Homemade Salsa

The last Monday of every month, Athletes In Action has a large group gathering called FalconLife on the campus of UW-River Falls. Before each meeting, snacks and refreshments are provided for the athletes (free food is a great way to get college students in the door). I thought it would be nice to prepare my homemade salsa for these student-athletes. I remember being a college student and missing home. At times, the most loving thing that can be done for a college student is to bring them something homemade.

My little sister Amy was the first in our family to dive into making salsa. Since her first batch, she and I have constantly tried to put a new spin on her original recipe. The salsa that I made tonight, however, was the closest to her original recipe that I have made in a very long time.

Salsa is very easy to make and very difficult to screw up. Basically, it's a bunch of chopped tomatoes, olives and chiles. Everything else can be substituted, duplicated or omitted all together. I always use green onions and garlic, but some try to stay away from the onion/garlic breath. It all depends on the occasion and the mood that you're in.

I always chop the tomatoes first. Tonight I used my "As Seen On TV" onion chopper. I go back and forth between this, the food processor and cutting the tomatoes by hand. The tomatoes turn out differently with each option. In the food processor, the tomatoes become very runny or liquidity. The onion chopper has less liquid, but cutting by hand makes the least amount of liquid (best for tacos, etc.). I also chopped the olives and ORANGE pepper in the chopper. I used orange for the season, of course.

I chose not to add black beans or corn for this batch because I needed to whip it up quickly, but I usually put these two ingredients in. Tonight it contained tomatoes, olives, diced green chiles, green onions, garlic, olive oil, a pinch of sugar, salt, fresh cilantro, lime juice, lemon juice and the orange pepper. Orange peppers are typically "sweet," but this one was oddly spicy. It gave an unexpected kick to this salsa. It was a great addition.

Like always, the salsa was an absolute hit. Everyone loved it and a few of us even hung around after the meeting and mingled over what was left. Fortunately, for me, I did bring some home with me, so I'll be able to enjoy some at lunch tomorrow.

Ingredients:
7 tomatoes (chopped)
2 small cans diced green chiles
1 can large black olives
1 small bunch green onions
2 garlic cloves
1 lime (cut in half and squeeze all of the juice from both halves)
1/2 lemon (cut in half and squeeze juice from only one half)
1/2 small bunch fresh cilantro
1 orange pepper
salt (to taste)
a pinch of sugar
a small amount of olive oil

*I have put all of the ingredients in the food processor and chopped them together, but avoid turning into a puree.

Music: Brett Dennen - Ain't No Reason
Weather: 55-degrees