Tomato Paste

Instead of canning tomatoes I thought I would try just making tomato paste.  I made some last year but tried something different today.  

I have a mix of tomatoes.  I wanted to use up the romas first.  

This technique called for a blender.  I have one but haven't used it in many years.  It still worked!

After pureeing the tomatoes, I passed them through a sieve.  It also called for a thick bottom pan.  My mistake last year was just using revere wear.  It scorched.  This year it worked much better in my dutch oven.  

Just skins and seeds to throw out.  

Then lots of boiling, boiling, boiling...

We have paste!

The first batch I am freezing in silicone ice trays.  Then I will seal them in a plastic bag with the vacuum sealer.  The second batch I froze in 1/2 pint jars.  I still have a ton of tomatoes. 
 

Home Grown

I have never planted potatoes in our garden here. My garden is small and potatoes are cheap in the store.  Plus, I don’t think  home grown potatoes taste any different than store bought,  unlike tomatoes. Anyway, this spring I was getting ready to throw out a sprouting potato when I decided to just plant it in the garden. 

This was my harvest. 

The ribeye steak, potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers were all home grown. 
 

Zucchini

In case anyone has zucchinis and tomatoes in abundance, here is a good way to eat them.  

Slice zucchini, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Lay out on cookie sheet.  Top with tomato slice and parmesan cheese.  

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  And you have a tray full of bite size goodness.   

More rain yesterday evening created some fog on the mountains.  

Things are very green for this time of year seeing as we have been in an extreme drought.  
 

Back Track To Wednesday

I am a little behind on my blogging.  Wednesday was Sadie and Allie day.  Once again, we went to the free movie in town, Paddington Bear Goes To Peru.  I would not recommend it for an adult.  Sadie and Allie said they liked it but I think it was more the atmosphere of the movie theater.  I bought the drink and popcorn for them again and was again unable to control the speed at which Allie drank hers.  Two more trips to the bathroom.   After the movie I told them I was going to a boring store.  Virginia had taken them to the Big Bin Dealz Store before and they were not impressed.  They kept saying, couldn't we go to Walmart?  No, I want to go to the $1 day at the boring store.  

Well, it wasn't so boring after all.  I found this costume for Sadie.  

And I didn't get a picture, but a similar dinosaur outfit for Allie minus the head and feet.  She wore it all around the store and had a great time with it back here.  She even wore it home.  

And Sadie picked out two giant spiders.  I don't know what Virginia will be doing with those.  

Back at the house, we baked cookies.  It had been awhile since we used the Easy Bake Oven.  They were very good at taking turns on mixing and adding ingredients.  

They spent the rest of the hot afternoon playing in the water.  They started before I could even finish blowing up the pool.  Another fun day at Camp Mimi.  

 

25 Days Of Christmas, Day 5

Dr. B gave me this bowl koozie a couple of years ago.  I didn't know I needed one until I got it.  

It is perfect to set a bowl in and heat it up in the microwave.   Or just set the hot bowl into it to keep it warm while eating.   It can also keep your hand from getting cold while eating ice cream.  

It is reversable too.  

I decided to make a Christmas version to add to my kitchen holiday decor.   Since it might go in the microwave, I needed to use 100% cotton everything.  I had some batting I thought was cotton so I did the burn test.  It burned instead of melting so I think I was right that it was cotton.  Next was finding cotton thread.  Most everything I had was polyester.  I did find a few spools of tread from my grandmother labeled "Will Boil", "Boil Fast" and "Merchandized".  A quick google search said these vintage threads were cotton.  I had gotten the fabric 36 years ago for a different Christmas project.  I am pretty sure it is cotton too.   

I think it is very festive.  

And perfect for a bowl of Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash soup Keiran had left for me.  Plus, I had a toasted slice of walnut-cranberry sour dough bread to go with it, yum!

  It was a wonderful meal to enjoy during our first snow day of the season. 

Vacuum Sealer

Virginia and Mike got me a vacuum sealer food saver for Christmas a couple of years ago. I finally decided to try to figure out how to use it. YouTube was a tremendous help. There was a detailed video with the same model. One of the comments said, "I was about to return this to the store because the instructions were so bad."  Thank goodness for YouTube.  But even with that, there was still a learning curve. 

My first attempt was with broccoli.  I had 3 1/2 heads from the garden.  I cut it up and rinsed it all.  I only had a couple of worms.  

Next came blanching, 

followed by an ice bath.  

Then after drying, I packaged and vacuum sealed them. 

Normally, I use freezer zip lock bags and suck the air out with a straw.  Once I got the hang of it, the vacuum sealer is the way to go.  After the broccoli, I grated 6 zucchinis and froze that too.  I might have to do some blackberries soon.  

 

Sadie Saturday

Mike came over yesterday morning to pick up the swing set that has been in my garage since before Christmas.  He had Sadie with him and she asked if he was dropping her off.  He said she could stay if she wanted to and she said yes!

She immediately wanted to pick flowers.  We walked all around the yard picking at least one of everything. 

Then I gave her two vases, a big one and a little one.   She went to arranging them, big flowers in the big vase little flowers in the little vase.  She narrated as she arranged them.  I think she is practicing for a YouTube channel. 

She was very happy with the results. 

After lunch we made a trip to the barn for baby goat feeding. 

She said the bucket was heavy this time.  But there were a few more bottles, so she wasn’t wrong. 

It is alway fun to watch them eat. 

And it is fun to watch Sadie play.

She has no fear what so ever of the goats and still is trying to pet them all.

She also helped stack some wood, a new chore for her here. 

 I had to reward all of that hard work with cooking chocolate chip cookies in the Easy Bake Oven. 

We ended the day with a trip to Dollar General where I bought her something without a coupon (gasp!!!). On the way there she said she wanted a unicorn.  We found a candy unicorn rainbow fan which fit the bill.  And Sadie quickly learned to not get it too close to your hair when it is running.  I had to get the scissors to cut it out.  There wasn’t even any crying.  She said that was a good shopping trip. 

Sadie And Allie Saturday

Virginia and Mike brought Sadie and Allie over the the day yesterday.  We did all of our usual things.

 We made cookies in the Easy Bake Oven.

Played in the gravel with Joe’s old dump truck.

And took Otoelene for a spin around the barn.

I didn’t know we were supposed to be making faces.

And I got to hold Allie for her nap. 

Just another day at Mimi’s house.

Another New Apple - Pazazz

I saw a new apple at Food Lion the other day.  It was the cheapest one so I took a chance.  

A 5 pound bag was only $5.  But the apples were huge, only needing 6-7 apples to make 5 pounds. 
 

They are delicious, crisp and sweet and tart all at the same time.  I have since found out they were developed from the honeycrisp apple.  I ended up buying another bag and making some apple sauce while Emily and Keiran were here.  Since the apples were so big, it didn’t take all that long to peel and cut up a pot full.  The apple sauce didn’t even need any sugar, and disappeared fast.  So another trip to the store for two more bags.   I’m loving the apple sauce and the apples, highly recommend. 

Arkansas Black

When we bought the billy goats, the seller asked if we wanted any apples.  He had an apple tree and the ground around it was covered in apples.  Sure, if we didn’t like them we could always give them to the goats.

 It was a variety that I had never heard of before, Arkansas Black.

We picked up two plastic bags full.

And tonight made some apple sauce. Delicious once I added sugar. As for eating the raw apples, I thought they were a little mealy but Joe said he like apples like that.  This is a link to some more information about this heritage apple HERE