The Chips are free.....and so is the HEAT!

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

As with every year, I tried to find something clever to give for Valentine's Day!  For the last two weeks, I've been scanning Pinterest and yes, I did find some cute ideas.  But I didn't find THE idea!

 

Enter one chips and salsa lovin' husband (he is crunching in the background as I type!) and I came up with an idea I think will be perfect. 

 

I've been wanting to try making my own salsa and while looking for a good recipe, I stumbled on a quick one and decided to just wing it and see what I came up with.  Well, I'm here to tell you it's pretty stinkin' good! Wait!  Should the words 'pretty' and 'stinkin' be used in the same sentence to describe something you are going to eat? 

 

Quick rundown of the recipe.....really this could not be easier!

 

• 1 can Great-Value Fire-roasted diced tomatoes - Salsa ready
• 1 can Rotel diced tomatoes (I like it HOT!) or you can get the sissy can called 'Original' or 'Mild"
• 1 can diced green chilies
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 clove of garlic
• Cumin, to taste

Before you start...drain the cans of tomatoes but SAVE the juices in a small bowl. 

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients, except for the onion, garlic and Cumin.  In medium pan, saute' onion, garlic and Cumin in olive oil until slightly browned.  Just before ready, add enough of the saved juices to deglaze the pan (get all the good stuff off the bottom of the pan) and continue to stir for another minute or two.

Add onion mixture to your salsa and stir well.  It's good right away, but even better if you put it in an airtight container (mason jars work great) and let it set overnight in the refrigerator. D'lawd...some good eatin'!

 

OK - back to business for my Valentine treats!

 

Off I went to Walmart - again!  I needed to buy the goods and the cute little mason jars!

 

After the salsa was added to the jars, they were placed neatly in the 'frig.  The HEAT needs to permeate throughout all the 'maters in the jar.   In a perfect world, I would have tried canning the jars of salsa.  That's another day! 

 

I sat down at the computer and tried to come up with a cute little poem that would be appropriate to give co-workers, but all in fun for Valentine's Day too.  Here's what I came up with....

I'm showing you the entire page so you'll see how easy it is to do a bunch of tags at once. And, instead of white paper (which would be fine too), I used a piece of leftover scrapbook paper. It reads.....Valentine's are red-Chocolates are sweet-The chips are free-And so is the HEAT!

 

 

 

These small brown envelopes were in my stash of "Ya Nevah Know!" and worked perfectly! 

 

I also found cute plastic bags at the Dollar Tree with red hearts and for each jar of salsa, I'll give them a small bag of FREE chips (get it?)...the Chips are Free!

 

 

 

I'll probably check out my stash again for some raffia to tie around the jar, but if I don't have any, that's fine too!  I'm learning not to sweat the small stuff!

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day and someone or something will happen tomorrow to touch your heart!  This doesn't have to be a day of spending lots of money to say you care....it could really just be a post-it note that simply says....You make my heart smile!

 

WARNING:  If you are on my team at work and reading this before tomorrow...bring milk! (Just kidding - it's not THAT hot!)

 

Love ya...mean it!