was smelling absolutely wonderful with the aroma of all those spices in the chutney!
And then started in on Honey-Glazed Red Onions. I have to use the pressure canner for those, so we do them outside on the side burner of the grill. More slicing of onions. And by this time, my eyes were really watering from all those onions. But we got this....
And by the time we were done with the red onions, it was time to check the tomato skins again. They're done. Very brittle and ready for the food processor....
And the finished Tomato Powder.....maybe 1/3 of a cup.....
I'll probably try tomato powder again, simply because I think it will come in handy sometimes. It's not powder like we're used to seeing as I couldn't get it ground down to a powder in the food processor. I can't take the skins from peeled tomatoes and then roast the tomatoes; there's entirely too much water involved and it would have taken forever to get all that liquid roasted off. So I simmered those tomatoes on top of the stove with minced garlic, green peppers, some chopped hot peppers, some basil, oregano, and marjoram. It will make a nice base for pasta sauce this winter.
It was a very busy day and nothing else got done yesterday at all. But it was fun and I really enjoyed my day in the kitchen!
