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Stages of Ripening Tomatoes

As I wrote in my last post, I have lots of tomatoes ripening in various stages. I thought it might be fun to post a photo of the different stages of my ripening tomatoes. As you can see, I have very green tomatoes, to yellow, to orange, and finally to red.
Stages of Ripening Tomatoes

Here is my ripening green tomatoes post with some helpful tips on ripening any leftover tomatoes you may have from this year’s garden. Many of my stored green tomatoes have ripened. We will be enjoying homegrown tomatoes well into November from my stockpile of green stored tomatoes.

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Leftover Turkey Soup

I had some leftover turkey from last Christmas in the freezer. I cut it all up which resulted in over a cup of nice meat to add to my soup mix.

Auguson Soup MixI used about 2 cups of Auguson hearty vegetable chicken soup mix along with 7 cups of water for my soup base. I then added salt, pepper and a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce all into my Crockpot.

If you haven’t used Auguson storage foods before, let me just say they are good product at a value price. I have made this soup mix before and it is very tasty.

Here is a picture after everything was in the Crockpot. Continue Reading →

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Split Pea Ham Soup

After a recent potluck at work, there was a leftover ham bone with lots of meat on it. I asked and no one seemed to want it so I cut off the leftover ham from the bone. The result was about 2 cups of cut up ham perfect for making split pea ham soup. Here is just half of the ham I saved from the potluck

My homemade split pea ham soup recipe is very basic and easy. Here is my recipe.

One large pot filled with 8 cups of water
Add 1 cup or more of cut up ham leftovers
Add 1/2 lb of split peas which have been washed and sorted
Add 1 small diced onion
Add 1 carrot diced (about 1/2 cup)
Add one peeled potato
Add salt and pepper as desired and more as it cooks as needed

Bring to light boil and then cook for 2-3+ hours on low-medium heat. I actually put the covered pot on top of my woodstove to let it sim for hours before I served it. My recipe makes about 4+ large bowls of finished soup.

Soup just starting with all the ingredients added.

Soup cooking and you can see my potato got so tender that it split in half. Continue Reading →

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Potato Bacon Soup from Home Food Storage

I have been enjoying potato bacon soup that I make from my home storage food reserves. I thought I’d post about using Augason creamy potato soup mix. I have a few #10 cans of this soup mix and love using it to make my potato bacon soup. This is not a paid review for Augason’s but rather just my unsolicited opinion of the product.

They say you should use and perfect your cooking with home storage foods and that’s just how I discovered my version of this potato bacon soup.

I use 1-1/3 cups of the soup mix, along with the recommended 4-1/2 cups of water. But then I add several dashes of Worcestershire sauce, several dashes of pepper, at least a cup of cut-up potatoes, and finally about 4-5 slices of cooked bacon.

Chopped up the bacon into small bits as shown.

I throw it all in my crockpot and cook on high for about 4 hours and then just on low until ready to eat.

Results are outstanding and makes enough homemade soup for at least 2 meals for hubby and I.

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Saving Tomato Pieces

Here is a quick and frugal homemaking tip. Save and freeze tomato pieces that you may have leftover or over-ripe pieces. This is also a good tip for freezing as you can use a freezer-safe canning jar and just add pieces as you acquire them.

When I need some tomato pieces, I just pull out the jar and remove a few pieces as needed. I chop them up on the cutting board if I want puree tomatoes for my recipes. Otherwise you can just shake out some frozen tomato pieces directly into Continue Reading →

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Indoor Basil Harvested

This weekend I harvested my indoor basil that I have been growing over the winter. I brought my plants indoors last fall and while they don’t grow all that great inside in the winter, they do produce. Here is my harvested basil I cut off the two plants I had over the winter. I left some base in the pots so they can regrow again this spring once it warms up.

I am now drying these leaves and hope to have a bounty of fresh dried basil to use over the next few months. I should add that I have been cutting off leaves from these plants throughout the winter. I have used the fresh leaves in spaghetti, pizza sauce, and lasagna recipes over the last several winter months. It is always wonderful to use fresh cut-up basil in my cooking.

So as the weather is warming, I will soon re-pot and transfer my basil outside where it can really thrive. Until then, Continue Reading →

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