Do you have a favorite salsa recipe?

Mine is SO simple!

I chop a few tomatoes into small pieces, add about half a chopped onion, and add one finely chopped jalapeno pepper. Can’t get much simpler than that! Still, it totally satisfies me.

At one time I didn’t know much about Mexican food. My mother never cooked it. NEVER.

Then when I was about 23 years old, I had a Hispanic boyfriend. I say Hispanic instead of Mexican because he’s never been in Mexico. Maybe today the preferred term is Latino. I don’t know… Hispanic always sounded okay to me. Anyhow, he took me home to meet his parents… they were living in Chowchilla, California at the time. His mother made dinner … and I sat down to a meal like nothing I’d ever had before.

I was doing okay with the food - all vegetarian, my favorite! She gave me homemade pinto beans and fried potatoes on a paper plate, and then plunked down a flour tortilla right next to that. Oh my goodness! I had NO IDEA what to do with the tortilla! I had to sit there watching my boyfriend eat so I’d get an idea of what to do with it. He tore it into tiny pieces and used it to pick up the other foods!

That was my introduction to Mexican food. A few months later I MARRIED this guy, and actually LEARNED to cook Mexican foods. Then in 1985 we divorced… but I still love the Mexican food!

Have you ever noticed how much better home cooked pinto beans are? I mean, better than the ones coming out of a can? WOW, the taste differential is astounding!

I like to cook beans about once a week… usually black beans, pinto beans, or lentils. I often combine the lentils with rice. This is my burrito filling. At this point I’ve weaned myself off of cheese so all I put into my burritos is the beans, salsa, and sometimes potatoes, rice, or lettuce.

I also have the habit of warming my tortillas just like my mother-in-law did… directly over the flame of a gas burner. I’d be so lost with an electric stove! My now-boyfriend insists on frying his tortillas in a frying pan with butter. Not for me! I toss mine directly on a fully-lit burner and count to ten, then turn them over, count to ten, wait for the bubbles to emerge, and that’s it. No butter, no extra calories.. no mess.

Can you tell I love burritos? I’ve been eating them a lot lately… often alongside a mug full of my amazing and delicious vegetable soup. (The soup will have to be another posting… some other day.)

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Also: Happy First Day of Spring… Joyous Spring Equinox… and for the Persians and Baha’is: Happy Naw Ruz!

One of my favorite vegetarian dishes is pasta. My boyfriend likes his with canned Alfredo sauce and mushrooms on it. I like that too, but when I make it I usually use herbs, sometimes with chunks of fresh tomato tossed in for flavor, color, and health.

While cooking the pasta I heat a frying pan containing a small amount of oil and sliced fresh garlic. My choices for oil are olive oil, coconut oil, or sunflower oil… all organic. For this, I usually choose olive oil because I love the flavor. To my garlic I add salt, thyme, parsley, kelp flakes, oregano and basil. When the pasta is cooked and drained, I put some in the frying pan with my oil and herbs, and mix it together. The fresh tomatoes go in last, when the heat is turned off. Then I put it all on a plate with Parmesan cheese on top, and sometimes a little grated sharp cheddar right under the Parmesan. Mmmmm… I am such a pasta lover.

You notice I share my recipes but usually don’t mention amounts. I expect that we all have have an inner instinct for knowing how much to use. Learning to rely on that is part of becoming a confident cook. My grandmother never used measuring cups or spoons, and I rarely do.

Pasta choices… my boyfriend likes fettuccine. Honestly, I like it all but usually use fettuccine, spaghetti, or macaroni.

A few nights ago I went to the regular Friday evening fund-raising dinner at our local art center. This is a vegan/vegetarian dinner. They served big pasta shells with some kind of sauce (I should have asked) along with a green salad, cooked beets, and a slice of homemade bread. The dinner was satisfying and delicious, and for five dollars, I enjoyed the meal and the company of artistically minded people. The money is to be used to build a new art center in our remote mountain town.

I’ve been having pain in my left thumb for a few years. I thought it was from an injury, but since I started working at the pizza place it spread to my right thumb and right ankle. I went to the doctor and found out it is arthritis. Some days at work, the pain was acute. Of course the doctor’s office didn’t offer anything but motrin to cover up the pain.

I’ve been doing some research, and discovered that wheat contributes to the problem, so I’ve been working on cutting wheat out of my diet, for the most part. And since I’ve been avoiding wheat, the arthritis pain has 90% disappeared. That’s the good news.

Because of my switch from using wheat, I’ve been experimenting with making things from rice flour, using no yeast. I made some great tortillas. Flour tortillas are easy to make - they are simply flour, salt, oil, and water. Here’s my recipe:

Flour Tortillas

A couple cups of flour, more or less.

Mix the flour with about a teaspoon of salt, more or less.

Into the flour/salt mixture, pour some olive oil. I probably use about 1 tablespoon or 2. Sorry I don’t have exact amounts, but this is how I cook.

Stir that up, as well as possible, then add warm water until you have a nice paste that sticks together a bit.

Take the flour mixture out of the bowl and knead it on a flour-covered board. I just use the drain board next to my kitchen sink.

Nice floury mess. I like that.

Then put it back into the bowl. You can let it sit for an hour or so, then knead again.

This time make little balls out of the flour. The balls should be about two or three inches across. Let them sit a while, then get ready to roll them out.

Heat up a large skillet or other flat surface. I use a flat griddle sort of thing. Prepare it with cooking oil to coat the surface.

Now the rolling pin thing is a matter of choice. I used to use a regular rolling pin, but the Mexican cook who taught me to make tortillas used a simple round piece of wood about the thickness of the bar you put your clothing on in the bedroom closet. Recently I saw such a piece of wood in a hardware store, bought it, and asked my boyfriend to cut a 12″ length for me. This is perfect for rolling out tortillas. I just push it back and forth rather than using handles.

Anyhow, roll out the tortillas. They have to be super thin. You may have to experiment with this for a time until you find the thickness that works best, according to your tastes. And as soon as that puppy is rolled out, toss it onto the hot griddle.

As that tortilla browns, start rolling out another one. Turn the tortilla over once to do the other side. If there are air pockets rising while it cooks, you know you did the right thing. Those are the best.

When cooked, the tortillas can rest in a warm bed made from a bathroom towel. Yes, cover them completely to keep them warm for dinner.

Filling: The fillings I’ve been making lately have started with cooked lentils. I love lentils. This week I combined the lentils with rice and dried green peas. I put them in olive oil, smash them together with a fork, and simply warm them. I cooked the lentils with garlic and onion and salt, but at this point I like to add more garlic powder. I love that garlic taste.

Toppings for the tortillas - use whatever you have that you like:

Diced fresh tomatoes

Chopped onions

Grated cheese

Sprouts or lettuce

Sauteed mushrooms

Note: On days I don’t feel like making my own flour tortillas, I use corn tortillas instead.

Today someone came into the pizza restaurant I work at and ordered an olive pizza with ranch sauce instead of pizza sauce. It looked so good, I wanted to tell you about it. We took the pizza out when it was golden brown… it was perfect.