Sock It To Me Salsa

Ben LOVES salsa. Boy, does that boy love salsa. He likes it spicy too. He seems to think spicy food is challenging him. Daring him, in fact. And he can not back down from a dare because then the salsa would win.

He eats so much salsa that I decided we should start making our own. We could make larger batches of it as well as use organic ingredients and cut out preservatives and unnecessary fillers.

We used this great recipe from the Muir Glen site:

Ingredients

2 cans (14.5 oz each) Muir Glen® organic fire roasted or plain diced tomatoes, well drained
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
1 to 2 fresh jalapeño or serrano chiles, seeded, finely chopped

Preparation Directions
1. In medium bowl, stir together all ingredients.
2. Serve with tortilla chips as desired.

Ben made the salsa himself. He had already chopped the onion, jalapenos, cilantro, and garlic before I got home.

He even opened the cans by himself. Ah, self sufficiency. At least I know he won't starve when he goes off to college if he can open a can of soup.

Since he's not so in love with chopping things by hand, he rough chopped everything enough that it would fit into a blender, poured in the juice from the tomatoes and gave it a few quick pulses. It looks more like guacamole than salsa, but keep in mind the tomatoes are not in here yet. He likes the tomatoes to be somewhat chunky, so he leaves them out of the blender.

Then he added all the green stuff to the remaining tomatoes in the bowl. I know, it's still not pretty.

Just on a side note: you really do want to use the Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes in this. That's what makes this such a better recipe than the others we've tried.

It was about this time that I noticed the salsa was still a lot greener than usual. I double checked the recipe and asked him how many jalapenos he used. "Five or six," he told me.

Now, if you'll notice the recipe calls for 1 to 2.

"How much cilantro did you use?"
"I don't know......a handful," he said.

"How much garlic?"

"Six cloves."

The recipe calls for two cloves.

This salsa is best after it sits overnight in the fridge, but of course we wanted to go ahead and sample it.

"My eyes are watering," said Ben.

"My throat is burning," said I.

"You're welcome," grinned Ben.