Making Homemade Ketchup with Home Canned Tomato Paste

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.

Random Homestead Happenings

 Good Morning!  Rooster's Crow Farm is covered with sunshine after a wonderfully, beautiful sunrise this morning.

The ladies have been generous lately, so we had breakfast for dinner - egg/sausage burritos.  The vegetarians cooked up some extra firm tofu (organic/non-gmo), and added that to their burrito.

from the handiwork journal. . .

. . . crocheted a few dozen or so more of these granny squares.   I've put it on the "back burner" so many times that I am pushing myself to get this blanket off the "unfinished" list.  I need 192 total granny squares.

Random Tidbits ~ Back to Work or Back to School?

Snow fell all day Wednesday.  It was still cold here as well.  the pups don't seem to mind.

I keep forgetting to share a tip:  Dump a 1/2-pint of home canned corn relish into some cooked green beans for a quick and nutritious side dish.  I have vegetarians here, so I don't always mix in bacon grease, and get bored with plain green beans.

The barn door froze shut and I could not get in to fetch eggs thaw water.  I had to pry open the other set of doors, use a small stick to flip up my inside latch and get in those doors. 

I spent the entire day at the computer.  Actually, almost two entire days.

Update on the Frozen Mashed White Potatoes

Quite pleased with the results of the frozen mashed sweet potatoes, we pulled some frozen mashed white potatoes from the freezer recently as well.  I froze these in 1 cup portions as well.  Our grocer only sells organic white so that's what I froze, but if they start selling organic red skin potatoes, I'll use them as well.  And if you are new to reading my blog, our garden was flooded out, so I had very little harvest, hence the buying of potatoes in 2015.

The results?

Update on the Frozen Mashed Sweet Potatoes

A few months ago, I baked organic sweet potatoes, mashed them, then froze them, bagged them separately, and then put those bags into one large bag.

I know it's only been four months, but I dug someone for dinner the other night to test them for the first time.  Even though they were bagged twice, I still had some ice on them.

They were delicious, and tasted as if they were baked.  They were thick and tasty.  It was like eating a baked sweet potato without the skins.

Update on the Cowls

In early November I crocheted myself two cowls - one short and one long.  The long was almost immediately given to my 19 year-old daughter.  

It was always in my way - housework, outdoor work, putting wood in the stove, baking and cooking etc.  It was not conducive to my lifestyle. Daughter uses it to keep warm on her long drive back and forth to college, and for driving anywhere really.