Tomato Soup Success
I finally settled on a tomato soup recipe, I chose this one for it’s simplicity. On Sunday evening I made up a batch and canned 13 pints (I did can for longer than the recipe stated, I think the canning times may be a bit outdated, I water bath canned my pints for 35 minutes, I also added 1/2 cup of lemon juice to the soup). So how does it taste – deliciously local!
This will be perfect for a quick meal this winter, accompanied by a grilled cheese of course (but no Kraft or Velveeta here, ours are made with local cheddar from Heini’s or from Colonial Classics Farmstead Cheese (raw milk cheese that’s super local, only a few miles away) on homemade sourdough of course)
I will probably still make Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup, but I plan on making a small batch just for eating and perhaps freezing. I was reluctant to make a huge batch and pressure can it for 70 minutes and risk not liking it. If I have a chance I’ll do that this week and let you know if it’s worth the time.
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Tomato Soup Recipe Anyone?
Anyone out there have a great recipe for tomato soup to can? Mr Chiots and I love tomato soup for a quick meal and I’d like to get away from the canned stuff and go local. I found a few on-line for Roasted Tomato Soup and a Spiced Tomato Soup and this one for regular Tomato Soup. Just wondering if any of my readers had a great recipe they’d like to share? I’m planning on making a few different kinds to see which one we like best.
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When Life Gives You a Wind Storm (part 2)
As many of you know, on the 14th a huge windstorm (remnants of Ike) came through Ohio and left many of us sans electric for a few days. Since Mr Chiots and I both work from home and we didn’t have electric we had a few days of unplanned vacation. I was planning on doing some canning so I had bought a bushel of tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market the Saturday before. I wanted to grill them so I could can a batch of fire-roasted tomatoes (I’m a huge fan of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes, they were the inspiration to can my own). Since we had an excess of sticks in the yard and time on our hands, we decided to build another fire last Monday evening and roast up our tomatoes.
Roasting tomatoes is super easy. You just cut the tomato in half and put skin side down on the grill or fire (you can coat with olive oil if you aren’t canning them). When the skins get blackened pull them off the grill. The skins will easily slip from the tomato then all you have to do is process them in your favorite way. I like to crush mine or cut them up and add them to sauce.
I was able to can 7 quarts of fire roasted tomatoes on Monday. Add that to the 7 quarts I did a couple weeks ago and we’ve got the makings for a good many batches of chili or sauce in the pantry.
I had a bit of sauce left over that wouldn’t fit in the jars and I made some pizza sauce, it was so delicious. I think next time I get a bunch of tomatoes a batch of pizza sauce will be in the canner. So what’s your favorite way to use tomatoes?
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We’re Back!
We’re back on-line after a few days sans electricity. Mr Chiots and I had a great time. When you live your life working in front of a computer all day, it’s a welcome reprieve to have to take a few days off. Since we had a generator to keep our fridge & freezer cool we didn’t have much to worry about. We felt like we were on vacation! So what happened around here over the last couple days? Here goes Sunday.
We lost our power on Sunday evening. What were we doing at the time? Canning of course. We were canning pears we got from my mom’s (more photos of that later). So we had to finish canning by candlelight, not as easy as it sounds (not that it sounds easy).
Mr Chiots came out and helped me since he could no longer work in the office. It’s a bit harder to peel pears but we managed to get the batch finished. It was a romantic evening of canning by candlelight together, not necessarily romantic, but we had fun.
Seven quarts of delicious pears were labeled: Lights Out Pears 9.14.08. Every time we open a jar we’ll have a good laugh about the event.
Sometimes you can find beauty in anything.
More adventures to come tomorrow.
