Salsa!!!

I love chips and salsa, but I’ve never been able to find a store bought salsa that I like. I’ve tried nearly every brand out there, and none of them taste authentic. Finally I just gave up and treated myself to salsa and chips when I went to a Mexican restaurant. By the way, I care very little for authentic Mexican food, but I do love chips with salsa and cheese dip. I usually make that my meal on the rare occasion I go to a Mexican restaurant. So I hit the internet on a quest to find a salsa recipe that I like. I finally found one that I LOVE, although it needed some tweaking for my taste. You have to do that with recipes like salsa. Some like it hot, some like it mild. I like it medium myself, so this is how I make it.

First and foremost, I should tell you that you are going to need a good food processor. I love my nice, big KitchenAid that my bff gave me for my birthday.

Ingredients:

* 1 - 28 ounce can whole tomatoes with juice
* 2 - 10 ounce cans Rotel (diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies)
* ¼ cup chopped onion
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 whole Jalapeno (a half if you‘re like me), quartered and thinly sliced
* ¼ teaspoon sugar
* ¼ teaspoon salt
* ¼ teaspoon ground Cumin (I omit this, cause I don’t care for Cumin)
* ½ cup Cilantro (or more, depending on your taste)
* ½ of a Lime (this is also one of those things that depends on your taste)

Preparation:

Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you’d like — I do about 8 pulses. Taste and adjust to your preference. It’s a good idea to make this several hours ahead of time, or even a day before you’re going to serve it. Trust me, it’s even better.

Note: be sure you get WHOLE tomatoes or you’ll have soup after you put them through the processor. I learned this the hard way. Also, you’ll want to use the “large” bowl. I learned that the hard way, too.

Oh, one more very important thing! Use disposable food gloves when you are slicing the Jalapeno peppers! (Yes, that’s another thing I learned the hard way) I scoop out the seeds as well, because I’m kinda wimpy and have stomach ulcers, so I can’t take the heat.
I have another Jalapeno Pepper hint for you: If you didn’t read all of my instructions before you sliced and deseeded the pepper, your hands are probably on fire! Don’t touch your face!!! If you’re a man, don’t pee! (lol, I just thought of that!) The only thing that stopped my hands from burning like H-E-double-hockey-sticks was Dawn dish washing liquid. The original (blue) kind. You’ll have to lather, rinse, repeat until the burning stops. Dawn cuts the grease! The pepper seeds and membranes are apparently oily. =/

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this stuff, it’s the best salsa I’ve ever made.