The truth about water

OK, short diversion with info. just so you know the back story.

I teach the Truth and Training section of the Awana program at our church.  What you really need to know about this is that I have a room of kids that range from the third grade to the sixth grade.  So, kids that are roughly 8-12 years old.

We have a portion where we play games in the gym (read that as we burn off energy so they can then sit still and study for a while....lol) and as we are leaving gym I always remind them that THIS is your time to get a drink and go to the restroom, so take advantage of it because I know you just played hard and need it.

Last night another lady brought snacks for the kids and she brought in a big pitcher of ice water for them to  drink.

One boy asked me if he could go get a drink at the water fountain.

One, you had the chance to do that earlier and, two, you're about to get some water in 5 minutes with snack.

He told me he didn't like "THAT" water, he only likes water from water fountains because it's filtered and tastes better.

I told him that, no, it's not.  It's cooled, if needed, but otherwise it's the same water that comes out of the faucet in the kitchen.

He really didn't believe me.

I asked the rest of the kids and only a few stated it was 'regular' water.

FIELD TRIP!  (OK, really, we just went back to the gym, but work with me here.)
Stopped at the supply closet and grabbed a small tool box and then we went to the water fountains.

Ours are very similar to these, but older in styling.
http://www.drinkingfountaindoctor.com/elkay-ezstl8c-water-cooler-refrigerated-drinking-fountain

So, I showed them all where the water line for the fountain goes to the wall and attaches to the same water supply that the rest of the water goes through.  Then we popped off the side of the fountain and showed them the cooling parts.  I asked them to find the filter.

Right, can't find what's not there.

We put the side back on and went back to our room and talked about it some more, about how we often think things are true because we've heard it somewhere, but just a bit of investigating can help you find out for sure.  Great group of kids and I'm glad it came up.

That boy?  The one who doesn't like "THAT" water?  He drank two glasses with a big ole smile on his face!

Ketchup!

OK, this time I didn't forget about the seeds!  Yay!

Private #2 really wanted us to make ketchup, so ketchup it is.  Here are some photos I took during the process.

We did a small batch, so we needed six pounds of tomatoes from our garden.

You have to get the skins off and the seeds and cores out.  You get a pot of water boiling and put the tomatoes in it. 

After a bit of time, the skin will split open.  Sometimes (on the smaller tomatoes, usually) the skin doesn't split.  That's fine, just leave them in there for roughly a minute or so then take them out and put them in a colander or a bowl to cool off.  Save this pot of water.  Some of the nutrients from the tomatoes will be in the water and your houseplants (or any other plants) will love it after it's cooled to room temperature.

After that I peeled them.  The skin comes off VERY easily (like pull it with your fingers easy) after having been in the boiling hot water.  I then cored them and tried to get all of the seeds out.  I admit I did not get every single seed.  The kids won't die, they like tomatoes, they probably won't notice.  I probably got 98% of them, close enough for me.  I ran the tomato pieces in the blender on the liquefy setting just to make sure there were no tomato piece blobs.

Then it goes in a pot to thicken.

I'm sure you won't be surprised at all to know that I got busy and forgot to take a picture where I added the spices, vinegar and sugar.  It looked like the above picture only a bit darker and thicker.  Sorry!

After it was done cooking I processed it in a water bath for 40 minutes.  

Ketchup!

The kids all tried it and deemed it yummy.  The recipe said you'd get five pints of ketchup but, as you can see, I ended up with 2 pints, 2 full jelly jars and (in the refrigerator) a 1/2 full jelly jar full of ketchup.  

Now I can no longer say I've never made ketchup!