Smoky Perfection...

Smoky Paprika Tomato Jam

Tomato season is nearly over, but my favorite produce stand still had some beefsteak tomatoes, so I purchased ten pounds over the weekend. I also had more than a few from our garden on the counter, so some of them were added to this recipe. I reserved a few for salads and sandwiches. (I love cheese and tomato sandwiches on fresh bread with Duke's mayonnaise. Summer in a "sammy".)

In all, I made three double batches (four pounds at a time) of this delicious, smoky, spicy, slightly hot tomato jam, which we use as a condiment instead of ketchup, or as a barbeque sauce. It's perfect either way. We ended up with seven pint jars to add to our pantry stock.

I still have the frozen Roma tomatoes downstairs, but those will be thawed and used for homemade Rotel™ in the near future. I'll be doing hickory syrup first before the weekend.

I'm only working one extra afternoon shift (in addition to my usual Tuesday and Friday evening), so I'll have time to do the things around home that I want to accomplish. There'll be canning, cleaning up the garden beds, working on my bluebird project, and another early Craft Saturday this weekend. It will definitely be a fun week, and I think this makes for a great start.