Tomatoes, Tomatoes and More Tomatoes!!!

Okay, so on Saturday I decided that if I'm going to do any tomatoes this year I would just have to get off my lazy butt and go do it. I didn't plant a garden this year for which I'm sorry about now. Couldn't find a way to till it up but this coming Spring we are doing it!!! I had to pay for my tomatoes this year at the place I always used to go before my garden in Fairview. You pick your own and it's $8 a bushel. I got 4 bushels of Roma Tomatoes. After I picked the Roma's I drove out to my sister Kitty's place and she gave me Sandwich Tomatoes which are good for soup. She gave me enough to do one batch of soup, which is really all I needed for soup.

So here is one basket of tomatoes. I took some out, it was heaped up but of course I forgot to get a picture before I started. I got two heaping baskets full!

Here is Joe helping me squish. He did an ENTIRE basket full!! He helped wash and cut and did all the squishing! I made pizza while he worked!

Next year I'm getting an automatic squisher that attaches to my Kitchen Aide. Those Rock and I want one really bad. You don't have to crank at all, gotta love that!

Sandy loved to stand under the squisher and lick all the drips that came from it. After three days of this the top of her head and next were covered in tomato juice, LOL!! She is a sticky mess and needs a bath!

So, one basket was one batch. I did a batch of Spaghetti Sauce and a batch of Pizza Sauce. I cooked the sauce for HOURS till it cooked down to half it's size. I stood there stirring for hours, LOL! We saw one TV the other week on a kitchen inventions show that they have automatic stir'ers that run for 5 hours per battery charge and they clip on the pot, gotta get me some of those too, LOL!!

Here is my Spaghetti Sauce that I finished on Sunday. A few years ago the lady down the road was selling jars and I went to buy some and she had these HUGE canning jars. I had never seen any this big and they are perfect for Spaghetti Sauce. She canned homemade cider in them.

On Monday morning I finished up my Pizza Sauce. I got 35 pints of sauce. I make pizza once a week so I need 52 pints. I still have some left over from last year so now I have 59 pints altogether.

Then on Monday afternoon I finished up with the tomatoes Kitty gave me. Here they are all cut up and ready to squish. So, here is what I got out of these tomatoes. I ran out of quart jars so I had to use one of my larger ones. I'll use that for stew some time.So, thanks Kitty for the tomatoes!!!! :)

Here is where I put all my canned goods. It's a large shelf unit that I keep in the mudroom. I LOVE that shelf!