Stewed Tomatoes

I had a ton of ripe tomatoes from my garden that I needed to do something with, so I decided against canning, but rather to stew them. I'd never stewed tomatoes before--it was really easy and I'll do it again, I'm sure. I didn't follow a recipe, just common sense.

First, you boil some water then drop in a few tomatoes at a time. Leave in until the skin bursts (I scored the "belly button" first), remove with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl filled with cold water until they are cool enough to peel.

Meanwhile, in a large pot, saute some bell peppers & onion in butter until soft. Hand crush the peeled tomatoes into the pot, add some salt, pepper, a little bit of sugar, some basil, & a few bay leaves. Bring to a boil; simmer for about 2 hours, covered. Remove bay leaves, let tomatoes cool, then transfer to quart size freezer ZipLocks and store in freezer until needed for your next recipe that calls for stewed tomatoes.