Cinco de Salsas and a Contest Winner

I didn't have time to announce the winner of the cookie contest on wednesday, 

and my many attempts to do a blogpost on my iphone were unsuccessful.

( i really need to keep working on that, 

because i would definitely post more often if i could blog from my phone). 

anyways... the random winner of the dozen cookies for mother's day is christina neal.

christina, please email me your mom's contact information so i can get her cookies to her next weekend.

thank you all so much for your participation and support. i have gotten SO many orders in the past few weeks. it has been encouraging to see this tiny little cookie business become a reality.

and i also thought while i was actually at a computer that i would post about our cinco de mayo celebration.

i love mexican food... i would eat it about 5 times a week if i was the only one influencing our dinner decisions, so any opportunity that i get to make it is welcomed. 

i decided for cinco de mayo that i would make 

5 kinds of salsa for our 'lunch'.

so i thought that i would share those 5 recipes with you.

here, in no particular order, are our 

'cinco de salsas':

starting top right and going clockwise:

 traditional fresh salsa, roasted tomatillo salsa,

black bean and corn salsa, creamy avocado salsa, and mango salsa.

I have already done a blogpost about the first one. 

it is just a traditional fresh tomato salsa, and is probably my favorite.

here is the link: 

garden fresh salsa

i thought that i would also add a few pictures of how to easily peel the tomatoes for this salsa.

begin by cutting a very shallow 'x' into the skin of the tomato.

drop the tomatoes into boiling water.

boil for about 1-1 1/2 minutes. 

remove the tomatoes from the water once the skin begins to loosen at the 'x'

immediately place the tomatoes into ice water to 'blanch' them.

once the tomatoes have cooled in the ice bath, the skins will easily peel off.

Combine the tomatoes and the remaining ingredients and process well in food processor.

next i will share the

roasted tomatillo salsa recipe:

begin by peeling and rinsing 7 or 8 tomatillos

half and seed 2 or 3 jalepenos, 

and peel 3 or 4 garlic cloves.

place vegetables 4" under the broiler on a baking sheet or pan with raised edges.

broil about 4 minutes on each side, (turning to broil each side).

 remove from oven and cool, reserving juices from roasted tomatillos.

Once cooled place broiled vegetables and juices in blender with 2 T. chopped cilantro.

(i used my immersion blender)

Blend well and then add 1/4 c. finely chopped white onion 

and 1 t. salt.

Chill before serving.

One of my favorite salsas/dips is 

black bean and corn salsa

whisk the dressing ingredients:

1/4 c. red wine vinegar

1 1/2 T. olive oil

3 T. honey

3 cloves garlic, pressed

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cumin

dash of pepper

then add 

1 can (or 2 c. thawed frozen corn)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 red onion, chopped finely

2 green onions, sliced

combine all ingredients with dressing 

then add 6 oz. crumbled feta cheese

and let sit for several hours or overnight.

this saturday morning we went to the Greenville, SC saturday downtown market.

 it is one of my favorite things to do on the weekend,

 and this was the first saturday market of 2013 so i was very excited to go.

the saturday market combines so many of my favorite things.

i love fresh, quality, organic food and produce.

i love supporting small, local business.

i love our downtown.

and i love people watching. ;)

one of my favorite booths at the market is the

spinning spider creamery booth

they have the most delicious goat cheese. 

my favorite is the spreadable fresh chevres.

i usually can't resist the garlic dill chevre and the rosemary fig chevre. 

my summers in France gave me a ridiculous love of cheese!

but this week i decided to get the aged feta 

since for some reason in the past few weeks i have been eating feta by the pound. 

spinning spider has quite a few aged cheeses, which are very strong, but delicious!

they have samples of all of them at their booth, so you don't have to blindly invest in a cheese without knowing whether you will like it or not.

my favorite of the 5 salsas that i made today was the

creamy avocado salsa

combine in blender:

(i used the immersion blender)

1 avocado, pitted and removed from peel

1 c. water, 

1 jalepeno, seeded and chopped

1 t. white vinegar

3/4 t. salt

2 t. cilantro, chopped

2 t. white onion, chopped

blend until smooth and creamy and chill.

and the 5th and final salsa recipe:

mango salsa:

2 mangoes, peeled and chopped

1/4 c. red bell pepper, finely chopped

(i used 3 small sweet red peppers)

2 green onions, sliced

2 T. cilantro chopped

2 fresh jalepenos, chopped finely

1/4 small red onion, chopped finely

2 T. lime juice

1 T. lemon juice

1/2 t. salt

combine all ingredients and chill at least 30 minutes before serving.

i also made some guacamole deviled eggs

 since avocado makes everything seem mexican.(?)

first i boiled 8 eggs, cooled them, 

then halfed them length-wise.

i removed the yolks and added them to 1/2 of a pitted, peeled, and mashed avocado

then i added

1 t. red wine vinegar

1 t. yellow mustard, 

1 T. mayonnaise

1/2 t. salt

dash of pepper

i combined all of the ingredients with a fork until it was smooth.

then i placed the yolk mixture in a small zip-lock bag.

i cut the corner off the bag and 'piped' the guacamole-yolk mixture into the boiled egg whites.

i garnished the eggs with paprika and some chopped cilantro leaves.

don't they look festive?

so this was our 'cinco de salsa' lunch.

what did you do to celebrate cinco de mayo?