Salsa Day!

We spent yesterday afternoon making our world famous garlic salsa. (well maybe not world famous, but our family knows about it and now you do too)

We started out with 2 bushels of tomato's. First we wash them and then they are off for a hot bath. (just long enough for their skin to wrinkle)

Then they go in a cold bath to cool them down.

The skins come off nice and easy after they cool. Laurie usually has to wear rubber gloves because the acid in the tomato's burns her skin.

Then it's back to the stove for a couple of hours to cook them down. While they cook, we are getting the rest of the ingredients ready.

We used 4 large green peppers and 4 banana peppers for just a little bit of heat.

We chopped 4 red onions. We have used sweet onions before, but they make the salsa too sweet.

We used 2 1/2 pounds of garlic.

Two hours later, the garlic was chopped up. (not really, we used the food processor)

After the tomato's cook down, we use an old blender to puree them. We put all of the ingredients in the pots and add vinegar and some spices. (usually black pepper, cumin and fresh cilantro) The salsa cooks for a few more hours and then it is time to taste test. We take a scoop out of each pot, put it in a small bowl and put it in the freezer to cool down. After we taste it we add more of what is needed if anything and it's time to can.

Laurie scoops it into the jars and I am in charge of the seals and lids.

Look at how far behind I am. (put the camera down and get to work)

We ended up with 33 pint jars, 18 quart jars and a small bowl for us to eat today. We usually make hot, medium and mild salsa too. We seem to enjoy the garlic one more, so we decided just to stick to that this year.