The Cooks Corner: Trying new recipes

I tend to like to change recipes because one never knows if a little change might make something better. Rick isn’t as excited about me changing recipes. He finds something that he likes and expects it to be the same every time. Add to my changes the fact that I never write recipes down but tend to cook with a kind of “pinch and palm” method, and some of my “recipes” can get interesting.
This last week has been salsa week. I make both red, which I made a couple of weeks ago, and green, which is a wonderful use of green tomatoes—like the ones left after the plants are killed by frost. I got about 30 pounds of green tomatoes from a friend, and out of that I canned 42 pints of salsa. But between the first batch and the last batch, I made some changes that Rick wasn’t too sure about until he got a good taste of it.
Once he tasted it then he was quite excited for the change, but not all of my changes have been that good. Once I was making hamburger gravy and biscuits and was looking for some way, anyway, to make it different. Hamburger gravy used to be my go-to for a quick meal that would fill everyone up in a hurry. I happened upon some turmeric that I apparently had around for making pickles. I thought it might add a little different taste to the gravy and, after all, I used it in pickles and liked the taste in there.
The taste was pretty good. But the gravy was green. Really green. Our family has laughed about my green gravy for years.
Now since I promised two recipes this week, here goes.

Green tomato salsa
4 cups chopped green tomatoes (I run them through a meat grinder)
2 cups chopped bell peppers (go through the grinder with the tomatoes)
½-1 cup chopped jalapeno peppers (1 cup is super hot)
1 cup roasted chopped green chiles (I use the canned chopped ones)
1 cup onion, diced (I run it through the grinder with the tomatoes)
3 cloves garlic, crushed (grinder again)
2 teaspoons canning salt
¾ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon sugar
1½ cups apple cider vinegar
Grind or finally chop the vegetables and add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a simmer. Put in jars and process for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath.
The adjustments I made were to add a tablespoon or so of lime juice and some fresh cilantro.
Red tomato salsa
16 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped
4 small cans diced green chiles
½-1 jalapeno diced, more for more heat
3 large green bell peppers, diced
1 large onion, chopped
1/3 cup salt
½ cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
1-2 cloves garlic
Cayenne or bottled hot sauce to taste, it adds an extra bite
½ cup Clear Jel or Ultra Jel. Available from health food stores, or locally from Allison’s Pantry.
Combine all ingredients except the Ultra Jel. Bring to a simmer and then add Ultra Jel to the desired consistency. Process pints 20 minutes in a water bath canner.