Salsa

So I got ambitious and afraid of wasting tomatoes from my garden, I decided to make some salsa. I was excited for that refreshing taste of home made delicious salsa, the kind that mom makes. I looked up on the computer how to make and can salsa and choose one that sounded alright. I just knew it had to have cilantro in it(I love the smell of cilantro).




So I pulled out as many ripe tomatoes as I could and got several from Katie's garden. I also bought some from the store and picked a day to get the job done.




Friday was my day. I followed the directions on how to peel the skins of the tomatoes and then core and seed them followed by chopping them. It was a long process but I was doing it. All by my self, no help, just me.




There is a certain satisfaction in doing something new and with your own hands. I really felt that, I did not imagine that I'd be doing this at least by myself, but here I was, hurray for me, I'm learning something new. I feel that it gives me a little more confidence in continuing to try things that I normally would not.




So I got through the 22 tomatoes that I had and it didn't even come to half of what I needed. The recipe called for 7 quarts of tomatoes and I think I had almost three quarts down. So I packed everyone up and went back to the store. I picked up about 24 more tomatoes and started the process all over again. My back was hurting and I was getting tired, but I could not back down now and there was no time to sit back and relax. I finished cutting up the tomatoes and realized that I still did not have enough tomatoes. So I added two more cans of diced tomatoes and only ended up being a quart and a half short.




I continued with the rest of the ingredients finishing up with the five jalapenos. I cut them in half and dug out the seeds with a spoon. I used the electrical chopper to chop it up( thinking it would be safer that way). I mixed everything up again and washed my hands real fast. I was in a hurry to get to Joseph's birthday party.




I took the pot of salsa with us to boil it and process it at Katie's house while getting the kids in the car. On the way my thumb started burning on the side of my nail. My first reaction was to suck on it to try and make it feel better, but the second I took my thumb out of my mouth, my tongue started burning. "That was real smart ," I thought to myself. I got to Katie's house and rushed the kids in. I related to story to Brenda , Katie's mother-in-law and she told me that I should try to soak my finger in a mixture of baking soda and water. I tried it and the burn went away the second I put it in the water. The relief only lasted for about 5 min and the burning returned. I continued to put ice on it for the rest of the night. The burning sensation continued to all of my fingers right at the cuticle and under my nails.




Man, I learned my lesson. I will use gloves next time I cut up jalapenos or be very, very careful to not get it all over my hands. Lesson learned.