Cooking With Vent![Lesson 1]

Today's Menu: Salsa!

Hello, I'm sure most of you know me by now we can go ahead and skip the formal instructions and what have you. Today I'll be teaching you how to make your very own "Salsa." For those of you who may not know what I mean, imagine the "Pace Picante" sause you buy at a grocery store, only much better.

Be sure to follow this recipe exactly, expecially the first few times you try it or risk throwing off the flavor dramatically. The result will be a homemade "Texas Style," salsa then you can choose to either compliment a dish like tacos, or just dip with chips. I'll list below first, the ingredients and quantity, then provide an instruction on how to prepare the mix itself. So then, let's get started!

Now place the mixing bowl on a counter or what have you and open the can of crush tomato. I would like to stress at this point that tomato "sauce," is not a good alternative and you will end up with a really soupy salsa. If you have to use an alternative, use whole pealed tomatoes, or even diced. Though again, crushed is the best. Add the entire can to your mixing bowl.

Next add your garlic, about 3 teaspoons. Try not to use garlic power, it will make the consistency of the salsa in the end odd, use minced. Don't worry about mixing it just yet, we will mix everything together in the end. Now, dice the entire onion. Don't worry to much f you suck at cutting. Just get it chopped up well enough its in pieces and drop it in the tomato mix. Though, if you can dice it well, try to do so.

Now, concerning the jalapenos, how hot do you want your salsa? If you want it fairly mild, then add just 3. But if you want a good spicy kick go ahead and add 5. Chop the peppers into halves or quarters by slicing them down the middle, then cutting into slices. Add to the salsa.

Now why the limes? It gives it a nice citris touch, that I promise you'll enjoy. Don't worry to much on it though as it's not a drastic flavor change, with or without. But roll the limes on the counter, to soften them then cut in half and squeeze the juice into your salsa. I suggest using 2 limes, but 1 is enough.

Lastly the key ingredient. Cilantro. Grab yourself a handful of the stuff and slice it. About 8-12 stalks I suppose. (They are relatively small) Add that to the mix and we are ready to blend.

Use the spoon and stir the contents of your bowl first, then add the entirety to the blender. Blend on a low setting, areound 6 to simply chop everything up for roughly 30 seconds or until you see everything is diced and blended together. You want to AVOID getting it soupy. And of course, from person to person you may want it more ro less chunky.

And there you have it! Pour the contents out, eat immediately OR refrigerate. If you follow instructions well, you'll have yourself a rather tasty snack. If not, you can always leave me any questions you might have here in the thread and I'll respond. ^.^ I'll also provide a few additional notes. Take care, happy cooking guys. (or in this case mixing!)