[dropcap1 color=”rosy”]A[/dropcap1]much needed combination for me today.
It was a rather long Saturday night (nightmare/stuffy nose/baby bear is lost/another nightmare/nose is stuffed again/thought he heard something weird outside). I think I was dragging myself up the stairs every 45 minutes to the little guy’s room. When I finally did get a consecutive straight hour of sleep, I woke up to a very gray and very rainy Sunday. Lovely.
I am not a rain girl, the exception being humid summer thunderstorms late at night. I laid in bed for a few minutes trying to give myself a pep talk to get going. Come on Courtney. Time for a Fresh Market run, get your butt on the treadmill, then home to cook and clean. No thank you. Then I remembered our dear friends Catherine and Jeff were coming over tonight with their two adorable boys. That got me to peel myself out from under the covers. I drove straight to Starbucks with L, (Katy Perry blasting in the car) ordered the most caffeinated drink possible and downed it on the way to Fresh Market. I was starting to feel more like myself. Now one more thing I needed – Catherine. Please be at the gym. Who did I run into right as I walked in? Catherine. Her first words ‘wow, you look good for not sleeping at all.’ I love you.
Throughout the morning I was attempting to finalize the menu in my head. I knew we were going casual – Catherine wanted to learn how to make the wingless buffalo chicken pizza I posted about last week. So, two of those and a light salad. Dessert would be the ‘compromise cookies’ that would bake away while we ate dinner so they would be warm and gooey for the cold vanilla ice cream waiting to sit on top of them. (A great idea courtesy of my friend Becky). I just couldn’t come up with a good appetizer. I knew I had the perfect one up my sleeve, I just had a hard time pin pointing it due to the fuzzy brain. Then it hit me on the treadmill. MANGO SALSA. It’s brightly colored, flavorful – like sunshine in a bowl. Just what my gray Sunday needed.
A quick tip on the mangos. You can buy them fresh, but I find them to be quite a pain to work with. They are a lot of effort, and not much mango. I actually buy the frozen mango halves from Trader Joes. We go through packs of these a week, they are delicious.
- 3 mangos, diced
- 1 avocado, diced
- 1/2 red onion, minced
- 1/2 jalapeno, minced
- juice of one lime
- salt and pepper
- handful of cilantro, chopped
- Stir all ingredients together. Serve with tortilla chips for an appetizer or you can put the salsa on grilled fish or chicken as an entree.
The salsa got rave reviews, although Catherine is not a huge onion girl, so she would substitute garlic – perfectly acceptable.
Absolutely great night! Time to crash.
Zzzz,
Courtney
P.S. Look at the beautiful appetizer Catherine brought over. Oven roasted tomatoes, ricotta, fresh basil with a drizzle of honey on top. The flavor was outstanding!
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Courtney
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Thank you so much for the yummy dinner! Wow that pizza was really good and paired with the great salad it made a for fancy dinner, I am such an avocado girl,this salsa will become my new staple at parties.
Thanks again for a great night, we all had a fun night.
This recipe is so fresh and delicious – thank you for the great idea!!