Shaun's Salsa

Good salsa for chips... Based on a recipe provided by one Thomas Neal Hays

one 28oz can Hunt's Diced Tomatoes
one 10oz can Ro-tel Original
3 fresh Jalapeños, (seeded?)
about one cup cilantro, halfheartedly picked from stem
1/2 red onion (of large size... adjust with caution)
2-3 cloves garlic (that's individual sections, not whole bulbs)
1/4 lemon
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper (white or black)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 to 1/2 tsp sage

ok so here goes. this works better with a cuisinart, but a blender will work if you gots da skillz. drain as much liquid as you can outa the cans. with the hunt's you'll have to carefully squeeze to get the right amount of liquid out. dump the tomatoes on in there, then top with your spices and sqoze that lemon juice on in there too. next chop that half onion on in there as nicely as you please, and follow with some jalapeno. use your handy garlic press to maul them cloves and follow with yer Ro-tel. top it all off with the cilantro, hit it for about twelve seconds, stir and hit it eight seconds more. check, but that usually about does it for me. slap it in a bowl and serve. shee-ot it'll taste mighty fine. obviously, if you're using a blender the hitting it will go on for longer, as will the stirring. you wont be able to stuff all that in so you'll have to work in shifts, but the general idea is there.

add some green onion if you like. obviously this isn`t as fresh as I like for normal use but it has the benefit of not relying as much on produce quality and the dye in the hunt's tomato juice gives the whole mess a nice color. the jalapenos are going to be the biggest problem... we have had some wildly varying temperatures here lately, and I shop at the Central Market. so what the hell. just dont fall into the trap of thinking your cilantro isnt potent enough, because if you put more in your salsa will blandify more than you have the talent to fix. if you like it hotter I recommend throwing in a few serrano peppers as they brighten the mix up nicely and jalapenos are more titchy. I usually core the jalapenos and try to avoid putting too many seeds in but my customers dont like the stuff too hot. and it makes for easy eating.