Freezing Tomatoes

Three days at the new job and it feels like it's been 20 years. I've been puked on, peed on, and changed more poopy diapers than I care to count. From the picture above, you can clearly see that my tomatoes have been very busy as well. That's only one of the plants - I have six. 

There are a ton of tomatoes that I will have to use up in a very short amount of time. As much as I'd love to eat bruschetta for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, woman can not live on tomato alone. I invited my neighbor to come over and take some of my bounty for use in her own kitchen (maybe she'll share her infamous chili recipe with me.) That's when she mentioned the ingenious idea of freezing my exploding bounty to use them later...brilliant.

Now that I have a day off, I am going to to be freezing a ton of tomatoes. The process for freezing tomatoes is pretty simple. I have absolutely no canning equipment. None. 

I cut two slits, making an X, at the bottom of the tomato. This makes peeling off the skins super simple. 

I carefully plop the tomatoes into a pot of boiling water. I let them boil for minute and place them on cookie sheet to cool enough to handle. 

Once they are cool enough to handle, I peel the skins off, remove any tough or rotten parts, and wrap them up in a good old sandwich bag. I portion them for one cup of whatever whole/diced/crushed tomato that the recipe would call for. 

So that's my day in a tomato skin...freezing tomatoes, spending some snuggle time with an under the weather DJ, and making a sweet treat for a wonderful neighbor. I can't wait to share it with you - so tune in tomorrow!