Taco Night in the Hood!

Todd and I thought it would be fun to invite some friends over for dinner. So, we did a pot luck taco night yesterday. We did the meat, and also salsa and guacamole. We didn't have a big turnout, but we had a great time with some good friends. Which also leads me to wonder, why is it that no one RSVPs anymore? I think that is one of my biggest frustrations! I know you don't get blacklisted, but if I ever forget to RSVP for something, I feel horrible about it! Someone is being kind enough to invite you into their home, shouldn't you have the same courtesy to give them the favor of a response? I could go on and on, but I wont! haha

Alright, so here is my recipe for homemade salsa:

In a food processor, combine a 1/4 of a jalapeno (no seeds), half of a sweet onion or red onion, 4 tbsp fresh cilantro, 3 cloves of pressed garlic, the juice of two limes, and one chipotle pepper (deseeded) in adobo sauce. The chipotle peppers are on the ethnic foods aisle of the grocery store. They are canned in the adobo sauce, and I add about a tablespoon of the sauce to the salsa in addition to the actual chipotle. The leftover sauce and the chipotles are good to use in things like enchilada sauce, or ground beef for tacos.

Pulse the above ingredients in the food processor about 5 times for one second until they are coursely chopped. Scrape the sides as needed. Then, add 8 vine ripe tomatoes. You will need to cut them in half and then in quarters and remove the core and seeds.

Add salt and pepper to taste. I used sea salt, it seems to do the job of flavoring the salsa without having to use a ton of table salt. Pulse the tomatoes, salt, and pepper into the mixture until the salsa reaches the consistency you like. This recipe is a pretty basic salsa, you can really use this as your base for any tomato salsa and tweek or add ingredients as you like. Put into containers and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. The salsa will stay in the fridge for 2 - 3 days, add a touch of salt and lime juice before serving to "freshen" the salsa.

Be sure to taste the salsa. It will be different every time since you are using fresh vegetables, so you may need to add more of something to make it tast right. You can see it made a good bit of salsa! Hope this inspires everyone to make homemade salsa, it is worth the work! Even Todd, my salsa connoisseur loves it!