homemade salsa pt. 1 - pico de gallo

when life gives you jalepenos, make salsa.  or something like that.  

a few days ago my best friends' mom gave me a big bag of jalapenos that she grew which was AMAZING.  but i got home and suddenly realized i needed to figure out something to do with the peppers.  naturally salsa popped into my head, because there is basically no salsa better than homemade salsa.  have you made salsa before??  because its sooo much better than stuff that comes in a jar.  from the store.  did i mention how easy it is?  just chop some stuff and throw it in a bowl?  yep.  just try it.  you won't be sorry!!   
 

pico de gallo
makes about 24 oz.

ingredients
4 roma tomatoes, chopped & seeded - i like these because they are easy to seed
1 medium white onion, chopped - should be around the same size as one tomato
1 clove of garlic, minced
1-3 jalapenos, seeded & minced - my jalapenos were smaller so i used three.  if you have a larger pepper you can use one.
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime
salt to taste

step 1: chop tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, garlic & cilantro.  throw into a bowl.

step 2: squeeze the lime juice into the bowl.  add salt.  stir to combine.

and that's it!  get some chips & eat it.  or make a burrito.  or a burrito bowl.  one tip - you may want to wear gloves when chopping the jalapeno.  i didn't and my hands ended up burning for 4 HOURS.  or maybe it was 5.  it was painful.  i googled different remedies:  rub olive oil on your hands, rub oil mixed with sugar, cover your hands in calamine lotion & let it dry, soak your hands in milk.  nothing helped.  the most relief was from the milk, but i think its mostly because the milk was so cold.  just please wear gloves.   i've chopped peppers before, but this is the first time my hands burned.  i will always wear gloves from now on! 

this is the first in my salsa series, i've still got plenty of jalapenos!  what is your favorite salsa?  any tips or variations on pico de gallo?  let me know in the comments!