Traditional Salsa Day. . . .

The salsa verde was so good, the hubbs decided to try his traditional salsa by roasting the tomatoes rather than boiling them.  I think it will give a good roasted flavor to the salsa.   The hubbs is roasting his tomatoes now along with his jalapenos, garlic, and onion.   This is going to give his salsa a different flavor from previous batches.  This is in process so I will have to share how this one turns out later. 
We are prepping to go to orientation later this month so, I am having to get paperwork all ready for physicals, immunization proof, and insurance proof.  This is an exhausting process!!!
Sprat is going to get to meet his new coach and see some of his teammates that he has not seen since May.  He had been hanging out with them before he came home for the Summer. 
The first day of orientation is a FULL day of meetings and information, I hope he is ready for this transition.  Stay tuned for this later in the month. . .

Finished Salsa Verde  

Roasting tomatoes, jalapenos, and garlic  

First batch of tomatoes roasted and cooling.

We have some cantaloupe and honey dew melon growing, no fruit just yet but the plants are big and beautiful. 

Stay tuned for more garden fun and a round up on what we learned from our garden this year. We have decided we will definitely have a Fall garden.

Salsa Verde and Back to School. . .

The tomatillos are really coming in, these did better than we expected.  The hubbs is very excited, one of his favorite places to eat has a very good salsa verde and he has been wanting to make some himself for a long time.   Last night we made salsa verde.  My job in the salsa business is operating the pesky blender and making sure everything blends smoothly.  I have never eaten a tomatillo before, they have a consistency of an apple and are tart like a granny smith apple.   I think that is what makes the salsa verde so different and delicious.  It did not take that long to make either.  I will share my hubbs recipe with you later.  We almost have enough tomatoes to make traditional salsa too, I believe I am going to have a busy week.  Sprat is getting ready for orientation at the new school later this month.  He has his class schedule and had to get a new book bag.  His old book bag, "Lil' Bean" that he carried all through middle school and high school.  He named it "Lil' Bean" because it was an LL Bean bag.  That was the best bag ever and lasted through middle school to complete his freshman year of college.   That is a testament to the quality of their products, and no I am not being paid for these words.  Honest mom opinion because, this kid could break and tear up everything.   The reason we had to get a new one was the zippers broke.  His Lil' Bean was not their top of line bag either, you know I am too frugal for that, especially with Sprat the Distructo kid.   He went with a Swiss Gear bag this time, it has room for his laptop and seems really sturdy, it is also good for traveling by air with said lap top.   I will let you know how it fares with Distructo the kid. 
Big T is getting his supplies ready for school, he starts back the first of August.  Big T's school gives their kids a back pack with their lap tops they are given at the first of every year.  He already has his schedule and will be on the Community College campus this year for a couple of classes.  Up to now he had been taking his college classes online.  He will be taking classes in his career pathway this year and that is going to be a little more challenging.
I am afraid both boys are going to have challenging years this year, Sprat adjusting to a new school and new lacrosse teammates and coach and Big T adjusting to be on a college type campus and doing more work and harder classes. 
Stay tuned as our house is tuned upside down. . .

Salsa Verde:

1 1/2 lbs tomatillos
1 med onion
4 cloves garlic
3 jalapeno peppers ( 2 cored and seeded)
1 bunch of cilantro
1 lime zest and juice

Broil your tomatillos in the oven with the peppers and garlic, Broil for about 6-8 minutes, tomatillos should be brown on top.
Set your tomatillos aside to cool, slice your one pepper with seeds in, core and seed the other two and slice, peel your garlic and chop your cilantro.

After everything is fairly cool, scoop some tomatillos in your blender alone with some of each of your peppers, cilantro, garlic, and onion, zest your lime and add some juice and then blend till smooth.  I do this in batches so that it is all blended smoothly.  Once everything is blended add a pinch of salt to taste and chill,

Enjoy!!

Drum Roll Please . . . Salsa . . .

I am not sure where my hubby got this recipe but, he is just like me and tweaks it each time.  He knows it by heart and he seasons to taste.   We have made three batches this year already.  Our tomatoes are really doing well.  We have used roma tomatoes in the past because they are supposed to have more meat in them.  This year we planted celebrity tomatoes and they are really doing well.   The celebrities have a lot of meat and a great flavor.
This is the hubbys baby, he does all the work on this, all I do is work the blender for him and zest the limes.  Here we go, now remember, this recipe has been tweaked and please feel free to add your own taste to yours.  We always add our own zip.

Twenty or so tomatoes
3-5 peppers varying varieties (a few for heat, a few for flavor)
1 medium onion
2-4 cloves of garlic
1 bunch of fresh cilantro
2 limes zested and then juiced

Boil your tomatoes, when the skin pops they are done, remove them from the water and let them set.
Boil your peppers until they are soft, let them set.  Press and saute your garlic until fragrant.  Chop onion and saute until translucent.  Chop your cilantro.
Once your tomatoes have cooled and you can handle them easily peel the skin from them.  We put ours in a strainer over another bowl.  This way you get the meat and not so much juice.  Once the tomatoes are peeled my hubby like to mash the tomatoes with his hands to get a little more juice out of them.  You do not want your salsa to be too runny.  Chop your peppers.  Now depending on how hot you want your salsa you can leave all of your seeds with the peppers or you can seed a couple of your peppers.  The seeds are where the heat is in your peppers.  The hubbs left a few too many seeds for my taste this time but it is still good.   We used some hot peppers and some mild peppers.  I zest the limes into the cilantro and then they are ready to juice.
We use a blender, like you are making a smoothie.  I put a couple scoops of the tomato mush, some of the: garlic, onion, cilantro, peppers and then the hubbs juices half of one lime.  Then I blend this together, once it is blended I pour it into our eight cup mixing bowl.  We repeat this until all of our ingredients have been blended together.   This gives you a beautiful reddish brown mixture.  The hubbs then proceeds to add his seasonings to finish this up.

1 Tbsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp cumin
2 tsp Mexican oregano

He may also add more lime juice if needed.  Keep in mind he juiced two limes during the blending process.
This is really a good recipe and in my opinion could rival any authentic salsa from any restaurant.  I am biased of course.  The hubbs has said that at least one of the boys must learn to make this recipe so that it can be passed down to the next generation of our clan.
Enjoy!

Pepper Poppers . . .

Our garden has really been producing this year, we have had good rain and lots of sunshine.  I think our tomatoes are going to do well also.  I am looking forward to the hubbs salsa and if you are good I might share his recipe with you, it is super secret don't you know.   He also makes pepper jelly that is so good.  If you have never had pepper jelly you need to try it, you might have seen it at Christmas over cream cheese or Brie with crackers.  It is usually red but it could be green too.  You can buy it in the grocery store and those fancy specialty shops.  Make sure you do not get the mint jelly because they have that too along the same isle.  Pepper jelly is a blend of sweet and hot and it is yummy with cream cheese and crackers.  I told you I do not can, well I fibbed just a bit, we have canned pepper jelly before successfully.  I hope we will get to make some this year.
Our peppers are just starting to come in and the hubbs is already picking them.  We had them stuffed on the grill over the fourth.  Several years ago we picked up a pepper popper grill pan, it has holes to put your peppers in to hold them upright on your grill.   This is a wonderful pan to have if you like stuffed peppers.   For our peppers, the hubbs browns some ground meat and then blends with a block of cream cheese and a taco seasoning packet.  This goes in the fridge to chill just a bit while he cores his peppers.  The cream cheese mixture needs to chill a bit so it will not run out of your peppers or be to mushy.  Once you have your peppers ready stuff them with your mixture, if your peppers are too small to sit up in the popper pan you can stick a long tooth pick through them to help hold them up.  We do this for the jalapeno peppers because they are usually smaller than the other peppers we use.  I like to dip mine in a little sour cream too when I get ready to eat them.  These are wonderful on the grill.

Salsa, Salsa, Salsa. . .

My hubby makes the best salsa around.  It even rivals many of the Mexican restaurants that make their own.   He has grown so much in our 23 years together, going from not eating onions to growing and grilling his own.  
I will share his recipe with you but our secret ingredient is lots of love.  We work in the garden together and we make the salsa together.

20 or so average tomatoes
4-5 jalapeno peppers
1-2 onions
2-3 cloves of garlic
Fresh cilantro
2tbsp cumin
2 limes zested and juiced

This is a 2-3 hour process but well worth the time.
Boil your tomatoes until the skin splits then remove from water and let cool.  Boil your peppers till soft, remove and set aside to cool.  Chop onion and saute in a little olive oil till translucent.   Press garlic and saute till slight brown.  Chop a small bunch of cilantro. 
Once your tomatoes are cool you can slide the skin right off.  We leave ours in a drainer over a bowl to catch excess liquid.  Hubby chops the peppers and sets them aside.  I use the blender to blend everything together.  We do not  care for chunky salsa.   I add some tomatoes, peppers,  onion, garlic, cilantro, and some lime juice and blend then pour into a large bowl.  I do this until everything is well blended then hubby adds the cumin and zest.  This makes about 8 cups of salsa.  We keep ours in the fridge and eat on it for a week or so.  Does not usually last very long with the kids around.   I think our salsa is so good because most everything is cooked and blended.  If you try this let me know how yours turns out.