Here's the Dish: Slow-Cooker Salsa

This weekend marks our annual Salsa Making Party, where we get together with friends and can enough homemade salsa to last until next year. It's a good thing too, since we have been up to our ears in tomatoes and hot peppers for weeks now. I've had to find some creative ways to use them, and some we've given away. A few weeks ago, I was craving fresh salsa, and it just so happened that we had a bunch of ripe tomatoes. I found this recipe for making it in a slow cooker, and that seemed like just the thing to do, since I love using mine. It's very easy, and takes no time at all to whip up. In fact, I made a batch this evening ~ put all the ingredients together, then we went for a long walk, ate Thai food for dinner, and by the time we got home, it was ready! What follows is a basic recipe that yields 2 cups or 8 servings. Somehow, I've ended up with closer to eight cups ~ go figure. Feel free to play with the ingredients until you get the flavor and level of heat just right for you.

Ingredients:

10 plum tomatoes, cored

2 garlic cloves (or more!)

1 medium sized onion, cut in wedges

2-3 jalapeno peppers

half of a medium sized green bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro or parsley leaves

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Cut a small slit in two tomatoes. Insert a garlic clove in each slit. Place tomatoes in slow cooker. The nifty tool in the picture is from The Pampered Chef, and it is good for coring tomatoes. Cut stems off jalapenos. Remove seeds for a milder salsa. Place jalapenos in slow cooker. Add chopped bell pepper. There's Mr. V ~ he insisted on helping with the hot peppers. This recipe is very "man friendly" ~ haha.

Looks so pretty! Cover. Cook on High for 2-3 hours. Cool.

In a blender, combine the tomato mixture, cilantro and salt. Process until smooth. Refrigerate leftovers.

The finished product ~ tastes so good with Tortilla chips, eggs, on a baked potato . . . even grilled chicken. The possibilities are many!

Here's the Dish: Huevos Rancheros

Breakfast for dinner is very popular at my house. There are some days when the last thing I want to do is spend hours cooking after being at work for 8-10 hours ~ believe it or not. This dish is a no brainer, which is why we love it so. Mr. V's speciality is eggs so he can even whip this up all by his big self. I love a man who can cook ;) First, start with fresh ingredients like the ones you see pictured above. Chop them up to make a fresh salsa, such as this one. Or, to save time and effort, just open a jar of salsa. There's no right or wrong here, my peeps. (Although the fresh does taste better!)

Heat a tortilla in a pan that has been coated with oil. When it turns golden brown, flip it over, and sprinkle some shredded cheese on the side that has browned.

When the cheese has melted a little, crack an egg over it. The secret here is to keep your heat at about medium so you don't burn the tortilla to bits. The egg will run, but that's OK. We aren't going for Martha Stewart perfection here. When the egg has set or started to turn white at the edges, flip the entire thing over. This gets messy, trust me, but it's OK. Just cook the egg for a few more minutes and then flip it onto a plate.

Add your salsa, beans (they were in the salsa here), sour cream, Tabasco sauce, and whatever else you like.

I like mine with scrambled eggs :)

Here's the Dish: Black Bean and Avocado Salsa

I was never a huge fan of avocados until I tried this salad ~ ever since then, I've been an avocado lovin' fool. It surprises me how many people that I talk to either really love them, or hate them with a passion. Many of the haters have the notion that they're full of fat ~ it's true that they are but it's the "good" fat, not the kind that clogs your arteries. That is why I'm happy to use them whenever possible. Recently I whipped up this delicious batch of fresh salsa that contains some of my favorite ingredients. It was quick to make, and quick to eat ~ we gobbled it up in no time flat! Good news ~ one 1/4 cup serving contains only 43 calories, plus protein and fiber. Too bad I ruined the healthy part by consuming a margarita along with it :)

Black Bean and Avocado Salsa

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped seeded tomato

1 cup diced peeled avocado

1/2 cup chopped red onion

2 T. chopped fresh cilantro

2 T. fresh lime juice

1 T. finely chopped seeded jalapeno pepper (removing the seeds and white stuff inside the pepper will tone down the heat)

1/8 t. salt

1 - 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

Combine all 8 ingredients in a medium bowl, toss gently. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Yield: 3 1/2 cups

A Salsa Soiree!

If you’ve read this blog more than a few times you probably know that I love to cook. As a descendant of a long line of good cooks, I come by this trait honestly. In my family, we show you that we care by feeding you.

When I was a kid, my mom was hard core ~ baking cookies from scratch, every night dinner was something different and definitely not from a box. By the time my parents finally gave in and bought a microwave, it was rarely used.

So, you can see that I inherited my culinary skills. The one thing I never attempted was canning or preserving food. I remember my mom canning jam in the summer ~ usually on what seemed like a sweltering hot day. My memory is of her slaving over a stove for what seemed like an eternity. As a kid I never fully appreciated the time nor the love that she put into each and every jar. As a family, we would often travel to the blueberry farm to pick the berries that would later become jam. Sometimes they would be strawberries or blackberries that were grown by members of my family who lived in Northern Michigan. I now know that canning fresh produce is a lost art ~ but at the time I just took for granted that we had homemade jam at my house while all of my friends had the stuff you buy in the store. You can probably imagine my reaction when our good friends suggested that we get together and can Salsa with the peppers we grow in our garden every year. I seriously thought they were insane ~ it sure didn’t seem like a fun way to spend a perfectly good Saturday to me at all. It took a little coaxing, but I finally gave in. After all, we end up with more hot peppers than we could ever consume, and I hate to see them go to waste. This seemed like the best way to make them last.

A few weeks ago, we all got together for our 2nd annual Salsa making party. These are some pictures of the fun we had, and the result of our efforts. Each of us has our own role, which seems to work out really well. The process took about four hours from start to finish, and that is with four people chopping, peeling, stirring and pouring. I think back to the days when my mom made that jam by herself, and now I realize how much work she put into it!

It is fully worth the work, though. We ended up with 18 jars of Salsa, which we can enjoy throughout the year. It is really good stuff, too. Slightly on the hot side, but fresh and wonderful!

If you’ve never canned before, give it a shot. Get together with some friends (preferably some who know what they’re doing) and let the fun begin!