Salsa

I have definitely needed to catch up on some of the late summer happenings. So here's a start. Last weekend, my brother was headed back out west to school and took off on an early morning flight. So once the rest of us recovered from the horrific hour and complete lack of sleep, we began canning salsa. Just for the record, I have never canned anything in my life. I've always been intimidated by the process, always thinking I would do something wrong and poison my entire family. A big part of that is just not knowing how to do it. And there really are quite a few rules. :) But my folks are really good at it, so my Dad agreed to give me the full tutorial and so we began on the salsa.
So here is my dad & I in the kitchen doing lots of prep work. Mainly I worked with blanching, peeling and cutting up the tomatoes. My dad used his mixer attachment to grind up all the ingredients.

Cory was a big help too, cutting up onions, peppers and cilantro. Obviously, canning is not a one person job. At least if that one person is me. :)

And here is the salsa simmering on the stove. YUMMMMMM!!!! When all was said and done, we ended up with 12 quarts of salsa, which as good as we love it, isn't nearly enough. But it was fun to all work together, the salsa is truly delicious (did I mention we were already down a quart?) and I learned a few things I didn't know before. I'd say it was a success! :)