A darn good (and darn easy) salsa "recipe"

Here I am, once again blogging days past our weekly blog release date (which is Friday, for those of you not in-the-Buncolator know).  Let me just confess that I have been on summer time for some time now (and in my world that's similar to what some call beach time, island time, or lake time). 

This picture is really just perfect, as I absolutely love flamingoes.  So happy and so pink.

However, I do promise that today's post will be worthwhile.  As some of you may recall from posts past, while I love good food and entertaining, I am really not one to spend hours in the kitchen.  Blame it on the fact that cooking is not really my thing, I always have about 4 things going on at once and generally cooking gets squeezed right off the ol' to-do list, and I have a one year old to boot.  However, that doesn't mean that I don't love a good dish, and the one I want to share today is no exception.

The salsa "recipe" I am sharing today was thunk up (I know that's bad grammar but I love the way it sounds) by my dear friend Ellen.  Cooking, in fact, is Ellen's thing, or at least one of them.  Everything that I've ever had that she has made is delicious.  For example, Ellen and her boyfriend (my husband's and my long-time friend Hunter) once cooked us an amazing dinner of ahi tuna (sesame crusted and pan seared perfectly, leaving the inside nice and rare), ginger salad, and wasabi (yes, wasabi) mashed potatoes.  Let me just say that that was a divine meal not soon forgotten.

Ellen brought this salsa over to our neighborhood swimming pool on the 4th of July and I immediately copied it a few days later for soiree 2 of 2 of my son's first birthday parties (which I will be blogging on later, have no fear).  It is so easy and so good.  For those of you who are very precise when you cook, I will ask that you relax those rigid ol' rules a little before undertaking this recipe.  Why?  Because this recipe contains no measurements.  Yes, that's right, no numbers of any kind.  However, I promise (or I swanny, for the really good and Southern among us) that if you just trust yourself - and your taste buds - you will make a great bowl of salsa that is just perfect for dipping chips in, topping chicken or fish with, or using as another relish.  And I can promise that this salsa will be soon be making its way to one of our Bunco gatherings.

Without further adieu, here is the "recipe" for:

Ellen's Peach Salsa

Ingredients:

a whole mess of peaches (bonus points if they are Georgia peaches, y'all)!
an equal or greater mess of tomatoes
a few white onions
a couple garlic cloves
a bunch of cilantro leaves
jalapeno peppers
cumin
salt/pepper
apple cider vinegar

(Although I feel I am cheating you, I will tell you that when I made a large bowl of this recipe last weekend, I used 8 or 9 small-ish peaches, about 10 to 12 small-ish tomotoes, one large onion, and large bunch of cilantro.  We didn't put the jalapeno peppers in because children were amongst the guests, but if I had, I would have used 2 or 3.  Additionally, I think we used 2 to 3 garlic cloves (that's the segment, not the whole thing, as I am oft to forget myself), about a teaspoon of cumin, probably 2/3 of a cup of the vinegar, and salt/pepper to taste).

Very technical and scientific steps:

1.  Chop up the peaches, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro leaves, and put them in a large bowl.  All juices and seeds included, and you can leave the peach and tomato skins on as well.

2.  Mince up the garlic cloves and add them in.  Start with less than you think you need and add more if desired.  Don't be like me and always get overambitious with the strongest of ingredients.  I have ruined many a dish with my zealousness in that arena).

3.  Finely chop up the peppers and add them in.  You can leave the seeds in too if you want extra spiciness (and are feeling extra laziness, again, as I am oft to feel in the kitchen).

4.  Finally, add in the cumin and vinegar (see my rule for starting slow, in step 2 above), and the salt and pepper to taste. 

5.  You can serve right away but the better option is to let sit in the fridge overnight and then serve the next day.  And as Ellen says, if you taste it and it is missing something, it's probably salt.

Yum.

Now before I let y'all go, I have to share two fun things.  First, I've told you before about my friend and famous author Mary Kay Andrews.  You have got to go out (if you haven't already) and get her newest book, Spring Fever.  I have yet to read it (I am saving it for the beach, later this summer), but I am just tickled that Miss MKA graciously included my son's name in the book.  There is a lake in the book named after a beloved World War II hero and lo and behold, that hero is my sweet son.  Be still my heart.  Thank you Mary Kay, that was very kind of you! 

Second, I am also tickled to tell y'all that if you live in Atlanta, go out and get a copy of July's Jezebel.  It's the one with Andy Roddick on the cover (not too shabby, eh?) and turn to page 100.  It's a story about my husband and I, and our recent home renovation/home decor journey!! (Which, as you might recall, was done by none other than Catherine's husband Blake of Blake Shaw Homes).  I am still saying to myself, "Seriously, me?" but indeed, there it is and there we are.  The writer (Kate Abney) and photographer (Christina Wedge) were very nice and very professional, the story is very - if not overly - flattering, and the whole thing was very fun.  (I know that I used the word "very" too many times there, but really, this whole experience was so very everything I don't know what other word to use).  The way that this came about is  that through Catherine, I am friends with the fabulous and feisty Stephanie Davis Smith.  A true young mover-and-shaker, Stephanie is the editor of Jezebel's sister publication, the also chic The Atlantan.  Well, a while back she saw some photos of our home, asked Catherine about it, and the rest is now history.  Find the online version of the article here.  (And FYI, that link takes you to pages 3 and 4 of the 4 page spread, so you have to click back to see the first two pages). 

So that's the latest.  Now y'all get on out there, make yourself some salsa, and read yourself a little Spring Fever and maybe even a little Jezebel. 

xoxo


Lindsay