Salsa Recipe

We're a smooth salsa family! What I mean is, is that we prefer smooth salsa over the chunky--although, I'll eat both with gusto. I judge a Mexican restauant by the quality of its salsa. I judge the quality of the salsa by this--if it is SO good that I could just eat it with a spoon and not even need the chips! My 3 favorite restaurant salsas are as follows:

1. Chilis
2. La Carretta (Merrillville, IN)
3. Chipotle's hot salsa

These are 3 very different types of salsa, but all delicious. I have been on a quest to make my own salsa that could rival any good restaurant salsa. Jessica and I have come up with this recipe, which so far is the best homemade salsa I have made yet. My sister-in-law had a scrumptious Mexican dinner catered, and the salsa was delicious! I asked the caterer what her ingredients were, and that's why I ended up adding the cumin and oregano which were a great addition to my original recipe. My whole family has loved this recipe, and when I ask if they would change anything, they all offer a resounding, "NO!"  I hope you enjoy it as well:

Throw all of these ingredients into a food processor:

1/2  of a  28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1/3 of an onion
1 palm (the palm of your hand) full of fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 1/2 tbsp. cumin
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 lg. or 2 small jalapeno peppers (I just cut off the ends and chop into chunks--seeds and all)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. lime (I use either bottled lime or fresh)
3 tsp. apple cider vinegar

I whir up all these ingredients until it's smooth. Then add the remainder of the can of tomatoes and finish blending in the food processor.

We tend to go lighter on onion than most salsas do and heavier on the jalapeno than some people like, but of course, you can adjust it to your liking.

Sunday Dinner!

I couldn't help it-- I had to take pictures because Sunday dinner was worth remembering today!  The best part was eating it, but the second best part was the easy preparation.  Our friends, Lloyd and Debbie, gave us a lovely package of chuck steak, and I knew immediately that it would make some great Italian beef--and oh, was it sooooooo good. There really isn't a recipe. You can use about 4-6 lb of chuck steak or sirloin--I've even used a chuck roast (just make sure it doesn't have a lot of fat).  Throw it in the crock pot along with 1 jar of pepporcinis and let it cook a good long time--about 8 hrs. on low should do it. I have even let it cook overnight. I even got a great deal on fresh, baked hard rolls at Food 4 Less. The bakery bakes the rolls fresh every morning. They charge $1 for 3 rolls. I bought some white, wheat, and poppyseed. I made some homemade salsa on Saturday evening and a big pitcher of tea. We hate to be unsociable, but we pretty much ran home today from church and enjoyed a great meal. Hope the rest of you had a great Sunday meal too!

Confessions of a Lazy Cook

     Once upon a time I used to be a pretty good cook, and when I really want to, I can still pull off a great meal. The problem is that the urge to really want to be a good cook hits me a lot less than it used to. I'm not sure why.
       Anyhow, the urge to make some muffins for our ladies Bible study hit me the other day while I was out grocery shopping.  It wasn't one of those "make it from scratch" urges, but more like "make it look like it came from scratch" urges. My Aunt Pat used to work at the Jiffy Mix plant in Chelsea, Michigan while I was growing up, so I picked up some blueberry muffin mix--the one with those little bits of fake blueberry in them. Jessica and I decided to soup up the muffin mix by adding a couple of tablespoons full of fresh-squeezed orange juice and putting a crumb mixture on the top of the muffins.  Jessica said that I should add the crumb mixture after the muffins came out the oven, but nooooooooo, I knew better and put the crumb mixture on before the muffins went in the oven.
      This was the result of the doctored up blueberry muffins:

     Not pretty!  They were too embarrassing to take to the ladies Bible study, so we ate them, and I must admit, they were really good.  The brown sugar crumble topping sank to the bottom to create a gooey, sticky, yummy surprise. Jessica laughingly said that these were the best muffins she ever had!
     I added just a little extra flour to the rest of the batter and added the crumble mixture until after I removed the muffins from the oven, and the next batch ended up much prettier. Now I can take them to the Bible study with my head held high--who cares how they taste as long as they look good? Actually, I'd rather have ugly food that tastes good than pretty food that tastes poor, but my vanity got the best of me this time.