Yard Sauce and Salsa

I told you on Tuesday that the garden has been taking up lots of my time.  My tomatoes are coming in heavy.  I am not complaining.  I love it…but it is taking up lots of my time.

One of the main things I’ve been making is yard sauce.  I first heard about this two years ago while watching Priscilla and Chelsea on floss tube.  They were making yard sauce and told how to make it.

The recipe was one of those recipes that was so easy to make that I’d be a nut not to try making it…so I tried it.  I loved it.  The family loved it too.

Here’s what you do…quarter a cake pan of tomatoes, remove the core but the skins can be left on.  Add a green pepper, onion and basil.  I add a zucchini too if I have a small one that needs to get used up.  Add some salt and pepper.  Drizzle some olive oil over the top.  Roast in the oven for an hour on 350.

It comes out looking like this.

Let it cool a bit…then put it through the blender and you have a spaghetti sauce.  I use it a lot.  I make lasagna, egg plant parmesan, tomato basil soup…pretty much anything that needs a tomato sauce.  It’s so good.

After it’s done I do add some spices if desired…Itallian seasoning and garlic…maybe more salt and pepper depending on the taste.

The bonus to it all is that it can be put in freezer bags and frozen.

No canning needed.  YAHOO!!  Isn’t that awesome?  I told you it was too good to be true…not removing the skins.  No canning.  Win-Win.  Plus the bonus Win of tasting AMAZING…and using up zucchini.  Yes, please!!

Well I decided to experiment and try to make salsa using the same technique.  I did mostly the same thing.  I core and quartered tomatoes.  I cut and onion and green pepper.  I added a pack of taco seasoning.  I added some garlic too.  This time no basil but yes to jalepanos.

After it came out of the oven I pour some of the excess juice off of the tomato mixture.  I did save that and will use it for soups and such.

I put salt and pepper on along with red pepper.  I roasted it the same way, waited for it to cool and put it in the blender.  This time I just hit pulse a couple of times and still wanted some chunks.

From there I took it out of the blender and I added lime juice, corn, and black beans…YUM!  I did a taste test and added a bit more red pepper.  It wasn’t spicy enough.  Normally I think I would have added some cumin but…I didn’t have any.  This is how it turned out…

I really like it.  It has the same win-win status.  Still no taking off the skins and still I can freeze it and avoid canning.  YAHOO!!

I am super happy with this.   I’ve been eating chips and salsa like crazy.

Another added bonus to all of this is I can make a small batch at a time.  I don’t have to mess up the whole kitchen.  I am using all of my tomatoes as they ripen without waiting two weeks to get enough to bother with.  I’ve been making either a batch of yard sauce or salsa every other day.  I feel so accomplished without the big mess.  YAHOO!!

So those are the main things happening in my garden.  I don’t know that I’ve used a garden as much and as successfully as I have this year.  Often I’d peter out by now and gardening would be a drudgery.  I’m enjoying it more than ever and I think part of the reason is making yard sauce and salsa using this method.

If you haven’t…give it a try!!  I apologize for no exact measurements.  Much of it depends on your person taste when it comes to making salsa and spaghetti sauce.  I know some people might even want to add sugar but being I’m diabetic, I don’t.  Seriously, the recipe might seem to good to be true but it isn’t.