Since you cannot get a good Tex-Mex Salsa her in Germany, a friend and I decided to make homemade salsa.  It was an all day endeavor.  We made approximately 2.5 gallons.  I must say for our first batch of salsa we did a pretty good job.  So, we started with approximately 60 tomatoes, threw in a bunch of bell peppers...red, green, and yellow....added salt, pepper, vinegar, and tomato paste....approximately 4 tubes....and then cooked it for what seemed like forever.


  Here Gail and I are chopping the tomatoes.  Notice we forgot to take the skin off first....oops.  We remembered after chopping about 12 of our 60 + tomatoes.  Besides the skin just curled up and was easy to pick out of the salsa after cooking.
 


Hunter and Gail both like their salsa thick so we thickened up our salsa with tomato paste.  I don't think we could have gotten it any thicker than what you see here.  (This is my friend Gail.  She is the head librarian at BFA) 



Here we are making our first attempt at canning.  I just want you to know that those jars placed in boiling hot water are hot to take out especially after sitting in hot water for 15 minutes.  We did not have any canning equipment.  We just made do with the pots and kettles we could find in our kitchens.




Here is the finished product!  Wahoo!  We did it! Can you believe it?  It you had told me that I would be making and canning homemade salsa several months ago, I'd have laughed.  But, between Gail and myself we got the job done it I must say it tastes great!  So, we are planning on doing this again when we finish off these jars. 




Chips and salsa anyone?