Christmas, Christmas Time is Here...

I just want to leave you with a few things that are inspiring my Christmas...

MERRY DECEMBER 10th ;)

An Entirely Homemade Success!

It is a lesser known fact that I dream of having a small farm and lots of land where we can one day live  quite self-sufficiently. I think there is something about the ability to be able to provide for yourself even if the entirety of civilization fell around you. I know to some that may sound like crazy talk but it's something I hope to one day achieve but in the mean time I'm going to take some baby steps. I have begun an interesting endeavor into Suppers made entirely from scratch.

A few days ago I blessed my husband with chicken carnitas, homemade tortillas and the best rendition of Uncle Julio's Salsa.

I've made the Carnitas before and they are DELICIOUS! 

Carnitas!

The recipe is actually for pork carnitas but I do chicken and they are just as yummy.

ALSO, just my little amendment.. 

when you are putting all the ingredients together add about 1/4 cup of sugar.,.

Now, on to this Uncle Julio's salsa.

I love Uncle Julio's, I could eat there every single day of my life. 

However, Kansas is the wilderness and we do not have such luxuries so, I must resort to my own craftiness to create a salsa that can mirror the perfection that is Uncle Julio's salsa.

I scanned the internet for copycat recipes and made some adjustments of my own and here you have it,  

Uncle Julio's Salsa

4 Tomatoes (I used the vine ripened tomatoes)

4 cloves of garlic ...

(mine were relatively small, if you used regular sized pieces I would go with three)

1-2 Jalapeno peppers ( use one or two depending on your taste for spicy flavors)

1/2 of a large white onion

1/2 cup cilantro

The juice from half a lime

1 TBS ground black pepper

1/4 TBS Salt

1. Fire up the grill and char the tomatoes, onions, jalepenos, and garlic.

leave the paper on the cloves of garlic, but remove the paper from the exterior of the onion. You can use a gas grill or a charcoal grill, but my suggestion for a charcoal grill would be to put a piece of foil directly on the coals and set your vegetable on that, you'll achieve a better char this way.

2. Once all the ingredients have had a chance to blister and char you will then  remove them from the grill. Remove the outer paper from the garlic, core the tomatoes and Jalapeno. Roughly chop the chard vegetable and add them to your food processor. You will then add the cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Blend until chunky.

As an expert in Uncle Julio's salsa consumption I have to say that this was EXTREMELY close to the original.

And what would Uncle Julio's salsa be without warm tortillas to dip in?

Tortillas

(I grilled my tortillas, but you can definitely just fry them up on a griddle.)