10,000 Pounds of Tomatoes (Part 2)

So what did I end up doing with my 10,000 pounds of tomatoes? 

A plateful of home grown tomatoes served with salt and pepper is absolutely delicious. There isn't enough salt, pepper, spice or sauce in the world that can make store-bought, anemic tomatoes edible. 

Fantastic on BLT's, cold cuts or just plan bread.  We'll even chop them up in a bowl, add some balsamic vinegar, blue cheese and call it lunch.  There are endless serving suggestions for these gems.

My husband made these for dinner the other night and I've been craving them ever since.  Just a tad bit more involved than slicing tomatoes, but the flavor is worth the little extra effort that is needed.

Slice and toast Dutch Crunch bread.  Dip bread onto a plate drizzled with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Cover with sliced tomato sprinkled with a dash of salt and pepper, mozzarella cheese and basil leaves.  So good--now I want to make some for lunch!

Earlier in the week, I cut up as many tomatoes that would fit in my pot.  When it boiled down a few inches, I added more until it reached the top.  I cooked the sauce for several hours until it got thicker and cooled it down so I could put it in the fridge.  

The following day, I fried up ground beef with onions and garlic.  Then I added enough sauce to make a batch of spaghetti sauce.  While I let the flavors merge into each other, I added the flavorings and seasons to make it taste yummy. 

I made spaghetti twice that week and the left-over plain sauce was frozen for a later time.

There is no way to photograph these, because they are ugly no matter what.  I dried the rest of the tomatos that I had in my dehydrator and this is what they look like.  They may be ugly, but they are tasty little snacks that can only be made with home grown tomatoes.