I made the best salsa ever yesterday. Except for the garlic and cilantro, everything was from my garden. That's a picture of it at left. I served it up in a lovely Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (aka Picasso Triggerfish) plate from my Aunt Polly, who sadly just moved from Honolulu to North Carolina. Sad for me, not for her, because we only got over to visit once.

This was Round 2 for my homemade salsa efforts. Round 1 was pretty good, but too watery, and not quite spicy enough. This time I found perfection. Don't know if I can replicate it though...my recent garden recipes are so good because of the ingredients, and if I don't have those anymore, it's not quite the same.


SALSA FRESCA DEL JARDIN
* 2 heirloom tomatoes (sliced and sauteed in saucepan on high, just to evaporate some of the juice out of them)
* 1 heirloom tomato (raw)
* 12 jalapeno peppers, ripened to deep red flavorful mildness, cut in half and seared in a hot cast-iron pan
* a handful of Thai basil leaves, chopped
* a handful of cilantro, chopped
* one big garlic clove, slivered
* salt and pepper

So freakin' good, I couldn't believe it. We had it with chips for lunch, and then with Trader Joe's mini-tacos (most highly recommended) for dinner last night, and then I polished it off by adding the last few spoonfuls to the Tuscan White Bean & Tuna Salad that I made for lunch today (which was great as well, and no cooking required!) I substituted some tins of Trader Joe's smoked trout for the tuna. It was tastier, and trout has much less mercury than tuna.

The summer garden is finishing up. We've still got some zucchini, eggplant, melons, tomatoes and cucumbers, but production has slowed waaaaay down. It's time to start planting fall/winter crops. I'm kind of behind on that. Today is an incredibly beautiful Indian Summer day, and would be a great day to dig in the garden, but I have too many other things to do. Maybe tomorrow.