Yep. I do it every year when the harvest starts to get ahead of me! (Alas, this year everything is so late I am wondering if it'll ever even catch up...) Skins will come off easily, as you heard. Also, as they thaw, the water component will seep out first, so if you have them sitting in a bowl to thaw you'll end up at one point with what looks like partially frozen tomato "bodies" sitting in a little pool of clear (or almost clear) liquid. Eventually they'll thaw all the way and be sitting in something looking more like tomato juice, but if you want to, at that part-way stage, you can pour off some or all of the watery liquid, resulting in meatier tomato stuff and a thicker salsa. Enjoy! Z

Anything that could be made ahead and frozen could also be (and in most cases would be better) made the night before and refrigerated, to be warmed up before serving. And even for those foods that don't suffer from being frozen, most will be better if you defrost them slowly rather than cooking them frozen. It's a lot easier to cook (or teach someone to cook) after dinner, when not hungry and under time pressure. Cooking skills take training and practice. It's hard for inexperienced cooks to connect between cooking techniques and results. Even if they were standing next to you while you cooked, it doesn't mean that they were paying attention. Even when an inexperienced cook can manage one or two things at a time doesn't mean that he can do several. My DH used to hate to cook because he thought he had to get several complicated dishes to the table at the same time. Once he realized that he should do no more than one dish that requires timing and learned how to assess which dishes can be kept warm, cooking became a lot easier for him. While I was waiting for the surgery (knee, so I was barely mobile before it and really needed help), I taught DH a bunch of techniques for fresh vegetables. I showed him how peeling and cutting up vegetables affects the outcome. By keeping cooking techniques simple -- either microwaving (with a sensor, so you just hit the fresh vegetable setting) or sauteing. That way he could see what it looked and smelled like when it was done, and that you don't need to grill to brown foods to enhance flavors. I showed him how to vary the seasonings. For example, for fresh broccoli, how just changing a small amount of oil from olive to sesame can make it taste different. The important thing, especially with men, is to focus on a result and then show them how to achieve it rather than give them a list of steps. While I was recuperating DH reached the point where he was experimenting with herbs! However, learning to cook creatively may lead the OP's DH to cook to his own taste. If all she wants is someone to follow orders, she is safer if he stays ignorant.

Thanks for the tip. Does the hot water bath canning cook the fruit and vegetables? My salsa don't have any cooked ingredients. The recipes are simple -- dice and combine all ingredients. Then let mixture sit for a while to enhance flavors. I have substitued canned chili peppers for fresh and played around with different fruit combinations. The salsa seem to work with seafood or poultry. Here are some recipes: Seafood Tacos with Fruit Salsa For the seafood tacos: 2 T lemon juice, 1 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp ground allspice, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1 - 2 tsp grated lemon peel, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1 lb or any firm fish filet (halibut, snapper, basa or whatever you like), corn or flour tortillas, 3 cups washed and torn romaine (or whatever greens you like), 1 small red onion thinly sliced Prepare fruit salsa and set aside (recipe follows) Combine lemon juice, chili powder, allspice, garlic, lemon peel and cloves in small bowl. Rub fish with spice mixture. (fish may be cut in pieces first, if you like) Broil, grill or bake fish. Heat tortillas until hot and pliable. Top each tortilla with some lettuce, red onion, a piece of fish and fruit salsa Supposed to make six servings, but I don't think a pound of fish goes that far. Fruit salsa: 1 small ripe papaya, peeled, seeded, diced, 1 firm small banana, diced, 2 green onions minced, 3 T chopped fresh cilantro, 3 T lime juice, 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded & minced Pineapple Salsa 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple, 1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper, 1 green onion thinly sliced, 2 T lime juice, 1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced, 1 T chopped fresh cilantro or fresh basil Mango Salsa: 2 medium ripe mangoes peeled and chopped (also good with papaya), 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced, 1 ripe tomato, chopped, juice of 1 lime, pinch of salt, 1/2 - 1 small fresh chili pepper minced or Tabasco to taste, 1 T chopped fresh cilantro Tomato Orange Salsa: 3 ripe tomatoes diced, 4 scallions chopped, 1/2 - 1 fresh green chili seeded and minced or 1/3 tsp cayenne, 2 tsp freshly grated orange peel, 1 orange sectioned and seeded, each section cut in half, 2 T fresh lemon juice, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, salt to taste

I'm sorry to disagree, but I don't think there's enough acid there for a water bath version of salsa. My recipe, which was tested as safe to water bath, has only 4 pounds of tomatoes and 2 pounds of peppers and calls for 1 cup of vinegar. Limes are more acidic than vinegar, but still, that's a lot of vegetables. The problem with salsa is that, unlike other products, it isn't heated before using. A 10 minute boiling period will "deactivate" the botulism spores that can kill you, so tomatoes in chili, or spaghetti sauce, etc., will probably get the 10 minute boil, just by the nature of them. Salsa is eaten straight from the jar, and so I'm extremely careful with it. Now, you could, in theory, pressure can the stuff. I'd go for 35 minutes for pints, that's what NCHFP requires for peppers. There's no way to assure the safety, of course, since you are canning an untested recipe, but that's as close as I could get to a guess. Leave out the tomato paste, etc. and I'd stick to pints, just to make sure I got good heat penetration all the way through. As for the "European method", that's just scary. Jams and jellies, OK, they aren't going to kill you. Even tomatoes are acidic enough and pickles have sufficient vinegar that it's not terrifying, even though it's "not recommended" by the USDA et. al. I do find I get a lot of bad seals and have quite a bit of spoilage with the open kettle, i.e. "European" method. I just don't want to waste all that good stuff, plus time and energy, so I give 'em a dunk in the boiling water, even Chase's pickles, although I used to do otherwise for Dad. Salsa, though, has those low acid vegetables and not all that much acid, I'd never consider it. You may do as you wish, of course. Good luck! Annie