Homemade Salsa (even in the dead of winter!)

Every summer, I plant a weed patch/garden and then work toward the goal of canning the produce so that we can enjoy the bounty during the winter months. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't... This year was, unfortunately a "doesn't," as I lost my legal assistant right as the tomatoes and jalapenos were ready and I was very busy at the office and my produce went to waste. I literally have not gone near my garden since late summer, because it is a sad reminder of that very fact. Oh well - there is always this year!!

Today's Primary Suspects:

Roma tomatoes (about 7), half of a large red onion, 2-3 jalapenos, and one bunch of cilantro

We'll talk about the rest of the ingredients later.

One of our very favorite things to make and can is homemade salsa! Last week, I found some nice-looking Roma tomatoes on sale and decided to give it a go at making some fresh salsa with lowly grocerystore produce. I figured that if it tasted good enough, I could close my eyes and pretend like it's July and there isn't a foot of snow on the ground here. It was delish!






I have just in the last year decided that cilantro is an herb of the gods. Like, I can't cook Mexican food without a big bunch of it being involved. Like I dream of it at night. Like I want to marry it. OK, it's not really that great, but you get the idea. You do NOT want to use the dried stuff that comes in a jar. Ick. I mean, it's probably okay if you have never tasted fresh cilantro, but I honestly wouldn't even bother making fresh salsa unless I have the fresh cilantro - it's just that darn good.



Anyway, the challenge with cooking with it is that it has rather tough stems and it is very time-consuming to pull all those little leaves off before chopping. So, I figured out a trick that makes it much less bothersome. I hold the bunch of cilantro with my left hand (the leaves pointing toward the right). Next, I hold a fork with my right hand and put the tines down so that the tines are pointing straight down amongst the stems and pull the fork to the right, keeping the tines against the cutting board. I continue doing this until my left hand is left pretty much just holding stems. The leaves pull right off of the stems as I drag the fork.


Does that make even one little whit of sense at all? I hope.

Here is the cutting board filled with everything chopped up. Ta-da! Mucho beautiful. Or something like that.

Now, I want you to meet my long-time best friend in the kitchen. It is sometimes called a Bench Scraper and I have also heard it called a Dough Scraper. I call it The Metal Scraper-Thing. Whatever you call it, you want one in your kitchen. I almost always include one when I give a wedding shower gift.

It works great for scooping up the veggies and putting them into the bowl. Another day, I will show you its awesomeness when working with dough. Before then, go buy one. If you want to. Or not. Nevermind.

After you have all the veggies in the bowl, we move on to the "extras." Start with about 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. You can use regular salt. Or Kosher salt. Or solar-evaporated sea salt. Now us, since it's wintertime here and we're on a tight budget, I usually just go scrape some off of the road after the salt truck passes through. Using my Dough Scraper, of course. Just kidding. Maybe. I also could, in a pinch, go out to the dairy barn and scrape some off of the cows' salt block. I doubt if a little cow saliva ever killed anyone.

I just squirt about 2 teaspoons or so of lime juice in the bowl, but I don't really measure. I also scoop in about 2 tablespoons of minced garlic. That is enough to keep vampires away, so use less if you are going to be in the same room with another person in the next 24 hours. Just a warning.

After making tons of homemade salsa over the years, I have found that the number one mistake people make is not adding enough salt. The right amount of salt really brings out the freshness of the ingredients. Add it slowly, however, because you don't want it to taste salty, but rather just have enough to enhance the flavors.

Ta-da! The finished product. Just grab some tortilla chips and dig in. The men in the house will love you forever for makin this.

S.B. Mom

100 Things About Me

Ok, so I have visited blogs where they celebrate their 100th post by posting a "100 Things About Me List." At the pace I am posting, I will be in a nursing home before I hit 10o posts, so I decided to just do it now. Because I don't like to procrastinate. (And family, if any of you are reading this post, please don't disclose the lie in that statement when you leave a comment) So, here goes, in no particular order.

I just made the executive decision to post 10 each day for 10 days. I am sure you won't be able to sleep at night from the anticipation this will cause, but take some Ambien or something, okay?

First Ten Things About Me:

1. I am a grammar Nazi. Get your conjunctions and you're pronouns correct or your gonna drive people like me insane. (Please please please tell me you caught them...)

2. I am an attorney. Yes, I understand that you might think that all attorneys are lying, cheating, greedy thieves, but when you need one, you will be glad we exist.

3. My husband is a dairy farmer. Our dinnertime conversation might cover things like castration, a cow falling in the 15-ft. deep manure pit, or even a new mom (cow mom) having a retained placenta. All just part of the charm of living on a farm, I guess.

4. We have 5 kids. No, we are not Catholic; yes, we know what causes it; and the one I hate the most - no, we did not have a lot of kids so that we would have more help on the farm.

5. My second toe is really long. In fact, it is exactly as long as my pinky finger! Take your sock off now and compare yours...I know you want to.

6. We are new owners of a vacation rental! Woo-hoo. You can visit the website at www.HoneycreekHideaway.com.

7. My favorite food is potatoes. Baked, fried, mashed, grilled, sliced, diced, you name it. I have never let one of my kids' fries ever make it from their fast food tray to the trash bin. For that, I am very proud. Okay, not really, but it is true.

8. I love candles. I almost always have at least one burning when I am at home.

9. I drive a Suburban. It's my sixth child - I love it so much.

10. I have an awesome 12 year old dog named Samantha Josephine ( aka "Sammy"). She has to take laxatives (it's a long story). Everytime someone asks G-man (our 5 year old son) if he has a dog he says the same dramatic thing: "Her name is Sammy and is she doesn't poop, she'll die!" Talk about an awkward conversation piece. You wouldn't believe how many people he has left speechless with this response.

Ok, that's enough delving into the odd recesses of my life for today. Check back for more later.

Friday Night Pizza

Every Friday that we are home is officially Homemade Pizza Night at our house. The girls take turns helping me prepare the pizzas and the evening is always full of laughing and special time together. Sheesh...I sound like a Hallmark card - let's just get back to cooking.

Anyway, we have tried many varieties of topping over the 3 or so years that we have had this tradition going, and we tried a new one last night that is really worth sharing. Hubs and Zippy (our 11 year old son) are huge fans of buffalo hot wings. They like things spicy, but not put-the-toilet-paper-in-the-freezer hot, so I set out to come up with a recipe for pizza that would have some of the hot wing flavor but be not too hot.

I will discuss how to make an awesome homemade pizza crust another day, but trust me when I say it is very simple and sooooo worth the effort!!

Here is what I came up with:

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into small pieces
2 T. butter
3/4 c. Frank's Red Hot
1/4 c. BBQ sauce (I like Sweet Baby Ray's)
1 c. ranch dressing
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
prepared 16-inch pizza crust

Preheat the oven to 425°. After you cook the chicken, take it out of the pan and cut into small pieces (sort of diced). Throw the chicken back into the pan over medium heat and add the butter, Red Hot, and BBQ sauce. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes. Spread the ranch dressing over the pizza crust to within about an inch of the edge. Okay, the thing you have to understand about my cooking is that I am all about excess. Like if a little ranch is good, keep on adding more until it's almost too much, but not quite. Follow that? Anyway, I probably added about 1 1/4 cup or so. Next, spread the chicken mixture over the ranch dressing and sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake until the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbly, about 10 minutes. Watch it carefully, though because at this high temp, there is a fine line between done and "oh crap-the smoke detector is going off and one of the kids needs to go out and throw this thing over the fence into the pasture."

One last nugget of info regarding pizza - I discovered about 6 months ago that if you mix up 1-2 T of melted butter with about a half a teaspoon of garlic salt mixed into it, and brush that on the crust as soon as the pizza comes out of the oven, you will have people begging for your "secret recipe." There is just something about warm, melty butter and garlic that makes everything better. Of course, you are listening to someone who, as a teenager, would put garlic butter on her toast in the morning when we didn't have jelly, so consider the source, ok?

There. Now you have the perfect recipe to keep those men in the family very happy. My dad once told me: "There are two ways to a man's heart, and you better go through his stomach!" Nuff said.