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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Summer Salsa

So, I was planning dinner tonight, enchiladas, spanish rice, and a taco"ish" salad (no meat but taco type add ons) when I decided to make fresh Guacamole and salsa which required a trip to the store to buy tomatoes and avacados. I return put the ingredients in the fridge and began making salsa. and the guac. This is something I do from time to time but haven't done in awhile. I started chopping the onions, garlic and cilantro since those things all went in both dishes. Then it came time to chop the tomatoes. I turned to the fridge to grab them and saw a piece of cantaloupe that was not the best melon in the bunch, not very flavorful and destined to go to the trash sooner or later. I think a light bulb went off in the kitchen or something because all of a sudden I am dicing cantaloupe mixing it with the other salsa ingredients and finding the biggest decision I have to make is whether or not to turn back around and actually grab the tomatoes to add to my concoction of cantaloupe salsa. I find a few tiny cherry tomatoes that need to be used and settle on halving them and letting them be an addition rather than a staple to the dish. I taste the salsa, it's got a bit of a kick, I taste the guac. also a bit of a kick no prob for me but not all that I am cooking for care for spicy food. I ponder my options and decide that since it has now taken me about an hour to make just the accompanying dishes to my meal (thank you for the help Katrina) I may want to actually start the main meal. By the time I get the dinner on the table I am impressed by myself and the beautiful spread I created. Picture perfect enchiladas, a salad that looks divine, rice that is perfectly cooked and my salsa and guacamole. I contemplate grabbing the camera to share a picture of it with you all but don't because Katrina is telling me she is ready to eat. Then, I ruin the perfect table setting by throwing on a bag of chips "in case" anyone wants a couple to accompany the rest of the meal.

Well, the salad wasn't even touched, the enchiladas not even half gone, the rice eaten but primarily by Katrina. Why you say did such a perfect meal go uneaten...... We all ate guacamole, salsa and chips! Sure everyone was polite and ate the other stuff as well, but no one could keep their hands off the cantaloupe salsa! What a great dish for a summer evening. It was so refreshing, sweet, yet spicy and completely thrown together as an afterthought. I still have the tomatoes I went to the store to buy just to make salsa.... I guess the moral of the story, before you run to the store to buy ingredients, be sure you don't have the perfect substitute already in your house!

2 comments:

stacita said...

Yum! Fun post, Staci.

carrie said...

Maybe you could make the next salsa hit...mango salsa a thing of the past now cantaloupe salsa!