More Tomatoes--Homemade Salsa!

The tomatoes just keep coming and coming.  I bring in 20-30 everyday!  Its quite overwhelming.  My mom just told me last night that her neighbor actually freezes whole tomatoes to use them in the winter to make sauces.  Apparently after they defrost the skins peel right off.  Anyone try that before?  I think I may try it because I really don't have time to make homemade sauce every week.  But homemade salsa, that's a different story.  Its much easier and for hot summer days, chips and salsa is a refreshing snack.  Over the past few months we have been enjoying a delicious and all-natural Garden Salsa from Costco, but its not exactly that cheap.  I can now make my own and its quite delicious too!  Its a friends recipe.  Here's what you need (what I used):

15-20 diced Roma tomatoes (or a combination of different kinds)

1/2 bag of frozen corn (about 8-10 ounces)

1 small jalapeno pepper, diced (more or less depending on how much spice like)

4 gloves of garlic, minced 

1/4-1/3 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped

1 12 oz. can of crushed tomatoes

1/4 fresh lime juice (or lemon)

1/2 large onion, diced

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the above and enjoy!  You can change the amounts above according to the taste you like.  I actually put most of the stuff (except the corn) into my awesome food processor (picture on the right from Amazon) and it made it so quick and easy.  It yielded about 8 cups for me.  I put it in Mason jars and its kept for over a week now in the refrigerator.  

TOMATOES and my homemade sauce experience.

Oh, my....my garden is doing fabulous!  I have harvested over 100 Roma and regular tomatoes in the last week and there are loads and loads more to come!  I can't believe it!  And you know the really funny thing? My husband and I don't even like them very much.  We better start liking them right?!?  Don't get me wrong, I love them in sauces and salsas and they like, but not raw in a salad or on a sandwich.  I made my first batch (well more like 2-3 times the recipe) of my own sauce on Saturday. It turned out quite tasty, but it was really labor intensive.  Peeling and seeding 40-50 little tomatoes took quite some time.  For a mom of three young boys I can't make that a regular thing on my "To-do" list.  I used some last night and have frozen the rest.  This is the basic recipe I used, but I didn't have the Burgundy wine.  I will try to add it next time.  I realIy enjoyed all the different types of veggies in it.   I may try to post more pictures and details at another time (haven't uploaded them yet).  I would love to learn how to do some canning so I could make some more sauce and also can some salsa for the winter months.  Tonight, I am going to make some homemade salsa that a friend made on Sunday (with some of our tomatoes).  I just got her recipe.  Itw as delicious and I have been craving it all day.  I'll let you know how that goes!  How's your garden?  Any ideas of what I can do with all these?  And I will pass them along to any of you local gals if interested. I'm still up for that veggie swap!   I have found so much joy blessing others with them!


Here's some pictures from the sauce making:

                     Placing the tomatoes in boiling water to be able to peel and seed them easily.

The ice bath to cool the tomatoes prior to peeling and seeding.

All the other veggies used for the sauce, diced and ready to go in the food processor.

The pureed veggies starting to simmer in the pot.

The finished sauce after 4 hours of simmering.  Yummy!