FRUIT IS GREAT IN SALSA

While I didn’t cook anything particularly interesting this week (we ordered in Indian food that lasted for days) I did eat something I never had eaten before. Wonder what it was? Hamburger Helper, that’s what. Being a lifelong vegetarian, and having parents with a little sense, we didn’t eat things like hamburger helper. I don't even know if they had veggie meat crumbles back when Iwas a kid. I think not.

On my way home from work yesterday I remembered there was no food in the house so I stopped by the store and tried to think of something quick and easy since I didn’t want to put any effort into it. I remembered that we had a package of veggie meat in the freezer. A light went on in my brain, Hamburger Helper. I also picked up some asparagus and leeks but I prepared them very similarly to last week’s dish (with some minor changes) so it wasn’t worthy of a Foodie Friday, but it was incredibly delicious. Tony tackled the Hamburger Helper since he knew how to cook it better than me. We settled down to watch the movie of Watership Down (since we DVRed it months ago but just recently finished the book) and a nice all American meal. It wasn’t too bad. The movie, however, was a little bad. It followed the storyline relatively closely but lacked any of the suspense and tension of the book. Events happened so quickly that you didn't have time to worry if things were going to end up ok.

Even though it was a new food, am not going to post about how to make Hamburger Helper. If you are curious, the instructions are on the box. Instead I will talk about one of my favorite things to make, Mango Salsa. It’s super easy but oh, so yummy!

-5 roma tomatoes nice and ripe (diced)
-½ red onion
-2 cloves garlic
-1 large jalapeno pepper depending on how hot you like things you can leave the seeds in, or not.
-Juice of 2 limes or maybe three
-Zest of one lime
-1 ripe mango (diced)
-½ cup of cilantro (loosely measured)
-dash of salt (optional)

-Put the onion, garlic, jalapeno, and cilantro in a food processor or blender and mix until everything is very finely chopped

-Combine the tomatoes and mango in a large bowl

-Add the lime zest and salt to the bowl and stir

-Throw the blended mixture into the bowl cover with the lime juice and stir

Enjoy!

I have also taken the finished product and put it back in the blender (because I don’t have a food processor) and blended everything to make a more salsaish salsa vs. this pico de galloish version. Both are fantastic.

I was having the shuffle of the century on my way to work this morning. It was like in school when the massive CD player seemed to know exactly what we wanted to hear. I hope it is as good now.

You Don’t Send Me, Belle and Sebastian- This song has the grooviest groove that you could ever hope to have. You put this tune and arms will be swinging and snapping at every turn. This is one of my favorite Belle and Sebastian songs, which may not mean all that much because I have about fifty favorites.

Good Feeling, Violent Femmes- While this is easily not one of my favorite Femmes songs it happens to be growing on me more and more as I get older. I have realized that about a lot of songs I used to want to skip. Now I really kind of groove to them. I guess the idea that tastes mature is true, or maybe I just got sick of the other songs.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Richie Havens- I remember one time the family was in the airport and this really cool looking older guy was there with a pretty young woman. My dad got incredibly excited and went to go shake his hand. The guy was Richie Havens. I have tried, unsuccessfully, to find a copy of the song “Dreaming as One” without buying an entire CD but have failed miserably. Maybe my parents have an idea….