Home Canning Tomatoes

Tomatoes are probably the most popular food item grown in gardens. Usually there is an abundance of this crop once they begin to ripen. Home Canning Tomatoes is one way to ensure that the overstock of produce will not go to waste. By canning your own tomatoes you will also be able to enjoy the flavorful taste of you home grown tomatoes long after the season ends.

Ways to Preserve Tomatoes

There is an assortment of ways to preserve tomatoes. They may be canned, frozen or in some cases even dried. The most popular way of preserving tomatoes is to canning. This versatile method allows you to utilize the canned tomatoes in a variety of techniques that can be used later to make soups, chili or stews. Who wouldnt want that same great fresh tasting flavor even in the cold winter months?

Preparing Tomatoes for Canning

Only a stainless steel pot or saucepan and stainless steel utensils should be used when preparing tomatoes for canning. Because the to matoes have such a high acidic value, using any other type of pot may result in bitter tasting canned tomatoes that have a less than desirable color about them.

Canning Tomatoes Safely

It is important to remember that in order to ensure safety tomatoes must be canned correctly. Only choose disease free, fresh firm tomatoes for canning. Tomatoes tend to be a high acidic food item. Boiling Water Bath Canning or Pressure Canning methods are the recommended processing technique to be used when home canning tomatoes. According to some sources using a pressure canner may even yield higher quality flavor with more nutritious value. Either however, is an acceptable means of preserving tomatoes.
The USDA recommends that all home canned tomatoes be acidified prior to canning to ensure safety from botulism. This is achieved by adding 2 tablespoons of lemon jui ce or teaspoon of citric acid per quart. Using pints, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice or teaspoon of citric acid.

Processing times for hot packed crushed tomatoes in water bath canning is 35 minutes for pints and 45 minutes for quarts. If using a pressure canner the processing time is 15 minutes for both pints and quarts. You must be sure to set the dial gauges on the pressure cooker to 11lbs. of pressure and the weighted gauge should be set at 10lbs. of pressure.

Following these instructions should assure the quality of taste when Home Canning Tomatoes. Just think about how happy you and your family will be this winter when you are enjoying the same great flavor you had this summer.

Watch The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 11 FINALE

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Stefan and Katherine play mind games on each other, and Damon and Alaric become suspicious when a mysterious visitor named Jules shows up in Mystic Falls, looking for her missing friend, Mason. Elena is frustrated at Jeremy and her friends' excessive efforts to protect her. Bonnie and Luca team up to work on a spell, though both continue to keep secrets from ea ch other. Finally, Elijah makes an unexpected appearance with an offer that could change everything watch The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode - By the Light of the Moon.

Bonnie and Luca team up to work on a spell, though both continue to keep secrets from each other. Finally, Elijah makes an unexpected appearance with an offer that could change everything. Do you looking for latest info, preview, schedule broadcast time and want to watch latest episode of Vampire Diaries Season 2 in legal way, then you come the right place. Your Thursday will be filled with a great episode if you watch The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 11 entitled 'By the Light of the Moon' tonight via CW Channel.
Another exciting episode is coming right up this Thursday with "By the Light of the Moon"; the must see episode of Vampire Diaries which is set to hit your TV screens on the 9th day of December 2010. On the previous episode we've seen Elena's plans to stop Klaus didn't go exactly as she planned and in order to save Jeremy who was being captured by Katherine Stefan pushes Jeremy safely out of the tomb but is trapped in it himself.

Before watching this new Episode you must read the summary to know or understand the whole story: As the full moon approaches, Caroline helps Tyler prepare for the transformation he is powerless to stop. While Stefan and Katherine play mind games on one another, Damon and Alaric are suspicious when a stranger named Jules shows up in Mystic Falls, searching for her missing friend, Mason. Elena is frustrated at the lengths Jeremy and her friends have gone to in order to keep her safe. Bonnie and Luca work together on a spell, while st ill keeping secrets from one another.

While Stefan and Katherine play mind games on one another, Elena becomes increasingly upset at the measures Jeremy, Bonnie and the others are taking to keep her from Klaus. Furthermore, Damon and Alaric are suspicious when a stranger named Jules shows up in Mystic Falls, searching for her missing friend, Mason. Plus Elijah makes an unexpected appearance with an offer that could change everything.

Episode Outline: Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 11 B Th Light Of Th Moon - A th full moon rh, Caroline (Candice Accola) helps Tyler (Michael Trevino) prepare fr th transformation h powerless t t. Whl Stefan (Paul Wesley) nd Katherine (Nina Dobrev) play mind games n one another, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) nd Alaric (Matt Davis) r suspicious whn a wrdr named Jules (guest star Michaela McManus) shows up n Mystic Falls, incisive fr hr gone friend, Mason. Elena (Dobrev) frustrated t th lengths Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) nd hr friends h gone t n order t keep hr safe. Bonnie (Katerina Graham) nd Luca (guest star Bryton James) work together n a spell, whl still keeping secrets frm one another. Finally, Elijah (guest star Daniel Gillies) mk n unexpected appearance wth n l forward tht ld change everything. Sara Canning nd Zach Roering l star. Elizabeth Allen directed th episode written b Mike Daniels.

Elena (Dobrev) is frustrated at the lengths Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) and her friends have gone to in order to keep her safe. Bonnie (Katerina Graham) and Luca (guest star Bryton James) work together on a spell, while still keeping secrets from one another. Finally, Elijah (guest star Daniel Gillies) makes an unexpected appearance with an offer that could change everything. Sara Canning and Zach Roering also star. Elizabeth Allen directed the episode written by Mike Daniels.

In The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 11, "By The Light of the Moon," another probable couple on the ris e will jump into the limelight. [Possible Spoilers] Caroline (Candice Accola) and Tyler (Michael Trevino) have been getting pretty close since Caroline covered for Tyler on the night he became a full-fledged werewolf. Now, we'll be seeing Tyler during his first transformation.

Of course, we believe that missing The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 11 FINALE is a big loss for you. We are giving you the FULL VIDEO for free because we don't want you to cry losing it. Fasten your seatbelts now and start enjoying 100% entertainment with The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 11 FINALE. Enjoy watching now and have a nice day.

Homemade Hill Country Gifts

If you are looking for creative gifts to give this holiday season, look no further than right here. Whether you need a gift for a host or hostess, gift for a holiday exchange party, or want to make something homemade and inexpensive these few ideas and recipes will get you started. For an extra special touch, make homemade hill country gifts; peach jelly, pecan tartlets, and German mulled wine all represent something special about the hill country.
To Make Peach Jelly:
4 pounds fresh or frozen peaches, chopped
5 cups of sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
teaspoon of your choice, nutmeg or cinnamon
Place all the ingredients into a saucepan over medium heat and stir the peach mixture until the sugar begins to dissolve. Allow the peaches to boil rapidly until the jam reaches the jell point on a thermometer. Allow the peaches to cool and then place the jam into jars. To seal the jars, follow the canning method of your choice. To Make Pecan Tartlets:
12 tart shells
12 oz of chopped pecans
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of light Karo syrup
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Place your tart shells into a pan and evenly distribute the pecans into the shells filling them approximately half way. Lightly beat the sugar and eggs. Next add the Karo syrup and vanilla to the egg and sugar mixture. Pour the mixture into your tart shells leaving a little bit of space from the top. Bake tartlets for 25 to 30 minutes.
To Make German Mulled Wine:
1 bottle of red wine, something inexpensive will do
16 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks broken into 1-2 inch pieces
1 cup of water
1 orange
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
In a saucepan combine the water, cinnamon sticks, pumpkin pie spices and honey. Heat over medium heat. Quarter the orange and place 4 cloves into each orange segment. Add the orange segments and the bottle of wine to the spiced water. Heat the mulled wine over medium to low heat. Do not allow the wine to boil! Should you prefer a sweeter wine add sugar and allow the sugar to dissolve. Allow the wine to cool and place in a decorative bottle with warming instructions or serve right away to enjoy at a party.
*Recipes courtesy of Brittany Benningfield.

Water Soluble Vitamins In Your Food

If you want to keep your body strong and as healthy as possible, you need to feed your body vitamins. And this is especially true for water soluble vitamins which are not stored in the body. This means that they must be replenished every day through the foods that we eat.

All soluble vitamins are important,to a degree. But, without a doubt, two of the most valuable forms of water soluble vitamins are B and C. In fact, these vitamins are so important to the functioning of the human body that many popular foods such as breakfast cereals and breads are fortified with it.

One of the most important water soluble vitamins is Vitamin B. Want to avoid anemia? If so, make sure that you get enough Vitamin B in your diet. This vitamin is also important in helping the essential processes of the body to function well. If you want to have good skin, good eyesight, and calm nerves, getting a good dose of vitamin B in your daily meals is a good start. if you want to naturally increase your vitamin B levels, good foods to eat are organ meats such as liver, meats such as beef and fish, and dairy products like milk, eggs, and cheese.
One of the strongest vitamins in our arsenal for fighting free radicals is Vitamin C. It is one of our stronger antioxidants. It is essential in helping to hold the cells of the body together and keeping them healthy from disease and illness. It is also important if you want to avoid losing your teeth because of gum disease.

You can find Vitamin C in a large variety of food products. Many people mistakenly associate it with only citrus fruits such as orange juice and lemons. But, in actuality, it is actually found in most of the unprocessed foods that we eat such as eggs, beef, chickens, and so on. If you eat healthy foods and avoid the fast foods, supplements should not be necessary. You should be able to get all of the vitamin C that you need in your everyday meals.

Anyway, due to the fact that both of these vitamins are water soluble, they are very much likely to be lost in foods through popular methods of processing and storing them such as fre ezing and canning. For example many canned vegetables such as beans and peas are stored in water. Some of the vitamins are washed away when they are cooked in the plant.

And over the weeks or months while they sit on the store shelves, more vitamins seep into the canned water in which they are stored. And even more are lost when you heat them for a meal. In other words, unless you are eating most of the liquid with your canned vegetables, you are not really getting the amount of vitamins that you think you are.

Sometimes, depending on where you live, it can be hard to find fresh vegetables. If so, but you still want good nutrition, buying frozen ones are the next best way to buy them.

Picking the Right Tomato for your Garden

Could you imagine where the pizza industry would be today without tomato sauce? The top two condiments in the United States, ketchup and salsa, are tomato-based. It is safe to say that the tomato is an all-American culinary entity, a piece of Americana sharing ranks with apple pie, maple syrup, and that staple of staples, good ole corn. We've become very familiar with the pale, mild-flavored hybrid tomatoes in the supermarkets, the thick canned pastes, and those cute little cherries at your local salad bar. But, for those of us who really love tomatoes, and are looking for something a little more unique or very specific, we grow our own. I am going to attempt to briefly cover the basics of tomato varieties that gardeners should be familiar with.

Determinate vs. Indeterminate

Many growers have heard these terms applied to a few different fruits. These words refer to the specific plant's fruit production habit.

Determinate tomato varieties produce one large crop and then produce little or no fruit for the rest of the season. They are usually shorter than indeterminate varieties and have a fixed height. So, there is no need to stake them. These are often paste or plum tomato varieties.

Indeterminate or the vining varieties are going to be the most common variety for home gardening. They produce a continuous crop all summer until frost, and then they will start to die back.
Tomato Varieties

Your standard or slicing tomatoes are the common medium-sized round tomatoes. These will most often be used in soups or sliced for salads. You've seen these in six-pack trays at your local supermarket.

Beef Steak are big tomatoes, some up to 2 pounds. These are the ones that, when sliced, fit sandwiches and burgers very nicely. Beef Steak varieties are also great for stuffing and baking. They are rarely found in supermarkets because their size and tenderness makes them more trouble than they are worth for big retailers. However, they are a home garden dream, a big tasty return on the simple investment in a tiny packet of seeds. Some popular cultivars of this variety are 'Better Boy', 'Big Beef', and 'Park's Whopper'.

Cherry tomatoes are very small tomatoes, ranging from barely bigger than your finger tip to the size of a golf ball. They are often very sweet and perfect by themselves just as a snack. They are the sublime salad tomato because they add lots of flavor, and you don't have to slice them. The elongated smaller and sweeter grape tomatoes are also a tasty variation of the cherry tomato. Cherry tomato plants produce a large amount of fruit, so you don't have to plant many to get plenty of tomatoes.

Paste or plum tomatoes are, as the name suggests, often used for canning and sauces. They work well for this because they are less juicy than other varieties, they don't have a core, and they have far less seeds than other varieties. They are usually small and slightly elongated or pear-shaped. They are often lumped together as Roma tomatoes, which is actually just one cultivar of this tomato variety.

Choose Your Tomato Wisely

Breeders have had fun with this popular garden plant. They come in all sizes and colors, from pink and striped to almost black. But, the best way to pick your tomato is to grow for your needs. If you want sandwich tomatoes, grow Beef Steaks. If you love tomatoes in your salad, try some different cherry varieties. If your garden is the source for most of your canned goods, you should probably try to grow a few paste tomatoes. Growing your own tomatoes will give you power over selection and power over growing methods. It is cheaper than than buying them at the supermarket, and it can be much more rewarding. Have a good time in your garden, and grow the tomato that's just right for you.

Do-it-yourself

During the long, hot days of summer, the last factor we think about is Christmas looking. After all, that's a task we typically relegate to the month of December, proper? But the truth is, the job of shopping for Christmas items is something numerous men and women loathe. Parking lots are crowded, malls are jam packed, and finding just the suitable reward for that unique someone can take hours, or even days. What if there was a method to get some of your Christmas items ready in the course of the summertime and place them away in storage so they'll be ready to go when the vacation season rolls close to? Before you grab your keys and jump within the car to go purchasing now, stop and take a look around your personal home and garden. There may possibly be some reward possibilities lurking appropriate under your personal nose which are home made, thoughtful, and really inexpensive.

A lot of of us raise vegetable gardens in the summer time, and we wind up with far m ore recent develop than we can possibly use. As opposed to letting it rot on the vine or giving it all away to neighbors, think about canning. Many vegetables like refreshing green beans and tomatoes may be canned and then given away as gifts at the holidays. Recent bell peppers is often built into relishes, and cucumbers may be pickled and canned. Cans of refreshing produce also make wonderful hostess's gifts when you are invited to holiday parties. Top off the jar having a colorful square of fabric and tie with a ribbon to make the present actually attractive and special.

In case you get pleasure from cooking, take into account utilizing your refreshing produce to make other things like home made spaghetti sauce, fresh salsa, or pickle relish that could be canned. For a actually great touch, put a couple jars of spaghetti sauce into a gift basket after which consist of some related products such as a pound of pasta along with a loaf of contemporary Italian bread . Other great touches may possibly incorporate an Italian cookbook, a bottle of good red wine or gourmet olive oil, and even some refreshing Parmesan cheese. The thought of themed present baskets based on your home made canned goods can be expanded into other areas, too. As an example, if you've created some refreshing salsa, contain products in your present basket like tortilla chips, margarita mix, plus a bottle of great quality tequila.

Homemade items from the garden don't have to be limited to only vegetables. In case you grow fruits such as blueberries, cherries, or raspberries, contemplate making homemade jams or pie fillings that is often canned for vacation gifts. Nice additions to round out a gift basket with these goods could contain a new pie dish, or some do-it-yourself bread for toasting. Fresh fruits can also be built into syrups that may be given as presents along with some selfmade pancake mix. Furthermore, if you grow fresh herbs just like parsley or basil, take into account producing recent pesto at the end of the summertime and canning it into little jars to give as items.

Related Post: Homemade Christmas Gifts

Tomatoes Using

The English word tomato comes from the Spanish tomatl, first appearing in print in 1595. A member of the deadly nightshade family, tomatoes were erroneously thought to be poisonous (although the leaves are poisonous) by Europeans who were suspicious of their bright, shiny fruit. Native versions were small, like cherry tomatoes, and most likely yellow rather than red.

The tomato is native to western South America and Central America. In 1519, Cortez discovered tomatoes growing in Montezuma's gardens and brought seeds back to Europe where they were planted as ornamental curiosities, but not eaten

Start with great tomatoes and the right cut. You'll get the best results if you buy ripe tomatoes at a farm stand or farmers' market or get them from your own garden. They'll be the tastiest and juiciest, since they've been picked at their ripest. How you cut the tomatoes is important, too. A half-inch dice is the perfect size, because it will give you a juicy sauce while maintaining the integrity of the tomatoes.
Add a good amount of olive oil. The oil serves a double purpose here. First, it combines with the juices drawn by the salt to make the sauce. No oil means no sauce, just tomato juice. Second, a good fruity extra-virgin olive oil will lend its rich flavor to the dish, giving it lots of body and depth.

Toss the sauce with hot pasta. This is key: The heat of just-cooked pasta helps release the flavors in the tomatoes and creates a better integrated dish than if you mixed the sauce with cold pasta. Please send your review to Indo Munch

The high acidic content of the tomato makes it a prime candidate for canning, which is one of the main reasons the tomato was canned more than any other fruit or vegetable by the end of the nineteenth century. For more information http://www.indomunch.com