7 Hours of Soup

I have always loved my mom's homemade tomato soup. Mom taught me to make it a few years ago and this year I mentioned to my neighbor, Robert, (who often gets free/cheap produce for his pigs) that if he ever got some tomatoes I would like them to make tomato soup. Well, Robert came through for me..... He gave me about 3 batches worth of tomatoes (about 45 pounds) that were VERY ripe and needed to be dealt with right away. I felt the pressure....so I set a date....today.

This is the second time this summer that I have made soup so I knew that all those tomatoes would make three batches . A lot of soup and a lot of work. I was ready....so I set aside this day to make the soup. Mom wanted my help with some paperwork (which was fine with me, got my lazy bones out of bed :) !) and then I took Sydney to get her braces' wire put back in the bracket. The appointment took all of about 15 min (less than 2 min in the chair) and then I headed to the grocery store for a few things I needed for the soup. Little did I know that our local Food Lion chose this very day to renovate their inventory. I found everything I needed (while weaving in and out of all the people moving things and restocking shelves) but I couldn't find the sugar! I asked around and found out that the sugar had been pulled from the shelves and no one knew where it was.....errrr. I mean, it wasn't like I was looking for DreamWhip or something!!! Anyway, I went to another store and got the sugar, I also picked up some more lids, just in case. On the way out of Food Lion I was a bit agitated and I told the girls, "I guess that Food Lion doesn't sell sugar on Mondays"......I try to be funny when I'm mad.....So I get home and start making soup at noon (times a tickin'). Melia was a big help!

The little trouper stuck with it 'til the end. She did most of the squishing. Mom lent me her "Squeezo" machine for the tomato season. The thing is from the 1970's and still has the instructions and looks brand new (go mom! I just try to get all the tomato off of everything). I'm sure my sisters recognize the Squeeo. Well, after 7 hours of cutting, crushing, cooking, and canning I ended up with about 30 quarts of soup, which I turned upside-down and covered with a towel so that they would seal. (I took the towel off for the quality of the picture, I then tucked them back in for the night, just to make sure that they seal. ) Doesn't really look like much, but it is. You canners know....



My house never left 90 degrees the entire time I was cooking, but boy nothing makes a cold winter day feel like home like grilled cheese and homemade tomato soup....mmmmm....And now I am tired....very tired....I will rest now and eat soup this fall and winter! YUMMY! Oh, and of course for supper I fixed? grilled cheese and.......tomato soup! LOL!

Cheers!

And so continuities the tradition....