salsa

Instead of shopping on the first day of school I went to Mom's and we canned salsa. She's growing amazing tomatoes this year and is nearly buried in them. My great aunt Lois was the original salsa maker in the family, only she pronounced it sel-sa. There's something magical about canning. I love all the chopping and measuring and stirring and laughing. It's always hot when we can things, but that's because you have to do it when the produce is ripe. Fortunately, Mom has air conditioning, so that makes it easier. Then there's the sterilizing, dipping into jars, sealing, and steaming. And at the end of the morning, we admire the beautiful filled jars. I took this photo of Mom after we finished canning just the first batch. The second batch was processing in the steamers. We change up our recipe a bit each time and write it down to help us with the next one. Here's how we made it this year:

Shyron & Tami's 2009 Salsa

14 C. chopped tomatoes
4 chopped onions
3 C. chopped roasted red peppers
1 1/2 C. diced ortega chiles
4 T. cider vinegar
2 1/2 T. sugar
4 t. salt
2 t. chopped garlic
2 chopped large yellow banana peppers
1 large and 1 medium chopped jalapeno peppers
1 t. black pepper
1 t. ground dried jalapeno pepper

We use the food processor for all the chopping. It's ok to use canned chiles, peppers, or tomatoes if needed. Cook in a huge soup pot on the stove and boil for 10 minutes. Put into jars and process in hot water bath for 25 minutes. Makes 12-13 pints of salsa.