Salsa Sunday

I know today is not Sunday, but that is what I did all day this past Sunday...made homemade salsa.

My good friend Janet and her daughter whom I both think a lot of, advised me to grow some German Queen tomatoes this year for salsa. Last year was a mess, the tomatoes were too seedy being the wrong type. Although the salsa came out quite tasty, it was a lot of work. This Spring, I was also advised by our local extension agent to grow some Roma's for salsa. The good husband planted the tomatoes and told me the German Queen's were planted late so they were not ready. Roma's here I come. I picked a bucket full along with some Bell peppers and had lots of onions in the pantry. I was ready to go...

Three hours later I completed the tiresome chore of cleaning, peeling, coring, seeding and hand chopping the required 10 cups. Our's were much smaller than what you see at the store. Word to the wise, do not leave your fresh tomatoes in the boiling water over 12 seconds in order to peel. They will be mushy, difficult to chop and a sloppy mess. Why are there directions out there telling folks to leave them in for a minute? Size did not matter, I tried regular tomatoes and all of them were mushy. Thankfully, after ruining several, I googled and found about.com southern food... which offers sound advice. They advise only 10 seconds, but the skin didn't come off easily around the cored area so I left mine in a couple more seconds.

Now on to the peppers. Much easier, but had to go out and get more. Six large Bell's yielded only 3 cups and the recipe called for 7.5 cups. The onions were last, my eyes watered a bit, not much and I completed all of the prep work.

I boiled the jars, and lids (supposed to only simmer the lids, not bring to full boil) added the extra's and began to spoon in my salsa....guess what? I only got 4 quarts! So much for recipes. They are pretty jars and the good husband liked the salsa, so I suppose all is well on the farm. :)