Grab the chips! This salsa is perfect use of summer tomatoes, flavorful, easy, and delicious! Easy to can too, if you can keep yourself from eating it all!
I feel like lately I've had a lot of moments where I've just known I was being watched over somehow. My sophomore year of college, a really good friend gave me a note that talked about angels. He quoted Hebrews in the New Testament where it says "be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" His note went on to talk about our friendship. But that scripture became a favorite. And lately I think I have had a lot of moments when I have had angels in my life.
You know those people who are the kind of friends that just keep showing up in your life and supporting you and loving you no matter what? The people who see how they can make your life better and they do it. They just do it. No obligations on your part. No expectations. They just love you and support you and take care of you in all the ways they can. They show up again and again and again. Well, lately those people have been showing up pretty strong in my life and I am forever grateful for that.
Last week I had a tooth that erupted into badness with an infection that swelled up the whole of my left jaw. It was pretty bad. I spent all morning calling around trying to find a dentist that could fit me in. I finally gave up and scheduled an appointment for 5 days later. When my roommate came home she looked at me and decided to try her hand at calling. She had gotten the names of some dentists people in our neighborhood recommended earlier this summer when she was looking for a new dentist for herself, so she started there. At 4:50, she found a dentist that said they would stay open if we went right away. She went with me. And when I got there, they were beyond kind to me, staying an additional 1.5 hours after they closed just to take care of me. It was really amazing.
The dentist wasn't able to do everything for me, but they did do a partial root canal. I have an appointment with an endodontist for later this week. Needless to say, my mouth still has some issues in the meantime. But my roommate has been taking care of me, making me soft foods, driving me places so I can take pain killers if needed, and just listening to me complain.
On Saturday we went to our friends Kolin and Jessica's house and canned salsa. They have been working so hard on their garden this year, and together we all had a lot of tomatoes that needed something to be done with them. They were so incredibly kind to me. They bought me ice cream. I was the only one who had ever made the recipe, but they stepped up at made a lot of the salsa while I just sat at the table, my energy totally drained. It's pretty amazing when you can just be yourself when you are with someone. When you don't feel like you have pretend to be better than you really are or different than you are. That no matter what, the people you are with will love you, and will support you.
I got this recipe from Annie Mackay when they were in my ward a number of years ago. It's a really good base recipe for salsa, and you can always add whatever seasonings you want later on. And as far as canning goes, this is a fairly easy recipe to can. I think this is a great recipe to eat right away, and it's delicious months later when you pull it off your shelf. This really is a perfect go-to salsa recipe to use your abundance of tomatoes.
23 - 25 medium tomatoes
3 large onions
2 large green peppers
2 large red peppers
1-2 jalapeno pepper
1 cup white vinegar
4 teaspoon black pepper
4 teaspoon garlic salt
4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 12-oz can of tomato paste
Blanch and peel tomatoes. Cut and squeeze most of the juice out; this will make it thicker
Chop onions, peppers and remove the seeds from the jalapeno.
Add all this plus the other ingredients to an 8 quart pot, stirring often so it doesn't burn, until veggies are soft, about 20 minutes.
Pour salsa in a blender and blend to desired consistency. You can also use a food processor or use a stick blender if you would rather.
Pour salsa into pint jars. Process in a hot water bath, boiling for 20 minutes.
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