I have been a bad food blogger as of late. September has found me so remarkably busy, that by the time I have the time to sit at the computer and compose a post or two, my brain is exhausted. School is going well with the kids, but having two full time in separate material is a whole lot more work than last year’s schooling together. In addition to school, Andy broke a few fingers a couple of weeks back, so any help I could count on with housework is minimal, because he really isn’t supposed to use his dominant hand. We also have our usual dance class and church routine which has us out of the house several nights a week, but I think I’m finally settling into a groove, and I really, really hope that the next few weeks can find me out of the blogging slump. I have so much to share. New recipes, new ideas, and a plan in mind for the coming winter season.
But today, I want to talk salsa. A few weeks ago we participated in the first of what may very well become an annual tradition. During our semi-annual trip to the Twin Cities to visit my brother, we decided to turn the trip into a SalsaFest, because he needed help dispatching his garden’s tomato bounty. This was his counter as we arrived:
Tons of heirloom tomatoes, just begging to be made into salsa. The first night we sat down with our Canning Bible and decided which recipes we wanted to make during the course of the weekend. Saturday morning would then consist of a trip to the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market to round out whatever we needed for salsa.
Let me tell you about the funniest thing in salsa selection. The purpose of making salsa was A) so we would have something fun to do on a weekend with a slim budget. And B) use up the bounty of tomatoes. So as we flipped through the book eyeing up salsa recipes, my brother mentions how he’d really like to try doing a peach or mango salsa, because one of the vendors at the market the week before had mangoes and peaches at a good deal. I’ll admit, fruit salsas intrigue me, but not enough to actually go about making one. We checked the peach salsa recipe, and then dug around online for a canning safe mango salsa, and then made our ingredient list for those, as well as a few other tomato salsas. It was going to be a busy weekend!
Me made our trip to the market very early Saturday morning, where we scored on BOTH peaches and mangoes. Yes, my friends. Our making salsa to use up tomatoes plan was skewing in a strange direction as we determined to make TWO varieties of salsa with nary a tomato in sight.
The first batch of salsa was up to me alone. My brother and his wife had other things to attend to that morning, so I set about making a double batch of Spicy Tomato Salsa. This one used dried chilies, softened and pureed, as well as a serious quantity of cilantro.
When family returned back home, after a quick lunch, we set about dispatching the peaches and making a batch of what we deemed to be the prettiest salsa of the weekend.
After that, the mangoes met their demise in the most unique salsa of the weekend. This one had the addition of ginger, so it definitely had an Asian flair to it- I kept thinking that it reminded me a lot of Thai food. Somehow I managed to not get a picture of that one in the stew pot.
The next day after church in the morning, we set about the biggest task of making a double batch of Zesty Salsa. Oh, the carnage that resulted from dispatching all those tomatoes!
We were using the biggest pot in the house, and we had to start cooking down the tomatoes early so that we could have room in the pot for all the peppers that still needed to be added.
All told, by the time our weekend was over, we had made 54 jars of salsa. That’s a whole lotta salsa!
Each one is delicious in it’s own way, and the salsa bug bit big time. In the days to come I will share each of the salsa recipes we made, plus an additional one which I made just yesterday- a smokey Roasted Tomato and Chipotle Salsa that is rich in color and delicious from the dried chipotles.
Here’s one more shot of our salsa bounty from SalsaFest 2010.
From left to right we have Mango Salsa, Peach Salsa, three jars of Spicy Tomato Salsa and three jars of Zesty Salsa. You know you want some.
oh boy, that looks like fun!
Right now I’m freezing tomatoes. So far, 6 cups (3-2 cup freezer bags) of tomato sauce. Today is crushed tomatoes, and I might do another batch of sauce.
I also have a bunch that I just froze whole!
Next weekend is the gleaning day at the CSA farm that we use, so I’m hoping to get a few peppers. This year wasn’t that great for peppers, I guess.
Yeah, my peppers didn’t do well at all either. It was too wet- they like dry heat apparently.
My brother had no troubles in Minnesota though. He had plenty in his garden for making salsa.
I’m jealous of the tomato fest! My tomatoes didn’t do much either. Enough for a taste, but that’s about it. Next year maybe.