Salsa Anyone?

If you know my family, you know that chips & salsa is practically it's own food group. The Wagner food pyramid includes fruits & vegetables, grains, meat, dairy, fats & oils...and chips & salsa.

In fact, when Mom & Dad lived in Nebraska they had a salsa garden. No need for cucumbers, squash, lettuce or strawberries in this garden. We're talking salsa ingredients only - so Mom could can homemade salsa every year. Unfortunately, the Denver climate and soil does not produce tomatoes like those of us in the Midwest know and love. So in order to can salsa, Mom has to come to Kansas.

The salsa canning trip has become an annual tradition - this year was the 3rd. Every year we learn a new trick or technique (wear rubber gloves, use a pasta strainer when blanching the tomatoes, use disposable foil pans to divide the batches, and so on). Every year we get a little better at it. And every year, it seems, we buy more tomatoes.

This year's number: 170 lbs. of tomatoes. But who's counting.

Here we are on day 1 of our salsa canning adventures. Coring tomatoes:

Blanching and peeling tomatoes:

Slicing tomatoes:

Fortunately, it was a weekday so we were able to take Jackson to daycare. We cooked and canned for almost 10 hours and a total of 9 batches on day 1. By the last 2 hours I was cursing all things tomato. However, it was worth it. It made day 2 (only 4 batches left) a piece of cake. We were done by 10 am and were able to get cleaned up, enjoy a lovely lunch downtown and then pick up Jackson early for some extra play time.

All said and done we canned 34 quarts and 31 pints of salsa. Insane. Every year I think there's no way it will possibly get eaten. Every year it does.

Despite the work (and the mess, and the smell) it has become one of my favorite traditions. I enjoy spending the time in the kitchen with my Mom. And I enjoy having delicious homemade salsa to eat all year long.

Next time you're in the area, come on over. We'll have some chips & salsa!