Tomatoes! (and Gadgetry)

I went to the garden when I got off work, thinking that there might be enough ripe tomatoes on the vines to make a batch of spaghetti sauce, and was delighted to find that there were LOTS of ripe tomatoes - two plastic grocery bags near-to-bust full.  I brought them home, washed them, and fed them to my new kitchen gadget.

It's a "Sauce Master" sauce strainer.  Clamps to the table, cranks like a meat grinder.  It comes with one strainer attachment, its mesh small enough to hold back a tomato seed.  You set a funnel bowl on top of it, drop quartered tomatoes into the funnel (belly buttons and all), and commence cranking.  It has a plastic auger inside that smushes the tomatoes against the mesh.  You don't even have to peel the tomatoes; the juice and pulp run out one spout, and the seeds, skin, and cores run out another.

I also bought a salsa attachment that has bigger holes, like a round box grater instead of a mesh.  With this attachment, you get juice, pulp, and little bits of tomato.  The seeds - and sometimes even little bits of skin - will come through the holes of this attachment (I don't care).  When I finished squeezing all of the tomatoes with the salsa attachment, I changed back to the original strainer, squeezed the skins again, and got more pulp and juice.  This is a good gizmo.  It drastically cut down on the tomato prep time.

There are now three pans of tomatoes simmering on my stove, altogether about 12 quarts of raw tomatoes and juice.  I've added garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the tomatoes and will cook them down until they've made a nice, thick sauce.