Do the Salsa...

How do you get to spend time with your daughter who is miles and miles away from you in another state? Doing something together, at the same time, long distance……How? Get in the kitchen and cook the same thing simultaneously. Holly and I made homemade salsa yesterday. We tried the copycat version of Chili’s Salsa. Chili’s is my all time favorite restaurant for bottomless chips and salsa along with the queso sauce. So we decided to try our take on two of the recipes we found. We spent time together in the kitchen at the same time, most of time on the phone together talking, laughing, comparing, and then…….whining, screaming and shedding tears. Yep, you guessed it; Holly used fresh jalapeno peppers and did not use gloves while she cut them up. She managed to rub her eye…..then her nose. Thank goodness she did not have her contacts in, oh my, that would have been disastrous. She also managed to cut her thumb while chopping the onions.  Richard was there too, to help and give boo-boo kisses to make it better.  I, however, made a big mess but managed to survive just fine.

Well after the "burning" catastrophe we managed to laugh a little. But having washed her hands at least a hundred times, Holly's thumb was still burning, the thumb she used to scrape out the pepper seeds with.

Hot stuff!

Here’s our final rendition of the copycats.

Holly and Cora’s Version of Chili's Salsa

Ingredients

• 1 can diced tomatoes and green chilies
• 1 14.5 oz can whole peeled tomatoes, drained
• 1/4 cup sliced Vidalia onions
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin

• 1/4 teaspoon sugar, I added more 

• 2 tablespoons sliced jalapeños, diced (canned, not pickled) or your choice of hot peppers

Process for just a minute or two, the jalapenos and onions, in a food processor. Add both cans of tomatoes, salt, sugar, and cumin. Process all ingredients until well blended but do not totally puree. Add lime juice. Stir well. Place in covered container and chill. A couple of hours of chilling will help marry and enrich the flavor.

Serve with your favorite thin corn tortilla chips.

Making salsa is easy. You can make salsa just like Chili’s with our recipe. The canned tomatoes and green chilies make preparing this salsa easy. If using fresh ingredients like tomatoes and peppers, which I did, you will need to cook the salsa down until it gets to the thickness you desire. You can also can in jars if you make a larger quantity, which is what Holly did!

Going to try the queso sauce recipe next time…..YUM! Now if I could just figure out how to make their chips, so thin and delicious!

Warning…wear kitchen gloves when handling fresh jalapenos!
Do the Salsa…Cha~cha~cha