Alma Licking Good

My dear friend Andrea frequently waxes rhapsodic about licking chocolate and whipped cream off her tall glass of water Tim (TMI you say- not really because it is about Andrea and not me- uhm sorry Andrea but I don't think I said anything you wouldn't or haven't on your own blog). And frankly- ick I do not get all the licking food stuffs off others- really icky- right up there with foot massages. That was until Becky asked me to make her homemade ketchup during her low iodine diet. I would bath in homemade ketchup, I would marry it, I would not only lick it off Alma but I would lick it off of a strange unbathed homeless man- maybe even off his feet. Okay nothing is that good. If you want the recipe ask Becky I forgot to bring it home. I found a couple of others online but they were a little different. Most of them called for canned stewed tomatoes but I did Becky's with fresh because of her iodine problems. Here is some pics of the process (I kept forgetting to take pics of some steps- So I already fail my first attempted tutorial). Our mother mocked me all day for taking pictures of ketchup for my "little blog thing". No surprise she doesn't even read to see pics of the grand kids. But I digress. I did change the recipe and used balsamic vinegar instead of cider (because Becky didn't have any cider vinegar in her house- but liked it so much I will continue to do it this way I think). Gourmet magazine had an article about the perfect hot dog with all the condiments made from scratch- and I think I liked my recipe better- fresher simpler more pure. I know I know you are saying what kind a lunatic makes homemade ketchup- but try it- it is so divine and far and above the insipid store version- you will be a convert. I will never really be able to get behind the whole make your own bread insanity but I am totally on board for the make your own ketchup insanity.

Here are the tomatoes- boiling for a couple of minutes before I peel them.

Why blogger Why???? is it so difficult to keep things oriented correctly?

Chopped tomatoes, seasoning set to simmer of 3-4 hours.

Here it is after it was blended and refrigerated for a couple of hours- it said to refrigerate over night but a few hours was plenty. I can not use the words needed to let you know how truly divine this was.