Cook: Garden Fresh Salsa

This past weekend my husband was super excited to harvest a few jalapeños form his plants. Yes, his plants. He said he wants the 4 jalapeño plants to be his little project so, I don't touch 'em. Plus, I can't handle any hot stuff so it works out. 

So he managed to harvest three jalapeños that were just right (or so he says). I asked him what we were going to do with them. Brian said he was going to save the seeds from one for next year and eat maybe one slice. Well, what do we do with the rest? 

Make salsa!

I did a quick Google search to find an easy recipe that we had the ingredients for and came up with this one here. I definitely adapted the recipe to our taste and what we had in the kitchen but that's where I got my starting point. 

Disclaimer: This salsa is NOT spicy or chunky! I don't like spicy or chunky salsa. Fortunately for those of you who do, the method is only slightly different! Simply dice up your ingredients and stir them together rather than blend. And for spice, you can leave the jalapeño seeds or add in your favorite hot sauce! Easy peasy! 

Oh and this makes a lot of salsa! I got two full 16oz jars and two full 8oz jars. I used old salsa jars and jelly jars. I definitely want to double the recipe and then can it with my mom soon! Fresh salsa all year long would be fantastic!

Ingredients: 

• 2-3 large tomatoes
• 16oz can of tomato paste
• 1/2 - 1 cup of water
• 1 can of petite cut tomatoes (or not, I had it so I tossed it in)
• 1-2 jalapeños (I only used one)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic (or 1 tsp of garlic powder)
• 3 teaspoons onion powder (or 1 onion)
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 2 Tablespoons parsley (fresh is great too!)
• 3 Tablespoons lemon juice (or lime. Fresh is best!)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar

No tomato paste? No problem! Check out this version for an alternate way of preparing this!

Directions:

Cut up your produce. Remember to wear gloves and don't touch your face when you cut up the jalapeño! Remove the seeds if you don't like spicy salsa or keep them in if you're feeling brave!

Toss all your ingredients into the blender.

It's like a fiesta going on in there!

Blend on puree but only for a few seconds. It doesn't need much. 

Inhale and try not to drool into the salsa.

At this point do, break out the tortilla chips and do a taste test! Add more tomato chunks, hot sauce, another splash of lemon juice or whatever you want! That's exactly what Brian and I did. At first I tried to follow the original recipe just with extra tomato (in various forms) so it came out very tomato-y. So I added a little of this, a little of that and suddenly, it was just right! Since there is so much tomato in this salsa, it is very tomato-y but the best part is, you can customize this to your taste in no time! 

I put three of these right into the freezer so they would hopefully last us a little longer. The 4th one is now half empty. That's how good this stuff turned out! 

Oh and it looks so pretty too! I may need to just make this in large batches and not go back to store bought! Although, I do love me some Newman's Own Mild Salsa!

The tomatoes we used were from a friend's garden so we were so excited to use them in a delicious recipe! I think it would amazing for all of the ingredients to be straight from the garden! Mmm!

My plan for next year either at our house or my parent's house is to plant a Salsa Garden. It's one of those new things sweeping the internet. I think it would be really cool to do a themed garden like that, though. Or at least one section of the garden. Mine would have big tomatoes, jalapeños, onions, garlic, cilantro, and parsley planted in it.

If that chip looks funny you're right. It's actually a failed tortilla. More on that later.

What's your favorite brand of salsa? Do you make your own? What would you plant in your salsa garden?

Till next time,
Catherine

I linked up this post with Nourishing Treasures' Make Your Own Monday!

I've linked up this post with Feeding Big's In and Out of the Kitchen Link Party #29!

I've linked up to Hearthfelt Hopes #7 with The Aliso Kitchen!



I've linked up to Less Laundry, More Linking #12 with Life After Laundry and Sensational Creations.

I've linked up to the Pinworthy Projects Link Party 10/18/13 with Just Us Four, Planned In Pencil, and Atkinson Drive!

DIY: Pillow Covers {Guest Post!}

This is my very first guest post!! My good friend Catherine (yep, same name and same spelling!) made sure to document her first attempt at making pillow covers and I'm so glad she did! I want to try it now!

How to make your own pillow covers at home for cheap! 

What you'll need:

• More than enough fabric for the size pillows you have
• Ugly pillows that need a face lift
• Scissors
• Matching thread
• Sewing machine

These perfectly sized (clean) pillows were at Goodwill for $1 each! What an awesome score!

My living room theme is animal prints and so I found this awesome animal print to use! I got 1.33 yards of each style for about 18"x18" pillows. It was more than enough but it's better to have too much than not enough! Even so, you could probably get away with 1 yard per standard sized toss pillow.

Directions:

Iron all the wrinkles out of the fabric. 

Cut the fabric down to size. It was about 20"x40". Then fold it in half. 

Keep the fabric inside out and sew 3 of the 4 sides with approximately 1" inseam. Leave one side open so you can easily slip the pillow inside. 

Stuff the pillow inside then hand sew the final side together. Check out this awesome tutorial to do a fancy hidden stitch. 

Now toss them on the couch, sit back, relax and enjoy! 

Don't those look so great? She did such an awesome job! Thank you, Catherine for documenting and providing my little blog with its very first guest post! We'll be looking for more fantastic projects from you soon!

Have you ever made your own pillow covers? Don't you just love that green zebra print?

Till next time,

Catherine

DIY-How to Shorten Window Blinds

How to Shorten Window Blinds 

or

How to Make It Look Like Your Potential Adopted Dog Didn't Destroy the Bottom of Your Blinds

Uhm...yea, about that. 

Long story short, we did a "home trial" with a dog we wanted to adopt. It didn't work out but it's in the best interest of us and more importantly, the dog. Maybe I'll write about him tomorrow. Anyone want a super sweet dog? 

I knew it was possible to shorten blinds but I didn't know how or how extremely easy it is! Here's a step by step tutorial which applies to just about all horizontal blinds. 

Assess the damage. Err...I mean...drop the blinds to their full length to see how much it needs to be shortened. 

My wonderful husband (and his long arms) took care of trading the blinds. Fortunately, the blinds downstairs in the living room (that got ripped) are the same length and width as the guest bedroom. The living room windows are also much longer than the guest bedroom window so it worked out so perfectly.

Here are the broken blinds on the shorter window. The bottom in tact rung is just above the windowsill...perfect!

Remove the plugs from the bottom bar of the blinds. With nicer blinds it's easier to remove it but we had to use pliers. There will be one on each side. 

Pull the knot out from inside the bar and untie it for each one. 

Then pull that vertical thicker string (from both sides) out of the rungs you'll be removing, then pull them out to the desired length. Or in my case, till all the broken rungs are removed. 

Simply slide the bottom bar back through the "rope ladder."

Slip the thicker string through the holes. 

Tie a new knot. We did slip knots just to make it easier if it ever needs to be done again.

Stuff the knot into the hole.

Push the plug back in. 

Cut the excess strings. You can either tie the "rope ladder" rungs underneath the bottom bar or just leave one "rope ladder" rung in tact. It's not noticeable either way. 

Now stand back and enjoy a set of blinds that fit your window perfectly! 

How easy was that?

Way easier than I expected, that's for sure. 

Now I just need to get some stinkin' curtains up!! 

Do you have blinds that need to be cut to size? Any suggestions for DIY curtains or cheap (but thick) curtains? 

Till next time,

Catherine

Cook-Strawberry Freezer Jam

I've been learning lately that there are many things in our daily lives that we use or consume that we don't realize how simple it is to make it ourselves!

One of these things is strawberry jam (or any jam, really). Yes, jam! It only requires 3 ingredients and takes maybe 15 minutes to make a 6-8 cup batch that will last you months!

Why haven't I been doing this for years?!

Oh and for anyone wondering, jam is made with the FRUIT, jelly is made with the JUICE! I learned that maybe a year ago and it blew my mind. It's the little things, right?

Moving on.

Brian and I went strawberry picking this past weekend and had over 10 quarts (about 15lbs) of strawberries to eat and use!

We've been eating strawberries since we headed home from the strawberry farm! We also prepared and froze a gallon and a half of them, made smoothies and now, freezer jam!

I always thought if you made things like jam you had to can them but that's not true! This recipe is so simple and easy and after the jam sets, you can pop it into the freezer until you need it!

Ingredients:

• Pectin (I used Sure-Jell but there are other brands that are good)
• 4 cups of sugar (raw, unbleached, organic is best!)
• 2 cups of mashed strawberries (over 4 cups whole)
• 1/4 cup of water

Directions:

Gather and prepare your ingredients. Sure-Jell has a great insert in the box with directions for many kinds of jams and jellies. Sure-Jell has one packet in the box and you use the entire thing. 

Wash your strawberries. 

Hull them. 

Mash them! The fun part! I used my potato masher but I'm sure something like an immersion blender would work as well. Mash them but don't puree them because jam is best with chunks of fruit!

Mine measured at a little over 2 cups. 

 Pour your sugar into another bowl. I know, 4 cups of sugar is A LOT of sugar. I read from many sources that you can't use any more or less because the pectin won't set correctly. Sure-Jell also makes a low-sugar/no-sugar pectin as well which I plan to try soon!

Pour the strawberries into the sugar and mix well.

Mix the water and pectin together in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil for about a minute, stirring constantly. Don't let it get away from you!

When it's done boiling, pour the pectin/water mixture into the strawberry/sugar mixture and stir constantly until the sugar is well dissolved.

Now pour it into cups, bowls, jars, Pyrex or whatever you want to store it in. Be sure they have been washed thoroughly to keep any bacteria out. This is especially crucial if you are canning this recipe. Leave about an inch or more of space between the jam and the top of the jars to allow for expansion. 

I used two 2-cup size plastic containers (Ziploc brand?) and two small jars that previously had jam in them. I estimate they hold about a cup each.

Be sure to leave the lids off or just resting on top for 24 hours to let the jam set properly. 

If you're putting them in the freezer right away, leave the lids off until they're fully frozen, ESPECIALLY if you're using glass! 

Once it's fully set, spread on some toast, have a PB&J or just eat it by the spoonful! This stuff is awesome! 

Best PB&J on the block! On homemade bread, of course! 

Have you ever made your own homemade jam or jelly? What's your favorite combo of fruit? I want to try triple berry!

Till next time,

Catherine