Week 13 - Extra Tomatoes

[Posted by Ruth]

In addition to this week's terrific looking haul...(loved getting some fennel and thought the tiny watermelon was the cutest thing ever)

I opted to buy a 1/2 bushel of tomatoes as well.  Time for some canning.  Although I generally use recipes as a jumping off point the one place I follow directions exactly is when putting food up.  The book I love and trust is "Putting Food By" by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg and Beatrice Vaughan.  It's a great resource for canning, freezing, drying, you name it, for just about any fruit or vegetable you can think of.  Whatever book or source you choose, make sure you cross-check the advice and then follow it to the letter.  I used their hot pack method.  The tomatoes were juicy enough that I didn't need to add any juice.  In fact, I had some mostly juicy leftovers to which I added the less than perfect tomatoes and cooked down further for some sauce for later in the week or to put in the freezer.  The 1/2 bushel yielded 7 beautiful quarts of tomatoes in their juice, all well sealed and ready to put in a cool dark place for later in the season when I'm missing the taste of tomatoes.

An unexpected side benefit of this whole process was that I realized all my cool dark places were full of cool dark junk, so I got busy and cleaned out the dog/cat food cabinet.

That accomplished, we deserved a glass of 10 Second Sangria by way of The Bitten Word.  Super quick and easy.  Definitely not a serious drink but then, who needs to be serious on a summer weekend?

10 Second Sangria

Equal parts red wine (pick a fairly fruity one for best results - an inexpensive tempranillo or sangiovese is great here)
and Lemonade soda (I used "European Soda" from Fresh Maket - Sicilian Lemon)
Ice
Glass
Drink
Enjoy....