Co-op Salsa

                               
Husband works at a gas station. A few days ago his boss, sent him home with 2 large shopping bags FULL of fresh tomatoes.

When he brought them home I glanced through my shopping list, frantically trying to find SOMETHING, to do with the plethora of lycopene that had been bestowed upon us. Low and behold, we were out of salsa.

Husband loves to take salsa and chips to work with him, so we run out pretty quickly. Needless to say, the tomato timing, was perfect, and not just because of our lack of chip dip.

This is the last day we are dogsitting for my parents, who are visiting family (yes, Mickey Mouse is family) in California. So we decided to utilize the ample space provided  in their kitchen, use all 30 tomatoes, and go all out.  Husband made a stewed salsa, and I chose to make a Pico de Gallo (a la Emeril. BAM!)

I started by coring and dicing 10 varying sizes of tomatoes, which measured out to about  8 cups, and quintupled the size of my recipe!

Next, I diced one large, red onion. 

I had to leave the kitchen several times to prevent my eyes from falling out, or adding any unnecessarily saline to the mix. After I ran around flapping my hands at my face, I  regained eyesight, and slap-chopped 2 large jalepenos.

                                                                   

                                                                        I like it spicy.

Now, I will admit that even though, I enjoy fresh, hand prepared ingredients in almost ALL of my meals, but sometimes,  I cheat a little. Thankfully, I can still make it sound fancy.

 So, in went 1/2 a cup of hand poured lime juice (plus a few splashes), and 1/4 a cup of home-scooped-from-a-jar, diced garlic.  Finally, I added my favorite part, chopped cilantro.

Seriously. You should smell this kitchen. It's heavenly.

I served this to myself with avocado and tortilla chips and I'm enjoying every bite. 

If you want to make this yourself, here's Emeril's outline. Have fun with it. I made it spicier and added more lime.

 Husband used the same ingredients, but blanched the tomatoes, used more peppers and simmered it all on low for about 4 hours.

This was all quite fun, and now I must find a small army to feed this to.

Pwn Appetit,

Sunshyne