Slow Roasted Tomatoes and Herbs for Freezer Sauce

Tomato salvation #2. This is one of my all time favorite ways to save or "put up" (as they say down south) tomatoes. And this one involves those prolific cherry or grape tomatoes that seem to pop up overnight. I have literally been picking 2-3 quarts of these per day but maybe that is my fault. See... I have this theory that if I make my garden just "a tad bit bigger" every year..... I have to mow less grass!! Yes, I know. What reasoning! But I think in the past 3 years, at this one house, I have cut out mowing maybe 3 extra feet on the one end of the garden. Wow!  Every inch counts for me when it comes to mowing grass. I hate mowing! In case you didn't notice, it just comes back..... And in the South Carolina heat, that just means another day dripping sweat at 7 am before the real scorching temps set in. So instead of mowing that extra little space, I prefer to can, freeze and preserve these little jewels. They are worth the sweat to plant, nurture and pick because I get to enjoy them all year!!

My backyard better watch out .... in 10 more years I won't have to mow grass.

White Lasagna with Sausage, Spinach and Portabello Mushrooms

Look at me! Baking and blogging up a storm these past few weeks. Am I just overly ambitious? Hmm... I wish!  I am BORED!  I have been iced or snowed in my house for 3 days in the past week with more days off probably tomorrow and possibly Friday! I don't sit still well.(It is how I was raised.) I can not watch any more Netflix or worse than that, daytime TV.  Dr. Oz and Steve Hardy make me want to jump off the bridge downtown.... if only I could get there!

So, instead of causing bodily harm, I have been spending my time reading blogs and recipes and pulling out a lot of the cookbooks that I have stashed away and making things that are on my wish list. That list is actually so long that I could probably have a whole year of snow days and still not complete everything on it!

This has been my new South Carolina "snow life!" Waking up, showering, putting on fresh Pjs, scouring books and webpages and then getting busy in the kitchen. Usually, at some point in this process, some wine or craft beer might come into the mix. My biggest fear is if this weather doesn't clear up and I continue to churn out these rich, comfort food recipes, the only clothes I will be able to wear is Pjs or elastic pants. Ugh.... Praying for no more snow!!!

Tomato Basil Jam

My garden goodness is almost gone. The summer garden is done. I have two last recipes that I just finished this weekend from all of the last plants that I have harvested. For me this is always a hard time of the year. I now have to buy tomatoes from the store and those never have the same taste as a good, fresh garden tomato. The other thing that I will miss is the fresh basil that I use on a daily basis. I put it in mixed drinks, scrambled eggs and just about everything. In order to hold on to those flavors a little longer, I whipped up some more of this jam. I made it last year as well and it helped get through the tomatoless time of the year.

So long summer garden. Can't wait for your garden goodness next year.

Bourbon Peach BBQ Ribs

Bourbon Peach BBQ ribs are for dinner tonight.

So I have been really hungry for some sticky BBQ ribs and by now if you have been following my blog, you probably realize that when I am craving something, I rarely go out and buy it. I usually make it. So this past weekend, a very good friend came over to watch the Olympics opening ceremonies and I took this chance to cure my craving. I made us ribs!
Although this is a long process, it is so worth it. Saucy and delicious! I do admit, sometimes if I am in a hurry, I use store bought sauce but this recipe is quickly becoming one of my favorites so I want to share. I wish that I could share by giving you each a sticky sweet bourbon rib but maybe I will inspire you to make your own!

BTW I refrained from posting the pics of us licking our fingers after dinner!

Mom's Tomato Sauce

Mom's Tomato Sauce

Since we are just putting tomatoes in the ground this week,  I know that this is not the typical time to make tomato sauce from homegrown tomatoes, but I kind of have a trick here. As I have said before, my garden is not huge and to make this sauce you need a 1/2 bushel of tomatoes for Step 1 and then you need 3 dozen Paste or Roma tomatoes for Step 2. That is a lot of tomatoes to produce in a few days just for this sauce (and have enough to eat daily. I don't know about you but when my tomatoes come in, I am tomato obsessed! I eat them at every meal.)

As per my mom's suggestion, I have always frozen whole tomatoes. I just cut out the stem and then freeze them whole in Ziploc bags. Then when a recipe called for canned tomatoes for soup or chili in the winter, I just pull out some of my frozen and run them under really hot tap water. The skin peels right off in your hand (this is a great tip.)  I was freezing tomatoes as they were harvested and I began to wonder if I could use the frozen tomatoes after I had the specified 1/2 a bushel and make this sauce?? So here begins my experiment! 

Before starting, I thought I would ask my resources, my parents both thought it would work and unfortunately Grandma Ethel was no longer with us but I knew that she was cheering for me. I began freezing Ziploc bags of tomatoes as I picked them.  I would weigh the bags and write the weight on the outside of the bag. Then I would put them in the bottom shelf of my deep freeze freezer. I would bag the paste tomatoes separately in 1 dozen bags. When I got the designated amount of tomatoes, I was ready to go. So at this point, I proceeded with the recipe that is below and it was a huge success. I have been making it this way for years. So if this method works for you, Great!  Another alternative would be to visit your local farmer and buy tomatoes from him/her. They will be happy to have your business and you will know exactly where your tomatoes came from.