OMG, Karen -- that is such a beautiful picture ! I can't imagine anyone looking at it and not smiling

Weedwhacker said:OMG, Karen -- that is such a beautiful picture ! I can't imagine anyone looking at it and not smiling

I agree...your granddaughter is such a beautiful young lady.

Beautiful cake and beautiful smile of granddaughter.

I also agree that I do not like the skins on my tomatoes! But, if you are feeling lazy, jam is a good way to go because the tomato cooks down so much, the skins are not detectable.

For the relish, I'm going to give your method a try!

Ketchup is also a good way to go without having to skin the tomatoes because everything will be put in the blender.

I always can the larger tomatoes which are peeled first by using the same method (minus the squeezing). I'm looking forward to giving the cherry tomatoes a try at canning.

Thanks everyone. We are pretty taken with her!!!

I never even realized so many people don't like the skins.
Makes me realize people might not like my cooking when I share with them.

If someone shared with me, I wouldn't complain about a thing!!

You wouldn't "complain", but would you eat it? Would it be "gross"?

Skins aren't really "gross". I just don't care for the sudden texture thing that happens when you find one. It's sort of like finding a hair in your food, lol. Poor Critter. I am just making things worse aren't I . I would gladly eat it if I was really hungry. Oh gee, I better quit while I am ahead!!

I wouldn't complain either and if the taste is good, I'm sure to enjoy. I'm my toughest food critic! It's just that sometimes the skins are hard to chew and depending on how they're sliced can be long, you're left with this piece of food in your mouth that you keep chewing on or it gets stuck while swallowing.... ugh!

If I could, I would come for lunch today Critter. Christine put it much better than I did. She is absolutely right on, so don't worry about it.

Cookies4kids said:Skins aren't really "gross". I just don't care for the sudden texture thing that happens when you find one. It's sort of like finding a hair in your food, lol. Poor Critter. I am just making things worse aren't I . I would gladly eat it if I was really hungry. Oh gee, I better quit while I am ahead!!

I do dice them small so there aren't big pieces of skin.

last year (my first) I found a way to save /store my excess cherry tomatoes for the winter . . online. I've since used my saved /stored tomatoes only for cooking, so don't know how they tast raw.

The method i found: wash tcherrie tomatoes well and dry them thoroughly. Scatter them on a cookie sheet so they're not touching another tomato or the sides of the pan. Put them in your refrigerator's freezer aand leave them alone until they're frozen solidly. Take them off the cookie sheet and store them in a ziplock baggieor some container with a lid. Keep them in the freezer until needed.

As for tomato skins, supposedly the dwarf varieties all have very thin (the grower said they were almost undetectable). While the plants are dwarf (some NOT so small: 3-4"!), their fruit is normal size!! The adventourists would get giddy with dwarf cherry tomatoes in a rainbow of colors in addition to the standard red!

Someday I hope I can grow enough to save!
As of yet, they go in my mouth too fast!

@crittergarden

Critter, I have so many I forget to eat them but this year I made the pasta sauce from Frank's recipe here. I haven't tried it yet because I have to keep off the carbs in pasta at the moment (diabetes) .

Have you ever tried "spaghetti squash," Glen? Spaghetti Squash (Cucurbita pepo 'Vegetable Spaghetti')

I dried mine in a dehydrator. I love the intense flavor and just ate them for a snack.
I like Frank's recipe, but I want to try Linda's idea!

I've also just thrown them in the pan of tomatoes I'm cooking down. I find they are really seedy.

Karen,
It sounds fun to do too, lol!
She shines from the inside! Very beautiful!

Critter,
I used to do the boiling water, cool down with tomatoes because that's how I learned. Last year, I just cut, cooked and ran them thru. I saved a huge chunk of time. I get plenty of thickness because I run them dry.
I could and would eat the skins.

I mostly grow a cherry tomato for fresh eating. The grandkids will gobble them up in the garden but don't like them from a dish for dinner, lol!

Weedwhacker said:Have you ever tried "spaghetti squash," Glen? Spaghetti Squash (Cucurbita pepo 'Vegetable Spaghetti')

I bought one once and found the "spaghetti" part too tiny and seedy to be worth the work.
Would have taken 4-5 of them to get a plate full.

Found this on Pinterest yesterday:
http://www.pickledplum.com/pic...

crittergarden said:

I bought one once and found the "spaghetti" part too tiny and seedy to be worth the work.
Would have taken 4-5 of them to get a plate full.

That's strange -- the ones I've had have been a pretty good size, at least enough for 4 large servings.