Glad you got home whole, Susan!

I am officially tired from this weekend. I canned a lot, and now have almost three cases of pints of diced tomatoes. This afternoon and evening I worked on the salsa - it wasn't simply a matter to chop peppers, onions, tomatoes, cook them for five minutes then can (like the Blue Book says). Last time I did that I didn't like it.

THIS TIME I cranked up the grill and roasted the hot peppers from the garden, and as my friend Dean recommended, I slid the grilled peppers straight into a plastic bag and they steamed themselves more and the skins came off fairly well. I set up NetFlix to stream in the kitchen and watched Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (what a great play/movie!) while I skinned, removed the seeds, and small-chopped those cooked peppers. I needed 2 1/2 cups, and since the cooked ones compress more you get more in the container, I think that made a big difference in the quality of this salsa. It took another movie, a 1980s(?) version of The Mirror Cracked, again with Elizabeth Taylor (as the actress in this Miss Marple mystery). During that I chopped everything else - the onions, the green peppers, garlic, cilantro, and got it started cooking.

The last time I made this it came out too chunky, and I freeze it - not a great thing for salsa. I knew this time I wanted it more like the Chipotle sauce than just simple tomato salsa. I have some dried New Mexico red chiles that I broke apart, poured out the seeds, then pulverized the cases. I added about 3 - 4 tablespoons of that mild red chile and that made the sauce browner and better tasting. Everything except the cilantro and those red peppers came out of my garden. When it was cooked I used the stick blender and chopped it down the a much finer chop. It isn't pureed, you can still see that pieces, but it was very small suspended in the tomato sauce.

I'm tired. I didn't stop to eat dinner, and the idea of cooking anything more this evening didn't appeal. I made a one-stop trip late tonight and rewarded my hard work with a pint of Blue Bell Pralines and Cream ice cream. :)

Maggie