Sizzling Salsa

I hate shopping on Amazon. Hate it. When I type leather messenger bag into the search engine I do not want to sift through 45, 956 result items. 20 pages of messenger bags? That seems a little over zealous Amazon.

You need to do a better job at reading my mind. If facebook can figure out that photography is a hobby of mine, that I exercise and take my nutrition seriously, that I am a science nerd and I dislike the color pink all on it's own and then supply me with random in your face advertisements on a routine basis, then you, Amazon, can at least narrow down the search results to a select few.

Does this irritate anyone else?

Change of subject. The end of the summer, means everything is in season. Yippee...except I can only eat cucumbers and tomatoes 18 days in a row before I start to dream of cucumbers and tomatoes. And I'm going to go ahead and make the executive decision and say that once you start dreaming of the vegetables you're eating, you're probably spending too much time with them.

The other day I decided to make cucumber salsa after I was inspired by a picture I saw on pinterest. I like salsa, a lot. I think it's pretty versatile. I used up anything I could find in my garden. This is what I had and some.

Tomato and Cucumber Salsa

1 c tomato, seeded and chopped

4 c cucumber, seeded and chopped

1/2 c red onion, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tblsp basil, chopped

1/4 c sour cream

1/4 c greek yogurt

3 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp salt

Prepare your vegetables. You really only want the 'meat' of your vegetables, so you need to seed them. You do not want watered down salsa right? Mix the first 7 ingredients together once prepared in a medium sized bowl. In a separate bowl mix the remaining ingredients (sour cream, yogurt, lemon juice and seasonings). Add the wet ingredients to your vegetables and mix. Serve with tortillas or whatever you want, but eat immediately. The longer it sits the more watery it gets.

This salsa has a little kick to it. So if you don't like spicy hot, don't use the jalapenos or chipotle in adobo sauce.

This would be amazing in fish tacos!

 Enjoy!

Ranch Cucumber Sandwich

Well, well, well summer finally decided to show up. Nice of you to visit. Please stay awhile.

I was just thinking to myself, "Wow Crystal, you eat a lot of sandwiches." I must admit that generally they aren't your ordinary sandwich, but still. I think I need to start being a little more creative. However, who can pass up a good sandwich, especially a warm one? One that has gooey cheese or spicy mustard.  Oooo and perfectly crisp toasted bread. I certainly can not. 

By the way, these are nothing like that. What they are is...easy, delicious and light.

I made these little snackers for Memorial Day and to munch on today. Believe it or not kids tend to like them. 

Ranch Cucumber Sandwich

1 loaf fresh pumpernickel bread

1 8 oz package cream cheese

1 (0.4) packet ranch salad dressing and seasoning mix

1 cucumber, sliced

Mix together the cream cheese and ranch seasoning. Spread onto pumpernickel bread, layer on cucumbers and voila, you've got yourself a reasonably light and yummy snack. Unless you don't like pumpernickel or cucumbers or ranch; then this is not your cup of tea.

Side note: how many of you cut off the ends of your cucumber and then rub it against the actual eaten part of the cucumber to remove the bitterness? I do. It is something my Dad told me to do years and years ago. I'm not totally convinced that it works, so I think I just do it more out of habit.  What do you think? Does it work or not?