Now THAT’S a spice rack!

Feb 10, 2013 by Ben

Now how’s this for a fresh spice rack in the kitchen?  I think this one beats my awesome spice rack.

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Wild West Salsa Competition – Year 2

May 15, 2011 by Ben

It was that time of year again for the Carlsbad Wild West Fest and time to make some salsa for the salsa competition.

And so I whipped up some TrulySimple salsa and it was pretty darn tasty.

First thing, I headed out to the garden to grab some ingredients.  Here are some chives

My garlic is AWESOME.  First time I’ve harvested it, and it is SO fresh and garlic-y

My cilantro rules.  I love growing this stuff.

And some onions.

I cleaned up all the veggies with the help of my friends Joe and Sophie-Helen

Here’s all the ingredients laid out.  I grabbed some corn and tomatoes from the store as the ones in my garden are not ready yet.  Also some black beans from trader joes.

Starting out with a tomato base.   Chop them up.

Throw them into a big bowl.

Cilantro next.  rinse it off.

Chop up a bunch into smaller pieces.

throw it in with the tomatoes.

Next the chives.   Chop them up and throw them in.

Now for the onion.  Chopped up a couple of onions.

and throw them in the mix.

Ok, you want to get your corn blackening at this point.  Fire up the grill on high and just lay them on it.

Turn them every 3-4 minutes or so until you get the nice blackened color all around.   Then set them aside and let it cool down a bit.

Now the garlic.  This is the first harvest of my garlic and it is so good.

It tastes so fresh and amazing.   I grabbed 4 cloves and diced them up

once its all minced up, throw it in the mix.

OK, when the corn is cooled down cut if off the cob with your knife

also grab a couple of cans of black beans and rinse and drain them.

and we throw it all in the mix and stir

add lime juice from half a large lime

and add salt and pepper to taste.  It didn’t need much.

And now for the competition.    Setting my my presentation here.

YES, I have an iPad as part of my multimedia presentation.  YES I’m a huge nerd.  But everyone really liked that and I got compliments on it and my photos, so that was nice.  Thanks to my wife for letting me steal borrow her iPad.

Here are some other tables.  Very nice layout.

I liked this framed Grandma’s salsa

Here was another salsa that was very unique and really tasty.   I liked this one a lot.   Very spicy, but very good.  I”m going to make this.

The wild west fest has some great characters

and some fun entertainment

I got a lot of votes from the various tasters coming through, but right as I ran out of salsa (it was very popular), someone came by and told me, “oh your out of salsa?  Did you save any for the judges?”

WHAT???  Doh!

That did not bode well for my strategy, and thus I did not win this year.

But I had a fun time.  Much like this kid who is so happy with with his cotton candy.

and this kid was enjoying chasing the peacocks around.

Overall it was a fun event, and next year I will be back to own this salsa competition.

Ben…

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Fire and Ice Salsa

May 16, 2010 by Ben

I am making 2 gallons of salsa right now.  That is A LOT of salsa I’ve come to find out.  I have entered a salsa competition at the Wild West Fest in Carlsbad tomorrow.

I have never been in a salsa competition before.  I have no idea what I’m doing.  But I’m having a ton of fun doing it.

Salsa is one of those easy things to make.  You really just get a bunch of onions, peppers, tomatoes and mix them all together.  Its a little of this, little of that, no wrong-way to do it kind of recipe.

I’m just taking some of my favorite ingredients from different salsa recipes and throwing them all together to make some award winning (hopefully)  Salsa.

Lets get started

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