Somehow, someway, my mom convinced me that I should make salsa. (I may have expressed some interest, I guess.)  She was so confident that I could handle this job on my own, with no assistance, that she not only supplied me with a recipe, but also with the

- tomatoes
- onions
- double boiler pot
- pickleing salt
- and extra jars.

I think she really wanted me to make salsa.

Today I finally had a chance to get started. I sent Leah & Ben to a friend’s house to play, and Adam watched me steam & skin the tomatoes. Next, to chop up 6 onions & pulverize them in my teeny food processor – 3 batches worth.  I had planned to have this all done by the time Aaron got home, but he surprised me by arriving half an hour early.  This is how I looked when he walked in the door:

Nothing says, “Welcome home, honey!” like the perfume of onions and a crazy wife.

After chopping 2 onions into quarters, I was incapacitated by the fumes. Apparently mom’s home grown onions are much more potent than the sweet onions from the grocery store!(Onions didn’t bother me at all until I had Lasik surgery a few years ago…ever since then, even mild onions can make me tear up. I guess my contact lenses were shields!)

With 4 onions to go, I went searching for swim goggles, explaining it to Adam as I dug through some bags.  Couldn’t find any, so I tried something else: I filled the sink with several inches of water and submerged the cutting board, onions, and the knife in my hand.

Shortly after I started this, Adam came walking out of the laundry room, and said, “Mommy, THESE goggles?” And blast it all if the 3 year old hadn’t found exactly what I was looking for! That kid might be worth having around after all.:)

The combination of goggles plus under-water proved very successful, and I was able to finish this step of the adventure with clear eyes. And then Adam wore the goggles for awhile.