Garden and tomatoes

Sorry for the lull in recipes.  I've had to take a break from getting recipes on here due to the fact that my garden has been producing like crazy.  Every year I lament that I don't have canning supplies.  I have yet to get canning supplies which every year I ask for my birthday but my husband thinks that's a ridiculous idea.  But here's the kicker...I was thinking I could get by on just a water bath canner.  Turns out if you're doing things that have a low acidity you have to have a pressure canner, otherwise it won't kill the bacteria.  The difference is HIGH COST.  I have a ton of green beans.  I know how to freeze them, it's just a pain in the backside to blanch them.  I'm trying something new tonight with one of my quick recipes resulting in making it not so quick but with fresh ingredients.  It's goulash and usually I just throw in canned tomato sauce and canned stewed tomatoes.  With all the hundreds of roma tomatoes I've gotten off of my 2 plants I've needed to use them so I've been learning how to cook with them.  The taste is amazing.  Instead of canned tomatoes for the lasagna recipe I have on here, I did fresh and it tasted so good.

In order to substitute canned tomatoes you want to throw your tomatoes in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds.  I read somewhere to make a little X mark on one of the ends before you toss them to make removal of the skin easier.  After they boiled for the amount of time stated earlier you need to put them immediately in a ice water bath to cool them down and the skins will slip right off.  After that I sliced the tomatoes in half(or you could even do quarters) and took my finger and ran it down the inside to remove the seeds.  I placed the seeds and mushy stuff in a mesh strainer over a little bowl to let any left over juice drip in it.  Then I diced the halves of the tomatoes.  I don't like too big of chunks....just me.  After I got all my tomatoes cut I took all the left over guts and pressed out the remaining juice and added it back to the diced tomatoes.  Then to get some liquid in it put water just to the brim of the cut tomatoes.  I do also remember reading you could put in chicken broth.  I really need to pay more attention to the articles I read.  I made the mistake of putting salt in and next time I think I'm going to hold off because it was a little too much for me.  Seriously the taste was really good in the lasagna and didn't mess up the recipe at all!  I'm hoping for similar if not better results for the goulash.  I found a tomato sauce recipe that I'll be trying out and if it works I'll be throwing that up here too.  My freezer will be full.  I gotta do pizza sauce too since we have it practically every Friday!

Hope you're gardens are doing just as well!