Ham Sandwich Indicted!

Making salsa has become a summer ritual for me--it's a perfect way to preserve those delicious tomatoes that are piling up at farmer's markets, and the flavor combinations are incredibly flexible and open to interpretation. Our hot central Ohio summer has provided us with great peppers as well, and there's really not a better way to make use of them. This year, as I am living without a functioning kitchen, my salsa making happened during the last of a series of canning classes I taught at Oakland Nursery.  Over a dozen folks came out to chop, dice, and put up a dozens of jars of salsa and tomato jam.  Twenty pounds of tomatoes later, everyone went home with a couple of jars of delicious tomato products.  Just for fun, we also did a heirloom tomato taste test, taking advantage of huge variety of colors, flavors and textures available. Over the years, I've tried and tweaked several salsa recipes, but find myself using one from Mary Anne Dragan's Well ...

Want to learn a valuable life skill to survive when the zombies finally come?  Join me for a series of canning classes at Oakland Nursery this summer...I'll be teaching how to make jam in June, pickles in July, and salsa and tomato sauce in August.  Classes are $25 each, or all three for $65...it's a bargain! Plus, I'll be sharing some other tips on preserving your summer fruits and veggies. All the info can be found HERE .  I can promise delicious treats, a quality educational experience, and prize giveaways courtesy of everyone's favorite garden center: Oakland Nursery!  See you there!   

It's been a crazy few weeks at Ham Sandwich HQ.  A murderer got his just desserts (don't kill people, kids, it's not cool...and you'll go to prison), the Ham Sandwich celebrated another year on the planet ( Ad Hoc at Home AND The French Laundry  cookbooks? swoon ), and triathlon training started. Along with that last little project comes a revamping of some eating habits, which is good, I suppose, but unfortunate since I've been in a baking mood for a while. (I'm looking at you, butter-loaded recipes by Ree Drummond and sweet dough recipes in April's Bon Appetit... ) Week 1 of training started with this dish for dinner (and several lunches): polenta cakes with black bean and corn salsa (two times the corn!) and a shrimp and mango ceviche, courtesy of the talented and charming BF.  Polenta, essentially coarse grain cornmeal, is easy to cook with and pairs wonderfully with a million different things.  You can cook it and eat it right away, spooned o...

One of the random talents of the Ham Sandwich family is salsa making. My mom's mom made jars and jars of salsa every summer with the tomatoes and peppers my grandpa would grow in their backyard garden. Salsa making talent reappeared in my brother, who not only made salsa, but hot sauce as well , AND made a viable company selling spicy condiments to folks that are apparently referred to as "chiliheads." This weekend, I dug deep into my genetic code and tried my hand at making and canning my own salsa...boiling water bath and all. Surprisingly, it was not that hard, and was rather satisfying. The only investment I had to make was a box of mason jars and the canning kit with a funnel, jar and lid grabber, and spatula. (Wal-Mart is good for some things...) I'd already inherited grandma's canning kettle, and the garden supplied me with just about all the ingredients. The most time consuming part of all this is the prep: blanching, peeling and seeding the tomatoes, r...