I’m a salsa girl.  I love salsa on everything.  But I’m pretty particular about my salsas and usually whip up my own.  But there is one salsa that I’ve fallen in love with…Pace.    I mean, when Cook’s Illustrated, who I consider to be a real authority on food, even tells you that Pace Salsa is tops, you better listen.    So I use this stuff all the time including in this recipe where I tried using the salsa instead of tomatoes and YEEHAW!  These beans are good!

And just because I’m that kind of gal, the nice folks at Pace have agreed to let me giveaway a batch of this stuff for ya to use in this recipe.  Just post a link to your recipe  that will use Pace Salsa and we’ll have a drawing for a winner to get 2 jars of salsa and a cookbook. Winner will be drawn randomly on July 4.

California Beans

1 pound red kidney beans
6-8 slices bacon
1/2 pound finely chopped cooked ham
1 Onion minced
4 cloves Garlic minced
6 cups Water
1 jar Pace Pico de Gallo salsa
1/2 cup Pace Picante sauce
6 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon Dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Soak your beans overnight.  (If you forget, you can cover them with water, bring them to a boil in a large pot, turn off the heat, cover them with a lid and wait 1 hour. )  Drain and move along, li’l doggy!  (Um, sorry.)

Cook bacon and ham over medium heat in large Dutch oven until bacon is crispy.   Add the chopped onion and cook about 5 mins.   Add your garlic and cook about 30 seconds.   Now add the drained beans, 6 cups of water (beef stock is even better)  and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to med-low and cook about an hour.

Now stir in your Pace Salsa, Pace Picante sauce, sugar, mustard and salt. Continue to simmer, uncovered, until beans are completely tender and sauce is thickened, about 1 hour. Stir in cilantro and vinegar and season with salt to taste.  Turn on your fan and serve with something grilled.

        

So my friend, Sandy (who has an excellent blog by the way) designs books for publishing. She heard that I was mourning my camera so she sent me a copy of a great cookbook that she’s just finished working on called Troy Mill Farms Cookbook – Our Favorite Strawberry Recipes. Isn’t she sweet? Strawberries are at their peak now so what better time to whet your whistle by sharing a recipe from it? Excuse my drooling while I show you this photo.

Sandy’s Strawberry Salsa
1 qt strawberries
¼ cup onion
1 cup tomatoes
1-3 jalapeños (depends on how hot you like it!)
2 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro or 1 tsp dried
2 tsp white vinegar
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Put all ingredients in food processor. Chop to desired
consistency. Best if made at least 2 hrs before serving.

Sounds good, no? And so I’m giving it away to one fabulous reader. All you have to do is leave a comment and we’ll draw a number for one lucky winner on June 28. Good luck, my chickens!

        

I crave coconut.  Anything coconut.  Well, except maybe this thing (Commence coconut crab nightmares…NOW!)  My youngest says coconut makes her gag which makes me wonder if she was switched in the hospital.

On our honeymoon, hubby and I ran into a guy who was splitting coconuts and offered one for us to drink.  He said it was “good for the digestion.”  What he meant was, bring a roll of toilet paper with you. Do you think they ever tire of playing that joke on tourists?   Fortunately, I didn’t drink much of it.  You see, like an idiot, I expected natural coconut to be sweet like SWEETENED coconut that you buy.  (Because, you know…I’m a rube.)

So naturally, I use coconut in everything and this Baked Coconut Tilapia with Fruit Salsa is like dinner and dessert at the same time.  And YET it’s good for you!  (OK, health police, please don’t hunt me down again. I know it’s not tofu, but it is baked and it is fish and it has fruit.  There’s gotta be healthy in there somewhere.)  Plus it’s easy!  Follow along with me.

I usually do about 2 cups Panko (those hippy little Japanese bread crumbs…Love ‘em!  But you can use regular breadcrumbs if you want) and 1 cup of coconut.  Sometimes I throw in a little cayenne.

Another little trick which I didn’t do in this recipe: Mix your Panko or breadcrumbs with about 1 tsp of canola oil and toss well.  Put your panko or breadcrumbs in the oven and toast them for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  It really helps give baked foods that “crispy-fried” crunchiness when you bread with pretoasted breadcrumbs.

Now for the salsa.

See that fruit cup?  I was going to buy a pineapple, a mango and a papaya but realized that the this was a much more frugal alternative.  Packed in juice, no less.

You know the rest.  Put it on the fish all pretty like and accept the kudos.