Pioneer Woman at Heart

Lemony-Basil Tomato soup (BHG recipe).  One last canning day with paste tomatoes. Next year we plan to grow several types of paste tomatoes.  I have put a towel over my sauce and put sticky notes until the 24 hour period has passed, so I can label before I forget what is what ha ha! The big pots are being put away, and tables taken down and folded up.  The tomato splatters all washed away, stove top scrubbed down.  It's a hoorah moment today. It's a good feeling when the tomato season (other than our slicers left to enjoy) has come to an end.  I have been canning daily here for almost 2 weeks, and it will be a fine joy to have a day off today. As most of you know, when canning season is in full swing, other work suffers inside and outside the homestead.  It will be nice to get some things in order today.  I hope to get my emails read finally too. Canning season is not over yet.  At least I hope not, as we need hot pepper relish in the pantry....

I'll admit, that some things suffer this time of year, and yes that is a big ol' pile of towels on a kitchen chair.  It's been there for 2 days now, as I have been very busy, and too tired at the end of the day.  We still need to eat and we still need to have clean clothes and linens. Tomatoes are still rolling in.  I've canned ketchup and Lemony-Basil Tomato Soup, and a 2nd batch of ketchup. I've put a start on dehydrating spearmint finally.  I've also made dehydrated cucumber powder.  Spearmint is for tea and both of them are for Tzatziki Sauce this winter.  It is the first year to make cucumber powder, and I am researching the uses for it.  It sounds like it would be great in sauces, dips, and other recipes.  I had a few cucumbers getting too soft to make a salad, and didn't want to waste them (although I am sure the chickens would have loved them).  I do have a better plan to keep the cucumbers "fresh" after picking them. The weather is h...

  Welcome to Crazy Lady's Kitchen, where the days start with tomatoes, and end with sauce anything! My Weston sauce maker waste funnel broke!  Of all the wrong times to happen.  The funnel is a think plastic one, with plastic tabs to attach it.  It broke before, and they were out of stock for over a year.  I saved my old one, and hold it on, but now the price to replace it is a whopping $21.79 with shipping.   I'm looking into getting a different food strainer/sauce maker.  What is the brand you all use (for those who have one)?  If I have to replace the funnel every year, I might as well look into a better overall sauce maker.  I use it to make applesauce too.   We brought in another 80 pounds of past e tomatoes.  I canned pizza sauce, and taco sauce.  I've been crazy busy, with long days in the kitchen.  Top that off with doing all the dishes, and trying to keep up with normal housework, incl uding laundry!...