Salsa!

Momma ripped out a magazine insert with three different salsa recipes. We needed something to take to a party, so we riffed off two of the recipes to make our own.

1 c diced pineapple
1/2 c finely diced red onion
1/2 c diced cucumber
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T chopped cilantro
2 T grated ginger
squeeze of lemon
drizzle of honey
salt and pepper to taste
Mix together and let rest 1 hour in the fridge.

For this salsa, the heat comes from the ginger, aided by the garlic and onion, and the acidity of the pineapple, rather than the traditional chilies.
So for an onion and garlic free version for myself, I upped the ginger and cilantro and black pepper. Tastes wonderful with blue corn chips, and would go nicely over baked chicken breasts or thighs. (Put lemon slices on the chicken pieces before roasting them, and then serve them over spinach with the salsa. Would be so good.)

1 c diced pineapple
1/3 c diced cucumber
1/4- 1/3 c chopped cilantro
4 T grated ginger (or more!)
Lemon juice
Honey
salt and LOTS of black and white pepper

I'm also reading Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie. It's an excellent cookbook, has a huge section of delicious-looking salads (if we only had the greens!), pastas, then goes through things to do with different meats (lots of seafood), a section on veggies, and some desserts. I wish the veggies took up the whole book. We don't really eat meat in our house, we eat pasta only rarely since Mum can't eat it anymore, so I'm not feeling entirely inspired. But the things he does with carrots! We're running out of carrots in our fridge!

And in other news, there's a new food and cooking channel on TV, the Cooking Channel. They have Julia Child on, Monday through Friday at 1pm Central time! And I got to watch "the Galloping Gourmet" for the first time yesterday. He's a scream.

Birthday dinner