I have a dream.
I want to get a traveling camper and I want to make it so cool and ecclectic that it will no doubt be original and ours.
I don’t just want a cookie cutter camper like everyone else.
I want to get an old truck or van and then add to it and make it so fun and custom inside.
You only have to look at my banjo to know that I would love to decorate a camping truck…. or just a camper… how delightful!
It’s all the fault of those super neat, nice Tin Can Tourist folks. I want to be one of them! I want to travel around in a vintage homemade tin can of my own.
I have the perfect job for it…. I can telecommute from where ever I am. Just need a free wifi hot spot to do my actually final uploading/work and all, and I could work just about anywhere.
It wouldn’t need a whole lot… a bed, a working table/desk, maybe a comfy chair for relaxing… and a very small kitchenette. Really just a space for maybe a little microwave and a few little appliance that I can plug in. A little food storage. A little clothes and gear storage. Maybe a small porta-potty for those “I don’t want to try and get to the campground facilities in the middle of the night situations”.
I don’t want it to go in the wilds of nowhere… I want it to go to campgrounds and bluegrass festivals and like the KOA with the kids or such. Maybe park in a random Walmart here and there while touring about and enjoying life.
Yeah…. some day. I am hoping that maybe next summer… if we save… we might be able to find an old starter van camper to experiment on. Yeah….
I’ve seen old campers as cheap at $2,000. Sometimes even $1500! Of course, might need some engine work and all that. We might start with a little trailer that the van can haul. Never know. The right little tin can will come along for us. We don’t want anything super big or complex… just enough to let us have a nice spot to sleep off the ground, and store a little gear, and relax in when it’s raining, that kind of thing. A rack to hold our lawnchairs and bikes. Sounds like a hoot! Can’t wait to see what comes our way.
Pin ItOkay, before you think we’re off our bonkers…. yes, we tried to make ketchup. After all, everyone likes ketchup, right? And we have made salsa already with all our tomatoes…. and I was thinking of trying to make like stewed tomatoes, since we eat a lot of them, but well, we kept coming back to ketchup!
So here goes…
Get a whole bunch of tomatoes. We happened to have a TON of grape and cherry tomatoes, so I used them. And of course about 5 or 6 big ones too!
Give them a spin in the food processor, or chop the heck out of them. You want them pretty finely chopped up. Does seem to help.
Chop up some green pepper too… and some red peppers, and whatever you’d like to add. Onions, definately and some garlic too! You almost can’t go wrong… just remember to add MOSTLY tomotoes to the mix.
Again, the finer the better. You ultimately want to puree all this down after cooking it and you might as well start out pretty small. We sure are having fun with our food processor. It’s old, but it works great.
And here’s the best part! Once you get it all chopped and all, add all the tomatoes to your crockpot. Add the mixins…. onion, pepper and garlic. Just till it’s about to the top of your crock pot. This is one of those recipies that you can really eye-ball. Honest! And you can craft and adjust and make all sorts of good ways!
Okay… make sure you’re not overflowing your crockpot because you need to add the following…
1/2 cup of cider vinegar
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of brown sugar
3-4 teaspoons of coarse salt. (you could use regular if you want)
Stir that in nice and gentle like. Yummmm….
And now, you make a little spice lump. Get a square of cheesecloth, and the following spices.
2 teaspoons of allspice
1 1/2 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of dry mustard
1 teaspoon of cloves
1 teaspoon of celery seed
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
and 1 teaspoon of pepper blend
Put these all in the middle of your cheesecloth and then gather up and tie into a little ball. I’m not sure that I would use a rubber band or anything because it gets pretty hot in there.
Then just throw that little puppy in the pot, turn it on high, add the cover and let it cook for oh, about 12-15 hours.
It’s SO easy! I stirred it a time or two and when it would collect a thin liquid on the top, I would use a big spoon and drain off a little here and there, but you don’t have to. Ultimately it will cook down to about half of it’s content.
It will end up looking like a real thick tomato paste… let it cool, a couple hours… and taste it. If you need a little more salt, or a little more heat or a little more sweet to your tastes… add those things. Ours we liked just a little more salty than the recipe called for. I added about a teaspoon more to the mix. And a little more brown sugar… couple tablespoons. Take out the little spice bag and pitch it…. you could compost it I suppose.
Once it’s cool, whip the heck out of it in a food processor or like we did… our blender. It will get all nice and creamy and smooth pretty quick. And pour into a waiting jar.
Now you can always can it, and just follow the directions of most canning… you know, sterillized jars and lids and hot water bath and timing and all that. But we just wanted to eat the stuff, and since it made just two quarts, I just popped it in the frig. It’s almost gone!
We used it on french fries and hot dogs and we also used it in our stuffed green peppers recipe! Meatloaf would probably be divine! Anything that needs some good old ketchup will work nice.
It’s not as well, store bought-tasting as you will expect. It’s richer, fancier. Almost like a marinara sauce, really. It’s super good. I imagine you can play with it and get a super good recipe that your family will just be amazed over, pretty easily. And I wonder if you could just put all the spices in and letter’ go. Maybe not the cloves. You might want to powder them down, or well, take it out. I thought the spices could be added, why not. I think we’ll try it again, with a little modification! Aside from the chopping, it was super easy in a crockpot and it made the house smell OH so good for OH so long!
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