Homemade "Rotel" tomatoes

During the cold winter months, we eat a lot of hearty meals such as chili with cornbread and taco soup.  It just sticks to your ribs and makes you feel all happy inside.  Last summer, a friend of mine shared with me her recipe for homemade "rotel" tomatoes.  You can buy Rotel tomatoes in your grocery store.  That is the brand name.  They're very good, but they're not homemade.  And, when I can make something myself, I try to do so.

Today, my countertops were covered (and I mean covered) with jalapeno peppers and tomatoes from my garden.  Since I ran out of rotels last year, I decided to make another large batch.  Here's how I do it.


1 gallon tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 green bell peppers, chopped
7 to 10 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped (7 for medium or 10 for hot)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 Tbl canning salt

How 'bout a few pictures?

Chop all of your peppers and onions in small pieces.



I like to peel my tomatoes by scalding them in boiling water til the skins begin to crack.  Then, the skins peel off easily!



 Put all ingredients into large pot and bring to a boil.   Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.


Look at all of those delicious colors!





After 30 minutes, everything just comes together.

 Put rotel mixture into prepared jars.  I use the 8 oz jelly jars, as it is the same size as the store-bought cans which are used in my recipes.  Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  This recipe will fill  approximately 12 of the small 8 oz jars.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.    I guess it depends on how juicy your tomatoes are? 

Look at that!

Now, all of those tomato peels can either be dehydrated and ground into a powder for use in stews and soups, be fed to the chickens, or put on the compost pile.  See, no waste!  Now, if you're like me, you didn't read the entire recipe before you began.  If that's the case, your fingers will be burning about now because you didn't wear gloves when you chopped the jalapenos. 

Enjoy, my friends......

Peace.