homemade salsa

I don't like to eat my vegetables. I can eat the vegie tray-type vegetables with ease, but when it comes to things like salsa with the chunks of peppers, onions, and tomatoes, it kind of makes me want to gag. Recently I had this epiphany. I only want to gag when I eat vegetables from a jar of salsa like Pace or what have you. But I can clean a bowl of blended, less chunky salsa made fresh at a restaurant for example. So I went to one of my favorite food sites, Simply Recipes to find a salsa recipe that I thought looked good. I found Fresh Tomato Salsa. What I did differently is I added everything to a food processor and pulsed it so it was mostly blended smooth, but not runny and pasty. I added the cilantro last and then pulsed it a couple of times so that it was blended nicely with the rest of the salsa. I added a little bit of garlic and left out the optional cumin or oregano, although the oregano would probably be pretty good. If you don't want it to be so hot, you can leave the serrano pepper out and just add another jalapeno pepper or even a green pepper. I think I also added an extra tomato or two. If your is too pasty, try adding a little bit of water, but the lime juice should be plenty.

It turned out really good! Eat with tortilla chips, or serve with your meals. It's good with almost anything. Really. If you have any good homemade salsa recipes, let me know. I think it would be cool to can my own. I'm not sure if it's vinegar or what, that makes it last on the shelf.

sweet 'n spicy cream cheese spread

Peachy Cream Cheese Jalapeño Spread
1/4 cup peach or apricot preserves
1/2 red jalapeño chile, seeded, finely chopped
1/2 green jalapeño chile, seeded, finely chopped
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, cut in half
Assorted crackers (we like Breton or other similar type)

1. In a small bowl, mix preserves and chiles. On small serving plate, place blocks of cream cheese. Spoon preserves mixture over cheese.
2. Serve with crackers or cocktail bread.

notes:

when dicing the peppers, it's a good idea to use food handler gloves to keep the juice and seeds off your skin. It will inevitably end up in your eyes or on your mouth, burning for days. Seriously. I'm Speaking from experience.

You can use one whole red or one whole green chile, but the combination is real perty.

The remaining chiles will keep for several days in the fridge.

ideas for chicken

3 from simply recipes:

Chipotle Grilled Chicken with Avocado Sandwich (we were in a hurry and we used a rotisserie chicken with little seasoning and it was still great. We also used french hamburger buns and toasted them in the toaster. The whole sandwich was ready in 5 minutes or less.)

Grilled Lime Chicken with Black Bean Sauce

Cardamom Honey Chicken