We always make homemade salsa and in fact that is half the reason we grow a garden. Here is my super simple technique. It will take a bit longer if you don;t have a food processor, but just get a friend to help you chop. This will be enough to feed a small army.

• 12 med size fresh tomatoes
• 3 large peeled cloves of garlic
• 1 large onion
• 1 bunch of fresh cliantro
• large handful of peppers, 6-10 your choice, we use jalapenos, cayenne, gypsy, poblano, and Anaheim, sometimes habanera
• salt to taste

you will want chips to eat it with, we cook our own, see note below

Start by washing all of your ingredients. We will be using a food processor with the bottom mixing blade. Not the slicer or shredding disc. We will be using the pulse button.

Step #1 – Start with 6 of the tomatoes cut in half, cover and puree by pulsing several times, then put in mixing bowl.

Step #2 – Place garlic and cilantro in processor, cover and pulse until coarsely chopped.

Add to mixing bowl.

Step #3- Add all peppers, if big then cut in half or quarters, also add onion, peeled and quartered. Cover and pulse until chopped.

Add to mixing bowl.

Step #4 – Add remaining 6 tomatoes quartered, cover and pulse slightly only until diced in large chunks.

Add to mixing bowl.

Final step – Mix well and add salt to taste. Then refrigerate for 30 minutes to let flavors blend.

Homemade salsa is great on many things but best with home cooked tortillas. Take a stack of corn tortillas and cut the whole stack in 4ths using a butcher knife. Then separate and cook each in hot oil. We use a deep fryer and tongs. Be careful and only cook for a few seconds each. Drain on paper towels. You will think you are eating in a Mexican restaurant! Ole!

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use the same recipe as the vegetable burritos, but substitute fajita seasoning and use small tortillas and add a bit of cheese and sour cream on top

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At our house we love Mexican food. I should say LOVE. We are sort of part Mexican, not by heredity but geographically, we are from California. Add to that I have this cooking thing in my blood, if I can imagine the taste I can make it. Well, last time I said something about all the wonderful peppers in my garden someone suggested we make chili rellenos. That was a thought I could not escape. But none of our peppers were the kind big enough to stuff. So what is my big  tip? Improvise!

What we came up with is a chili relleno casserole of sorts. First we start the sauce, in your blender add 5 squeezed fresh tomatoes, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 onion diced, and 1 red bell pepper diced,  puree. Pour into sauce pan and turn on med. Then into a bowl add the other half diced onion, and 12 to 15 chopped peppers. We used some sort of chili pepper (I forget all that we planted) bell peppers and several jalapenos, yes we like to live on the edge.

Then go back to your blender and add 3 fresh eggs, whip till frothy, then add one and a half cups flour, a T of baking powder and 1 cup milk, blend a little more until well mixed.

Then take a large skillet an add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, heat to frying temp. Pour in the batter, and add peppers on one side (think stuffed omelet). Then add 2 cups shredded fiesta blend cheese.

Turn your pan down and cover. Meanwhile your sauce should be bubbling and thickening.

When you have determined your batter is done, use a large spatula and flip empty side up on top of stuffed side. Again think omelet. Cover pan back up and leave on low until inside is thoroughly cooked, or take out of pan and microwave a bit more if the outside is cooking before the inside.

Then serve on plate with sauce spooned over it. This has the same flavor as a chili relleno and is absolutely addictive! Even when Hannah adds too many jalapenos and you are breathing fire. They like it that way around here. You could roast the peppers first but we like the not-all-the-way-cooked fresh taste.

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I love salads but I do not especially love making them. I don’t like the bagged greens as much as the fresh in a bundle ones. I especially like fresh spinach and either butter lettuce or green leaf. One huge helper has been this trusty salad spinner. I got one for us and another for my married daughter. You simply rinse your greens then tear them up and put in the spinner, add more water and spin! It spins the excess water right off so you don’t have soggy greens and your dressing isn’t runny and watered down. Then you can add all of your chopped veggies and some dressing and wa la! A wonderful salad! We only like to make as much salad as will be eaten at the meal, but we do go ahead and do the whole amount of greens and keep them in the spinner in the fridge. They keep well this way without getting soggy . So yeah unsoggy salads work for me!

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enough baked potatoes for your family

and for each potato

• 1 T. butter
• 2 T. sour cream
• 1/2 cup grated cheese
• 1/4 t. cajun seasoning

• toppings such as diced green onions and chopped bacon pieces, another half cup cheese and another dollop of sour cream

Take each baked potato and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out the inside leaving just a shell. Put the scooped out potato insides in a mixing bowl and add all the filling ingredients. Mash the potato insides and blend together with the filling ingredients mixing well. Then put back in the shells. Top each potato half with more cheese, and place all potatoes in a baking dish with melted butter in the bottom. Bake on 350 degrees just long enough to melt the cheese. Then top each potato with a dollop of sour cream, green onions, bacon pieces.

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