Yesterday I punched out a lot of work in the kitchen. It really made me pine for a second oven 😅 Or a freeze dryer. Something that would’ve made it possible to have more going at once! But alas. I still got a good chunk done 💜 It counts.
Pumpkin first. I had cooked up some pumpkins in the day or two before, but hadn’t had a chance to puree it and portion it out for the freezer. So I did that yesterday. Four cups ish per bag.
See all the pumpkin juice in the big bowl above? No one wants that in their puree. I took as much out as I could with a turkey baster and squeezed into some apple sauce I was making!
We bought a couple boxes of delicious orchard apples through a fundraiser the other day, but I had just bought a couple of bags from the grocery store. Since the orchard ones are obviously WAY better, I decided to just make these ones into sauce. And while I LOVE that apple sauce can literally just be made with apples and water, I put brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice into this stuff and it was DEADLY!
While this was all going on, I got set up to make tomato soup! Thank you to the lovely friend who has given us a good chunk of garden tomatoes!
I added more to the batch after this picture, which was a good thing because it is SUCH a yummy soup!!!
Tomato soup is deceptively easy. Trust me. If I can do it, you can do it. And get ready, because your people who “don’t like tomato soup” have yet to learn that canned tomato soup tastes nothing like tomatoes. Homemade tomato soup does, and its delicious. I have some converts over here myself.
I won’t lie. I was TIRED after all that work in the kitchen, but I also loved it. There is a secret part of my heart that lives on a homestead somewhere. Hopefully I can keep finding things that nurture that piece. If, for now, its blending pumpkin up and storing it in plastic bags, then so be it. Someday, hopefully there will be more jars, a freeze dryer, sourdough, etc. Maybe pressure canning wouldn’t even feel scary. Thats the dream.
One of the dreams.
SO many dreams.
Thank you, Lord, for always answering our prayers! 💜