Tomatoes...What are you going to do with yours?

All of us gardeners have tomatoes that are just ripening or you are getting more than you can handle right now. What are your tomato plans?

I made some great meat sauce with my first tomato harvest. I plan on freezing the rest of my tomatoes in various ways. Here is some sites that can help you decide how to use your tomatoes. You can make tomato sauce, paste, spaghetti sauce or just freeze the tomatoes to use as needed.

If you are new to freezing or canning or just need to brush up on your knowledge then these sites are helpful as well. It showed me how to quickly blanch the tomatoes to get the skins off, how to cut and de-seed the tomatoes. There is step by step instructions on how to make all the different tomato options.

Spaghetti sauce go here.
How to freeze tomatoes go here.
How to make tomato paste go here.
How to make tomato sauce go here.

Remember that you can freeze or can the tomatoes. I plan on freezing them. I might try and can a few just to see but no sure because freezing is so easy.

Here is the meat sauce I made. I prepared the tomatoes as they suggested. I blanched them, peeled the skins, cut in half took out pulp and seeds. Put the tomato in a strainer and squeezed them. In the mean time I browned hamburger in olive oil and garlic paste. I also salted and peppered it. I then added my cheese grated zucchini. No one can even tell it was added to the browned beef. I added the tomatoes, and canned tomato sauce (of course didn't have any of my own at this time) so used what garden tomatoes I had and canned sauce. I added a bit of parsley, thyme, more pepper and some sugar. I slow cooked it on the lowest setting for about 2 hours and it was really good. The actual amount of everything is going to very for every person. So experiment and have some fun. I don't like bay leaves or basil so I never add them if I can avoid it.