Tomatillo Salsa

Several years ago, one of Farmer Mike's customers - the ones that were buying tomatillos by the bushel - shared their salsa recipe with those of us who were bugging them about what the heck they did with all those tomatillos. Salsa. They made vats of salsa. Apparently they either filled their freezer with frozen goodness, or got sick of the stuff, or both, because the past few years there have been tomatillos for the rest of us, and I've been buying them.

Here is the recipe. Except for the first time, I've never make it exactly like this, and since it's not a formula like baking, feel free to tweak to your taste.

Tomatillo Salsa

1/4 C water
10-12 tomatillos, husks removed, cut in half
1/2 medium onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic
2 jalapeno peppers
2 Tbs cilantro, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1 lime

Put water, tomatillos and onion into a sauce pan. Bring to a gentle boil and cook, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, or until the tomatillos are tender.

In a blender, place cooked onion, tomatillos and any remaining water. Add garlic, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, salt and juice of one lime. Blend until all ingredients are smooth. Place sauce in a bowl and refrigerate.

The end.

Notes:
1 - I change things around ... I am a rebel.
2 - You can use more or less in the tomatillo-to-onion ratio and it will be fine.
3 - I used a poblano pepper today instead of a jalapeno.
4 - I used a fist-full of cilantro instead of a few Tbs because I love the stuff.
5 - I have, in a desperate moment, eaten this warm.
6 - This salsa is part of a grilled Chicken recipe, so think of options of using it as a sauce instead of munchies.
7 - There is also a no-cooking variety of this recipe with the same ingredients, but the details escape me at the moment. It was shared verbally, and well, we all know how well I remember things. You can food-process all of the ingredients (not sure about the liquid part, though) and it comes out more like a relish.

Now go forth and make some of this!!! Please report back on how you liked it, and what you changed, if anything.

I'll be back later with some cards. REALLY!

Packaging Completed

Last night I ignored the wise advise of my massaaaaage therapist, and instead of taking a hot bath, I made 24 toppers for my bags o'buckeyes. I had to, I just had to.

And the night before I finally decided on how to finish these jars of Mustard. I put a wimpy, but nicely tied bow of Mustard ribbon on the top of the jars, then I made tags so had something to wrap around the lid (I used elastic gold cord) to make it look less plain.

These babies are all now in the fridge, under all the bags o'buckeyes, waiting for delivery Saturday night.

And for one final touch, to class them up even more, I have these:

I'm thinking I'll staple one to the back of each tag. Now who would not want a free donut, hmm? Hey, I have class...it might be lower class, but it's still class. ;-)

For those who have asked, here is the recipe for the Mustard:

Homemade Grainy Mustard

3/4 C Yellow Mustard seeds
1/4 C Brown Mustard seeds
3 T Honey
1/3 C Sherry or Malt Vinegar
1/4 C Irish Whiskey
1 T Fine Sea Salt

Combine the yellow and brown mustard seeds in a bowl, cover with water, and leave to soak for 6 to 8 hours or as long as over night.

Drain the seeds well and pour them into a food processor. Process until the mixture begins to look creamy and emulsified. Add the honey, vinegar, whiskey and salt, and process again to mix.

Pour the mustard into a bowl, cover, and let stand over night at room temperature. The next day, check the consistency and flavor. If it is too thick and the taste is perfect, add a little more water. Adjust the other ingredients according to your taste. It will be hot!

Spoon the mustard into sterilized jars, cover, and store in the refrigerator, where it will keep almost indefinitely. Homemade mustard benefits from at least a week's rest before using to allow the flavors to blend.

I had more brown mustard seeds than yellow, so mine is even hotter. Look in ethnic (Asian/Indian) grocery stores for bags of the mustard seeds. I also asked if I could leave out the whiskey, and I was told the consistency of the finished product would not be right, so I obeyed the order to leave it in. But feel free to try leaving it out, and if you succeed, please report back on what you did!

Inspiration Challenge #1

I get inspired by the weirdest things. Maybe 'weird' is the wrong word. How about 'strange'? Yeah, I get inspired by the strangest things. One day when I took the Metro to work, I noticed the color combo in the striped shirt worn by the person sitting next to me. How many of you see SU colors in everyday things like shirts on innocent bystanders? I do not think I am alone here.

So in November of 2006 my parking situation changed at work and I now come and go out of a different side of the building. The first day I noticed this interesting picture at the end of the hallway on my floor:

I looked at this picture every day for over a year when I finally remembered to bring my camera to work and took this photo. (Please ignore all those trophies...it was a clandestine shot, so I pointed, clicked and ran.)

Each time I see it, I see what I think is Sage Shadow, Blush Blossom, and of course Black. I like the panes, and especially the black swirly stuff. Do you think that is a broken heart? Hmmm ...

Finally ... F I N A L L Y ... I dug up the photo and gave it the ole' college try last night, and this is what I managed to produce:

Recipe (All products by Stampin' Up!): Stamps - Embrace Life; Paper - Sage Shadow, Basic Black, Blush Blossom, Glossy White. Whisper White; Ink - Blush Blossom, Sage Shadow, Basic Black, Groovy Guava; Other - Versamarker, clear EP, blender pen, black gg ribbon.

'scuse me ... I smell roasting garlic, and I must go check on it before it burns ....

tick ... tock ... tick ... tock ...you can click here for some nice Hold music. If it does not play, I am sorry. If you want to stay on this site and just have the music play, then right-click on the link and select Open In New Window.

Okay, I'm back! Gotta love the convenience foods available in today's Megamarts. I bought a whole bag of already-peeled garlic cloves, and while I used some of it a little while ago to whip up some meatless sloppy joes, I had the rest of the bag left, so I roasted it. Yum!

Back to my card. I noticed the photo on the wall has some black grid lines in addition to the white ones, but I just did white this first time. I used a ruler and the skinny end of the Versamarker to make the grid lines on glossy white card stock, then I clear-embossed them. I sponged Blush Blossom and Sage Shadow over the grid lines and it did not stick to the embossing so you can still see the lines. This is actually my second attempt. First I tried alcohol with reinker and made a total mess. You can see some of it bleeding over the edges of the piece of white card stock. Since every piece of card stock has two sides, I just flipped it over and tried it without alcohol, and I like it a lot better. I also like the little bleeding spots on the edges. I do not think I could have done that if I had tried! I love a good mistake, don't you?

Then, as usual, I sat there and looked at it. And looked some more. Now what? But I was determined to pull this off at least once, so I tried to figure out how to get some black in there without overpowering the whole thing, when I looked over and saw my Embrace Life set sitting on the table next to me, still not put away. I have used all the stamps in that set except the flower, so I just reached over and grabbed it. How convenient!

I used a blender pen to color in the flower with Blush Blossom and Groovy Guava ink, then I mounted it on dimensionals to give it some pop. Then I looked at it some more. It really needed something black, but where? I thought about brads, but I opted for the black ribbon instead.

I think it has promise, but I'll probably play with it some more and come up with variations on a theme. Wanna play along? If so, just post a link to your creation in a comment so we can all see what you did.