A word about Tomato Paste

I love making my tomato paste! Scratch that. I love the results of making tomato paste.

But it's time consuming.
And it's labor-intensive.
I've never actually made it in one day. It probably would only take a day, but I usually cook in the evenings and one night just isn't long enough. Not if I want to sleep some too.
And it's expensive if you're not using your own tomatoes.
I probably won't make them again until I harvest my tomatoes next year.
I'm making my second batch today. Well, I started yesterday.
You have to have a LOT of tomatoes to make any worthwile amount of paste. Seriously.
And peeling, seeding, chopping...that all takes time. Not to mention the simmering. Granted, then you can be doing other things, but still...it takes all day.

So take the recipe with a grain of salt and if you're up to it, I say dive in!

Salsa it up, Local style

I got another 5 lbs of tomatoes at the farmstand down the road for a homemade salsa. But what recipe do I want to use? I found this recipe for "Authentic Mexican Tomato Salsa."
I used three banana hot peppers and four cherry hot peppers which I got at the same farm stand down the road; 5 cloves of garlic I got a few weeks ago at the Lull Farm in Hollis, NH. These cloves are HUGE, so I didn't use 7, like I was planning. I also used a lime I'd picked up at Lull Farm, and olive oil. That's the only ingredient not local, but I'm okay with that.
And that was it for my salsa. I used my immersion blender to mix it up and I think I blended a little too long. Now it's a bit soup-y, but this is why I think that's okay:
It's WICKED hot. I think I'm going to have to use it as a "starter" so-to-speak, and simply add fresh tomatoes (or whatever) to it when I'm ready to use it. I'm excited about this for a number of reasons. It'll still be a "fresh" salsa, but less expensive and time consuming than making it in the middle of the winter with jacked-up prices. It will also allow me to get creative with my ingredients like adding black beans, corn, and (don't tell my hubby) peaches!

From 5 1/2 lbs of tomatoes, I froze 8 cups of the salsa blend.

$5 dinners' Garden Fresh Pasta Dinner

More great stuff from $5 dinners. I have to say, even my hubby will love this one! Of course, prices vary according to your location, and fresh tomatoes aren't free to everyone, but it's still quite frugal and tasty at the same time!

Aunt D's Garden Fresh Pasta Dinner
Ingredients
1 box Bowtie Pasta ($1.25)
3-4 Fresh tomatoes from the garden, diced (Free!)
3-4 FreshBasil Leaves, finely chopped (Free!)
1-2 cup mozzerella cheese ($1.67)
4 T EVOO ($.25)
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped ($.10)
1 zucchini ($.79)
1 T EVOO or Butter ($.10)
Directions
1. Marinate diced tomatoes and basil in EVOO and garlic.
Add a splash of vinegar to the marinade if you like!
2. Cook pasta as directed.
Drain.
Pour marinating tomatoes over pasta.
Srinkle cheese throughout.
Let cheese melt.
Serve warm.
3. Saute zucchini in EVOO or butter.
Serve with pasta!
Cost $4.16

My Variations:
I guess you could call me the queen of using what's on hand.
I'd made up a balsamic vinegar/EVOO dressing for my MIL the other day and couldn't for the life of me imagine what I'd use the rest for. Enter Marinade!
The only cheese we had on hand was parmesan, so I shredded up a bit of that and it was fantastic!
My hubby's a meat & potatoes kind of guy and although I've been able to convert him to a meat & most anything else kind of guy, I haven't had any luck with leaving out the meat, so I grabbed some leftover steak tips, cut them up in teeny tiny pieces, and added them to the pasta mix. He loved it, and went back for more!
I'm sure it ended up being a quite different taste than the original recipe, but it was still quite good.

How to Make Tomato Paste

As does often happen, I found myself at a site through a suggestion on a comment, then I lost the trail. But somehow I ended up at eHow and found this recipe for making my own Tomato Paste.
Let me share my thought process behind this:

I'd begun buying canned chicken for sandwiches instead of canned tuna. I thought it would be a nice change of pace for my hubby because he doesn't like fish, but doesn't MIND canned tuna salad sandwiches.
Well I was certainly surprised one day when I had some of it myself and couldn't remember if I'd used chicken or tuna because SERIOUSLY....it tasted like canned tuna. To my dismay, I went home and discovered I had indeed used canned chicken...and they taste. exactly. the same.

So if two such different flavors taste so much the same when they're canned, what else am I eating that I think I know what it should tast like but I'm. completely. wrong?

Enter tomato paste (among many other things). So many recipes call for tomato paste. Even some that call for fresh tomatoes also call for tomato paste. So I decided I wanted to try my hand at making my own tomato paste and see how it comes out....

And finally, here's the link! (Thanks for your patience!!!)

In addition, I have an idea for storage. It's recommended to use the paste right away or freeze it. Many recipes call for the standard size small can of paste, but some call for half a can, or another quantity. I think I'll freeze them first in an ice cube tray and weigh the average cube, then label the freezer bags with those weights. Just another tip you can use or not!

Elizabeth's Roasted Tomato Sauce

Recipe "Author":

Elizabeth of Elizabeth's Flowers. She is such an inspiration in her creative use of materials as well as her testimony. She also has a website for her pressed flower cards and art, using recycled paper (she recycles it herself), and an Etsy shop!

Original Recipe: roasted tomato sauce
15 cloves of peeled garlic
8 # of ripe tomatoes (any kind)
5 medium onions, quartered
1 cup of fresh herbs, chopped (I use a mixture of oregano, Italian flat leaf parsley, basil, thyme, and rosemary)
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of salt
freshly ground black pepper (I like a lot)
2-4 tablespoons of honey, optional

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Chop 5 of the cloves of garlic. Leave the remaining cloves whole. Cut each tomato in half. In a large roasting pan, carefully toss together the tomatoes, garlic, onions, herbs, oil, salt, and pepper.

2. Roast for 25 minutes. Gently stir. Roast for another 25 minutes, stir again. Roast another 45 minutes, or until tomatoes are softened and broken down into a sauce with a golden brown crust on top.
3. Remove from oven and taste for seasoning. Mash tomatoes slightly, (some chunks are nice) or blend until smooth if you wish. This sauce freezes well, or is great for canning. Use it with pasta, fish, or as a wonderful dipping sauce for really good french bread.

My alterations:
~No onions ('cuz I know my hubby's tummy won't appreciate them)
~1/4 cup dried herbs ('cuz I don't have my own fresh and WON'T pay out the you-know-what for them!)
~No salt or pepper. When I got married, I stopped using salt in most of my recipes because my hubby and I have VERY different tastes when it comes to salt, so we add it after if necessary.
~And I forgot the honey.
~I happened to have a few Sweet Banana Peppers from my mom's garden, so I sliced two up to add to the sauce. I kept the seeds, but discard those if you don't like the heat.
***AND be sure to wash your hands very well after handling peppers! If you happen to wipe your eyes before you wash up, you'll be sorry!
~Because it was late, once I took the sauce out of the oven, I removed the sauce from the roasting pan and put it in a dutch oven of sorts with an ice bath in the bottom half. (Two pans, the bottom one slightly larger having the ice water bath to cool the sauce a bit faster.)
~Then I took my immersion blender (long wand-looking blender used often for drinks, etc.) and blended it all together so it has some chunks but not too many. I also took out some of the skins, but not all.

The results:

My house smells SO good! I tasted a little and it was fantastic, I can't wait to have a whole meal of it!
I was a little surprised at how little sauce I got out of it though. I haven't measured it, but probably 3-4 cups of sauce from 8+ lbs of tomatoes. That may be normal, I don't know. (Never made my own sauce from fresh tomatoes before!)

The real test: (Will I make it again?)
Guaranteed YES!
(I'll probably double batch it to make it worth jacking my stove up to 450 for an hour and a half on a hot summer night though!)

***An idea - using a good oven thermometer, I could try this in a pan on the grill. Hmmm...something to consider!

Oh, the decisions....

Now, just as I'm planning tomorrow's tomato cooking fest, I run across Elizabeth's recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce.

Could this get any harder? (The decisions, not the recipes. Nor the eating of the results of said recipes!)

Fresh Crock Pot Tomato Sauce

I can't wait to try this with my mom's garden tomatoes!
Or this one! (Both from recipezar.com)
And I find these instructions from pickyourown.org have a lot of useful advice.
I may do a hybrid sauce!
Definitely need to invest in canning supplies.

CrockPot Spaghetti Sauce

I've been looking for a crock pot recipe for making my own tomato sauce from whole garden tomatoes. So far, this is what I've found. I may be able to adapt it from canned tomato products to fresh. If I do, you know I'll post it here!