Salsa!

Break out the tomatoes and peppers, Andrea and I made Salsa!! Dave and I grew two tomato plants in the backyard (Early Girl-Gavin's favorite and some other variety) and I probably had between 60-75 tomatoes. We started out with a recipe from my BHG cookbook but it soon came to be our very own. We chopped and diced and cooked and don't forget the rubber gloves when you're cutting up the jalapenos, Andrea's eyes and throat were a lot stronger than mine. After cutting 2 Jalapenos I was tearing up bad but it didn't seem to bother Andrea-go girl. So here's our original recipe, some pics and other happenings during the salsa making. Eventful.

Thanks Andrea, making salsa was a lot of fun lets do it again next year!

YUMMY CHUNKY SALSA
12 cups coarsely chopped tomatoes
2 cups yellow onions chopped
10 Anaheim chili peppers seeded and chopped
2 green bell peppers seeded and chopped
3-4 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped *with rubber gloves on*
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cilantro, divided
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1. Blanch, core, peel, seed, and coarsely chop tomatoes. Place tomatoes in large colander. Let drain.

2.Place drained tomatoes in an stock pot. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer while adding onions, chili peppers, bell peppers, 1/4 cup cilantro, garlic, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper. Andrea and I would get onions chopped and add them, chilies and peppers chopped and add, etc (we did not add all the ingredients at once). At when it had simmered for approximately 2 hours we tasted it and decided it needed more salt, sugar, and another 1/4 cup cilantro the values given were approximately what we added total.

Here is what the kids were up to when the salsa was being made!