SALSA!!! From my garden veggies. Oh my. We all love salsa, and homemade is the absolute best! This is what I did:
Bought some supplies. If you haven't seen the new Ball Freezer Jars, you better run right to Wal-Mart (or just click here) and grab some. They are the bomb-diggity! So is the canning kit that I snagged for a mere $6.97! It had that awesome jar grabber thingy, a plastic funnel, a magnetic wand for grabbing those pesky jar flats and lids, and another little gizmo that checks for headspace and releases bubbles in the jar. Steal of a deal, I'd say!
Laid out said supplies. They took up three counter tops, so this is just a peek at the organized mess!
Prepared the jars and lids in boiling water.
Blanched 22 small to medium sized tomatoes so that they would be easy to peel. The skins pop in the boiling water, then they peel right away...no knife necessary! I love the bright color that they turn after blanching too...
While the tomatoes were blanching, Boo was chopping up the other goodies...2 small onions, 4 jalepeno peppers (also from my garden), and a lime. Well, the lime wasn't chopped, but it was hand-juiced.
After peeling and coring the blanched tomatoes, I added them to the onion, pepper, and lime juice in the blender. I spiced it up with half a package of salsa mix, 2 tsp cilantro, 4 Tbsp chopped garlic, and a quarter cup of sugar. It was too much for one blender, so we did it in two batches.
The salsa could be considered finished at this point, if you just wanted to put it in a container in the fridge or freezer...but I wanted to can it, so it needed to be boiled together for a minute or so. It looked nasty like tomato soup after boiling!
Finally, the fun part...ladling into jars and processing in a boiling water bath. I had no idea how much salsa I would have, so I prepared all of my jars. Only half were needed, but hey, that's 5 pints of homemade, homegrown salsa!!! Can't beat it and it is beautiful in the jars!!!
Last step...MAKE LABELS! I adore my label maker. It is very handy in the kitchen, and I am thinking I could use one at school.
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Thank you for taking the time to read my stuff and nonsense. I love to hear from you, so please don't go without leaving something for me to read!
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Thank you for taking the time to read my stuff and nonsense. I love to hear from you, so please don't go without leaving something for me to read!