Making Salsa~ The easy way!

I was given a bunch of tomatoes from friends ( around 18 pounds) and wanted to find a way to use them.  Another friend suggested salsa.  I didn't have peppers or onions from my garden and the thought of buying them to make salsa seemed a little expensive.  She said no, you don't need anything but tomatoes.  You just buy a packet that has everything else in it.  When she started saying Mrs... I knew exactly what she was talking about.  Mrs. Wages makes a variety of mixes to make pickles, spaghetti sauce, ketchup and so much more.  I have used the packets for pickles before as did my grandmother.  I really liked them, so why not try the salsa mix?  She suggested I get the hot, but I chose to try the medium.  Good choice.  Even the medium is spicy for me. 

My salsa ended up costing me nothing, other than time and energy to make it.  The tomatoes were free and when I went to purchase the packets they were on sale for $2 each.  After I was already on my way to the parking lot, I noticed they rang up at $2.39.  I went back inside to get the money back that I was overcharged and she handed me over $7 back.  She said it rang up incorrect, so it's free.  Score!  I didn't intend on receiving it for free, I just wanted the overcharged amount back.  But FREE is good too!  Makes me feel like buying more packets to make even more!  Each packet will make 5 pints. 

Follow the directions on the packet.  You need to place the tomatoes in boiling water and then a cold water bath to remove the skins.  Core them and cut into chunks.  The directions said to cut into large chunks, however, we prefer smaller pieces of tomato in our salsa.

Once you have them all cut up you add vinegar along with the packet mix.  I had enough to make three batches.

Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  

Fill your jars and place in a hot water bath for 40 minutes.

 Remove and let cool.

With this recipe you don't have to can the salsa.  You can eat is as soon as you have completed simmering it, or even freeze it.  I chose to use jelly jars versus pints for our family.  This way we can open a jar and use it at once instead of possibly having some go to waste. I ended up with 24 jars of salsa.  One larger jar that I filled to eat right away.  My son loved it.  I told my husband we no longer have to go to Chili's when I want chips and salsa.  We have our own right at home.  I don't like most of the salsas you can buy in the store.  This comes as close to Chili's salsa as you can get.  I am thinking we will need more to get us through the year, so I am going to be begging friends for more of their abundance of tomatoes!