Fresh Mango Salsa

Sunday night and I’m flying solo which means 2 things:

1. I can have whatever I want for dinner which makes me eternally happy.

2. It’s the perfect time to whip up a Party of One meal!

I haven’t really had a chance to actually make a real meal for myself in so long, it’s almost like I’ve forgotten how! So when my parents told me they were headed out with friends for dinner tonight, I took it as the perfect opportunity to get in the kitchen and get my cook on!

As it turns out, I didn’t actually cook anything tonight—nope, this is an all raw meal. But don’t get too upset. I’m not going crazy raw foodist on you or anything. Winking smile I just happened to be in the mood for some fresh salsa for dinner.

And you know what? When it’s just you, you get to have whatever you want for dinner! Open-mouthed smile

I had mango on my mind and decided to incorporate it into a yummy fresh salsa—gotta enjoy that fresh summer produce while I can.

Plus, there’s this:

You know you like to say it, too. Just try. Right now. For real.

“Salsa!”

Fun, right?!

This isn’t really a recipe (I didn’t measure anything), but here’s a rough estimate of what I did.

Fresh Mango “Salsa”

Makes about 2 cups—or one meal size portion if you’re me

1/2 mango, diced small

2 small tomatoes, seeded and diced small

3 T. red pepper (or green or yellow or orange!), diced small

3 T. zucchini (yellow or green), diced small

1-2 T. red onion, diced small

1 T. fresh basil, roughly chopped

1/2 clove garlic, finely minced

juice of 1/3 lime

hot sauce to taste (I used about 6 dashes, but I like it spicy!)

kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste—I’d do 1/2 tsp. salt & 1/4 tsp. pepper. Season ‘er up!

Mix everything up and taste to check seasonings. Refrigerate for at least an hour so the flavors can meld.

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Scoop it up with your favorite chips . . .

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. . . and wash it down with a cold Corona! Open-mouthed smile

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Yummersauce. Yes, this is a “meal” worthy of inventing words.

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Plus, it gives you an excuse to say, “salsa!”

I know cilantro is usually standard in salsa, but I loved the basil in this! It was a total accident, since I just used basil since that’s what I had on hand, but serendipity for sure! Oh wait, I mean, I am a culinary genius and totally knew basil was going to be awesome in salsa. Of course. Winking smile

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So you should make this. Just saying. It totally rocks my socks.


Also of note, I was lucky enough to get this package in the mail from Susan, a sweet reader in Australia.

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She emailed a few weeks ago asking if I’d like her to send me some contacts since she works for a contact company over there. Of course I would!

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So generous! Thanks, Susan! You’re a sweetie!

I am always amazed at how unbelievably kind people can be. It makes my heart smile. Red heartSmile

Do you like fruit in your salsa? Have you ever made your own?

I (obviously) enjoy fruit in my salsa, but then again, I never met a salsa I didn’t like. I can make a meal of it, easy. And this was my first crack at making it myself, but I’d say it was a pretty darn successful effort!

“Salsa!”

RSP & Brother Bear

Happy Sunday!

I didn’t find time to blog yesterday because I was busy enjoying being home! Yippee!

But I did mostly the standard stuff yesterday . . .

Running (HOT)

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Smoothie

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Pool Smile

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It was a good, loung-y day, and I definitely needed it after weeks of having my life up in the air. Between the new job, traveling and moving, I needed to power down.

Last night my parents and I ventured out for some good Italian at Andiamo in Dearborn, which is about 45 minutes from their house. After some confusion as to whether there was room for us in the dining room (there totally was!), we got a table and ordered some Chianti to share.

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Last night, I decided to play around with my camera at dinner (because that’s a super classy thing to do in a nice restaurant, right?) and try taking photos with and without the flash. I know for food photography, you’re not supposed to use one, but my camera isn’t all that fancy. Anyway. Here’s a side by side comparison. My untrained eye has no idea which photo is better.

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Someone, please school me.

We also shared a bread basket that had the yummiest breadsticks inside. I ate, well, all of them.

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My entrée also came with a side of pasta which came out before the meal. I shared because I’m nice like that.

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I’m not a huge pasta fan, but this was pretty tasty. Really, I just like the sauce, so I used my bread to sop it up and left the noodles to dad. He likes everything. Smile

For dinner, I ordered pan-seared jumbo sea scallops served with sweet corn and basil broth, wild mushrooms and white truffle essence, topped with sautéed spinach (totally copied and pasted that from their online menu—my memory isn’t that good!).

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Flash

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No flash

The scallops were really good—cooked perfectly with a nice seared crust and tender inside, not rubbery or overdone. I loved the mushrooms in the broth, too. They weren’t too mushroomy, if that makes sense. Just light and delicious.

After dinner, we headed up the road for the real reason we were in Dearborn—to hear my brother’s band!

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{Further evidence of my lack of photography skills}

Daniel Harrison and the $2 Highway plays a mix of country, pop and Southern rock that has such a fun sound. I love that they mix guitars with bongos—it makes it really unique. They do some covers and some of their own original stuff, but everything has their own twist on it, which I really like. I was so excited to get to go since I haven’t been to see them since last summer!

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My brother bear.

{Yes, I call my brother “Brother” or “Brother Bear” and he calls me “Sister.” Smile}

My brother is actually a really good guitarist. When we were kids and he first started playing, he was abysmal. I mean, really really bad. I hated it. He knew one song, and we heard it over and over again.

My girl, my girl

Don’t lie to me

Tell me where

Did you sleep

Last night

Again and again . . . and again. Ugh. He even told me when I went off to college that I’d taught him that phrases like, “Turn it down!” and “Go away!” can’t possibly be overused. Yeah, we got along so well. Winking smile

But now, it’s really impressive to me that he’s pretty much awesome. I mean, I have no musical skills whatsoever except being a killer singer in the car, but let’s be honest, who isn’t?? I’m a proud sister watching my little bro up on stage!

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Also impressive? They have 860 “likes” on Facebook. I don’t even have half that number of friends on Facebook. Nice work, kids. Nice work.

Today, I’m doing my own version of the Jersey Shore’s GTL. Mine’s RSP—run, smoothie, pool. I think it’s much better. I may also get around to finally unloading my car. I’m running out of things to wear, so I guess it’s probably time.

Do you have siblings? What did they do when you were kids that you hated but now actually like about them?