The Great Salsa Endeavor

I haven't blogged in a while because we've been sort of sick, tired and busy. Eleanor picked up a bug her second week of daycare that has held on for the last 3 weeks. She is definitely better, but her nose continues to run and she has a cough when she wakes up in the morning. Seth and I have wondered if we've caught the same lingering sickness, not because we're seriously ill but because we seem to just drag these days.

Along with a general sense of sluggishness, I'm in the peak period of training for my marathon, so our days are filled with long, long runs. I'm really enjoying the training, the time outside and a sense of great accomplishment, but it's tough to spend so much time on the road and frustrating when I feel like I'm using all the energy I have some days out there and not on our family.

We also decided to embark upon a salsa making adventure. Neither Seth nor I have made much salsa, but we consume quite a bit and have been disappointed in the quality of salsa to be found in north central WY. So, when we received 6 pounds of tomatoes from our CSA share the same week that romas went on an awesome sale at Albertson's, we decided to seize the day! So far I've chopped, cooked and canned 19 pints of salsa. Yum! And we still have around 10 pounds of tomatoes on the counter... that's a lot more salsa to be.

(Now, I realize this picture would be TONS better if I'd taken the tomatoes out of their bags... but we're talking about our entire counter covered in tomatoes, peppers and onions... and a slightly-over-one-year-old who can now reach just about anything she wants off the counters.)

Oh, the salsa possibilities!

Batch #1: Fiesta Salsa
tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, anaheim peppers, jalapenos, green peppers and spices

Batch #2: Zesty Salsa
tomatoes, green peppers, jalapenos, onion and spices
Batch #3: Jalapeno Salsa
tomatoes, jalapenos (equal to the tomatoes!), onion, garlic and spices
Some of our finished goodness!

So, our current taste testers (me, Seth and Amanda) agree that the slightly spicy Jalapeno Salsa is the favorite. Thus, after a trip to the store for another 3 pounds of jalapenos we'll be ready for many more hours of chopping, cooking and canning bliss.