Jersey Peach Salsa

Did I ever tell you I love peaches? They are hands down, my favorite fruit of all time. Raspberries do come in second, but when peaches are in season, there is nothing quite like their succulent perfection. Come August I often find myself eating peaches morning noon and night. I feast on peaches.

peaches

peaches

peaches

I love them sliced in yogurt, cream of wheat, on a salad, in a pie, and topping my ice cream, but my favorite is probably just eating them plain because they are that good.

Just peachy.


Up until this summer I didn't realize Minnesota had good peaches at all. I grew up in New Jersey (which is dubbed The Garden State, btw, and for good reason) where peaches abound and you can pick them up with the rest of your local produce at farmer's markets and farm stands. Or right off a tree. I didn't realize when I moved to Minnesota (aka the frozen tundra, for the majority of the year) that I'd be giving up my favorite summertime treat. Last summer I remember biting into a plain ol' peach I bought at the store and was disgusted by the pulpy, dry, and downright tasteless experience. So much so that I threw it away and swore off peaches in Minnesota.

Enter: Colorado Peaches.

This summer I discovered that if you shop a little more carefully, you can select the special Colorado Peaches, which miraculously taste everything like a Jersey Peach. Sweet and succulent, yet firm and meaty. (did I just say meaty to describe fruit?). When you peel a Colorado Peach (or any other "good" peach for that matter), there is a little pull, some weight behind the knife. The skin comes off in nice sheets and you are left holding a golden ball of perfection.

Since I made this discovery a couple of weeks ago, I think we've gone through about 10 peaches so far. I've been eating them in my yogurt, my cream of wheat, and we even made a pie, just like I used to do back in Jersey. But one item was still missing from my childhood: Terhune Orchards Peach Salsa. I swear, we sometimes ate this for dinner.

Terhune Orchards is right up the road from my parent's house and was conveniently on the way to school, so we'd often stop on our way home for an Apple Cider doughnut, apple cider slush, and of course, fresh fruit.

Me and E, plus my three sisters (Kirsten, Karrin, and Sarah) and Karrin's bf Mike, summer of 2009.

This is the first summer *ever* where I haven't gone home to Jersey, so I'm missing my Terhune salsa (and the ocean too, of course). So I called up my mom who of course had a trusty Terhune's salsa on hand, and had her read me the ingredients ... and then I went and made up the rest!

And it was good.

Here's what I did:

Note: I kind of just added ingredients to taste, so the measurements are estimates. And I was working with just one peach, so I didn't make a huge batch. Have fun playing around with different proportions to fit your taste. Evan isn't huge into the spice, so I kept it pretty mild)


Peal one big peach (I've heard you can plop it in boiling water for 10 seconds and then the skin will just fall off). Slice in half, remove pit. Chop up peach into itty bitty bits. Save any and all juice.

Chop up some jalapeno (about 1-2 teaspoon), sweet red pepper (about 1/4 cup), and half an onion (1/4 cup), and add to peaches.

Chop up some lime (w/o rind) and add (about 1 tbsp), then squeeze in more lime juice. Squeeze some lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. I happen to have a cilantro-hater in the house (I've heard you either love cilantro or hate it) so I left that out, but the original Terhune Orchards version includes cilantro. The only other ingredient on their container I couldn't include was ascorbic acid, which my mom and I guess just brings out the juice?

Eat some right away with chips (or on fish!) but it will taste better if it sits in the fridge for a while and gets a little soupy.

RECIPE

Jersey Peach Salsa

Mix together:

1 Peach, chopped into tiny bits, with as much juice as possible

1T lime (and then squeeze some juice)

lemon juice

1/4 cup onion

1-2 tea. jal. pepper

1/4 cup sweet red pepper

salt and pepper to taste

optional: cilantro

Let sit for a little so juices combine. Enjoy with chips or fish/meat.

Note: On Day 2 my salsa started tasting a bit bitter (from the lime?). Any suggestions on how I could tweak this recipe? I added a little sugar today to try and sweeten things up again, but I know the original recipe from Terhune's didn't have any sugar and theirs stays fresh and sweet for days ... although it never lasts that long so I guess I don't really know!

Do any of you have a go-to salsa recipe? What's your favorite way to eat a peach? Are you secretly (or not so secretly) a fan of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and think about "Do I dare disturb the universe ... do I dare to eat a peach" (line 122) every time you eat a peach? Am I the only English nerd out there? Come on now ... ; )

Credits: first basket of peaches image from here, Jersey Fresh Farm stand sign from here, all others from me or other people in my family.

No Room in the Inn

Evan has always wanted to go on a road trip. I am much experienced in cross-country travel, having grown up in New Jersey with many road trips to the midwest to visit family. Once we even packed in the van and drove to Minnesota through the night for a big surprise the next morning! (It takes about 19 hours, btw). But I don't think I've ever headed out on a trip with no idea where I'd be laying my head at night. Ever since I've known Evan, he's expressed this wish, this yearning to jump in the car and see where the road takes you ...

Well, we definitely got a taste of that about three weekends ago when we were up North. I was shooting a wedding right on the shores of Lake Superior in Tofte, Minn. and Evan was along because he had a grad class for a few days the following week in Duluth. We actually only heard about the wedding two weeks prior, so we figured hotels would already be booked and we'd end up camping -- which I was thrilled about because I'm always in the mood to camp! We actually camped in Manitou-Crosby State Park (very near to Tofte) on our honeymoon four years ago, so were excited to re-explore that area.

We finished up at the wedding around 6pm and headed straight to the closest state park, just to learn that it was filled, as were all the other state parks in the area. But not to worry, they said. And sent us on our way with personalized maps and doodles explaining where we were sure to find an abundance of camp sites -- in the National Forest just up the road a bit. Well, just up the road was actually half an hour inland on the roughest gravel road I've ever driven on. But it was beautiful and we got to enjoy a gorgeous sunset as we bumped along the back country roads (in separate cars though, since Evan was staying a few days extra, remember). Finally we made it to the non-reservable National Forest campground but yes indeed, all sites were taken. We could not believe our bad luck.

 A few years ago we had some great luck come our way when the timeshare we were scheduled to stay at accidently gave our room to someone else ... so they sent us to their luxury homes right on the water instead. 

... We were due for some ill fate to come our way.

By this point we realized camping was not going to be in our deck of cards because it was already getting dark and with the backroad National Forest out of the picture, we doubted anything else would be available. So we were resigned to the fact we'd end up in a hotel instead. Oh well. But as we called around while driving south towards Duluth, we learned the hard truth: there was absolutely nothing available between Cloquet (about half an hour south of Duluth) and Grand Marais (way up north). We hopelessly even stopped at a few shady spots along 61 that didn't read no vacancy on their sign. 

But it was time we faced the truth: there was no room at the inn.

So what did we do? After sharing a salad at 11pm (we had purchased earlier that evening from the best place in Tofte: the Coho Cafe) in a Two Harbors gas station, we knew we needed to call it a night. We didn't want to drive too far out of the area because a) Evan was due back in Duluth at 8am Monday morning and b) we had been planning a day of hiking and sightseeing on Sunday. As we sat in the parking lot looking longingly at the AmericanInn next door, we got an idea. Let's just say we're beyond happy we purchased our new Prius the day before -- never was I more thankful to have a hatchback!

 It was kind of like camping ... only we were off the ground!

 I woke up to this, bright and early. Didn't realize we were parked next to a cemetery when we pulled in the night before.

 Seriously, who needs a traditional campsite? It was beautiful!

Well, maybe not in this direction. Yup, the back of the AmericInn parking lot. (We did get permission first!)

Not such a bad place to spend the night. AmericInn has a pretty good continental breakfasts! ; ) Shhhh!

 Our cozy bed. Skylight too!

 I love these little peep windows

 So maybe it wasn't quiiiite long enough for some people.

Happy camper!

The best part? Waking up to seagulls in the morning.

I did wake up numerous times throughout the night having to switch sides to save my hips (we neglected to put down camping pads, just blankets), but I just kept reminding myself that in the morning we could go hiking. 

We actually ventured into Two Harbors where a little craft fair was going on, went out to breakfast (where I accidently ordered the oatmeal made with heavy cream, not quite my cup o' tea!), and then explored some of the lesser-known trails near Gooseberry. We wanted to go further north, but being as we'd just driven that stretch yesterday, we weren't very eager to repeat it. The Gitche Gummi trail took us right to the cliffs on Lake Superior!

Up the coastline we could see the tip of the popular Gooseberry campsites (which were full the night before, grumble grumble). Earlier that day we had walked down to the pebble beach to put our feet in the water, along with a herd of kids, one of which attracted a leech and much squawking ensued. That's when we spied this lookout and wondered how we could get up there ... without scaling the cliff.

Our evening then took us back to Duluth where we checked out a new restaurant (well, new to us) Va Bene, strolled along Canal Park, and then went to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. That night was spent in a really old hotel in Superior Wisconsin .. but that's a story for another day.

Who knew authentic car-camping could be so much fun?!

Have any of you spent a night in the car, whether it was planned or your last resort? What tales do you have to share from your time on the road?  

Bates photo taken from here, No Room In the Inn photo taken from here, No Vacancy in the Trees photo taken from here, 

Midnight Shopping Cart Madness

When we moved into our current house two years ago, we found a lone Target shopping cart parked in our garage. It was pushed in the back amidst a bunch of clutter and garbage (quite literally) that the previous owners had so generously left behind. I think it was being used to house a collection of old (and mostly dried up) paint cans at the time. We neglected this area of our property for quite some time, with the excuse that we were busy adding a shower and tiling the bathroom, ripping up old flooring, replacing interior doors, using heavy machinery, helping build a fence, laying a patio, expanding closets, and whipping up Swedish pancakes (just threw that last one in for fun - definitely not a house project, although I could stay pretty busy eating Swedish pancakes!). But after a spring cleaning frenzy when I took on the garage, I came upon our friend Target Cart and decided he had to go.

But where? I know we could've tried just putting him in the alleyway to see who snatches him up, or perhaps even the garbage men would round him up. But, really when it comes down to it, where does a Target cart belong? Well at Target of course! And what better way to keep a large piece of hard plastic from the landfills than by walking Target Cart back to his friendly red bulls-eye home! As Evan says, "it's my duty, just as it is when I enter any Target store and find an item miss-shelved, to return the product to where I got it from."

So that's precisely what Evan did. At around 11:15pm on a Friday night, if you happened to drive to the Target in our area, you would've seen my husband gallantly and quite jubilantly pushing his cart down the road.

Well, how about I just let you see for yourself! (Excuse the black frame a few seconds in ... I haven't quite mastered my FlipVideo and video-editing software. Any tips on how to make the resolution better?)



Anyone else out there dedicated to Target? How about returning lost carts? The funny thing is when I picked Evan up from Target at the end of his run and we were headed home, we spotted three more carts in the Walgreens parking lot! But we'll leave those for someone else ; )

Summer Solstice Shinanigans and Garden Tour

"Summer Solstice" and "huge, raging bonfire" are synonymous in my mind. You see, every year when I was little, the teachers, parents and students at The Waldorf School of Princeton (the private grade-school my sisters and I attended) welcomed summer with a ginormous bonfire. And yes I know that isn't a word. But I like it. Don't worry, there were calls to the local fire department beforehand, and students generally learned to keep their distance and simply marvel at the glorious flame.

Of course, later on, students were known to jump over mini-bonfires. As my sister Sarah demonstrates below:

So you can imagine that after years of celebrating the longest day of the year in such a fashion, it is a little let down when all we can create in our little Minneapolis backyard is a tiny marshmallow-roasting-sized flame in a dainty little pit.

... But what is that we're doing? Let's zoom in and see what's really going on ...

Yup, those are most definitely gardening gloves on Sarah's hands, and a wheelbarrow full of perennials in the background. (Sarah, my youngest sister, is living with us this summer, and has become our full-time gardener! And fire stoker! Gotta earn your keep! Just kidding ...)

We indulged in a spontaneous trip to Gerten's (amazing gardening store) right before close that Saturday night and couldn't wait to get some color in the ground. But we couldn't forgo our Summer Solstice bonfire, so we doubled-up and enjoyed a bonfire while gardening into the night -- far past your typical gardening hours. We felt like rebels, or else intense gardening enthusiasts, planting out peonies by candlelight bonfire-light. Perhaps not quite the rush of a Waldorf Bonfire, but it was close. (I neglected to document the late-night gardening, but just picture us with shovel in hand digging away like grave robbers!)

The next day we finished up planting our new perennials (and a few annuals too) around the patio.

 

We wanted to add some color to our patio area and give it that cozy garden feel, so we decided on some of our favorite perennials (a pink and white peony, Evan apparently loves roses so we grabbed a yellow one, Fern Leaf Yarrow - I love that color yellow, and the purple plant is called Marcus Salvia I think) and then we picked up a bunch of petunias and other annuals to fill in the front row.


As you probably remember, we built our patio just last fall (stage 1, stage 2, stage 3 and stage 4), so it's come a long ways in the last year. Just last June there was a big dead tree in the middle of our backyard, zero privacy from the lack-o-fence, and nothing but grass bordering our house.

We never really had an image in our head of what we wanted our backyard to look like, but we've just been developing our plan as we go.

After enjoying our patio and table this spring sans garden, we knew we needed something bordering the patio to help it feel settled and cozy. At one point we toyed with the idea of placing a raised bed under the window, but decided it would be better to incorporate pavers for a more streamlined and cohesive look. Evan found some great edgers at Menards for just a buck a piece (I think they were called "Harvest Blend"-- the same as our patio). He just dug out a little trench, then tapped them into place, using a little leftover sand from the big patio project. Easy peasy.





Come, let me show you the rest of our backyard and garden!

See the wood pile in the middle of the yard? That's where our old dead tree used to stand. Somehow that pit collected wood over the year (including our christmas tree) and we're gradually chipping away at it with every bonfire. Eventually we will seed it with grass. We hope to plant a new tree in that area someday, but probably a little closer to the corner of the fence because the current location interferes with walking in a straight line from patio to gate.

We have various shrubs and perennials planted to the left of this picture. Namely a bleeding heart, two hydrangeas that weren't expected to come back this year, and some grasses and hastas. We're trying to make the air conditioner and all the other above-ground cables blend in a bit. We'll see how that goes.

But how rude of me. I should've met you at the front of our house and let you in the side gate! What was I thinking. Ah, there you are ... welcome to our backyard. On your left you'll see about eight tomato plants in a rather unfinished area. We're still working on that. Then up on the left we have a raised bed made by Sarah and Evan that holds our berry garden - strawberries, raspberries, and a blueberry bush that is supposed to grow vertically. We might need to make a new bed if these guys get too crowded.

 

On the right is our vegetable garden (another raised bed crafted by Evan -- I'll post a tutorial on that soon!). This year we have a slew of sweet peppers, three rows of lettuce, basil (which I'm pretty sure I couldn't live without), oregano, and some zinnias (which you can't really see in this photo). This was taken a few weeks ago, so everything is a little more developed now.

S and E, spying on the neighbor? That's what fences are really for, haha ; )

I am LOVING this new space. E and I decided our patio is probably our favorite house project to date.

And this lovely garage-sale find (in the free bin of course) was so ugly, how could we not claim it? Lady Flamingo Legs is no longer camped out in our berry patch, I'm sorry to say. But she may make a reappearance when you least expect it .... ; )

... And now, just for fun, let's look at some backyard pictures of yore to see how far we've come. I'm actually really bad at remembering to take "before" photos, so most of these are just pictures documenting something else that happened to take place in the backyard. But you get the idea.

Side yard, sans fence, patio, tomatoes, raised beds.

Fence starts to go up! I don't think I've blogged about this whole process yet. We hired out a contractor, who proved to be a little unorthodox, but an awesome fence builder.

Backyard shot

Yay, for privacy!

Last August we dined in our backyard for the first time (without a picnic blanket, that is).

Groundbreaking!

Anyone else out there taking on a project one step at a time? I'm excited to see how our backyard continues to evolve .... Evan already has big plans for a homemade rain barrel! Stay tuned!

I know there has to be more bonfire or bonfire/gardening enthusiasts out there!

Read more about the patio here: stage 1, stage 2, stage 3 and stage 4.

Camera Love

I {heart} my new Nikon D7000. Well, I shouldn't technically say "my camera" yet, as it is officially still my dad's. He bought this amazing SLR camera earlier this spring in anticipation of some photo shoots I had coming up (and because he wanted to play with it too, of course). My ol' Nikon D70 had become a bit unreliable in recent months, and I really needed a dependable camera to shoot my cousin's wedding in June. After some engagement shoots and then this recent wedding, I am in love. So I will be purchasing the lovely instrument from my dad : ) I also played around with flash for the first time and am decided that the extra hassle of fiddling with the flash/angle is well worth it for crisp, non-shadowy images.

Check out my photo blog for wedding pictures and a slideshow!