Canned stewed tomatoes, a taste of home

Last week our daughter brought over some freshly canned tomatoes and pickles, but I told her 2 pints of tomatoes would be plenty. I was thinking of spaghetti or casseroles. Then today I opened one to pour over a beef roast, and tasted a few chunks. Wow. Memory overload. My mom used to can tomatoes until I thought I'd never look at another stewed tomato. My dad (and the fathers of my friends) used to crumble soda crackers over them and add sugar to eat as a dessert. It would make me gag, but I guess it was a Depression era treat. Thus I had not tasted cold stewed, freshly canned tomatoes in about 60 years. It was like greeting a long lost friend.

Enjoying summer's bounty

 For breakfast this morning I had 2 biscuits warmed up (left over from dinner a few days ago) with tart cherry jam.  My daughter has found a summer farmer's market on the east side whose produce she buys in bulk in the summer.  She bought gallons of tart Michigan sour cherries this summer and processed them into jam.  And we're now enjoying it.  She also bought baskets of cukes and using my Mother's recipe for bread and butter pickles and dill pickles, we've had some of that for holiday meals.  She also bought a lot of corn on the cob and wax beans and processed those for the freezer.  Bob hates corn, but the rest of us really enjoyed a taste of summer at Thanksgiving--tasted like we'd just walked into the field and pulled a few ears off the stalk. She sent some home with me after Saturday dinner, and I enjoyed it for Sunday breakfast. I'd often talked about how wonderful watermelon pickles are (the only produce I've ever canned, and that was 1957), so she found a recipe in my Mother's file box, and made them this past summer using tiny little flower shapes.  She also makes cherry pies with highly decorative crusts. The apple butter is scrumptious but perhaps fewer spices next time, she says.  She's considerably added to her costs by then packaging the jars and Fed-exing them to relatives. She often calls her cousin Amy for advice about mom's recipes if she thinks something doesn't sound right, so I know she got some, and her cousin Joan in Indiana who has been so helpful to us this past year.  I believe her sisters-in-law in Colorado and Kansas benefited from her generosity, and of course we did too. 

Thanksgiving dinner