Muy Delicioso Salsa!

WARNING!! This post contains MANY photos of very delicious looking salsa.

You have been warned.

(It tastes good too)

The chip

Okay, I have NEVER made salsa before, but I had a bushel of tomatoes just crying out to be "salsafied"

My boys, all 5 of them, love chips and salsa and we eat quite a bit of it. So, it makes sense to can it for MUCH less than buying the store bought kind.

It's healthier, cheaper, and yummier.

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and proceeded from there.

It's called Ninety Nine Salsa.

You need tomatoes, lots of tomatoes. 20-25 pounds if you want to make two big potfuls which equal about 18 pints.

You need onions, bell peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, and some kind of chili or jalapeno peppers.

This is a good time to raid your garden, or if you are like me and your garden hasn't given you any tomatoes yet, then go raid your local produce stand.

Well, pay for it, don't steal.

I got my bushel of tomatoes for $3.50! 6 onions for $1 and 8 smallish bell peppers for $2. So, for $11.50 not including the hot peppers, I made myself a lot of salsa.

So, at this point we have boiled our tomatoes for 1 minute or so to loosen the skin.

Then we SKIN THEM ALIVE! Okay, not alive.

I save the left over juice and pour that into the pot too. No waste!

Now, you could opt to dunk them in ice water, but if you are on your own, like me (sob!)

I just allow the tomatoes to cool before peeling.

Those poor naked tomatoes...

Place them in a blender or food processor.

I pulse it fine, but you could leave it lumpier if that's what you like. The recipe stated that you should squeeze out the seeds and pulp and cut up the flesh. Then cook down the seeds and pulp and add the cut up tomatoes later on. Well, I pureed the whole "shabang" (is that how you spell it?) I like it mexican restaurant style and if you could it down long enough it really thickens up quite nicely.

Oh, and add a can of tomato paste. I only had a small one and split it between the two pots.

See how it boils up? Leave the lid off and just cook on low for 45 min to an hour.

It's starting to thicken up.

Now, keep an eye on it. Don't leave the room and go downstairs and run a load of laundry or....

this might happen!

Oops!

I can never keep this cooktop clean.

Now it's time to chop the garlic and hot peppers.

The amount of each you use is entirely up to you. That's the nice thing about this salsa, you can make it to suit your tastes.

Wash your peppers.

Clean and de-seed them (don't think that's a word)

Chop them up. You could also put them in the food processor.

I think this picture is a cup of the tomato mixture, garlic cloves and the hot peppers.

I think.

It looks like I dumped that weird mixture into the tomatoes. That must be it then!

I also added the chopped peppers.

Aren't they pretty all lined up?

Put the onions in the processor.

Put the onions in the pot. Add pepper and salt.

See how it's thickening up nicely? I also added some cans of chopped chili peppers.

Boy, it's really smelling like salsa now!

Doesn't it look good?

I sterilized the jars and filled em' up!

I know, I take too many pictures off these jars...

It's so satisfying. Soon I'll take a picture of my pantry full of jars.

This is the most I've ever canned in a summer.

It's addicting.

Then again, those boys are hungry ALL the time!

I like to can it so it doesn't use up my freezer space.


This was a great experience. I was very pleased with the result, as were my boys.

I will definately make this again next summer. I'm sure I'll be upset with myself during the winter for not having made enough to last till next summer!

I recently made marinara, bruschetta and slow roasted tomatoes too.

I'll post the slow roasted tomatoes soon.

Enjoy!