Homemade Salsa recipe: Do's and Dont's!

                                               What NOT to do when making salsa

        Every year my family has a Superbowl "potluck". Everyone comes and brings a finger food. Sounds easy enough right?
   
        This year I decided to bring chips and salsa. And I LOVE to cook so I decided to make my own. I searched online and found a recipe I thought sounded good and I went to the store and got all the fresh ingredients. I was so amazed at how cheap it all was. My total came out to only $5.92. Here's the recipe I used

Makes about 5 cups

1 1/4 lbs of Roma tomatoes ( about 6 )
1 (14.5 oz) can of petite diced tomatoes with green chilies (undrained)
2 green onions
1/3 cup chopped red onion
1 jalapeno pepper ( don't forget to take the stem off
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
1 large garlic clove, sliced
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice ( from one large lime)
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
 salt & pepper to taste

     
        Overall I found this to be a nice recipe, but it was an even greater learning experience. I followed this recipe to a T. And it smelled just like salsa, but when I tasted it, it was overwhelmingly bitter. I searched on the internet trying to find some answers and all that kept coming up was that I used the wrong tomatoes. Now understand this was Saturday night. The night before the Superbowl. It was 11 pm. I needed to get up for work at 6 and I would have to go straight from work to the party. There was no time to re-do it, the store was closed. I realized that a lot of the bitterness was from the lime. What cuts the bitterness of lime? SALT! Salt saved the Superbowl!!! When the recipe said salt to taste I only put a pinch. I recommend you start with a teaspoon and go from there. Taste it every time you add some until it tastes right.
        Another thing, take the seeds out of the jalapeno even if you like spicy foods. With all the other spices and herbs its already super spicy. You can always put some seeds in if its not hot enough, you can always add more but you cant take them out!

Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask questions and leave comments.