Ton O'tomato...

See what I did there?

This week I'm interrupting regular programming to bring you our little tomato-fest.

And to be upfront, my new insane project isn't going to be finished anytime soon, so let's stop fooling ourselves okay? I know I try to fool myself into thinking it's already done.

So let's talk "matoes". No, better yet, let's talk TON O'TOMATO! Okay, I'll stop now.



Sure, you see the red ones, but if you look a little closer, you will a whole butt load of tomatoes that have yet to ripen. I see 6 almost ready to go, but if you look really closely, you will see at least another 10, if not more. However, there is probably another 10-15 that are hidden by the leaves. And this is only two freaked plants!!

I have already harvested, roughly, 30 tomatoes. Well, what do we do with 30 tomatoes? Eat'em, what else?

This is just my regular "Better Boy" tomatoes, we have a whole bunch of "Sun Sugars"on deck...



I'm picking anywhere between 3 and 8 of these a day.

So besides sitting on our sill ripening and rotting, what do we do with them?

Well, we likes that to-mate-a sauce on our 'sketti.

But in order to use said tomAHtos, we must get them ready. And to do that you must blanche them.

Scene: Late night at a seedy after hours club. The bar tender was finished cleaning up and needed to use the john. When he opened the door, his face blanched at the sight!

Yeah, something like that only mine involves boiling water, an ice bath and a blender. Huh, maybe that's what the bartender saw.

First, get some of these.



Grow'em or buy'em.

Boil some water...



(was this photo really necessary?)

Some ice water...



(sorry, I know this is getting painful)

And a blender. I'll skip that photo and save you all 2 seconds of your life you will never get back.

Oh and one of these...



So you don't scald yourself, unless you are into that sort of thing.

Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water and blanche for 60 seconds. Fish them out then drop them into the ice bath.



(I'm really sorry. I took a lot of photos)

Then after a few seconds, they are cool enough to handle.

The skin will come right off...


(guest appearance by Mr. Hand)

Then core them (yes, I have a photo of that as well)



Finally, drop them into the blender. (I really am sorry, yet another photo)



When full, let it rip!

And here is what you get...



A frozen jar of puree'd tomatoes. I took all these freak'in pictures and forgot to get a photo when I was all done. I quite literally ran out to our freezer and snapped a quick photo of it. Yeah, I'm so smart.

This is just one jar of 3. We aren't even close to being done. I suspect we will have another 10 of these jars (at least) when all the tomatoes are picked.

While we loves ourselves some tomato sauce, we also like...


Sun dried tomatoes (actually dehydrated. Honestly who has time to watch tomatoes dry in the sun for 3 days? Well, I guess I could catch up on a little reading while I got eaten alive by mosquitos)

Or...



Pico De Gallo. Yummmmm, this was sooooooo good!

So needless to say, we have tomatoes a plenty for a while.

Don't worry, I will be back next week with more misery regarding my insane project of death. :)

In the mean time, here are some photos from my garden!

Astors...


Zinnia's? (not sure, I'll have to ask the SO)


Morning Glories..


Rosemary...


And a teeny tiny Lantana (this little flower is smaller than a dime)


That's all for this week.

Remember, as always, Green is Good!

Cheers!