Restaurant Style Salsa

You guys. I just started reading The Pioneer Woman obsessively. This is no good. I could spend hours scouring through her recipes and checking out her photographs. Hours that I should be grading papers or reviewing some band's album or getting on the treadmill.

But, I have to say, The Pioneer Woman, bless her heart, pushed me out of my comfort zone yesterday. See, she posted a recipe for restaurant-style salsa, and the end result looked so good (I mean, not to toot my own horn, but the picture above is Exhibit A. Aren't those two tortilla chips so artfully placed?) that I had to try it. The biggest problem was that I had never used my food processor before. Yes, the food processor that Matt and I were was gifted at my bridal shower in August of 2010. That machine sat in my cupboard for well over twelve months...until yesterday.

See, I am intimidated of what I don't know how to do. Hey, that's just me. After Matt bought me the best birthday present ever (my DSLR), it sat untouched until I had the guts to sit down with my copy of The Nikon D90 For Dummies and start putting two and two together. The learning curve can be a little...too much. My mother has admonished me on several occasions for leaving the Cuisinart untouched in the cabinet, but now, there's not a darn thing she can say. 'Sup now, Jude?

Granted, there was some leaking involved. And a loose blade. But, nothing a husband can't fix after some good, old fashioned cursing from his wife.

PS - I made the salsa by following the recipe exactly. It only called for one jalapeño, but next time, I'd probably use two. And, I think I would get rid of some of the liquid from the can of tomatoes. The salsa is a titch too liquid-y for my personal taste. However, this salsa is really so very yummy, and it's a great alternative in the winter when lovely, ripe tomatoes simply do not exist.

PPS - I did not intend for I Used to Vacation to morph into a food blog. I'll try to do some other exciting things and write about them. Maybe.