The Queen of Salsa

Okay, okay, okay Ben may be the King of Salsa.... but I am the Queen!! I just made the best salsa!! I got the recipe from Rachael Ray here it is. (You'll never eat store bought salsa again!)

Fresh Tomato Salsa:
3 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/2 to 1 jalapeno, stemmed and minced with seeds (I do w/out seeds)
1/2 medium red onion, grated (I do finely chopped)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, leaves and stems

Toss the tomatoes with the jalapeno, onion, and the 1/2 teaspoon salt. Smash the garlic clove, sprinkle with the remaining salt, and with the flat side of a large knife, mash and smear the mixture to a coarse paste. Stir the paste into the salsa with the olive oil and 1/4 cup of cilantro.

And if you are feeling really sassy...
Season a couple chicken breasts with chili powder and salt and fry in a pan with EVOO and when finished top with your salsa! Oh so good!!

I have found a new specialty of mine. I love to cook!! I'll post more good recipes when I find them. I can't wait to hear what you think!!

Pumpkin Cheese Bread

Here is the recipe for the Pumpkin Cheese Bread I talked about in my celebrating fall post.

2-1/2 cups sugar
1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese
1/2 cup margarine
4 eggs
1 (16oz) can pumpkin
3-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 cup chopped nuts

Combine sugar, softened cream cheese and margarine mixing until well blended. Add eggs (one at a time), mixing well after each addition. Blend in pumpkin. Add combined dry ingredients, mixing until moistened. Fold in nuts. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Bake @ 350 degrees for one hour and 10 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool ten minutes and remove from pans. Cool on cooling rack.

Let me know if you try this and what you think!!

Celebrating Fall

This past Saturday we spent it celebrating all the great things about fall with our friends, Ben and Katie. We had perfect weather! Jesse and Ben went golfing at the King City Golf Course. Katie and I did a little painting on my window and then went to Als Garden Center!! Before we went to Als we made a pit stop at Starbucks for some coffee.... but it was too hot for a "hot" coffee so we got frappuccino instead. Yum!

As we pulled in the parking lot to Als we drove by the front window and Katie gave out a loud gasp!! (I thought I was about to run someone over!) They had Christmas stuff out!!!!! And it was a happy gasp for her! She loves Christmas time!! They had so much Christmas stuff... they had lots of trees in all different colors all decorated!! So cute!! After drooling all over the Christmas stuff we had to remember why we came here... we headed outside to the fall things! We loaded up our cart with 2 oat bales, 2 bundles of corn stalks, 2 pumpkins, a mum, a purple grass thing, and some other really cool plant! Our cart was heaping!! Then, we had to push our cart around with these big 'ol corn stalks sticking out!! It was a bit of a challenge and people stared and smiled at us. Probably because we were practically skipping around the building we were so excited and proud of our gigantic cart full of fall goodies!!
We loaded up the truck with our stuff and just giggled because we felt like farm girls loading our bales of oat and corn stalks!!
We went back to my apartment first and decorated my front door with an oat bale, corn stalks, a pumpkin, and the purple grass thing. So cute!! We left a trail of oats from the truck, down the side walk, up the stairs, and to our door!!!! The other night I was getting in the truck and I looked over and our neighbor's parking spot is full of oats.... wonder where they came from?
We grabbed our chicken noodle soup that I made for supper and went to Katie's!! We decorated her door - so cute!!
Made some pumpkin cheese bread!! Amazing!! We ate the best batch of chicken noodle soup I have ever made!! Oh, and Ben made some homemade salsa - yum!! So good! I think we all gained 5 pounds!!

Katie and I painted the cutest picture on her window while the guys did guy things!