STUFFING THE FREEZER

My husband and I went to Juneau for a short

shopping trip last week. As luck would have

it there was a farmer from WA state selling

organic vegetables at the church parking lot

across the street from the store we were at.

The produce was really nice and there were

apples, peppers, nectarines, pears and nice

beefsteak tomatoes. The cases of tomatoes

were marked as seconds because some had

very minor marks on the skin but they could

not sell them to restaurants that way.

So I bought the whole case with plans to

put them in the freezer.

I started off by boiling a big pot of water.

I made an X in the bottom of each tomato

with a sharp knife, then plunged them

into the boiling water for just a few

seconds. I immediately took them out

and plunged them into a sink of icy water.

The skins easily slid off:

Then I took my largest stockpot and sauteed

2 onions in butter until they were soft:

While the onions were cooking I chopped the

tomatoes into chunks and processed them in

my food processor until they were almost pureed.

I did leave some chunks of tomato so I can use

this for pizza as well as spaghetti sauce and

for casseroles:

When the onions were softened I added 2 pounds

of caribou burger to the pot, along with a whole

bunch of garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper:

Once the burger was browned I started pouring the

processed tomatoes into the bucket:

I had a little too much for my stockpot, so the overflow

went into a smaller pan so it wouldn't boil all over. At

this point I added more spices and just kept tasting and

tasting as it cooked. I always figure that if it needs more

I can always add it, but if I add too much I may ruin

the whole pot!

This step takes awhile because you want to cook

everything together for flavor, but you are also

reducing the amount of liquid in the pot to make

a thicker sauce and to concentrate the tomato flavor.

I just left it on low and watched it throughout the

day, stirring it often as it slowly boiled the

water away.

I still added more seasoning at this point and

when it was as thick as I wanted it was done:

And here is the end result; 6 large bags of delicious

sauce that I can use for spaghetti, casseroles, pizza

or I can just pour it over hot pasta for a quick dinner.

Nobody is going to call this gourmet food, but it is

all organic and sticks to the ribs quite nicely when

it's cold outside and we've been working all day.