Canning aka Bottling

Last week I purchased extra Roma tomatoes through Bountiful Baskets.  I love to can (or bottle) whichever term you prefer.  

Most people say -- you can purchase it in the store and save yourself the time -- but I like it and I will keep doing it as often as I can.  I remember helping my mother growing up canning and maybe that is why I still enjoy it now.  My sister, Julie, and I have gotten together several times now and canned tomatoes, pickles, apple pie filling, jams, sweet pepper jelly, etc.  Tomatoes are easy to put up and I love the taste so much better than the canned tomatoes at the store, and I also like knowing how they are done, who is in the kitchen when they are made (that would be me), and a whole list of obsessive compulsive things I could go into.

Here are some of the steps ... blanch them in hot water.

The skins will start to shrivel and pull away from the tomato which makes it ever so easy to remove the skin.  I then put then in cold water in the sink ...

Each one has the skin removed and is then put into jars where I squish (I love squishing) as many tomatoes I can into the jar.  I don't add any water to my jars because I am such a good squisher that the juice from the tomatoes fills up the jar.  They are then processed in a boiling water bath ... and my finished project looks like this ...

Pints and quarts of whole tomatoes ready to be made into delicious recipes ... they are flavorful and tender and cook up ever so nicely. Some of my favorite recipes I use these in are --

**Taco Soup
**Lasagna (Try Pioneer Woman's lasagna recipe, it is to die for, as are all her recipes).
**Homemade spaghetti sauce (I use for spaghetti and a truly divine recipe I have for manicotti)

Just for the record, I didn't bottle all the tomatoes, a few fresh ones were kept and used during the week in tacos, salads and BLT's, the best ever. (Tomatoes, 9 grain bread and romaine for the sandwiches all came from Bountiful Baskets).  They were so good I think I would have liked them even without the bacon.

If you have a favorite recipe that calls for tomatoes, please share.  I would love to add more to my list.  This post is making me want to cook ... but I have sewing to do ... the recipe posts are my sister's job ... (Keep up the good work Julie)

~Rhonda