Over the next few weeks, we'll be attending an AppleFest (featuring an Oktoberfest) and possibly a PumpkinFest, so why not call today a TomatoFest? haha!
The morning started out rather unpleasantly, as I had to wait for a repair guy to come and fix a leaking zone control valve on the boiler. The guy was very nice, and got it completely taken care of in about 2.5 hours. Still, I am not looking forward to receiving the bill! I know that the valve itself is a $100 piece, and then there were the other materials, labor, etc. ugh. Trying not to think about it! But this is the same company we have a service contract with (which doesn't cover the plumbing pieces around the boiler, just the boiler itself), and we're hoping to get a reduced rate because of that. But we shall see!
While I waited for the repairman to arrive, I went out to the garden and harvested a ton of tomatoes. I had been lax in doing this while Gus' parents were visiting, and some were already rotting on the vine. But I still hauled in a TON of them, and was determined to make homemade marinara sauce. I made an interesting sauce from cherry tomatoes a few weeks back, but it was just too sweet for my tastes. And I just bought a Foley food mill last week, so I was super excited to use that for removing the peels and seeds. Piece of cake!
So, once the leak was fixed, I washed and chopped the tomatoes, then threw them in a huge pot with some fresh basil (also from the garden-- our basil plant is a beast!!), an onion, some olive oil, garlic, and a little bit of salt and pepper.
I cooked it down for a while until it was good and mushy, ran the whole thing through the food mill (that's the fun part!), and then boiled it until it thickened a bit. Then I divided it into jars, one of which I put in the fridge (the rest went in the freezer). We had some for dinner tonight. It was AWESOME!!
Since I was already on a tomato kick, I went back outside and harvested several pounds of cherry tomatoes. There are so, SO many on our bush, but they are hard to get to! I got as many as I could. And then I made oven-dried tomatoes and packed them in olive oil, garlic, and basil. YUM!!!!!
Anyway... I've been on a food-processing kick lately, if you couldn't tell. I think that the food mill is just about the coolest thing. I made mashed potatoes with it the other night, and they were ridiculously light and fluffy. I didn't even peel the potatoes perfectly, but the food mill kept the pieces of peel from going through. I also made homemade apple sauce the other day, which is super delicious! I also used the mandolin and made oven-baked apple chips with cinnamon. So, so good. Oh, and I made a big vat or apple butter in the crock pot. It made the house smell fantastic! I just tossed that in the pantry with my jars of pickles, blueberry jam, and blackberry jam. I have a problem. :)
I think I need to buy some more jars, haha!
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