The Family Table: Pick one, two more take its place
My favorite part of the four years of Latin I took in high school was learning about Roman and Greek mythology.
The gods and goddesses, what they stood for, and the stories that surrounded all of them — they were like ancient fairy tales to me.
One of my favorite tales was the 12 labors of Hercules, the son of the Greek god Zeus. The kids know about Hercules because Disney made an animated movie and television show about him. While I haven’t seen any of them, I have to guess that they’ve sanitized the story quite a bit, as Hercules had quite the violent life.
Perhaps the most recognized of his labors was killing the multi-headed serpent, Hydra. As it goes, when Hercules cut one head off, two more took its place.
Throughout August and September, that’s pretty much how I felt about our six tomato plants: we picked one, and by the next day, several more were there waiting to be plucked.
When we put them in, we figured we’d get a decent amount of tomatoes — enough to stuff, make some salsa and sauce, have some with some fresh mozzarella and leave a few in reserve for me to pack for lunches.
What we ended up with felt like 100 times more than that. For the past few weeks, I’ve been begging family, friends and neighbors to take some of the yellow pear and salad tomatoes that just won’t seem to stop producing.
Don’t get me wrong — a hearty garden is a good problem to have. That said, I struggled to figure out what the heck to do with them, as I was pretty sure if I continued to leave my neighbors tomato gift bags, they were going to start returning them.
I needed to make something that would use up a bunch, didn’t need to be immediately consumed, and could either be gifted to people or frozen.
Enter Tomato-Bacon Jam.
Everyone loves bacon, right?
The method I used was perfect for the tiny tomatoes since it didn’t require me to cut them. They’re small enough to burst in the heat on their own, though if you use bigger tomatoes for it, you’ll have to chunk them up.
The result was a delicious jam that everyone in our home enjoyed. While Mike and the kids liked it best on sandwiches, I liked to put a small dollop of it on a chicken breast, and spread it.
In addition to using up a lot of the tomatoes, one of the best parts is that it’s basically a recipe of inactive prep. Other than the initial cutting and frying, the only thing that’s really required is occasional stirring as the jam simmers and thickens up.
This past weekend, we bade a fond farewell to all but one of the tomato plants.
While Hercules accomplished his 12 labors alone, it was a family effort to uproot the plants, break them down and clean the raised beds that held them.
There are still several large bowls of tomatoes in my kitchen, waiting to be consumed. This week, I’ll make another batch of jam, and I’m going to freeze some this time. While we may be swimming in tomatoes now, in the winter, the freshness will be nice.
Jennifer Harr is the 蘑菇视频’s news managing editor. 蘑菇视频 her at jharr@heraldstandard.com or follow her on Twitter @HSJenHarr.
Tomato Bacon Jam
2 pounds bacon
2 chopped onions
2 cloves minced garlic
3 pounds tomatoes (any kind will do!)
3 teaspoons smoked paprika
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Chop and brown the bacon in a Dutch oven. Remove it to paper towels, and drain off all but a few tablespoons of the grease. In it, saute the onions for a minute or two, and then add the tomatoes and garlic. Stir to get everything combined, and add the rest of the ingredients, including the bacon. Bring the mixtures to a boil over medium high heat, and then reduce it to a simmer. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally, until it’s thickened. That took me about 90 minutes. When it has cooled, pulse it a blender a few times until it’s the consistency you want. I stored mine in glass jars.