Homemade Salsa From the Garden's Bounty

Hello, Friends! Today I am linking up with Jen over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam for Tasty Tuesday. Over the summer, I joined a produce co-op. There is a pickup location close to my house and some ladies in our homeschool group urged me to try it out. We love it. I haven't really been purchasing produce at the store unless it is a major steal. I encourage you to check out the website and find out if there is a location near you.
http://www.yourneighborhoodproduce.com/

Anyway, through this co-op and friends and neighbors who have gardens, we have been inundated with fresh tomatoes, green and red bell peppers, Anaheim chili peppers, red onion and all sorts of yummy veg that I had no idea how I should use it. My kids won't eat these veggies raw (in a salad) but will eat them cooked in a recipe. I had so many peppers especially that I started thinking Latin inspired recipes. So I said to myself, "Who says that salsa has to be mostly tomato?" So here is the "baby" if you will of this brain storming session. Jeremy called it "The Best Salsa Recipe Ever". I love 8 year olds. They are so enthusiastic about everything.

I chopped the following ingredients and put them into a large pot:
3 medium tomatoes (hard cores removed)
2 large green bell peppers (seeded)
2 large red bell peppers (seeded)
1 cup chopped red onion
2 large red Anaheim chili peppers (seeded)
2 medium yellowish-green Anaheim chili peppers (seeded)
4 cloves minced garlic

Isn't it so colorful and pretty?

Then, I added 1 and 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 and 1/2 cups of white wine vinegar (it was what I had but you could certainly use cider vinegar or red wine vinegar). I brought it up to a boil and then reduced the heat to simmer for 20 minutes.

I stirred it occasionally.

When my 20 minutes was up, I transferred it in batches to my very faithful blender who burned up just this week. I was trying to mix the oil back into the almond butter to make it spreadable and she slowed down and smoke started billowing from her motor. She lasted from April of 1997 to September of 2009. She was a wonderful kitchen helper and I certainly used her lots. Let's have a moment of silence for my dearly departed blender. I have my eye on the new 700 watt stainless steel model and my birthday is 2 weeks away. But, back to the recipe. You can certainly leave it chunky or any varying stages from chunky to completely pureed. I completely pureed mine as that is how I like it.

I then poured the very hot salsa into clean jars and tightened as tight as I could. I let them sit on the counter until they were room temperature. I checked the pop-up buttons on the lids and pushed them in as the salsa cooled. They sealed themselves. I then put them into the refrigerator to keep even though they were sealed. In fact, I brought a jar over to my neighbor's house and we couldn't get it opened. I am the one in my house who can usually open anything and it took me about 5 straight minutes of struggling with one of those rubber jar opener things to get it opened. The button popped really loud!!

This recipe made 3 jars and some leftover which we ate the next day at a cookout with my parents. My 6 foot 6 inch little brother (the professional chef) said he liked it but he would add more heat. If you want heat, you could certainly add/substitute jalapenos or any hot pepper and leave some of the seeds in the mix. I made it mild for the kids' sake. You could also can this recipe properly using a water bath and everything but like I said, the jars self-sealed so I didn't bother.




Try it out and tell me what you think. I've also been making pickles because I am the only one in the house who will eat cucumbers but everyone loves pickles. Maybe I'll post that recipe next Tuesday.