Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[kayrobbins]

I have not frozen cherry tomatoes but I do freeze slicers. I do not skin them. I do a shallow x on the bottom before dropping them in boiling water for just a few minutes. Then they go in an ice water bath, get drained and then put in bags to freeze. Once you thaw them out to use the skin slides right off. My friend peels them first but I thought the skin would help protect them from freezer burn. It great to have on hand when you want to make a nice pot of vegetable soup.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Thanks for posting your creative ideas.

Is it possible, to skin the tomatoes and freeze to use in the future? I've just been freezing sauce....I've been making salsa too but just fresh, not freezing it.

Example: During the week, I did the boil/ice-bath to get the skins off tomatoes to make sauce. I had so many extras, they were over-the top of the pot.

So I called my neighbor to ask if she wanted the skin-less tomatoes to make something. She made the most incredible Cajun Shrimp dish and gave over half of it to us.

Barb, have you ever tried a food mill? You have to cook the tomatoes first, but I make my sauce without skinning, then just ladel it into the food mill, it lets most all of the sauce through but holds the skins back. Very fast.

[kayrobbins]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Wow what a GREAT idea. Very creative Kay. OK, now your just making me crazy!

Kaynabler Alert!

Once you start smoking you come up with all kinds of things that are even better smoked.
If you have Jalapeno peppers and let them get red, smoked they become chipotle that is so good. Let your Serrano peppers get red, smoke them and they are Chico chiles. Grind those with some coarse sea salt and you have Chico Chile Salt that you will use on everything form to meat to veggies.

I saw a recipe today for smoked flan. My family love flan and I think that would to take it to a whole new level.

[Barb_FL]

THANK YOU BOTH!!!!

I had to check what a food mill was, and I have one from back in the day when I made homemade applesauce.

--
Now I will research a much needed (haha) smoker. I assume you smoke it outside.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

THANK YOU BOTH!!!!

I had to check what a food mill was, and I have one from back in the day when I made homemade applesauce.

--
Now I will research a much needed (haha) smoker. I assume you smoke it outside.

Barb, I love it when you do research because I can depend on it being the best thing for the best price. Please post about it if you can.

[kayrobbins]

Marsha, what brand food mill do you recommend? I do need one but was not sure which one to get.

Barb, yes you do smoke outside. Lowe's has them on sale until June 6th. All of their wood chips are sale too which is nice. There are many woods to choose from but I only use hickory and apple. Hickory is for meat and things that you want a strong smoke for. Apple is for things that you want a lighter fruity smoke. My palate is not sophisticated enough to discern between all the other woods.

One of the things my friends and family have enjoyed the most is smoked salt. It can make any food taste like it has been grilled when it has not.

This is a newer version of the one I have
http://www.lowes.com/pd_673791-58355...=50373862&pl=1

After almost 2 years of using it I added this so I could do cold smoking too. Amazon had it on sale.
http://www.amazon.com/Masterbuilt-20...ilpage_o00_s00

[efisakov]

The electric smoker sounds great. Can it be used in a garage or florida room?
We do have grill/smoker that we use a lot. Smoked turkey is the best (for us). But it does not do cold smoking.
It looks like this:

[kayrobbins]

The instructions says it cannot be used indoors because of the smoke. I have mine on my back porch. I love the fact that I can select the temperature and how many hours to cook and then all I have worry about is adding wood chips.

I agree about the smoked turkey. Once you master doing that you don't want it any other way.

[Fiishergurl]

That fried cheese looks incredible and all the smoked foods make me want to go out and buy a smoker. Yummy! Loving this topic. We have a friend with a green egg and he brings over the best smoked meats.

Ginny

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

The instructions says it cannot be used indoors because of the smoke. I have mine on my back porch. I love the fact that I can select the temperature and how many hours to cook and then all I have worry about is adding wood chips.

I agree about the smoked turkey. Once you master doing that you don't want it any other way.

Thanks, kayrobbins. It looks like it needs protection from the rain.
I agree about the turkey. Since we started smoking it, we just can't eat it any other way. We never tried it deep fried. Even purchased deep fryer. Smoked looked healthier plus yammmeee...

Ginny, I wish they have a portable electric smoker. Every time we travel to Florida and catch fish that is great smoked but not fried, we have to let it go.

[kayrobbins]

It is not electric but when I was a Sam's this week I noticed that had a portable propane one that you use with the small cylinders.
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/portabl....ip?navAction=

I have had fried turkey that several different people cooked and it does not even come close to smoked.

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by efisakov

Thanks, kayrobbins. It looks like it needs protection from the rain.
I agree about the turkey. Since we started smoking it, we just can't eat it any other way. We never tried it deep fried. Even purchased deep fryer. Smoked looked healthier plus yammmeee...

Ginny, I wish they have a portable electric smoker. Every time we travel to Florida and catch fish that is great smoked but not fried, we have to let it go.

Ella, where do you stay in Florida? We have a neighbor that makes the best freah smoked red fiah on a charcoal grill. It's so delicious!

Ginny

[efisakov]

We visit my PIL, they are in North Port. We make trips to Marathon to go fishing there. Stayed in Pompano Beach few years ago and both just loved it. Our dream is to retire there, in a small little house with a tomato garden. Summers are too hot in FL. Before purchasing anything we need to visit it during the summer time again. Done that only once (4th of July maybe 15 years ago).

[Zone9b]

This season I am having my best Sweet Bell Pepper crop ever. I started off a few years ago trying to grow California Wonder in Raised Beds and they did horribly. Next someone from Deland wrote on a forum that they liked Orange Blaze. I tried those and they worked well but were relatively small peppers. Next I tried Carolina Wonder and Charleston Belle, nematode resistant varieties, for a couple of years. For me these did poorly and many plants would suddenly wilt and die. For this season I tried to find varieties that were very disease resistant and seeds were available in small enough quantities for a back yard gardener. My search resulted in Alliance, Early Summer and Touchdown. All three varieties seemed to do well, but to me it appeared that Touchdown produced the most followed by Early Summer followed by Alliance, however, this is based just on casual observation given that I didn’t count or weigh any of the peppers. Many of the peppers were quite large and thick walled.
For my peppers I never spray them with any pesticides of fungicides. I feed them occasionally with 10-10-10 garden fertilizer and routinely water them. Also, for the few plants I have pulled I have seen no evidence of nematode activity and I believe none of these varieties to be nematode resistant.
This season, I have given a lot of peppers away and still I have had more left for me than I ever had in past seasons.
Larry

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by efisakov

We visit my PIL, they are in North Port. We make trips to Marathon to go fishing there. Stayed in Pompano Beach few years ago and both just loved it. Our dream is to retire there, in a small little house with a tomato garden. Summers are too hot in FL. Before purchasing anything we need to visit it during the summer time again. Done that only once (4th of July maybe 15 years ago).

It's amazing how one adapts to warmer weather. I lived in zone 5a until I moved to Florida in my early 30s. Now I consider Gainsville too far north. Too cold up there.