Meg Goes Nom Nom

I am inundated with TOMATOES! Just when I used up these guys last week…

…I had a whole new batch donated to my kitchen! I am lovin’ it though. I’m determined not to waste any of these bad boys.

Last night I made one of my favorite summer meal pairings: Summer Squash and Corn Chowder and Tomato Bruschetta.

Oh.My.Tomatoes!

Garden fresh yellow squash + the sweetest corn, freshly sliced from the cob, makes for a pretty awesome chowder.

Then, today for lunch I had a BLT.

…And THEN… for dinner tonight I made Stuffed Tomatoes; my own recipe, but inspired by Paula Deen and Waldorf Salad.

To one-half pound of cooked, shredded chicken, I mixed in:

• mayonnaise
• Dijon mustard
• honey
• white wine vinegar
• dried cranberries
• walnuts
• red onion
• celery
• fresh parley
• salt and pepper

I stuffed the chilled chicken salad filling into a pair of huge tomatoes with their innards removed. My side dishes were rather haphazard, but basically a result of trying to use up things around the house, such as a delicata squash (love it!) from my CSA that I roasted, watermelon, and delicious zucchini bread. This is what we call a seasonal dinner: tomatoes, squash, watermelon, zucchini!

These stuffed tomatoes were delish! However, I still had only made a dent in my tomato supply, so tonight I decided to prepare several for freezing.

How to Freeze Tomatoes

Step 1: Remove stem and core from your ‘matoes.

Step 2: Blanch for 30 seconds.

Step 3: Ice bath.

Step 4: Peel off the skin. Lurker hand optional.

Step 5: Chop ‘em up. Optional: squeeze out excess seeds and moisture from the center of tomatoes prior to chopping. (I did this step). (Below shows what the tomatoes look like after peeling and before chopping.)

Step 6: Bag ‘em and label ‘em.

Step 6: Freeze ‘em! I blanched, peeled, and chopped six large tomatoes for freezing, which was enough for three freezer bags containing two cups of diced tomatoes each, the equivalent of approximately one 14.5 oz can per bag. These will be perfect for future use! Diced, canned tomatoes are one of my most frequently used pantry staples and it will be wonderful to have fresh summer tomatoes to use instead!

After this was done, I actually seeded and minced one dozen jalapeños and froze them. Sorry, no pictures! It was way too complicated to try to take pictures while wearing gloves to protect my hands!

I tried running the halved and seeded jalapeños through my garlic press, but it ended up being a huge fail which only caused jalapeño juice to squirt into the air and induce a huge 10 minute coughing fit. Doh! I then proceeded to finely dice those suckers up the old fashioned way. I still have another dozen to use, however!

 Currently listening to: Lotus Flower – Radiohead.

(Thom Yorke actually does a fairly decent impression of my mad dancing skillz in this video.)