homemade salsa

I love fresh salsa. I'll buy it if I have to, but never NEVER the kind that you find unrefrigerated, sitting in a jar, all dark red colored and tomat0 saucey tasting. Ew. That stuff isn't REAL salsa.

My college roommate, Joe, used to make huge quantities of homemade salsa, and we would devour it all before it could even be put away in the fridge for later. He lives in South Korea now and when he came to visit a few months ago, one of the first things on his agenda was to make this salsa! (He had a hard time getting the ingredients over there)

So here's how to make the best salsa at home... and for cheap! If you have any of the ingredients in your garden - even better!!! I had an onion and some jalapenos for mine.



Joe's Homemade Salsa

1 14 oz can Italian style stewed tomatoes (yes, I actually prefer canned over fresh. It gives it better flavor), drained (retain just a little liquid) and chopped
1/4 cup sweet onion, minced
1-2 jalapenos (depending on how hot they are and how hot you like your salsa)
a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

Combine all the ingredients, and serve with tortilla chips or serve with your favorite burritos, tacos, quesadillas, eggs, salads... anything!

This recipe makes enough to fit perfectly in an empty salsa container from the store.



You might want to make a double or triple batch, because this stuff disappears fast!

saving beauty

I noticed that my neighbors trimmed the flowers from their dill plant when I saw them in our shared yard debris container. Seemed like a good idea, so I followed suit with my own plant, hoping to encourage it to keep producing its tasty leaves.

But it seemed a waste to toss those pretty flowers out, so I brought them in and put them in a vase on my dining table, which now smells a bit like dill pickles. It only makes sense really. Wouldn't you rather smell fresh herbs while you eat than perfumey lilies or roses?

Cartoon Carrots

My carrots look like they're straight out of Rabbit's garden in Winnie the Pooh, don't you think?

Summer garden into Sunday dinner

I'm trying to keep up with this blog, I really am.

The weekend was a good lesson in how wonderful and difficult it can be juggling two children. Saturday was a total mess of a day, filled with toddler tantrums, baby crying followed by ungodly amounts of spit-up (how is it possible that ALL THAT came out of her?!?), and parental meltdowns. It was not pretty.

Sunday fully redeemed itself with long naps, quality time with each of my little munchkins, alone time, and a fantastic dinner straight from our garden in its' prime.






First I chopped all of these delicious items (walla walla sweet onion, sungold cherry tomatoes, and lemon cucumber) and tossed them in a bowl with feta. This has quickly turned into my favorite summer salad.



Next, I browned sweet Italian sausage from Trader Joe's, added more walla wallas, yellow pattypan squash,

red bell peppers (not from our garden) and fresh basil and simmered it all and served it on top of some cute stripey bowtie pasta my mother-in-law brought us from her trip to Italy.


Sprinkled some freshly grated parmesan on top and it was divine!

I could eat like this every day. I love meals with lots and lots of fresh vegetables, and a little protein on top of some type of pasta, grain or bread. A bottle of Viognier made the perfect finish, and this mama was feeling happy and satisfied!

Sweet children make life nice too....

surprising growth

My plants are going crazy!!!
It was just last week that I showed you how everything was growing nicely. For example, here were my yellow patti pan squash and lemon cucumbers one week ago:


They must be loving the heat, because check them out this morning!


I'm shocked! We even have some little thumb-sized squash hiding among the larger-than-life leaves. I think we may be harvesting soon!

I'm also honored to share my son's very first drawing of "mommy" and that's daddy next to me (with the hair).


This took me by such surprise! When we draw at home, it is all numbers and letters, all the time, and I had never seen him really attempt to draw people, so when I found these in the pile of art projects brought home from school, I literally had tears streaming down my face and gave Addison the biggest hugs. There's nothing quite like seeing your own portrait through the eyes of your first child.

He even mocked one up of himself...

which, you've got to give him credit... is pretty accurate!


I love you, my bubs.

garden morning

I woke up really early this morning...one of the curses and luxuries of being 8 months pregnant, I suppose. I took the opportunity to photograph our growing garden in the morning sunlight.



Remember how we started from this?


Here's our garden box in the flesh. We made a few minor adjustments, though its essentially the same.


Everything is growing quite nicely, with a few peapods on the vine, tomato and pepper blossoms popping out,

tiny strawberries ripening, and carrot, beet, chard, and few unknown veggies sprouting (I think they're cucumbers that sprouted from the compost we mixed in).

We've also got potatoes,

shallots, onions, yellow patti-pan squash, lemon cucumbers,

and lots of herbs. Yum... I can't wait.

They're pretty too.


Other highlights outside include Addison's numbers drawn neatly from 1 - 20 (directly on the house, but hey, this is one of those battles that has not been chosen),


and our one sunflower that sporuted and survived the transplant from indoor seeding.


Its going to be a fun summer close to home!

at our house

Although the laptop is still broken (fixed, then wiggin out some more, so back to the shop it went), I FINALLY was able to get some of the pictures off of my camera. You have no idea how itchy I was getting about it!

We've been busy over at the Soon,Then household, trying to get all the to-dos done before our baby girl arrives in about 6 weeks! We've got a few more big things to do, but we've really accomplished a lot!

We finished planting the garden, and are enjoying watching the little carrots and chard sprout up from seed, and the peas grasping to the bamboo trellis. We've also planted golden beets, walla walla onions, shallots, pole beans, lemon cucumbers, yellow patti pan squash, brandywine tomatoes, sungold cherry tomatoes, red potatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, strawberries, and a variety of herbs.

I am so looking forward to the summer. Addison is entirely absorbed in writing his numbers on every flat surface outside with sidewalk chalk, and this can occupy him for a good deal of time while we work in the yard.





We've been having fun drawing our favorite foods, flowers, and people, too. He also loves to help me water the plants and is showing interest in climbing trees, watching worms and bugs, picking flowers (sometimes not ones I want picked!) and of course, sampling all the herbs. All I need now is a big comfy lounge chair back there so I can nurse and nap in the shade, or just watch Addison wear himself out on lazy afternoons.

Inside the house, we've been in a buying, selling, moving and repurposing furniture frenzy. We got an IKEA Expedit for Addison's room in an effort to contain most of his toys in his own room. Addison helped Ben build it with his little squeaky toy hammer.





The shelf looks great, and he loved helping me "redecorate" his room. He ran around putting toys and books just where he thought they should go. I'm so glad he's taking all the changes around the house quite well and enjoying it all. I can only hope he continues to be so positive when his baby sister arrives!



I'm in the pretty uncomfortable last legs of this pregnancy, with about 6 - 8 weeks to go! It sounds like forever, and so soon at the same time... But for now, I am still enjoying mostly restful nights of sleep, being able to do projects around the house, cook meals, spend uninterrupted time with Addison, and I plan to get at least two more dates in with my husband before she comes!

Here's to being in the now....