I, like pretty much everyone else, really don’t like Mondays so much. It’s hard having to get up and go back to work after the weekend, especially when you realize that you didn’t do everything you wanted to do, mostly because you just wanted to relax on the weekend. Ah, the vicious circle of having a job. It does pay those bills though.
Our AC is now running better than ever. It’s been nice. We can actually feel the air coming out of the vents upstairs now. We just thought it was old ductwork but that obviously wasn’t the case. The AC guys said it was one of the worst cases they had ever seen, it was that bad. But there’s definitely no way we could have got it that bad, having only been here a year. Bad previous owners!
We went to a friend’s going away party this weekend. They are moving to Atlanta for grad school. We volunteered to do the food for the party as it’s easy for us to do. We scaled back from what we would have normally done (stuffed pork tenderloin, homemade coleslaw, hummus and pita, and stuff like that) and just did fajitas and a lovely watermelon spiked with vodka. I made salsa and pico de gallo from the tomatoes in our garden and the peppers that I bought at the farmer’s market. It turned out excellent. Recipes follow.
Salsa
4-5 tomatoes, chopped to fit in processor
1 onion, quartered
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 cayenne peppers*
1 serrano pepper*
2 anaheim peppers*
2-3 jalepeno peppers*
1 red bell pepper
1 purple bell (green also works)
1 small bunch cilantro
1 ½ limes
couple tablespoons olive oil
salt
pepper
Roughly chop and put all ingredients into food processor and pulse. You may have to puree some of the tomatoes down at first in order to fit everything in. When done, you should have a semi-chunky but smooth mixture. Almost but not quite a puree. Let sit for one hour or more for the flavors to mix. It gets better as it sits.
For extra spice add Tabasco or siracha sauce. Extra peppers work too. A scotch bonnet would be a great addition or maybe instead of the anaheims. For a slightly different flavor, roast some of the peppers.
Remember, all of this is to taste. Add/delete what you want. This is a bit spicy- it creeps up on you. Leave out the * peppers for less spice. There’s so much you can do with it to make it your own. Cumin and chili powder work. Maybe some paprika.
Pico de gallo
2-3 tomatoes, diced
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalepeno, minced (optional)
1 small bunch cilantro, rough chopped
1 lime, juiced
salt
pepper
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Let sit for one hour to let the flavors mix. Sometimes I add garlic powder for a little extra flavor.
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4 comments:
How do you spike a watermelon?
We cut it up and soaked it in vodka. Theoretically you can poke a hole in the melon and funnel it in- it supposedly soaks it all in.
But that didn't work. The marinating did. Hooo boy did it ever!
So if I have a large watermelon I use a whole litre of vodka to soak it in?
Do I liquidise it afterwards or do I serve it on cocktail sticks?
Oooh yeah, a whole litre would be sooooo good. You can do whatever you want with it. Eat it straight, make cocktails, use the juice that soaks out, whatever. Really. We just kept it in a large bowl and stirred. Oh, don't forget to stir if you slice it up. Oh it's so very good. Try with other alchols if you want to.
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