Classic H of H: Summer Tomatoes in the Middle of Winter

My tomatoes were pathetic this year. The day before we left on our vacation, I was annoyed that I might have to go another year without fresh tomatoe sauce, etc. from the summer put up in the freezer for the winter. I stopped by a farm stand "just to see." They had flats of tomatoes looking red and delicious and, well, I bought a flat! I knew I did NOT have time to turn them into sauce and salsa and all, so I checked online and learned that I could freeze them as they were! I quickly washed them, cored them and removed any bad spots. Then I cozied them all up on baking sheets, covered them up snugly...and just stuck them in the freezer!

From what I read, I should be able to take them out and process them into whatever saucy thing I want, as I want it. I'll report back on that later when I find out if they were telling the truth!

Trixie at Farm Home Life sent out a lament into cyberspace--the desire for a summer tomato. My voice joins hers. There is NOTHING like a summer tomato, especially warm from the sun as you pick it off the vine.

In the past, I've had a fairly satisfactory solution:

Many summers I have taken those lovely tomatoes and turned them into something I call "Raw Tomato Soup." I didn't want to process the tomatoes because the flavor, though delicious, would not be that from-the-vine flavor.

What I did was actually pretty simple (read lazy). I washed the tomatoes, cutting out any bad spots. Then I dipped them quickly into boiling water and peeled off the skin.

Next (now pay attention), I blended them with my food processor But. Not. Too. Much. I didn't want puree or even sauce. I wanted small chunks with lots of liquid.

Ready for the final step? I poured the tomatoes into glass jars and FROZE them!

In the middle of winter, I thawed a jar (hint: use wide-mouth jars in case you don't get around to thawing them in time for your meal so the partially thawed mixture slides out), dumped it into a pot to heat up, added a little salt and pepper and had the closest thing that I could get to those summer tomatoes.

You do what you have to when it comes to something this important!