September 2, 2012

had a wonderful time at church.....Pastor Bob's message was great....all about having

a VISION.....check it out at www.h-hcc.org

today is our grandson Blake's 3rd birthday...what a great little boy...Love you bud!!!

took a bunch of veggies to church to give away...here is my trunk this morning....

first Sunday of the month is lunch after Church....

this was my passing dish....

Summer Salad (recipe on August 21) and Veggie Tray

got going on the 102 lbs of tomatoes that we picked yesterday...

we turned the Romas into catsup...not an easy process....the recipe is

straight forward...the problem is the sheer amount of time it takes to cook (reduce)

it down.....7 hours to do the reduce process until it could be canned

Tomato Catsup : (canning recipe)

8 quarts blanched tomatoes

2 cups chopped onion

1 cup chopped sweet red bell pepper

cook these 3 ingredients together until soft...put through a food mill / sieve......cook the pulp rapidly to reduce 1/2.....the BALL book says this takes 1 hour....they must be using Outer Space time...because we have had it at a rapid boil for 4 hours and it has only reduced 1/3.....once it has reduced to half......

in a spice bag add.....

3 tsp celery seed

2 tsp whole allspice

2 tsp mustard seed

2 sticks of cinnamon

1 - 1 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp paprika
3 cups white vinegar

to the reduced mixture...add the sugar, salt, paprika and the spice bag....cook gently for 25 minutes...
stirring often.....add vinegar....cook until thick....stirring often.....this took 3 more hours....when you have it the thickness you want, remove the spice bag and can in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.....

this recipe will yield 12 pints