Hot Day! Hot Salsa! Hot Pool!!

Today when I woke up, it was already hot out.  I knew I needed to do my chores early.

After we had our coffee out on the patio, I got busy hanging out the wash.  There is just something about hanging your sheets out on the line to dry in the warm  breeze that screams summer. 

By noon, I had already  hung out three loads of wash.  Things dry faster on the line, than they do in the dryer.

After swimming in our neighbors pool, and enjoying the warmer water temp so much, I decided to go ahead and get another solar cover for our pool.  We have had them in the past, but not since we put a fence around the pool.  So yesterday morning I got another one.  You are supposed to let it lay out on the pool for a day before cutting it to shape.

Since today was such a hot one, it will heat up fast!
I watered the garden and then harvested some more tomatoes.

 And a bunch of my green onions and jalapeno peppers.

I brought everything inside, gave it a good washing, and prepared to make a whole bunch of fresh salsa.

I have shown how I make salsa before here on my blog.  But I did it a bit differently this time, since I am growing all of the ingredients in my garden.   The first thing I needed to do, was prepare the tomatoes.  To do this, you do not need to cook the tomatoes through, but you do need to remove the skin and seeds.  To make this easy, bring a large pot of water to a boil, and drop your tomatoes in, a few at a time.

Just for a minute or so.  Have a large bowl of ice water next to your pot of hot water to transfer them into.  This is where the skin will split, making them easy to peel.

This process makes it very easy to remove the the skins, and when cool, squeeze the seeds from the tomato.  At this time, you will also need to remove the stem with a paring knife.

I  forgot to mention that wearing an apron for this is a good idea.  You can see by the photos how messy this can be.  My good friend Holly sent me a box of goodies recently, and in it were two aprons.  She knows I love aprons!!  One of them was a beautiful white, with a Scandanavian border embroidered on it.  I couldn't possibly wear that one for this job.  So I chose the blue check, with white embroidery for my salsa making.  It is a half apron, and I can often be found wearing my half aprons like this!

Holly, I made a mess, but it washed up just perfectly!!!
To prepare the peppers, I sometimes steam them in a little bit of water until just barely fork tender.  But this time I wanted to roast them over an open fire and get them nice and charred.  I put them on a metal skewer and roasted them right over the gas flame on my stove.

Don't put anything on them at all.  Just hold them directly over the flames, turning them to get both sides charred well.

When they have cooled, just slip the charred skins right off of them.  They will come off very easily.  I do red peppers the same exact way!  The flavor is out of this world!

Remove the stems and toss them into your food processor to chop.  I usually do all of the chopping for salsa by hand.  But I may never do it that way again.  Using my Cuisinart made this job so easy!
I only pulsed each item a few times in the machine.  Then dumped it all into one big bowl for mixing.
I used the zest of two fresh limes, as well the juice.

At about this time, Geeps came wandering out to see what was smelling so good.  He gave the salsa a stir and taste, and two thumbs up.

I also mince several cloves of fresh garlic, and then sea salt and ground pepper to taste, to finish the Salsa Fresca.
You would think that piles and piles of fresh tomatoes would make more salsa.   But using fresh makes a big difference in the taste.

I sent one jar home with Jake this evening.  We will go through this in a week.  We put it on eggs, steak, breakfast burritos, chips, baked potatoes, EVERYTHING!!
Then, there was the aftermath!!!!

So maybe going through all of these steps just to make salsa, really isn't your thing.  You can buy perfectly delicious salsa at the store, and not have to wash a thing!  I get that.  I just happen to like to cook.   So if you are growing all of the ingredients to make your own salsa, and you don't mind making a mess in your kitchen, then I hope you will try making this.
One last thing.  Several of you have made the comment that I have a green thumb, and my veggies look so great.  I can't take the credit for that.  I do have a secret.
COMPOSTING!!!!
Everything I cook, every vegetable I cut. Every banana peeled.  Every egg shell, coffee grounds, filter and all, go into my compost crock in the kitchen.  I them empty my compost jar into my compost bin in the garden about twice a week.  This is where I put all of the collected chicken doo, grass clippings, leaves, deadheaded roses, etc.  And the big secret ingredient in fast composting is chicken doo.  If you don't have chickens, go to Walmart and buy a 97 cent bag of steer manure.  Use a few cups to each addition of grass and leaves on your compost pile.  Turn your pile weekly.  Keep it moist by watering it lightly every couple of days or so, and you will be rewarded with rich, fertile soil for your garden.   And your veggies will be great!  It's the compost...not me!
I use this pottery crock with a lid.  It fits perfectly in the corner of my kitchen, right behind my ancient toaster oven.  It is very easy to just pop things right in there as I am cooking.

I always tear a few strips of newspaper and put them into the bottom of the cleaned crock before placing anything in it.  When you empty the crock, the newspaper breaks down in the compost right along with everything else, and it keeps your crock from getting icky and slimy on the bottom.

Make sure you use something with a good fitting lid.

Good composting=a good garden!

In about 6 weeks, this will be rich soil that I add to my garden!
After all of that, I went in and put my swimsuit on and headed straight for the pool.

Ahhhhh....the solar blanket has made the water a delightful temperature.  We will be swimming until October!

Goodnight.
XO  Kris