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HI! I'M CATHY BLACKSTONE.

I am a Columbus based photographer and welcome to my blog.

I love to photograph babies in the tummy, babies out of the tummy, kids being good, kids being bad, kids with special needs, kids with fur, couples in love, families being themselves and seniors in between text messages :)

I have a fun and carefree style that I think you will be very comfortable with. Of course I love to take the classic picture where everyone is looking at the camera with a perfect smile but what I really love to catch is the real "in between" moments. The candid moments that you will cherish forever.

This is my photo blog where I will share favorite images from recent sessions and blab about my interests and family.

Thanks for visiting my site and taking a look. I really appreciate it. 

SALSA | my yummy yummy recipe

Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 8:46am Posted in Personal

Once again Brad has planted way too many tomato plants and I am making and giving away salsa like it is my job. My 10th job, lol. I am asked for my recipe a lot so I thought I would post it here complete with visuals:) It is allllll mine. First I looked on allrecipes.com for ideas and then I took a little bit of this and a little bit of that from a handful of recipes and created mine. Making salsa has always been on my bucket list because I detest, loathe, gag on chunky salsa. I do not like tomatoes, lol. They give me the gag reflex.

So here it goes…

img_3693First grow some tomatoes. Don’t ask me what kind. all kinds. Every year it is an adventure for us.

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Then find some dirty, stringy-haired, shirtless kids to pick your tomatoes. Repeat at least 30-40 times to the 3 year old…..”not the green ones only the red and yellow ones, not the green ones only the red and yellow ones, not the green ones only the red and yellow ones” - got it? good.

Oh and we do always plant yellow boys - so we aren’t as adventurous as i thought.

img_3700Who can guess why he is crying? Because he wanted to carry the bag “ALL BYAH MAHSELF”

img_3466Assemble ingredients. I will completely admit that I am a snob about some ingredients. I am brand name all the way about some - don’t care about others. For example - sidetrack - Domino brown sugar, REAL vanilla and fresh baking soda are a must in all cookies. With salsa I think that fresh ground pepper and coarse salt are a must.

img_3501-3506Next get yourself this hot piece of burning love to cut and pour and blend. Brad doesn’t even notice when I am taking pictures anymore. Unless I say something that I can’t write here and then he smirks - note the picture on the right…

It is always so entertaining to watch him try and assemble the Cuisinart. If it doesn’t have the word Mac on it anywhere Brad can’t work it, lol.

img_3507So cut up 5ish tomatoes…we always add a variety because it looks pretty:)

img_3532Add at least 2 teaspoons of fresh ground pepper, 2 teaspoons of coarse salt and a big spoonful of garlic. Do you like how I slowed my shutterspeed for this picture?

img_3549Separate a bunch of cilantro into 4 parts. Tear off the tops and add one part. So you are adding 1/4 bunch of cilantro. Once we put the whole thing in. SO NOT FUNNY. Also add my secret ingredient numero uno - chili powder. About 2 Tablespoons.

img_3555Then add a big spoonful of sugar - another secret ingredient:)

img_3561Then an entire red onion. Not white. Red. Not white. Red.

AND 2 jalepenos gutted. I forgot to take that picture!

img_3589Pulse and grind until there are no gag inducing chunks and you will have this! Yumma yumma. It is actually better the next day after it has rested. Seriously.

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Then clean up this. Ugh. I wonder how many engineers were responsible for creating this piece of wonderful heavy powerful machinery and I wonder how many actually took it home and used it. You would THiNK they would have developed a seal so that you wouldn’t have to deal with this. Dumb.

oh and here is my loved recipe all written out:)

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Next year i am learning how to can. period.

by Cathy

11 comments

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September 7, 2009 - 7:11 pm Bev - Made this for company on Sunday...it was the hit of the dinner...everyone wanted recipe and the bowl was licked clean!!! Yummo!!! Making another batch today!!! Way good!!!

September 3, 2009 - 8:40 pm Michelle - Love the pics of your work in process. Several reply comments to Keri regarding the canning. You cannot "can" with the tops off of the jars. First you have to bring your salsa (or whatever) to a boil. Then you fill your sterilzed jars, placing a cover and ring on each one. Then put into large pot with a rack on the bottom (the are pots made specifically for canning and they are reasonably priced). The pot has to be filled with water so that the jars are covered with at least an inch of water. The water needs to boil for at least 30 minutes for pints, a little longer for quarts. When you remove the jars from the boiling water, this when you hear the ping of the seal. The method Keri described above may have been okay back in the day that our Grandmothers canned, but hybridizing has taken all of the acidity out of the tomatoes and therefore they have to be processed much more carefully. Speaking of acid, any type of canned tomatoes (sauce, juice, salsa, etc) also needs to have an acid added to it--the most common choice is lemon juice. I'm not sure the acid level of limes.

September 3, 2009 - 5:19 am Julie - What a riot!! Great post - and through that whole six degrees of separation thing we got some of your salsa - from Jennifer & Ken. It's YUMMY!!!

September 1, 2009 - 10:19 am elisa - OMG I am so coming over. My yard is 99% shade and I can't grow crap. Seriously, you can't be that far away- maybe 10 minutes?? I will bring the margs.

August 28, 2009 - 6:51 am Keri Rammelsberg - oh yeah, the canning thing. im not sure about this but i think you fill your can (the special ones with the seal on the lid) with your salsa (or whatev) and put the open jars in a big pot with water in it and heat the water. when the ingredients are hot, seal the jars and let cool. i think its the cooling process that creates the vacuum in the jar. hopefully someone will see this and tell you if im wrong. i saw someone do it once, but i lost a bit of my memory with each child. wait...what were we talking about again? happy canning!~

August 28, 2009 - 6:44 am Keri Rammelsberg - i so want you to do our family pix. if i could only get joe on board...i will start working on him. i will show him that phil did it, so he should too! love ur salsa recipe too, very similar to mine. oh and the last time i tried to do the cuisinart assembly...well lets just say it's now broken and in cuisinart heaven. :)

August 28, 2009 - 5:57 am terri - Oh, cool! I also hate tomato chunks, so I'll definitely have to try this.

August 27, 2009 - 10:00 pm Latrice - Got your link from Jennifer. Great photo journaling on this! Hilarious too! My in-laws plant waaaay too many also and I make pasta sauce with mine. I may have to give thisrecipe a try though. My mother in-law does salsa and doesn't even like salsa! She gives it all away. Maybe your recipe can beat hers out!

August 27, 2009 - 7:19 pm jennifer mcguire - gonna try this! thank you! cracked me up, too. ;)

August 27, 2009 - 7:00 pm susan reimer - This is so awesome!!! I will try and make it...but you know i cant cook, bake or even follow directions...so maybe i will just get you to make me some!! :)

August 27, 2009 - 10:41 am Caroline - Ummm, tell Brad I can't figure out the cuisine art either. I almost cried last time I used it. I'm coming down later....with a bowl.

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