Pico De Gallo (Fresh, Raw Salsa)

My mom gave me several pounds of almost-ripe tomatoes last week. She'd rescued them from her garden just before heavy frosts hit our area. Well, sitting in my still-sunny windowsill, ALL those tomatoes decided to ripen at once. Today.

Being the Mexican-food fan that I am, I just happened to have limes, cilantro and such hanging out in my fridge, so I decided to whip up a big ol' batch of pico de gallo, or fresh salsa. I suppose if you're into the whole RAW thing, you could call this Raw Salsa. Because it is. But whatever you want to call it, it's one of my favorites because it's the easiest stuff ever...

Here's my basic recipe. (I think I tripled it tonight). You might want to chop things a little smaller than my picture - I was getting lazy towards the end. And my jalapenos were extremely spicy... but all in all, great stuff!!

Pico De Gallo

1 1/2 cups seeded, diced tomatoes
1/4 cup diced mild onion (I like red onions or Walla Walla sweets)
1 tablespoon diced jalapenos (or more to taste)
1 tablespoon minced or pressed garlic
Juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons (or more) finely chopped cilantro, plus extra for garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine ingredients and chill.

Serve with chips.

Watermelon in the Middle of Winter!

One of my old high school classmates - and very best friend - came up from California just to hang out with us last week.

The kids call him Uncle Barry since they've known him longer than their REAL uncles, though he's not technically related I guess. He did get my youngest her very own kitten last visit, so I'm thinking of possibly revoking his "Uncle" status however...
We had a great visit, and even though he's not in any way vegan, he loved everything we cooked. And even better, he treated us to our FAVORITE restaurant, "Rock Pizza" where they do tons of cheesy-meaty gourmet pizzas of course, but they also do the most amazing vegan pizza in the world... and make the best margaritas as you can probably tell.....but I digress.

Anyway, somehow, Barry decided I did not have nearly enough fruit in my kitchen to suit his California tastes, so he surprised us with a whole bunch of goodies one evening... wheeeee... even though they were probably imported in from Australia or god-knows where at this time of year... WOW! What fun we had with all the stuff, I can't even remember what all, but it looked so pretty filling up my kitchen counters - including apricots, peaches and.... WATERMELON!

Now, even with 5 of us in the house, we couldn't eat that much watermelon all at once, so I decided to make some our favorite Watermelon Salsa Salad that is so fun and reminds me of summer. Well, OK, the only time I have ever MADE this is in the summer. (There's a similar recipe in this month's Vegetarian Times I believe that reminded me of this recipe, sorta...).

I know, I know... Watermelon and Salsa sound weird together, but trust me, this works with the lime and mint and jalapeno.... YUM! (Don't bother though, if you don't have access to fresh mint though. Dried just does not do it.)

Well, I was lazy and did not peel the cucumber tonight, and it was fine, but I will remember to cut the cubes smaller next time, it was a bit ...chunky...

Watermelon-Mint Salsa Salad

1/4 lime juice
2 T. sugar
3 cups + diced watermelon (seeded, of course)

1 cucumber (peeled, seeded and diced)
1/2 cup finely chopped mild, sweet onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

1 T. finely grated fresh ginger

1 tsp. finely grated lime zest
2 T. finely minced jalapenos or to taste

Whisk lime juice, zest, ginger and sugar in large bowl until sugar dissolves. Add watermelon and all remaining ingredients; toss gently.

Serve well chilled - with chips if you want, though we just eat the stuff with spoons!

It's also good with optional ingredients: Sometimes I'll add a cup of honeydew or canteloupe melon cubes, mango, strawberries or small pineapple cubes. :drool: