{Recipes} Salsa - the food not the dance

Eagerly I watched Taylor as he poured over my new blog format.

Me: Do you like it?

Tay: It's great!  I love how the "nest" looks twiggy.  And that effect on our picture looks so cool, but what's up with your "recipes" button?  That is just sad.

Fair enough.  I guess one recipe doesn't quite cut it for a whole button, so let's beef it up.

This weekend we had dinner with some new friends from the States, so naturally Tex-Mex was on the menu -  Chicken Enchiladas to be exact, so chips and salsa was basically a mandate.

Now I figured out really quickly back when we lived in North Carolina that nobody knows how to make salsa like they do in Texas.  Well I guess they probably do in Mexico too since that is the sole reason Tex-Mex exists in the first place - on that note:

Gracias Mexico, for seeing tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, and cilantro as a sufficient vegetable side for a meal. Now if only you could convince my husband...

I had to remedy this lack of edible salsa by making my own.  Mind you this was back when it took me hours to complete a 30 Minute Meal by Rachael Ray, so I wasn't too confident in my ability to make up a recipe by myself. For this, I turned to our good family friend and amazing cook, Kathe Baker. I flipped through her cookbook born out of cooking for loads of people at a time at Camp Redcloud, and voila!  Salsa.  Really good salsa.  I'm actually waffling on whether or not I should give it to you after all so that when I make it for you, you are really impressed with my blender skills.

I am very particular about my salsa.  Give me Lupe Tortilla's fajitas all day long.  Papasitos' enchiladas hit the spot too.  But warm salsa?  I don't think so. In my opinion Guadalajara's is the best.  Cold, chunky, and fresh.  Wow, maybe I should go into writing cheesy commercial jingles - geez!

Kathe's recipe fits the bill. Plus, it's really easy - no chopping required if you want to test out how good your blender is.

I did modify it a bit due to lack of some ingredients and a love for garlic:

Tex-Mex Salsa:

• 2 roma tomatoes
• 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained
• 1/2  medium sized onion (I do actually quarter this ahead of time since I have to chop it in half anyway.  This does help so that you don't have to blend too long which makes the tomato too mushy)
• a handful of cilantro (coriander for those of you in the UK - why do they call it that?  Cilantro just sounds tastier and more exotic... Nevermind.  I answered my own question.)
• 1 jalapeno (I take out some of the seeds if guests are coming to dinner.  If it's just Tay and me, I leave them all in - we are big fans of food that makes our noses run.  Taylor calls it full contact eating.)
• 1 tsp kosher or sea salt
• 1 tsp cumin
• dash of garlic salt
• a couple of shakes of tabasco

Blend it in your blender or food processor till desired consistency (not long!).

Salud!