Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Dips and Eggs

An unsuspecting observer would never know what lurks under the lid of this grill (this very, dirty grill). My husband went to show our neighbor how our grill recently broke from a wind storm and was a bit surprised to find a whole tray of twigs and two little robins eggs in the center. How sweet is that? We will not be using our gas grill for a while.

*UPDATE May 6th: There are three more eggs in there. My daughter had opened up the grill. Thankfully the little eggs were unharmed. I looked in there, since it was open and I saw 5 eggs. Interesting... Cant wait to see what happens...










Have you ever had champagne mango salsa? Champagne mangoes are small but don't let their size fool you. They have quite a bit of meat on them and a little pit. They are smooth and silkier than regular mangoes, at least I think so. I chopped them up and added a jalapeno, red onion, lemon juice and salt. Yum.
When my husband and I were first married I had planted some tomatillos in the garden. I grew them up from seed. Tempered them to the outdoors and planted my precious little babies in my new garden. I was so excited because back then it wasn't very often you would find tomatillos. To have my own fresh ones was really exciting. My husband, decided to weed the garden one day. I know, you already know what I am going to say, dont you? Yeah, he thought they were weeds and plucked their precious little limbs right out of the garden. Oh, I was so upset and disappointed. Honestly though, our growing season might be too short for these or I needed to learn a little more because what I did have left didn't yield very much or very big fruit either. They were about the size of a quarter.


I usually boil the tomatillos to prepare the salsa but this time I roasted them. I didn't really see a big taste difference.

Salsa Verde

1 1/2 pound tomatillos, skins removed
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup cilantro
salt to taste
juice of a lime
jalapeno to taste
red onion, minced

Boil tomatillos in water until tender. Mince red onion, set aside. In a processor or blender, process garlic and cilantro. Add tomatillos and salt and lime. Process until quite pureed. Remove and place in bowl with red onion.

11 comments:

Mary Bergfeld said...

I'm a big fan of salsa verde. This looks simple and delicious. It's awfully hard to get angry at a guy who actually weeds, but then I'm not the one who lost my carefully tended tomatillos.

kat said...

Two good looking dips there. I love a mango salsa. How cite is that little nest you found

Julia said...

How cute to have the robins' eggs! And your salsas look great -- perfect for cinco de mayo, non?

The Blonde Duck said...

I'm so glad you let the birds rent out your grill! How nice!

Robin said...

Yeah you saved the birdies! I think Robin eggs are so pretty. oh I have picked very important plants too. One of my students accidently killed one of the irises we planted thinking it was a done daffodil. It happens!

Craving Ellie in My Belly said...

I have not done much cooking with mangoes. I had the worst time trying to cut one up once. This salsa looks so fresh and summery. I love it.

Sara/imafoodblog.com

Jescel said...

the bird's smart. she just knows where to lay her eggs. Lol! that's too cute. but those dips are awesome. i love mangoes..

Trish said...

I've never made salsa verde. But that does look interesting. Love love love any thing crisp and spicy so with the lime and garlic...I am thinking it is a must! What do you serve it with...anything? Beef? Lamb? as a dip? Bet it would taste good with a black bean dish!

grace said...

come on--crank up the grill and have some steamed eggs! i kid, i kid. :)
meanwhile, that salsa verde looks like the perfect texture. great dips. :)

Anonymous said...

I love salsa verde...but have never made it homemade. Yours looks great! Maybe I will try it...

Lori said...

Trish- you could serve it with anything really. I like it with turkey or chicken. Or just tortilla chips.