company: The Salsa

Often when our family hosts a meal with Mexican-inspired food, I get my daughter involved. She makes a tasty salsa that everyone should try...I've asked to her to write a guest post.

Hi! My name is Ellie, I'm thirteen, and I write a blog called "the definition of um" and post weekly video blogs there. Today I'm going to "show" you how to make the tomatillo salsa I've been making for years, tweaked from a Rick Bayless cookbook.

You're going to need:
ten tomatillos (per batch)
two to three garlic cloves
half a white onion
three pickled jalepeño peppers (Regular, not-pickled peppers should be all right too)
one lime
salt
pepper

The unwrapping of the tomatillos

Begin by peeling all those sticky, papery wrappers off of the tomatillos. Just a side note, it's better if you get very fresh tomatillos, ones with wrappers that haven't dried onto the fruit, because those are hard to peel completely.

Nathan and Ellie, working side by side...fun to see my kid in the kitchen

Heat a frying pan on a stove on medium-high. Slice all the tomatillos in half and throw them in the pan face-down, with the whole, peeled garlic cloves.

Roasting up the little devils

Roast the tomatillos face-down (checking them periodically) until a caramel-colored juice starts to seep out of them, or when that side looks charred, or when the tomatillos start falling to pieces. That means they're done and hate you for brutally torturing them. You beastie.

Flip the tomatillos and roast them on the other side until that side gets charred as well. Pay attention to the garlic as you roast the tomatillos, and flip that too.

During your slow murder of the tomatillos, you can slice half an onion up and throw that in a blender or food processor. If you'd like, you can finely chop a quarter of the onion and set this aside to add to the salsa later, and put the other quarter of the onion into the kitchen mechanism of you choice. Juice the lime and add that to the blender. Slice your jalapeños in half and remove all the seeds; put them in the blender.

Add the tomatillos from the pan to the blender, and sprinkle 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt and grind a bit of pepper into your heavenly salsa potion. Blend until you can blend no more.

The Shacks serious about their salsa tasting

Gather every person in your house or building for a salsa party and stage an action shot for your scrapbook or food blog! Make sure your company smiles, unlike the stern Shackelford family.