I'm arguing with the 7yo about brushing her hair. I look forward to the day when I don't have to tell them to brush their teeth and hair or change their undies or clean their rooms. I love my kids, but I'm not one to hang onto stages of their lives. Let them grow. Let them move out. Let them become adults. I'm good with it. To every thing there is a season.
Speaking of which, it's finally the season for fresh tomatoes from my garden. And peppers. I let the 7yo plant the garden, otherwise everything would have died. I've got a black thumb when it comes to anything but weeds. One of my favorites for tomatoes is fresh salsa. Here's my take. Enjoy!
Fresh Salsa
2 c. fresh tomatoes, chopped
1/4 c. sweet onion, minced
1/2 c. pepper, minced (Your choice of bell, banana, anaheim, you name your own heat level)
1 clove garlic, crushed and minced fine
1/2 t. cumin
1/2 t. chili powder
1 t. salt
1 T. vinegar or lime juice
Stir everything together. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
Optional add-ins:
1 c. cooked black beans
1 c. corn, fresh or canned, but cook it first
1 T. minced parsley or, it hurts to type this because I detest the stuff and it's mutual, cilantro
1 small can chopped green chilies
1/2 t. cayenne pepper, if you want it spicier
1/2 c. minced jalapenos, fresh or bottled
1/2 c. chopped avacado, although it's better in this:
Fresh Guacamole
3 ripe avacados
1 t. lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
Mash all together. You can add 1/4 c. sour cream if you want. I'm not a believer in adulterating my avacado with anything else.
And another variation:
Fresh Fruit Salsa
2 c. fresh mango or pineapple
1/4 c. minced sweet onion
1/2 c. chopped red or green pepper
1/2 t. cumin
1/2 t. chili powder
1/2 t. salt
Mix together. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour before serving. Great with seafood or chicken.
Just curious - why do you cook the corn before you add it in if it is canned? I've taken to just draining and adding it - seems to work great (I love the sweet of corn with the sting of peppers).
ReplyDeleteAh, I miss having a garden. I've had to put that on the back burner the past couple of years.
ReplyDelete(giggling to myself over the brushing argument) I think I have a picture of me, circa age five, of a hair-brushing gone horribly wrong. :D
Sympathy with the black thumb. Mine is close to that. I made salsa once, and with great expectations presented it to my husband who wasn't particularly impressed. I had to think up recipes to include it in to keep it from going bad. Burned out a lot of my enthusiasm for making fresh salsa.
ReplyDeleteHannah
Hannah- this makes a fairly small batch, not my usual enormous huge bowl of stuff. I'm trying to trim things down now that I've lost children to growing up.
ReplyDeleteChris - that should be cook the fresh corn. Canned corn you can just drain and dump in. I was still a bit asleep this morning typing it. Thanks for catching it.
Great recipes, Jaleta! The best guacamole I ever had was in Jamaica. I think they put fresh cane juice in theirs, since they grow so much cane sugar on the island. But I do agree about not messing so much with the avacado. Store-bought guacamole can have up to a dozen ingredients and that's crazy! (It also tastes bad!)
ReplyDeleteAs for letting the kids grow and fly on their own, I absolutely agree. My youngest is 19 and I'm still telling him to clean his room! I can't imagine empty nest syndrome being something I'll experience in my future.
If I ever live somewhere that I can grow avacados, I'll see if it's the fresh-picked avacado that makes it so good. Fresh cane juice is also good, but I never thought of putting sugar in guacamole. Someday, if I move, we'll have an avacado tree, a lime tree, and a lemon tree so I can really do it right.
ReplyDeleteI think you're a lot closer to an empty nest than I am, Darcia. Considering half of my kids are autistic and may be in my basement for the rest of their lives, I may never have a completely empty nest. But it's all good.