Salsa Season! Yum!

I love making home-made salsa! I think I've posted about this before... but this year I had such cute helpers that I had to do it again! And, I even was able to use some of my own garden veggies to make some! Sweet! In another life I am sure I lived in the early 1900's and had a HUGE garden... hmmm, maybe someday in this life I will make it happen again :) Right now though, I am happy to get a little 3 ft by 6 ft garden in with just a few things.
I planted some salsa peppers this year because those are always so expensive at the store. Along with my green bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, and just a few of my tomatoes (I had to supplement with some Roma tomatoes and onions from the farmer's market) I was able to make a first batch of salsa! (Oh, and a few of my friend Kris's peppers from her garden! Thanks Kris!). My niece, Maddalyn, was over for the day and she wasted no time joining Jaxon to get her hands messy with all the veggies and salsa making! What a fun afternoon we had! I Love cooking with the kids... my mother and both my grandmothers always let us kids be in the kitchen with them when they cooked or baked. To this day those are some of my favorite childhood memories with those ladies. This is one tradition I love passing down because I have such a heart for making good food for my family and a heart for doing things together as a family. It's a win win for me! If you're wondering what to do with all those left over tomatoes this season... try some salsa and grab your closest kid! What a fun day and oh, what a treat!:)

Maddie and Jaxon working together...

Salsa Peppers in our garden

Green Peppers in our garden

My favroite salsa recipe from my favorite HyVee cookbook that I "borrowed" from the Big House when we lived there :)

What a nice selection of produce. I love our local farmers markets!

My recipe calls for 3 hours of simmering and thickening... so my little tots for the day took a break to swim while we waited!