I Served Serial Joe a Slushie

I love salsas. It's too bad there's so many substandard commercial salsas out there. For a while I've been trying to make my own, but the standard tomato/onion/jalapeno/cilantro/lime juice ones in so many recipe books never turn out that great. On Saturday, however, I got a salsa cookbook which has a number of different salsa recipes as well as dishes to make with them. I made the first yesterday, and it was freakin' awesome. If you like cooking (and it's a cool day, it requires the oven), give this a try. It uses mostly the same ingredients as the standard ones I've made before, but the roasting just makes it taste soooo much better.

Roasted Jalapeno-Tomato Salsa with fresh Cilantro

• 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes (it says use 10 plum tomatoes, I used 5 medium-large hothouse)
• 2-3 jalapenos, stemmed (even 2 makes it pretty hot)
• 1/2 small white onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 4 peeled garlic cloves
• 1/3 c fresh cilantro
• 1 tsp salt (I didn't add this, I've not been adding salt to dishes for a while)
• 1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar

1. Heat broiler. Lay tomatoes and jalepenos on baking sheet lined with foil, broil for 6 minutes on each side. They should have a few nice black spots when done. Set aside to cool.
2. Turn down oven to 425. Seperate the onions into rings, and cook them with the garlic (not chopped) for about 15 minutes on the baking sheet.
   
3. It says "for a less rustic texture" peel the tomatoes and cut out the cores.
4. Pulse the jalapenos with onion and garlic.
5. Coarsely puree the tomatoes.
6. Mix onion/jalapeno/garlic mixture with tomatoes, and add the cilantro, salt and vinegar.

Delicious!