Pioneer Woman at Heart

Ketchup requires 10 pounds of tomatoes - 3 batches made.  More to make later I hope. I've been successful at getting the tomatoes cut and cooked down before the sun rises, but not through the sauce maker.  Early is best when canning with sauce anything.  This was a double batch of tomato paste (20 pounds).  That is one of my smaller sauce pans - 8 inches tall, and 10 inches in diameter.  That is what it looks like before it becomes.....

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that the massive amounts of rain killed off our garden harvest.  I was able to can one batch of ketchup, which did not last long. However, our previous garden year was absolutely wonderful, and I canned tomato paste for the first time.

The bad news? This is the last of the tomatoes that I picked the other day. The good news? 

This is how I make my ketchup.   I do not peel my tomatoes because I use a sauce maker (you could also use a food mill).  Wash, trim and slice up 10 pounds of paste tomatoes.  I simply cut my paste tomatoes in 4th's and toss them in the pot.

We finally got some rain.  It's back to humid and hot.   I've been busy in the kitchen - freezing green peppers, jalapenos, more green beans, some tomatoes, and cauliflower.  Our popcorn is on, and looks pretty promising (although small), but my watermelon is questionable. What else have I been up to?

Well, if you have been wondering where I've been..... I canned a second new recipe for salsa.  I canned 4 pints of Fiesta Salsa .  This is delicious too.  I found the recipe on-line.  In place of the chili pepper, I used green pepper, and used 1/2 cup combined jalapeno and cayenne peppers.  Yum!  There are many recipes on that site if you are seeking for recipes for canning or for other tomato recipes. I canned another 3 1/2 quarts of seasoned tomato sauce.  This is tedious work - chopping 23 pounds of tomatoes.  Thanks to my sauce maker, I don't have to peel, remove seeds, etc. prior to heating it all up first. I dehydrated another quart jar of potatoes, some kale and Parmesan cheese. I canned 4 half pints of homemade ketchup.  This took another 10 lbs. of tomatoes. I canned another 4 half pints of Pepper Jelly (a mix of green peppers jalapeno and cayenne peppers). I finally dug up some of the sweet potatoes, but still hav...