salsa!

For days Maddie and I have wanted to make salsa! That we can do. All thought I am really trying to expand out our menu. While trying to become a better cook at the same time.

This has never been a strength of mine. My moms kitchen was so tiny and she had such a stressful life with two jobs and a rotten marriage, it was no wonder that when she had to be in the kitchen she wanted to alone.

Well my kitchen is fab and I want my little girl to be a foodie, even if she only eats 5 different foods and did I mention that they are all white in color. She has been experimenting with food lately but her creations are wacked! Today she wanted to make cucumber stew. (Maddie wants you all to know that she was joking about cucumber stew. )

OK , we need direction! We need recipes! And we need it NOW!


Last Tuesday I had the honor of working at the new Byrd House Market. What a wonderful little market located in the heart of Organ Hill. I had a blast, sold some stuff, met loads of cool people and bought lots of great produce. One of my favorite farmers were there. The ones that sell tomatillos.

So off to our favorite cookbook, The Healthy Kitchen. But there were no recipes for tomillias were there. So one quick search later and I found this recipe over at Elise.com. It looked great please read the blurp before the recipe it has a nice little story to go along with it.
Salsa Verde

1 1/2 lb tomatillos
1/2 cup chopped white onion
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 Jalapeño peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped
Salt to taste

1 Remove papery husks from tomatillos and rinse well. Cut in half and place cut side down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Place under a broiler for about 5-7 minutes to lightly blacken the skin.

2 Place tomatillos, lime juice, onions, cilantro, Jalapeño peppers, sugar in a food processor (or blender) and pulse until all ingredients are finely chopped and mixed. Season to taste with salt. Cool in refrigerator.

Serve with chips or as a salsa accompaniment to Mexican dishes.

Makes 3 cups.

So I went to our little farm stand in our neighborhood and I bought some peppers. I had the sense to ask him what kind of peppers I was getting but I promptly forgot. Don and I had our guesses and guess what we were both wrong!

According to About.com and Pepperfool.com these is a Jalapeño Peppers. What a happy accident I got the right kind of peppers for the recipe. Man I love the internet!

We are also making our own fresh salsa. Maddie calls it Rainbow Salsa. It is called rainbow salsa because of the yellow and red tomatoes were happy to receive. They are some of the prettiest tomatoes from one of Don's fabulous work buddies, Cherye has grown a wide variety of tomatoes this year and thank god she has had a bumper crop. She gave me tons!

Here is the recipe that we used as a base for our Rainbow salsa! It is from The Healthy Kitchen by Andrew Weil, M.D. and Rosie Daley.

Salsa

	1 bunch cilantro (1/2 cup cilantro leaves)
	1 cup chopped tomatoes
	1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
	1/4 cup diced red onion
	1 small jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
	2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Hold the cilantro under running water to wash off the dirt. Pinch the leaves off the stems, coarsely chop the leaves, and put them in a small bowl with the remaining salsa ingredients. Toss thoroughly until everything is blended together. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

So.... how was it? Well no one eat my dinner that I made because everyone pigged out on salsa and chips along with all the topping that I had to go with the Quesidilla's! Oh well dinner is ready for tomorrow. Its all good!