It’s finally fall! I’m happy to say that because I was really over summer. I was tired of mowing, weeding the garden and mostly tired of the hot temperatures. It’s finally cooling off around here with temperatures in the 70’s.
I spent some time this weekend clearing out the garden, luckily my mom helped me because it was a huge job! We had 5 full-size lawn bags filled to the brim with the old plants.
I couldn’t stand to clear out this Mexican Bush Sage – it was just too pretty! So I’ll keep this in the garden until frost and cut it back.
The picture is a little off in color, sorry about that, it must have been the position of the sun. This plant is so pretty, if I would have known it would look like this, I would have planted it in my front yard and trimmed it back throughout the summer. Right now, it stands taller than I am!
I got my last batch of green tomatoes from the garden. I’ll probably make up some more salsa with them because I really liked the salsa better from the green tomatoes than I did from my red tomatoes! I also got some green peppers, finally. Nothing like waiting until I pull out the plants to finally have green peppers!
One of my favorite recipes with salsa is a mixture with rice and beans. I tried this years ago when I was in Costa Rica and I loved it. I asked what was in it and they told me it was simple. Just mix salsa, rice and beans! Here is how I make it:
1 cup of cooked rice (your favorite can be white or brown- I usually use brown. Wild rice would not work well with this)
1 /2 cup – 1 cup of your favorite salsa (I generally use a little over a half a cup, test for consistency to see what you like)
1/2 cup black beans (rinsed and drained)
Mix all ingredients and let chill over night. This mixture works great to eat with chips or sprinkled with cheese, heated in the microwave and eaten in a soft shell tortilla. It travels well so it’s an easy option to take in your lunch and is a filling option for vegetarians.
If you try it, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!
I make something very similar that I call Fiesta Rice. It’s a great way to use up leftovers and make a nice lunch in a pinch! I save the crumbled pieces of the tortilla chips and dump them into a ziplock bag for stuff like this. I love to sprinkle it over the Fiesta Rice and some cheese.
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Have a great weekend ahead!
Elizabeth