Country Girls Will Survive! | Shelby, TX Photographer

When Brad and I moved to the country, we knew we were leaving behind a lot of the things that were so readily available to us - Target, grocery stores, REALLY good restaurants, just to name a few.  Now don't get me wrong...there are some good restaurants here, but we miss some of our most favorites and now they're just places we go for very special occasions - when we're in the big city!  We both LOVE mexican food and we can pretty much size up a restaurant by the type of salsa that they serve.  So since we're so far away from good salsa, I make my own - and you can too!

Now if any of you know me, you know I blog stalk the Pioneer Woman.  You're scratching your head, wondering who one earth the Pioneer Woman is right?  Well, she's Ree Drummond, an awesome woman from the city who married a rancher and has lived to tell about it!  She writes about cooking, photography, ranch/country life and homeschooling.  She's actually become so popular with her cooking, that she wrote a cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks - Recipes From An Accidental Country Girl and it came out last December.

Can you imagine how excited I was when I found out that she was going to be having a book signing in HOUSTON!  Poor Brad...I drug him and Addyson with me.

He was overcome by the enormous amount of estrogen in the room, but he survived and now he's glad that I am making some of her recipes!

I love this book and recently, I thought I had lost it or someone stole it and I was sick about it...but luckily, we found it and all was right with the world again!

One of my favorite recipes of hers is Restaurant Style Salsa.  This recipe isn't in her book, but it's on her blog and it's my #1 go-to recipe for salsa.  So, in true Pioneer Woman fashion, I've photo-blogged step by step instructions for you - so here we go!

Here are the main players:

Some items not shown are: jalapeno (optional), sugar and lime.  Yeah, since the grocery store is such a long haul for me these days, I just had to make due with lemon...and it worked just fine!

Start by chopping 1/4 cup of onion.  Then put 2 cans of Rotel and 1 can of whole peeled tomatoes into your blender or food processor.  Now this is where you can change the heat of your salsa without using jalapeno.  My crazy husband picked up the Habanero Rotel and it was really hot, so if you want to add jalapeno, I'd recommend using the plain jane original Rotel.

Next, add the 1/4 cup of onions and spices (1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp sugar and 1/4 tsp salt).  Then you'll want to add 1 clove of garlic.  Or, if you're like me, you can add 1/2 tsp of the ready made minced garlic in the jar :)

Then add in your cilantro.  I used 1/2 cup, but you can add more to suit your personal taste.

Then squeeze in the juice of 1 lime or in my case, 1 lemon.  Now, just pulse your blender or food processor 7-8 times or more depending on how chunky you like your salsa....and that's it!  Make sure to taste your salsa with a chip to see if you need to add more salt or any other ingredients to make it to your liking.  Once you're done, please refrigerate for at least an hour before serving so that all the flavors can mix together.  Enjoy!

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Here's the full recipe:
1 can (28 oz) Whole Tomatoes with juice
2 cans (10oz) Rotel (dice tomatoes & green chilies)
1/4 C chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced (or 1/2 tsp of jar minced garlic)
1 whole jalapeno, optional
1/4 tsp each (salt, sugar, ground cumin)
1/2 C cilantro
Juice of one small lime