Wednesday, August 21, 2013

BlendTec Salsa





It's tomato season and we have a plethora of tomatoes from our CSA.  Not that I'm complaining!  We slice them up, sprinkle on some real salt, and eat them for lunch they are so ripe and delicious.  But even with that.....did I mention we have a plethora?

So I threw a bunch of them in the BlendTec this week and made salsa.  Super easy and took about 5 minutes, no joke.  Here's what I did:

4 large organic tomatoes
1 jalapeno chile, seeded and ribs removed
1/2 organic onion
large handful organic cilantro (I threw in some parsley also b/c I had a ton!)
1 organic lemon, squeeze all juice in to blender
real salt and peper to taste

Throw all of the above into the BlendTec and lightly pulse until desired texture.  Pour into mason jars and refrigerate.

Enjoy!

UPDATE 10/7/13:

I made this again today (did I mention how many CSA tomatoes we have!?) and I tweaked the recipe a bit....added a bit of cumin and a pinch of coconut crystals.  And a few cloves of garlic -- how did I miss that last time!?  I didn't do lemon this time but next time I'll add some fresh lime juice, just because.

Also, I wanted chunky salsa so I drained out some of the liquid into my crock pot of chicken tortilla soup that's sitting here simmering....


Monday, August 19, 2013

Madeline's 1st Day of School


First day of 7th grade

  The other kiddos don't start until after Labor Day but CC's Challenge program starts this morning!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Mammoth Cave National Park

We took an RV trip with Mark/Cara and the girls this past weekend.  Cara took all the incredible pictures so I will have to post later but the trip was amazing.

Friday, we leisurely made our way down to KY, stopping at Lincoln's birthplace and his boyhood home.  It was amazing to walk the same fields that he spent so much time using to grow food.  The kiddos loved wading in the creek that his boyhood friend, Austin Gollaher, pulled him from when he was nearly drowning.

We actually camped in Dog Creek park which was near Mammoth Cave.  The campground was perfect, right on the Nolin River with incredible views and a great beach for the kids to swim.

Saturday we hiked the caves and did an outdoor hike as well.  The weather could not have been more beautiful.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was watching the kids hone in on their fire making skills.  With the appropriate supervision, we let the girls completely build and tend to their own fire on Friday night.  It burned until morning!  On Saturday night it was the boys' turn and Gabe listened carefully as Mr. Mark and Daddy explained the importance of a teepee set up for the kindling.  Here's a picture of Gabe and Lincoln's fire which they built and lit on their own!  (thanks to the men for keeping it going until late into the night.)