More Salsa Please

If you know me (you don't even have to know me well) you know I LOVE Mexican food!!! It makes my heart skip a beat, and not just because I am clogging my arteries, but because all the different flavors. There are a few places I like going, they are all good, but just to name a few... El Torito is good, but sometimes its hard to get past the bad services. Olivia's is a mom and pops place here in town and the abondigas soup is to die for. But my most favorite place of all is Don Jose's.

Some of you may be thinking "Don Jose's??!!" but I love it! I have always had such fond memories of going there with friends or family, or both. As a matter of fact, some dear friends took me there to stall right before Jon proposed to me.

Another reason I love it so, is because they have THE BEST salsa!!! When I think about going to Don Jose's I don't think about how great the food is, because its okay, but because of the salsa. It has a flavor that is unlike any other restaurant salsa.

So I did some web digging to find a recipe. I found one, and it was from a guy who asked the manager for the recipe, and he gave it to him. It seems pretty right on, however, the real secret to the recipe is how its prepared. For the most part everything is really finely chopped. You don't really notice any big chunks of anything other than tomatoes, everything is consistent.

So here it is...

1 can of whole tomatoes. (You can use fresh, but I tried the caned and found that they really work nice)
1 Onion minced (I used a large white onion, but next time I will use a med, or small)
1 One bunch of green onions
1 garlic clove minced. (I used 2)
1/2 a bunch of cilantro
1 to 2 jalapeno chille to taste. (I used 2, but I really made sure to get all the seeds out so it didn't overpower the salsa with too much heat, but really gave a good chille taste)
1 dash of vinegar (I have no idea what this was for, but I did it and didn't really taste a difference)

Drain the tomatoes (keep the juice if you want your salsa a bit more soupy) and coarsely chop the tomatoes, put them in a bowl. Mince your onion very finely and add as much as your liking. Chop up the green onions, mince the garlic, and cilantro, and add it all to the bowl. Seed and mince the jalapenos, (remember the heat comes from the seeds, so if you want it hot leave them in) add a dash of vinegar. Stir everything together. I also let mine sit in the fridge for a while to let the flavors come together.

I put a bit of fresh ground pepper in it, you can also add salt, but keep in mind that if you are watching your salt intake like I am, there is already salt in the canned tomatoes.

Enjoy...

Update Via iPhone Pics

As you may have noticed, I have not been blogging as much. It is partly because of what I wrote about in my last blog, but also, Adah is becoming more, and more active, and I cant leave her in a room and expect her to stay there and not get into trouble.

So I was going through some pictures on my phone and thought I would share them.

Being that the weather has been so nice lately, we have been trying to do as many activities outside as possible on Jon's days off. So Thursday, we went up Mt. Rubidoux. It was really nice and we got up fast. Adah slept the whole way up and down.

Adah seems to have finally gotten over her fear of the bath. This is a really good sign, because I have been wanting to enroll her in a mommy and me swimming class but I've been hesitant because of her fear of the water.

Adah gave me two great mothers day gifts this year. 1) She slept great through the night AND let me sleep in! 2) She let me put little pig tails in her hair!

This is more nostalgic for me. When I was little ever since I can remember, my mom would take us to Nordstroms at the begining of the summer to get Salt Water sandals. So imagine my joy when I not only found them, and they fit, BUT they came in this cute hot pink color instead of the horrid pastel colors I grew up on!

Last but not least, Adah is STANDING!!! I have been a bit bummed because she has been so hesitant. I KNOW she can walk because she has taken some steps without thinking, but she has not fully taken the plunge yet. But last night she was playing with a little girl her age who was waling and all the sudden, she just stood up I was so proud!


So that's what's going on now, I am going to try to make an effort to blog more.

Coming out of the Chaos

If you know me well, you know that I am not the most organized person. This is an area that I really struggle with. I always have. But now with a very active, very Mobil 1 year old, it has become increasingly difficult to keep up on household chores. With that said however, I am very diligent in keeping the kitchen clean and making sure that dishes don't just sit in the sink.

One thing that I have noticed in my struggle with the house is how much I miss out on activities at home. For example, keeping Adah's clothes current with her size. She has a TON of size 6 month clothes that need to be rotated out of her drawers. I see them sitting there not being used and taking up clothes space that I need. But I look at her room and feel that my time s better used tidying up the space you can see.

Or Blogging for that matter, I LOVE blogging, but when she is napping have things around the house that need to be done.

Yesterday, I took my mother-in-law up on an offer she has put out for a while now, to drop Adah off for a few hours to play with her cousin, while I get some things done. Being that it was Jon's day off, and that we were having company over we really turned to on the house and REALLY got it clean! When I woke up this morning, the house need minor cleaning as opposed to the previous mornings when a bomb look like it had been dropped in our living room, so I was able to get the house tidy in 45 min. rather than the HOURS in times past. It was really nice to feel so accomplished so early in the morning. And it really got me thing.

I was really noticing how I respond to Adah when the house is clean. We played this morning and I really enjoyed that! Don't get me wrong, we play on a regular basis, but this time there was no time constraint on it, we played until she was tired. It was so fun!

I have really purposed in my heart that I am going to try not to let this be an issue again, but to be constant on the tasks I have before me, and to be diligent in completing them start to finish.

I could seriously go in for days about this topic and how I feel, but I would really like to hear how you fell about it, and what works for you.

Go.....

Adah's Dedication Pictures

As I said in a previous blog post Adah was recently dedicated at church. It was such a great dedication done by my dad, and Adah couldn't have been more cooperative! I am going to try and get the video posted also.

Enjoy...

Photos by Kenton Jacobsen

Happy Birthday Adah!

I cant even believe that she is one year old!

She went from this...

To this.

Whenever I want to remember how little she was I watch this video.

Happy Birthday to my Sweet baby girl!!!