Salsa...giving it a second try!

First off, I was really excited yesterday to see the robins all out and about flittering here and there in my backyard.  Robins make me think of Spring, so it is always a delight when I have my first sighting of the year.  They were eating the berries off of one of my trees.  I have no idea what kind of tree it is but seeing as how I don't have a bunch of dead robins littered around my backyard, I guess I now know the berries aren't poisonous, so that is a good thing.  They were nice and fat little birdies too.  I guess this long hard winter hasn't affected them too much.  Not like our squirrels, they are scrawny little guys since all the nuts they buried last fall were buried under mounds of snow since mid-December.  Poor little critters!

When I began my blog in January, one of my first posts was my crazy attempt to create my own homemade salsa which turned out, ehhh...ok but nothing spectacular.  I had some time on my hands this afternoon, since my hubby was out working hard for his money, and so thought I would give it another go with a recipe that I, but of course,  found on my favorite recipe website.  (Sorry, I just can't seem to get away from that site.  She has oh so many fantastic looking recipes that I want to try them all!!!)  I must also confess that I did make some modifications due to not having some of the ingredients.  More on that later. 

Restuarant Stye Salsa modified from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

4 tomatoes, sliced up in chunks
2 cans (10 Ounce) diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies
¼ cup Chopped Onion
1 clove Garlic, Minced
1 whole Jalapeno, Quartered And Sliced Thin
1/4 tsp sugar or a pinch of Sugar Substitue (Stevia)
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Ground Cumin
1 cups Cilantro

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Pulse until nice and smooth or chunky if that is what you like.  I enjoy it thoroughly mixed.  Refrigerate for at least an hour. 

Now for my little modification flub up. I made a bit of a mistake when adding the sugar substitute.  The original recipe called for 1/4 tsp of sugar.  Thinking of my hubby, and his wish to avoid sugar I decided to use some of his Stevia. So I ripped open a little packet of stevia, sprinkled it all over the top of my bowl of ingredients and then thought to myself, hmmm... maybe I should read the box and see what the sugar to stevia ratio was.  To my utter dismay, one little itty bitty packet was equivalent to 2 teaspoons!!!  UGGHHH...me and my stupid hastiness.  Note to self, I must really begin to think first and then act. 
 
Even though I made it a tad bit sweeter then it is probably supposed to taste, I did frantically attempt to scoop out some of the stevia I had dumped in so it wasn't too terribly sweet, at least not as much as it could have been.  I have to say it was actually much better then my first attempt at salsa making, sweetness and all.  I think my hubby will be pleasantly surprised when he gets back from his long 6 hour round trip drive this evening, he just loves salsa!
 
 ****UPDATE****  Added a bit more sea salt to my salsa last night and have to say this salsa is amazing.  It stewed in all it's juices overnight and all the flavors really blended and came together very nicely.  YEAH!!!!! Although I am thinking I will just not add sugar at all to this salsa in the future.