The Best Tex-Mex Salsa!!

The best salsa recipe,
BUT FIRST: an update on my tomato plants

This year my tomato plants went CRAZY. They grew like a weed; a very tasty, fruitful weed that we actually want to grow therefore NOT a weed.

In part I would like to give credit to my own efforts in growing these tomatoes. I researched the best way to plant the tomatoes, which involved sideways planting and filling the hole with nutritional items for better growing.

I also have spent the last few months pruning suckers off these plants to enable a more focused growth on the fruit. The suckers behave like stems and will create a more tangled web of a tomato plant if you let them all go!

I'd like to make a plug about a little gardening insight here. The hardest part about gardening is pruning. A master gardener knows good and bad growth; he/she knows when a limb, branch or even fruit could cause more harm than good. In a sense, I see this in God's intervention in my life. He knows the best way to guide and prune me. Even if at times I don't understand because I feel like I had potential to grow fruit; He knows what is best for me, His little plant in His garden.

Just recently I started rooting these suckers to plant as their own plant. We'll see how this goes; a bit late in the season so this experiment might have to be postponed until next spring! 

 

 

One of my suckers is even putting out fruit, how fun!

Well, meanwhile in the #RosenbaumGarden my tomato plants are GINORMOUS!
Even Ol' Roc' can't believe his eyes!

They tower over me!

But more importantly, these plants are loaded with fruit!

And my grape tomato plant is also going nuts!

Unfortunately I have to pick the tomatoes off the vine as soon as they blush.
This is normal windowsill decor, right?

I'm having a bit of a critter issue; if I don't remove them right when they blush they are pretty much goners. :(

Here's to hoping I can keep these critters away. Though I'm pretty sure I'm dealing with a variety of pests. I think expecting a portion of the crop to be sacrificed back to nature is the best way to not be as disappointed when it does happen. I am growing an organic garden; I have to expect other visitors to my garden!

Okay enough about the plants, let's talk SALSA!

Once 10-12 nicely sized tomatoes have ripened, it's time to make some good ol' Tex-Mex Salsa! Use closer to 12 tomatoes if the tomatoes are smaller, 10 if they are larger.

Gather your ingredients.

 Then it's time to core the tomatoes.

 


Time for our #1 Tip for the BEST SALSA EVER. Here in Texas we like salsa like we like our summers...HOT! Salsa hotness can be achieved by adjusting the amount of jalapenos, whole or cored. However, we've found the best smoky flavor comes from GRILLING the tomatoes and peppers for about 15 minutes! Yum!!

 

After [my wonderful Grillmaster of a husband is done] grilling, I use a blender to process and combine all ingredients. 

This recipe fills an entire blender and lasts about a week in my house! What can I say, we basically drink salsa out of a straw here; it's a household staple.

My next experiment will be learning to can so we can save some of this homegrown & homemade salsa for the winter, or maybe Christmas gifts! Canning tips anyone?

Here's the official recipe!

Good luck in your tomato growing and salsa making!!

~RR

"He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate-- bringing forth food from the earth..." -Palms 104:14

My name is Rose....This is a true story.

Since James and Rocky were gone this evening, I ran a few quick errands after work and ended up at my parents' house for dinner. We spent the evening chatting, laughing, playing with Jack (my parents' dog) and introducing my parents to movies from Redbox. At the end of the night I almost escaped without my mother pushing a box of my things into my car to take back to my house. Included in this box, she gave me recently re-discovered schoolwork masterpieces.

In case you are unable to read that beauty, it reads: 

"Hi! My name is Rose. I got my name from my mom. She said I was a Rose and my brothers are two thorns." -Rachel Armentrout 

Now that you are done laughing and thinking that my mother is counting her lucky stars to have a daughter so that she doesn't only have to deal with thorns (just kidding brothers), I have to focus in on a detail. Guys.....  "This is a true story." No, I didn't actively expect to be called Rose, but as many of my current friends have heard me share, whenever I would 'play house' with friends, I would love to pretend my name was Rose, (sometimes Crystal, but there's no significance there). I'm sure this is a mere coincidence, right? LOTS of little girls choose this name to play with, right? Well I'm unsure about the exact number of Rachel's in the world going by the name 'Rose', or 'Rosie', but I don't believe in coincidences.

If you know me now, you know I am a Rosenbaum. Yes, my married name is German for something along the lines of "Tree Roses".  Now before you jump to any conclusions, no, I did not marry the first guy I found with a last name similar to a play name from my childhood. That sounds like a horrible reason to date or marry anyone. In fact, I had no part in planning this out, it all just fell into place. It's as though it was the plan all along; some people choose to call it 'destiny.'  Who knew at the ripe age of 8 years old, I would choose to go by a name eerily similar to my future husband's nickname, Rosie? Well, there is One who knew this.

When I went off to college, I had every intention upon majoring in accounting.  After all, I knew I liked numbers and didn't see myself anywhere else but in a business degree, but all along I knew my number 1 priority was to get my MRS Degree. My biggest dream was/is to someday be a "soccer mom"; I look forward to having a family.  You say, "Yes Rachel, we know this, we've seen your 'dress up in sports apparel' theme attempts." Well, about 2 weeks into my first accounting class, I realized that perhaps Accounting wasn't for me, and I better figure out what I did enjoy.  I quickly decided upon Marketing as my major.  Over the next few semesters, I, Rachel Armentrout, made the decision that actually, I was also possibly more interested in floral design, and maybe I'd figure out how to include this in my future plans, as well. One minor in Horticulture later, I graduated with the ability to do most of my own flowers for my wedding. I did so, and just this year I have actually started a floral side-business.  I'm looking forward to making flower arrangements and seeing how this new dream pans out.

Where am I going with this? I have had a dream to work with flowers and a dream to have a wonderful home garden for about 2 years now. It was about my Junior year in college that I said, "Hey, I think I like this flower stuff enough to seriously pursue it. I don't know why it never stuck out to me before. How could I go my whole life without enjoying the love of gardening and flowers?" Seriously, I thought this was a new endeavor, a newly found love. After all, I spent too much time dressing up before to get dirt under my fingernails.

 Oh. 

 

I guess I was the only person who didn't see that decision coming. Are you meaning to tell me that mayyybe flowers and gardening was an inherent love I had, and it just took me 20 years to finally make the conscious decision to pursue this path?


The second piece of artwork my mother gave me was a poster-board. Unlike the first masterpiece that my mother and I have laughed at for many years, I had completely forgotten about this project. I don't know what compelled my mother to save it for all of these years...funny how these things just work out, right?

   "A Fragrant Rose" -2002

 

OKAY! I GET IT! "Deciding" to love everything about flowers wasn't something new to me, as much as I thought it was! Perhaps I had this love deep down and was unable to pinpoint it earlier on because I wasn't able to see how it could be a lifestyle.  Last year I thought it was a revelation that I related everything to nature. Well, looks like I've been reppin' mother nature metaphors since at least 2002. 

On my drive home from my parents' house, after I was done laughing at just how funny it was that these two pieces of art just so blatantly show how much of my life I have been in love with flowers without realizing it, the Lord spoke to me. Perhaps, it took a while for me to start following my real dreams, but He already had those planned out for me.  It is not a coincidence that I loved the name 'Rose', found my soul mate whose nickname was 'Rosie', & I would use his nickname as my business name. When I saw these as three separate events, the sweet Lord showed me tonight that in fact they were all just a part of His plan.  Before I 'discovered' my love for flowers or was even thinking about my future, He had implanted in me a dream to have a flower shop. 

At 8 years old, I would play with a name that would be my professional name and dream life, but without realizing what I had done.  In my mind, I thought it was funny how my new last name resembled this play name; I had never stopped to consider how maybe the Lord had planned it all along. When I spent my childhood praying for my future husband and dreaming of my wedding and married life, God had me calling myself by my own future name. All along, I have been a Rosenbaum. Once I was able to look beyond God's sense of humor, I was surrounded by pure peace. There was a stillness as I was in awe of just how truly perfect God's plan for my life has been, will be, and is.  I thought this was a new adventure; I hadn't considered it had always been my adventure. While I have been viewing my life as a new journey every day, unsure of where God will take me, He has seen it as a rose, just continuing to bloom as every day goes by.  This was His plan all along, and I have finally seen and acknowledged that it wasn't a backup plan when my first major didn't go well or a degree I had to get while pursuing the MRS Degree, but rather, this was God's plan for my life.

Hi, my name is Rose, and this is my handsome husband, Rosie. 

And this is just another example of how God has my life perfectly planned. It only look me 23 and a half years to finally comprehend it (or at least up to this point).  I leave you with this hope, that every step you take might be your decision, by the Lord has planned your path already.  When you follow Him, He will lead on your most rewarding life journey.

~Rachel