Summer In a Bowl


My friend Rachel served a salsa at a party recently and I'm in love. She forgot to send me the recipe so I winged it and discovered that you really can taste and eyeball your way through it.


In a bowl combine:

1 can black beans, rinsed
3/4 bag of frozen white corn, or as much as looks like a good ratio of beans to corn
1/2 tub of grape tomatoes, sliced or quartered into bite size pieces
1 avocado, in half-inch dice
a good drizzle of your favorite olive oil
a few good shots of your favorite balsamic vinegar
kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

I also add cilantro. I'm pretty heavy-handed because I love it, and use about a third of a bunch, roughly chopped. I know it's a polarizing herb so you can adjust as you prefer.

And finally I add garlic, and I think you can do that as you wish also. I used a dry garlic product my mom gave me (Pampered Chef's Garlic Garlic). It's got some other stuff in it, but I don't know what. Freshly minced would work fine I think. Do what you like until it tastes good.

As with most things, it's good immediately, but better after it sits for a day.

I have an old Shawnee Corn King bowl of my grandmother's that would be perfect for serving, but it's not quite big enough to hold a batch. eBay here I come.

Shop Victoriously


These are small, around 7 inches tall and 3 inches square. Bookends are always useful, but I especially like foo dogs for some reason. I'm still mourning a really large (17 inches tall!), ornate pair in white porcelain that I didn't rebid on last year. Until something like them appears again I think these should keep me satisfied.

Things I love #1

A grocery sack sat in the garage near my car for so long I can't remember when I put it there. It contained a number of things that I needed to get out of my car. I finally picked up the sack over the weekend and went through it. Everything went into the trash except for a pair of gloves and three CDs.

The soundtrack to Good Night, and Good Luck was one of the discs. If you're a fan of jazz in general, or Diane Reeves in particular you will not be disappointed.

Grand Opening

Welcome. I've thought about starting this for a long time, but it's taken me forever to decide what it would be about. I wanted to blog about my interests, my hobbies, my tiny business, but then I couldn't rant (or rave!) about politics or people. At least not without it feeling incoherent. So I decided to make this the catch-all for my thoughts and opinions. What's new, what's interesting, what's appalling, to me. With a healthy dose of things I like. And probably too much stuff about dogs.

I have extremely low expectations for an audience, but if you are reading feel free to leave a comment. You don't have to agree, but don't be an ass.