Salsa...and not the Dacing Type...thank heavens

21 ....make that 20 bottles of restaurant style salsa sitting on my table...#1 decided he needed nachos...
the bottles are slowly making the little pop of a sealed lid sound, it secretly makes me giddy..because

we have been out of salsa for the last two months...well...if you don't count the jalapeno salsa....but there is only one in our household that can eat it...the rest of us always regret it the next day........"ooooouuuuyyyyyyyy mama"

and because i feel like i did something wonderful and brilliant and life altering by making my own salsa that is pure and good and free of preservatives and corn syrup....

pop!

i will share the recipe below that i adapted from The Pioneer Woman, man... want to be her friend...or maid...or something!!!

we have tried a variety of recipes..and we love them all, my kids drink salsa.....but this time around I wanted to mix it up.....this recipe does just that! and although it seriously took me all day to get it done...because I used fresh tomatoes...it was so worth it...just don't ask my baby back...

...and my baby back better suck it up cuz we still have green chilies to bottle, more bread and butter pickles because we are almost out..already!  freeze green  and red peppers, bottle umpteen million tomatoes.....(if we can get enough at the Day Farm), pickled beets, green beans, pickled eggs...boy, am I missing those! SERIOUSLY!  don't knock em till you tried em!  and I want to try a green tomato salsa....if I had my own garden with enough tomatoes i would probably try ketchup....maybe in the future! oh yea...and sauerkraut...love me some sauerkraut.....

but until then, chow....away!



ReNee's Restaurant Style Salsa adapted from PW

270 ounces of pureed tomatoes (I used my blender)...and this was just under 3/4 of a bushel of tomatoes
2 onions
14 Big Jims
7 jalapenos...seeds and all
8 tablespoons minced garlic
4 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons cumin
4 cups cilantro
4 tablespoons lime juice

I gave the tomatoes a water bath to skinned them,diced them and separated the seeds and as much as the juice as possible, then pureed them, along with the onions, peppers and cilantro, add all together in a good and heavy pot (tomatoes scorch easily if not watched!) along with the spices and simmer on the stove to a boiling point....

I ended up leaving my salsa on the stove on the lowest setting possible as I went to my #1's football game and then until I got the mctwins some dinner and nursed a wee one...and probably peed in there somewhere.....

I then bottled and processed for 35 minutes in a water bath.  Since there is no vinegar (you must read PW's post on this...hil-ar-i-ous!) i processed as I would regular tomatoes to be on the safe side!!  I ended up with 21 pint bottles..with one being opened immediately and one given to my sweet friend who saved my with chocolate zucchini cookies....those were good... ate them all myself and was a little put off when the kids thought they should have one....

love yer salsa guzzlin' guts!


b

I say tomato, you say Tamoto

TWO posts in one day...but oh my goodness......I just had to share this recipe...this recipe that made my mouth water.....made my kids eat their whole bowl full...and ask for more...and then ask that I make it tomorrow after the jv football game...the itty bitty mctwins ate it...and then licked the bowls...and then their fingers.....too bad I didn't have a camera handy.....but I was giving them more and more and more.....and more....

Can you guess what it is?  Are you curious??  are you salivating?

You will be...............Tomato Miso Soup from Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist......

So good...I would make more right now...if it wasn't 10:30 at night....I will probably be making some more tomorrow......

Tomato Miso Soup 

makes about 5 cups

Ingredients

12 oz strained tomatoes
3 TBL Miso paste
2 1/2 cups filtered water
1/2 large spanish or white organic onion, chopped
1 TBL expeller pressed coconut oil I will blog more about this later......I am no longer using any kind of vegetable oil or hydrogenated oil!)
1 TBL  butter 
1 large or 2 medium sized organic garlic cloves, minced
pepper to taste


Instructions


Put 2 cups of filtered water, coconut oil and strained tomatoes in a 3-4 quart pot.   Bring to just below a boil.    Mix miso paste with remaining 1/2 cup of water in a small bowl until smooth.    Pour water and miso paste mixture into the pot and stir into water/tomato mixture.

In a small frypan, gently melt butter and lightly saute chopped onion until slightly carmelized.   Add cooked onions and garlic to miso/tomato/water mixture.    Cook just below a boil for about  5-10 minutes to blend the flavors.    Remove from heat and blend with a handheld blender right in the pot.   Pepper to taste.

Serve in bowls with a dollop of cultured cream or fresh cream that has naturally soured in the refrigerator.  I used my vitamix...worked perfectly well as it warmed it back up after I had left it on the stove and ran to soccer games.....and a little side note.....

please use natural sour cream...if you don't have your own cow......it doesn't have any additives...just good ole cream...that is soured.....

and even better if you can make it from your own tomatoes that you have loving canned with your own hands.....they will taste so much better!  Have less salts and BPA's then other canned goods.  However, eating canned tomatoes are probably better then many of the so called fresh tomatoes that they sell in the produce department because often they are picked green and lack nutrition.  I canned many a tomato this year in the forms of salsas and whole tomatoes....but I am afraid I don't have the space or a garden of my own to produce enough....thankfully we have Day Farms just a town over, that made it easy and cheap to buy our own.

I heart tomatoes...honestly...if I had to choose a fruit (a tomato is not a vegetable!!) to eat every day at every meal it would be a tomato!!  They fight cancer!!! (Lycopene is the key word here!)  But please don't forget to eat your other veggies.

love yer guts,

from me, pleasantly plump like a tomato...but not for long!