Homemade Salsa

I never got around to canning salsa last year, so I was excited to give it a try this year.  I was able to find a box of canning tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market for only $10, and the onions & peppers cost another $10.  So far I have been able to squeeze this extra money out of my grocery budget.

 

Yesterday I chopped the onions, green peppers (2 of Ben’s favorite ingredients…JJJKJT), banana peppers, and chili peppers.  I had to roast the chili peppers first.  In Colorado we buy them already roasted, but here in Virginia they have never heard of that.  I just put them in the oven for 25 minutes at 425 degrees.  This is what they looked like:

 

I probably should have bought more, but I didn’t know exactly how many I needed, or how many batches of salsa I would get out of my tomatoes.  Ben likes spicy salsa, and I prefer the sweet.  I don’t have a stock pot big enough to do a double batch at one time, so I ended up doing two separate batches.  The first was sweet.  I got eight pints and one half pint jar, plus a little extra in the refrigerator.  Then I did a batch of hot salsa.  I had to add some cayenne pepper & hot sauce to get it hot enough for Ben.  I also put in 6 jalapeño peppers (I nearly choked getting them chopped up because the smell was so strong).  We got seven pint jars of hot salsa (I ran out of jars), and a bit in the refrigerator.  My feet are tired and my house is hot, but it’s done!

 

Sweet on the left, Spicy on the right.