When ever I have a bunch of friends over for a BBQ I like to serve chips and salsa as an appetizer. This particular recipe is more of a smooth Mexican restaurant style salsa.

Once you learn the basic steps to homemade salsa you can get a little creative with your ingredients. You may never buy salsa again. All of the ingredients were under $10 and it made a blender full.

Follow along, or better yet, make it along with me. Tell me how it was.

Thanks for reading

Step 1: Ingredients and What You Need

I tried to make this recipe at a happy medium heat level. You can remove tomatoes to increase heat, or add more of hotter peppers.

green onion - $1.79

cilantro - $.79

red bell pepper - $1.64

anaheim pepper - $.73

jalapeno and serrano peppers - $.54

tomatillos - $1.29

tomatos - $3.37

You will also need fresh garlic (I get little jars that are prepared for me), salt, a pot of boiling water, an "oveglove" or similar, and a blender.

Step 2: What You'll Do

After you wash all of the ingredients, you will boil everything but the cilantro and green onion for 5-10 minutes, until soft. (don't ask me why, this is how I was taught and I can't argue with the results)

Usually the tomatoes/tomatillos are ready first (the skin will burst). Take out the tomatoes and tomatillos and throw 2 of each in the blender and blend them lightly. Save 3 tomatoes so that you can add them later to suit your needs. (for my own typical taste, I only do 2 of each, and put in more hot peppers)

When the peppers are soft, take them out carefully, and using the oveglove cut the stems off. I don't do anything special other than cut the end off. I leave most of the seeds in. Add the peppers into the blender and lightly blend.

Now we add the green onion and cilantro. I hesitate to tell you just how much of each I put in since everyone has different taste buds. Some like a lot of cilantro, others not so much. Same with the green onion. I added about 8 stalks of green onion, and a good handful of cilantro, followed by a little more cilantro. Add a little at a time til you get it how you like it. Lightly blend until all is mixed well and taste test. Remember, most of the ingredients are hot so don't burn your mouth

Lastly, add in garlic and salt to taste. I added one good spoonful of garlic and about a teaspoon of salt. Blend until it becomes the consistency you like.

tip - If you want to just make a small spicy batch for yourself, boil up your peppers and tomatillos, and add a small can of tomato sauce. Add in green onion, cilantro, garlic, salt, and enjoy. Its about enough for most of a bag of chips.

Step 3: Put It in Something

This batch (with all 5 tomatoes) made enough to fill 2 mason jars and a small Tupperware container.

Once you get them in something, bowls etc, they need to be refrigerated to get them chilled. Usually about 2-3 hours is enough.

Your friends will love it, and they will have something to tide them over while you are making the rest of the feast.

Enjoy. Let me know how yours turned out.