Tomatoes

One of the things I miss most about not having my Grandma live in town any more is that we used to get together and do all sorts of bottling, and preserving. My life gets super busy and crazy but I still managed to fit in a few times this fall and get a couple of things done.

I bottled tomatoes twice. I just did small batches. One from some tomatoes Landon's mom had given me and the other with a case of them I had purchased. My kids will only eat spaghetti if I use bottled tomatoes to make the sauce. It is pretty delicious and one of our staples so I have to bottle at least one batch to make it through the following year.

I also got together with a couple of my friends and we bottled Spaghetti Sauce. It was a long process, because it had to cook down and simmer all day long-but we had lots of fun and the end result was pretty tasty.

Since I found a good deal on strawberries I decided I might as well whip up a batch of strawberry freezer jam-being that I was in the preserving mood. My sister Tiff came over and we quickly made up a couple of batches. We don't eat a lot of jam or jelly at our house, but this is the only kind we eat when we do.

 Of course since I had fresh tomatoes on hand I whipped up several batches of fresh salsa. It's pretty much a staple around here. We literally go through at least one batch a week and about 3 bags of tortilla chips.

Here is the best fresh salsa recipe...

3 tomatoes

Juice of 1 Lime

1 tsp Crushed Garlic

1 tsp salt

1/2 small onion

1 jalapeno (seeded to taste)

That's it, blend it all together, and you have yourself a tasty treat.