Mango Salsa

Next weekend is labor day and I am heading to Provo for a weekend-o-fun with my old college friends, I can't wait and in my anticipation I started preparing for the trip today. I don't think there is a better place to start than with food :) I know that I will be eating a whole bunch of junk food, a minimum of 2 late night Wendy's runs, plenty of Diet Coke, and smiley face fruit snacks, so I thought I would contribute something (relatively) healthy-- Mango Salsa. I will post the original recipe below, but I adapted it a little bit today, mainly because I left my grocery list at home.

Start by dicing some onion.

Add some diced red bell pepper.

I forgot how hard and annoying it is to cut mangoes. It works best for me to cut the flesh from around the pit (the pit won't just pop out like an avocado). I discovered it does work pretty well to take the skin off with a spoon, my knife was taking off too much of the good stuff!

Next add a finely diced jalapeno pepper, you could also use a serano pepper, those tend to be a little more spicy. (I seeded mine because I'm a wuss when it comes to spicy things.)


I added a whole can (minus what I couldn't help myself from eating) of pineapple and a whole can of peach halves, both roughly chopped.



Last, but definitely not least, a few tablespoons of lemon juice and lots of cilantro, and other mango because I have lots of hungry friends.



I made almost 8 cups of mango salsa! I guess the real test is how much will actually make it to Provo when I have to look at in the fridge everyday.

Brittany's Mango Salsa:

2 mangoes
1 c each roughly diced canned peaches and pineapple
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 c sliced green onions
1/4 c snipped cilantro
2 Tbsp lemon/ lime juice
1-2 jalapeno/ serrano peppers, seeded and diced

To market to market

I am trying to hold on to what I have left of summer, and I know of no other way than with fresh fruit, perfectly ripe and sweet.

I was at Albertson's the other day and I found a little basket of pluots. They are a variety of plums and they are super-sweet with bright red flesh.




I never know what to do at this point. They aren't like apples and you can eat all the way around the pit (which was surprisingly small), but for some reason it just feels wrong. Don't worry I ended up eating every little bit!

I was also FINALLY able to go to the Idaho Falls farmers market. It was small, but fun and I left wishing that I had a house full of people to feed that would justify buying multiple loaves of bread and way too many pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables. I managed to restrain myself and left with only peaches and raspberries.


I'm hoping I can squeeze a few more weeks out of this summer before I have to go into hibernation mode, wish me luck!

Grab a snack...

... I just found something really entertaining. One of my co-workers told me to look up the literal video of Total Eclipse of the Heart, it's hilarious. I recommend watching the original first. Enjoy!

Original video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=840B27zYfOk

Literal video:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9gcyi_total-eclipse-spoof_music

There are a whole bunch of other 80's videos, I liked Making Love Out Of Nothing At All a lot!

Original video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lE6Htee0sA

Literal video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GlJbyMrytA

More about food soon to come!

Tubers

Tuber: noun
1. a short, fleshy usually underground stem bearing minute scale leaves each of which bears a bud in its axil and is potentially able to produce a new plant.
2. one who travels down a water current in a rubber tube.

Webster.com did not have the second definition listed, but I went tubing last weekend near Lava Hot Springs and I definitely saw signs that directing tubers to go this way or that, and I followed because I was a tuber.

But this post is mainly concerning the first definition of tuber. This is one of my first food mysteries. I never quite understood the difference between a yam and a sweet potato. And as everyone was telling me how healthy sweet potatoes are, I became even more confused. My sister called me up one day explaining that she had purchased a tuber that was labeled as a sweet potato at the store with the intention of making sweet potato fries. (yum!) However, when she got home she realized that the tuber she fad purchased had white flesh, not the orange flesh she was expecting.

So... what is the difference between a yam and a sweet potato and why is the American food industry all mixed up?

Misconception #1: Sweet potatoes are orange. I call this a misconception because it is only half true. In fact there are two varieties of sweet potatoes widely available in the U.S. one has orange flesh and the other a whitish/ yellowish flesh. Both taste great!

Misconception #2: Yams are orange. False. And if you have not traveled to Africa or South American it is unlikely that you have ever seen a true yam, never mind eaten one. Around the time I was unraveling the yam/ sweet potato conspiracy a friend of mine traveled to Africa and was able to eat true yams, which have white flesh and are mild in flavor. Here is a picture he took of a yam plant.



The yam is growing underground and in order to be harvested the plant has to be removed from the ground. The rest of the pictures he sent me are actually of another tuber known as cassava, (Cassava starch is what tapioca is made from) but he assures me that the process is similar in yams.

After the tubers are collected they are peeled, cut, cooked and eaten in a number of different ways.



So the next time you pick up that big can of "Yams" and turn it around and see "Ingredients: Sweet Potatoes" you can think about a little Ghanaian boy who is actually eating yams for dinner, and know that you, in fact, are not.

Sunday Afternoons

In my previous post I mentioned my love of picnics. For my last picnic my friend Megan and I made a strawberry rhubarb pie. It was wonderful! The recipe didn't call for a crust on top, but I couldn't resist.

Thanks to Megan for making the crust from scratch, (she is an amazing partner in the kitchen!) and to Jen, the photographer, and to all those who ate the pie with us, I'd weigh 500# by now if it weren't for willing volunteers to eat whatever I make.

I don't know of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon, than eating fresh pie with friends, on a picnic.