Tomato Powder. Huh?

Maggie and Nate planted our little garden this spring -- they are much better gardeners than we are.  

They garden, I can.

They have tomatoes like crazy, and on Monday, I put up 10 quarts of juice, using my cool new Norpro Sauce Master strainer: 

which you can purchase here at Amazon, or at the Ace Hardware if you live in my town!

(I really need to monetize my blog, don't I?  I just made a commercial.)

Anyway, you get this fantastic juice after you put the tomatoes through the strainer, and you get a mess of seeds and skins, which would be perfect for the compost.

But I had read on other blogs about dehydrating the skins and re-using them.  So that's what I did.

I don't have a dehydrator, so I just spread the refuse out on a  Silpat and put the cookie sheet in a low oven for many hours (probably around 6) with the door held ajar with a kitchen towel until the mess seemed nice and dry.  (It was suggested to dry them at 140 degrees -- my oven only goes down to 170, but it seemed to work just fine.)

Then I put the dry bits into the Cuisinart and pulverized the crap out of them:

I tossed this stuff around in a sieve, separating the powder from the seeds, which were really bitter.  (Are tomato seeds always bitter, or is that a result of the cooking and drying process?  Do we just not notice because the tomato is so delicious?  Further research warranted ...)

Then I processed the mix once more, sieved again, and got this:

Tomato powder.
It is really delicious and extra tomato-y, and I am looking forward to trying it out this winter.
How?
I don't know, but I am open to suggestions ...

Peace.