Summer Salsa

I made salsa recently...28 jars to be exact!

It all started the year my garden produced too many tomatoes to eat on my own.  Reese (who LOVES tomatoes) wasn't born yet, and T refuses to eat tomatoes in their "natural" state.  He'll choke them down in soups or casseroles, but adores a good bowl of chips and salsa.  Soooo, being the awesome wife I am, I decided to use the tomatoes to make salsa.  After tweaking the recipe 3 times, I finally achieved success - a thumbs up from T - which is not something he gives freely.

So, I've made salsa every summer since.  It makes me proud to say it's made with vegetables from my own garden!

Well, it's a little early in the season to get tomatoes from my garden, so I bought 1/2 a bushel from our local produce stand and got started.

First, I peeled and crushed the tomatoes.  Boiling them for 2 minutes makes peeling them very easy, but crushing them is a little more time consuming.  I think I spent about 2 hours preparing the tomatoes.

This made 34 cups of crushed tomatoes

Add 8 bell peppers,





6 onions



17 jalapenos



32 cloves of garlic,



 a few other spices and viola!  You have salsa!!

28 lovely jars that my husband thinks will last till next year.  Me thinks he forgot how many "batches" I made last year!

 

Don't you love how I made the cooking and canning part sound like it just magically happened?  

My Mom used to make us do 2 things I despised when we were little - hang Avon books on doors in her "neighborhood" and can vegetables from the garden.  I distinctly remember making myself a promise that I would not do either of those things when I was an adult and in control of my own life.

I'm happy to report that I've kept my promise on the Avon books :) 

And, because 2 of the jalapenos came from my garden, I'm still going to say I made this salsa with veggies from my garden 'cause I'm tricky like that!