Spring Salsa

What a fun Easter weekend!  We started it off on Friday night with our anniversary dinner at Hal's.  Alex and I agree, it was the best steak we have ever had.  I had the filet with crab meat and a side of hollandaise sauce.  Alex had something with a bone in it:)  Mine was definitely better.

Doesn't he look so cute!  I love getting dressed up for a fun dinner.  Alex is more of a shorts and flip flops kind of guy.

Do you think he has changed in the past 5 years?

Saturday, I took care of stuff around the house while Alex worked.  We went to dinner that night with our friend's, Lauren and Jon.  This was a "make-up" dinner from a few weeks before, when Jon didn't feel so good.  We ate at INC on the Roswell square.  Dinner was awesome!  Lauren and I split the Tacos Al Pastor. They are pork tacos with pineapple, YUM!  I tried these for the first time when we were in Mexico.

Most of the restaurants on the square have outside seating.  Perfect for this time of year.

Lauren and Jon

Sunday morning we went to the 9 o'clock service at North Point Community Church.  Andy gave an amazing sermon.  Each year I think it can't get any better than this, and then it does.  We came home and got to work on the yard (by we I mean Alex) and went grocery shopping (that would be just me).  While I worked on this salsa and dessert (coming soon), Alex gave my car a much needed wash.  

"Best husband ever" award!

Jackson, resting his head on the window seal while Alex worked in the yard.  He is such a daddy's boy.

Yesterday evening, we went to Alex's parent's house for Easter dinner.  Susan prepared yummy BBQ, green beans, apples, and potatoes.  After dinner we sat around watching Tini and their dog, Makaya, play.  

 Makaya

Tini stole Makaya's bed

Now Tini is posing on the fire place for some BBQ.

This salsa was easy to make and had a great flavor.  Super fresh for this spring weather.  Enjoy!

Spring Salsa

Adapted from Southern Living

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of grape tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 cup of shoepeg corn (canned or frozen, thawed)
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
• 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp. garlic salt
• Additional salt and pepper to taste
• Serve with tortilla chips or on a grilled chicken wrap

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together.  Chill and serve.  

Veggie Chili

I am so grateful for this snow day.  I am not good at just relaxing, but this will force me to just chill out at home.  I stocked up on food this weekend like all the other crazy people at the grocery store.  I decided to make this veggie chili I saw in my Southern Living magazine for company that we had coming over last night.  Our good friends, Kristen and Cody, are adopting a sweet baby girl from China.  We wanted to hear about all the latest updates over a warm meal.  Here is a link to her blog about Mae.  Such a sweet story.  Kristen is dairy free/does not eat red meat and I am gluten free.  As you can imagine this makes for a limited menu.  Luckily this chili hit the spot!

Kristen all ready to brave the drive home in the snow.

As with all recipes I have to change up something.  For starters I used organic carrots which are smaller than normal carrots so I used four instead of two.  It also called for a chili seasoning kit.  I have never seen a kit so I just bought the chili seasoning packets from Sam's.  It turned out the first ingredient was whole wheat so that wouldn't work.  Alex ran back out to the store for me and found a Tex-Mex chili packet that was gluten free.  We used three of those packets instead of the one chili seasoning kit the recipe called for.  This chili turned out to be a big hit.  Everyone loved how hearty it was even though there was no meat.  I also made gluten free cornbread that was awesome.  I will be blogging on that soon!

A quick note on organic fruits and vegetables.  Organic fruits and vegetables have not been sprayed with pesticides.  The research has shown that even after washing fruits and vegetables that pesticides still remain on non-organic foods.  There is no research on the long term affects that this might have on our health, but I feel  it makes sense to eat organic.  I have always understood you should buy organic things that you can not peel.  Things that we peel, bananas, oranges, lemons, etc. are fine to buy non-organic.  Here is an article explaining the same thing.

I did not use the French's Chili packet shown, but the Tex Mex one instead.

Source:  Adapted from January 2011 Southern Living Magazine

Ingredients:

• 2 large carrots, diced (or 4 small carrots)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 3 1.25 oz packets of Tex Mex Chili Seasoning (any kind would work or if you find the chili seasoning kit use that)
• 1 8oz. can tomato sauce
• 3 cups tomato juice
• 2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 15 oz cans great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 large zucchini, chopped
• 1 yellow squash, chopped
• 1 cup frozen whole kernel corn (I used white shoepeg because that was already in the freezer)

Directions:

Saute carrots and onions in hot oil in a 5 to 6 qt Dutch oven over medium heat 7 minutes or until onions are translucent.  If using the chili seasoning kit, stir in half of the red pepper packets and all remaining packets.  If you are using the regular chili seasoning packets then dump all three in now.  Saute mixture 2 minutes.  Stir in tomato sauce and next 7 ingredients.  

Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.  Serve with desired toppings.  We used sharp white cheddar cheese and cilantro.  You could also use sour cream, chopped green onions, and chopped tomatoes.  

Three Bean Soup

This recipe has been passed around our family for years.  It is a quick and easy go to meal when you really do not have time to cook.  You just dump it all in a pot and let it go.

I made this recipe for our friends, Allison and Chris, because they just had a precious baby girl, Stella.  Allison is not a vegetarian, but she does not really enjoy most meat dishes.  (For a strict vegetarian you could substitute the chicken stock for vegetable stock.)  I think it is always great to take soup when people might be receiving  a lot of food because they can freeze your soup and eat it at another time.

You can play with this recipe and make it "yours".  I am sure you can add sauteed onions, peppers, and garlic to spice it up a bit.

Before I was gluten free we served this with cornbread.  I am hoping to try some gluten free versions and will blog on those adventures soon.

DISCLAIMER:  My "picky husband" does not like the amount of diced tomatoes in this recipe.  He picks most of them out which leaves more for me!

Three Bean Soup
Walker/Conger Family Recipe (Unknown original source)
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

3 cans of beans, drained and rinsed (Use whatever you like.  I used pinto, kidney, and black beans)
3 cans of diced tomatoes (I have started buying these in bulk at Sam's...much cheaper than the grocery store)
1 can of corn
2 cans of chicken broth (Another good bulk buy at Sam's)
1 packet of dry ranch dressing
1/2-3/4 packet of taco seasoning (I use a whole packet.  You can add a little spice by getting hot vs. mild)

Place all ingredients into a pot and heat to a boil.

Simmer for at least 30 minutes.  I simmer for one hour.  (See, I told you it was easy!)