Uses for Your Canned Tomato Puree: Salsa

In the middle of winter, I crave fresh tasting salsa. I have tried canning "already made salsa" and found it to be lacking in flavor and it really tasted no better then a quality jar of salsa you would find in the grocery store. The biggest problem is I don't really like the flavor of cooked salsa in general. Store bought "fresh "tomatoes in the winter are however just as gross. What do you do?? I took a quart jar of plain home canned tomato puree from the cellar and to that added lots of fresh cilantro, a medium fresh onion,a green pepper, 3 garlic cloves, lime juice from half of a fresh lime, and salt to taste. Screw the bottom of your blender into the top of the jar....blend until the fresh bits are chopped up nice and small and....Ta-daaaaaaa..... A fresh tasting salsa and another use for those tomatoes you spent all summer saving.

Capturing Life in Plaster

I first tried this in salt dough after seeing it on pinterest, but was very disappointed by the results. The salt dough needs to be put in the oven at 200 degrees F for upwards of 4 -5 hours. If you are trying to do an older childs foot it may take longer. The results were not detailed and didn't cover well with paint. There is also no consensus on how long salt dough anything lasts. I wanted to capture the kids youth for ages, or at least until my older years. All in all...i don't recommend using salt dough for footprints.

I read numerous websites and took a bit of good information from each. After a bit of trial and error, found that plaster of paris was the best medium for capturing life like and detailed foot and handprints. The best technique I have found is as follows:

**Playdough ---I used generic, in fact I tried both name brand and the cheaper generic from the craft aisles at Walmart and the generic was not only cheaper it worked better, The generic playdough peeled away from the plaster much better after the plaster dried and any that remained rinsed away easily in warm water.

**Plaster of Paris - I bought a 25 lb bag for 11$ at the local hardware store.

**2 foot long length of 1 inch wide cardstock covered in packing tape to "laminate" it

**Paint

1.)I used 3 standard size playdough containers and rolled it out so that it was at least 3/4 of an inch thick and dimensions large enough to house the foot or hand with plenty of space around it.

You can have the print have a slight irregular edge of plaster (skip to step 5) or it can be made so the entire piece has a circular shape with the print protruding from the center (Follow steps 2 to 4)

2.)Place the cardstock strip in a circle around the impression. Use a paper clip to hold the paper at the proper length.

3.)When you have the paper centered around the print the way that you like it then press it into the playdough enough to so it stays in place.

4.) If you want a hole in the final product to hang it up, then take a straw or a plastic standard pen and stick the end of it into the playdough where you want the hole to be.

4.) Mix the plaster. I use about 1 cup of plaster to 1/2 cup of cold water per small size impression. Stir the plaster to remove the lumps and as many air bubbles as possible.

5.) Pour the plaster into the paper mold so it is around 1/2 inch thick.

6.) Remove the pen in about 40 mins.

7.) Remove the paper mold in about 60 minutes. Touch the back of the plaster, if it doesn't leave a mark then pick u the plaster and pull the playdough off. It can be reused.

8.) Allow the plaster to dry an additional 20 minutes then wash the surface of the print in warm water to remove the playdough residue. Be gentle.

9.) Allow the print to dry for several hours.

10.) Paint as desired. I love bronze spray paint.