A Girl Named Kelly Kelly

The salsa turned out perfect! I was so amazed and happy! It really wasn't as big a job as I had thought it would be. Nan said the reason was because we went ahead and peeled our tomatoes earlier in the week and froze them. I took them out Friday night and put them in the fridge overnight to thaw. I think if you had to do the tomatoes and all the other stuff in one day, it would be a huge job. I'm hoping to get some more tomatoes and make another batch. This time I'm going to use a recipe that Suz is going to get from Jason's grandmother. It's a sweet salsa she said. Sounds really good.

Here's the exact recipe that I followed yesterday. Nan used quart jars and it made four quarts. I put mine in half-pint jars and a few pint-sized ones. I want to share some of mine, so I thought the smaller jars would work better.

CHILE V'S RED HOT CANNING SALSA
20 cups tomatoes (peeled and chopped)
10 cups onion ( I used Vidalia)
8 sweet banana peppers (chopped) (mine weren't sweet banana, but Anaheim. I think sweet banana would be better)
15 jalapenos (chopped)
5 cloves garlic (minced) (We used the already minced in the jar)
1 green bell pepper (chopped)
1 red bell pepper (chopped)
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
Juice of 2 limes
1 handful of cilantro (chopped)
4 tablespoons chile powder
5 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons cayenne pepper

First, we drained some of the liquid off of the tomatoes.

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepot. Bring mixture to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes or until mixture has thickened. (Ours cooked over an hour.)
Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles with a wooden spoon. Put lids on, then tighten bands. Process 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Before we could even begin to make the salsa, I had to go to the fruit stand to get the rest of my peppers. The jalapenos came out of Jeff's garden, as did the tomatoes, of course. But the onion and the other peppers I bought at this fruit stand not far from my mom and dad's house.
I wanted to decorate the tops of my jars with some cute fabric. But I didn't have any and everyone that I called didn't have any either. I had in mind something with peppers or tomatoes. So I quickly ran to Hobby Lobby and bought some fabric and pinking shears. I was sorry I didn't have more time to look around. They had so many pretty things. They've got the fall decorations and even Christmas stuff out. I wanted to look at the fall stuff. It's a bit too early for Christmas for me.
Here is what I chose. I got three different kinds.
Before we could get started, we had to have one of Nan's delicious pimento cheese sandwiches. She's one of the best cooks I know. I'm so blessed to have so many great cooks in my family. You would think I would take after at least one of them.
After the salsa had cooked for a little more than an hour, it was time for a taste test. We put salsa on a chip and didn't tell the taster which chip had whose salsa on it.
The tasters didn't choose a winner for "Best Salsa." They were equally good, Nan's turned out a teensy bit hotter than mine. Mine picked up more of the tomato flavor. I guess Jeff's peppers aren't as hot as Ronnie's.

I was so pleased with the way it turned out. Much better than I expected. Thanks to an awesome Cuisinart food processor, the chopping was a breeze.
Remember the 1200 pictures I told y'all I had ordered from Shutterfly. Well, they came last Monday.
That is a huge job! I started putting them in albums. I began with our vacation at Tybee. I made over 200 pictures of that trip. It took literally all night to put them in an album. Like I've mentioned, I'm a little over the top about pictures. I like them to be in chronological order. I mean, who wants to be looking at an album with pictures of eating the birthday cake before you've blown out the candles.

Jeff's been at his football tryouts every night. Tuesday night I went to Buford and Suz and I got ourselves some retail therapy. We went into one of our favorite stores, Sephora. I think we probably spent over an hour in there. All the makeup sure makes pretty pictures.
I've got a big bag of stuff to give Alayna. She's really into makeup. I cleaned out a couple of makeup bags and got all the things I don't use anymore to give her.
And I've decided to go to some of Jeff's practices. I actually enjoy them very much. I like to see what's going on and taking up so much of his time. And as the old saying goes, behind every good man is a WOMAN.

Here he is running sprints with the kids. They thought that was pretty cool and wanted him to run all five of them with them. He only ran one. He is 47 years old, you know.
Look at my pretty crepe myrtle tree. I love the hot pink blooms. They sure are a mess when the wind blows. Little pink flowers go everywhere.
That is one mess I don't mind.

Hope you all have a blessed Sunday and get to spend time resting and getting ready for a new week. Till tomorrow.