I have two freezers, the one in my fridge and a second half-size freezer unit. I freeze a lot of stuff. This came in very handy when I had a massive garden, but now can be a hazard because I moved to a place where I regularly have to evacuate for hurricanes! We have instituted a new annual pot luck, the Hurricane Season Freezer Clean-Out party, happening in early July every year to help us and our friends remember to stop buying stuff and start eating it down!
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I enjoyed reading the serious eats take on this. I store my tomatoes on the counter without regards to them being store bought or home grown. I have often had a thought that that advice is not always correct but have not bothered to put it to test mostly because in the off season we usually manage to eat all that we buy and during the harvest season I have so many that I don’t care if they go bad. But sometimes I do have too many store bought and realized it was stupid to think that me putting them in the frig matters since obviously they had already been kept in refrigeration long before they got to me. I think the same could be said about potatoes. I suspect that most stores are storing them in refrigeration before they put them out in the “not refrigerated” sections of the stores which in themselves are fairly cold. By the time they hit my house most damage has been done. I might as well refrigerate them so they last longer. That being said, I will probably continue to do what I do because it is so ingrained in my brain.
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Thanks all for your comments and thoughts and especially the interesting links.
End of story:
My wife made it a moot point. She said, “I’d love to have tomato soup tonight and my mom’s free and can come over, too. Just buy more next week, it won’t break the bank”.
The only one who missed out is D2 who’s home currently (between graduation and job next month) but who was out with a college girlfriend for dinner. She’s going to have the leftover bit for lunch today.
So anyway, I’ll just get more next week regardless of BOGO status.
It was very good. This time I made 1.5x my usual and used a pound each of Campari, Roma, and beefsteak. Here below is the basic recipe. I’ve stolen elements from a bunch of recipes over the ~ 10 years or so I’ve been making it. The write-up below is kind of over-explained because I first did it for some women my wife works with, who’d tasted it and wanted the recipe, but a couple of them said they were inexperienced cooks.
ROASTED TOMATO SOUP - Makes about 6 servings (~ 1 cup ea). Recipe doubles easily.
- 2 pounds mixed tomatoes (e.g., Roma, Beefsteak, On-Vine, Heritage, Campari)
- 2 med. white or sweet onions (200 - 300 g. trimmed)
- 6 to 8 largish peeled garlic cloves (about 18-24 g. total)
- 2 Tbs olive oil (for drizzling)
- Salt, pepper (see below)
- 2 large bay leaves (or more if smallish)
- 2 Tbs tomato paste
- 2 - 3 Cups chicken (or veggie) broth (I use 2 but use 3 if you want it thinner)
- 3 Tbs butter or non-dairy sub
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 – 1 Cup heavy cream or full fat coconut milk (desired creaminess – I use 1 Cup)
- 2 Tbs fresh basil lightly chopped, or 1.5 tsp dry is fine.
- 2 Tbs fresh parsley leaves chopped if you have it, but no one will miss it if you don’t.
- Optional – 1 Tbs brown sugar.
- Optional – 1-3 tsp red wine vinegar.
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Heat oven to 400°F and line a large sheet pan with parchment paper.
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Core as necessary and quarter tomatoes lengthwise, quarter onions. Spread tomato and onion wedges skin-down on sheet pan and drop on garlic cloves wherever. Drizzle with 2 Tbs olive oil and sprinkle with 3-4 big pinches kosher salt (maybe a scant 3 grams by my pinch). Give the sheet pan 10 or 15 grinds of pepper (~1/4 tsp) and roast for 40 minutes (check at 30, esp. if your oven runs hot). You want a good amount of caramelization on the edges/tips but not super scorched.
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Dump into a soup pot all the sheet pan contents and juices (see Note about seeds), bay leaves, tomato paste, broth, butter and paprika, and bring to a boil. If I’m using dried basil I’ll usually add now instead of in (4). Turn down to low simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes to reduce the liquid by about 20% and everything’s really soft.
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After simmering, remove bay leaves and blend soup (carefully, batches if needed – or use stick blender). Return to pot and mix in basil, parsley(if), and cream elements, and return to bare simmer. Taste and decide on brown sugar, additional salt (go slow, but I usually add another 1/2-1 teaspoon) and more pepper, if desired. If your tomatoes were super sweet, you may want to add some acid (1-3 tsp vinegar), but I’ve never needed it. Ready to go.
Serving suggestions: Sour cream in a Ziploc baggie with a small corner cut off, to squirt sour cream designs onto the top of the soup bowls. Finely shredded parmesan cheese scattered atop is also nice. Serve with your favorite toasted cheese sandwiches, or a garlic cheese baguette.
Note about seeds: Newer high speed blenders may break them down, but older blenders and stick blenders probably won’t. I like the seeds, but people used to commercial prep soups may not. You can remove most by scooping the “jelly” out and sieving either after cutting the tomatoes or after roasting – the latter is easier but you have to let it to cool a bit.
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Actually I’m never sure what’s going on with this grocery chain’s bogos, and for fruits it seems to be completely disconnected to seasonality. Sometimes they’ll run blackberries 3 weeks in a row, then raspberries and blueberries for a couple of weeks. Off and on for blood oranges bogo, some apple varieties, etc.
I think they’re just doing it to get me addicted to the higher priced stuff. 
OTOH, for a lot of the stuff we eat I’m pretty much brand insensitive and am happy that they’ve always got something, it seems, that I can load up on bogo. I don’t care if the pre-sliced cheese is Sargento, Tillamook, KerryGold, or CrackerBarrel. Ditto generally for brick cheese brands. Fine with kielbasa made by either Eckrich or Hillsire Farms. Don’t care if the pre-made pasta sauce is Bertolli, Mid’s or Rao’s (well… the kids do prefer the latter 2 but I won’t pass up bogo Bertolli). My son likes any of 8 O’Clock, Gevalia, Peets, LaVazza, Community, and New England coffees - and any given week at least one, sometimes two will be bogo. I don’t think I’ve bought a box of cereal that wasn’t bogo in 20 years (although today, the bogo price for cereal is the full price from 20 months ago…). Any given week some bread from Pepperidge Farm, Nature’s Own, Sara Lee or Arnold will be bogo and we’re pretty indifferent to brand, and like variety.
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