garden rewards

Last weekend, I collected about 20 tomatoes from Nils's Dad's garden. I decided since I had already made a tomato sauce, I would put these scarlet tokens to good use in a fresh salsa. Last year when I maintained my own garden, I made up a salsa recipe that incorporated most of its bounty---chives, a variety of peppers, and tomatoes. To this mixture I usually added fresh cilantro, avocado chunks which eventually added a creaminess to the salsa juice, and splashes of color with bits of orange, yellow and red peppers. This time round though, I needed to gather supplies from the market, and as they were out of cilantro and acceptable avocados (the selection offered was either days away from ripeness or finger sinkers), I needed to tweak my recipe for one more suitable for fall. Please enjoy with multi-grain or blue tortilla chips. And, the yield on this is a lot since I love to have it on hand for snacking and impromptu guests.

garden salsa

1 7oz can chopped green chillies, partially drained
1 11oz can summer corn, partially drained
1 orange bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
5 scallions, sliced
12 medium-sized tomatoes
1T distilled white vinegar
1T aged balsamic vinegar
6T extra virgin olive oil
1.5 t Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
2t ground cumin
S&P to taste

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together with a wooden spoon. If avocados and cilantro are available, I suggest adding the flesh of one avocado and the lively leaves of a cilantro bunch at the end. You can also scoop a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream onto the top of the salsa heap and sprinkle with a dash of cumin, salt & pepper. Enjoy!

my life with bartender: october 7, 2007

“You’re a jerk,” I said teasingly to Nils below a dark cloudy sky on Sunday night, as we sat at the end of a jetty in the neighborhood he grew up in.

“Ya, I’m just a big fat jerk,” he responded, then hesitated for a few moments before continuing, “But you know I’m a big fat jerk…and, well, if you are okay with that, then maybe you’ll be okay with being with a big fat jerk forever?”

Then he turned toward me and revealed a ring, and all I could whisper was, “I can’t see it.” The sky was so dark that I really couldn’t!

“It doesn’t matter,” he stated, coaxing my response.

“Ya, let’s go for it…Yes, yes, yes.”

A flashlight emerged to highlight the ring I’ve always imagined but never described to him, and how he had it custom made to my unspoken wants amazed me. He asked if he could add some weight to my hand, and I asked for a second before he slid the ring on to a finger previously forever bare.

We listened to music, danced to Frank Sinatra and enjoyed a bottle of my favorite wine, Lady Bug Red. And when he looked up at the sky and remarked amazed at how the clouds had cleared a perfect circle right above us, I couldn’t help but feel that “some” were watching over us.

the first anniversary of my 30th birthday

That's how Nils refers to my 31st birthday on 10/10. He is probably still recouping from the weekend of amazing surprises he had in store for me a year ago today. Although I've been working on catching up on some recent posts, my girl Alex phoned me at midnight to sing me "Happy Birthday," and wake me to the fact that I'm a year older. I was happy to realize though that I was writing when she called. Working on this blog--doing something that I had set out to do years ago, but hadn't had the time to. Luckily my friend Mike surprised me with the site's template, uploading a nerdy cartoon Jen that he had designed years ago! Wow, I have some pretty thoughtful and amazing friends! So, here I sit, 32 minutes into being 31, and I'm content in the realization that I'm finally following the paths I've wanted to for a long time. The immediacy of blogging keeps me interested, and feeds my need for instant gratification. Now I can put all of my recipe writing, publishing, and up-and-coming wine training to some use in a combination of efforts. I suppose my 20s were the years of training for what I feel ready to do now in my 30s. Those of you who know the obnoxiously creative side of me will understand what an accomplishment it is to finally be involved in the food and wine world on a daily basis and to also be writing on a weekly, and hopefully soon, daily basis. Thanks for the words of encouragement Lynds, Alex, and Momma. You all listen sooo well. And even if this is my lil slice of the digital realm, I'm happy to finally have a home here. And I really hope that I have some tasty entries to follow about my birthday dining...salud.