The Honest Courtesan

Apparently, the weird weather we had at Sunset this year favored tomatoes, because we had quite a few. I’ve made fried green tomatoes 3 times and will probably make more; I also have some green cherry tomatoes that I’ll be using for mincemeat if the apple trees cooperate.  But we had far more ripe cherry tomatoes than we could use for salad (because I don’t eat salad), so I decided to make salsa (which is a staple in this house thanks to Grace).  What you see in the picture below is two pounds of cherry tomatoes; I chopped them up pretty thoroughly in my ninja, then finely chopped half a medium-sized onion, half a bell pepper and four cloves of garlic, and sauteed them for a few minutes in two tablespoons of olive oil.  I mixed that with the tomatoes and added the following: 1 small can (4 oz) of diced, roasted green chiles; two tbsp each of vinegar, cilantro, and chili powder; and ¹/₂ tsp each of salt, granulated garlic, extra-hot (Indian) chili powder, cayenne, and MSG.  Now, I didn’t just dream up those proportions; I started with half the tomatoes and none of the spices, and Grace and I repeatedly taste-tested the salsa, adding or increasing ingredients as we went, until about two hours later we had something we were both happy with.  It made enough for two pints and a bit left over, and the full jars are in the canner right now as I type this.  I’ll let you know how it comes out, but I think we may have a winner!