saturday, wes and i catered our biggest event to date. and let me tell you, prepping and cooking for fifty people is no joke. i'm not sure my kitchen stove will ever be the same. 

we celebrated my uncle's seventieth birthday in fiesta style. complete with salsa bar, homemade mole sauce and of course a piñata. 

every party has been a wonderful learning experience. wes and i get more comfortable and confident as every custom menu is completed. and our self trained asses are learning a ton of tricks with every party in the books. 

one of the things that i learned over the weekend is that this salsa is a wonderful and versatile dish that is PERFECT for a party. because the only real instructions are chop, smash or grill, it is not super time consuming, but you can make a ton at one time. ideal for your next fiesta, or your upcoming labor day/end of summer parties. 

i also learned that wes and i are pretty darn good at this food thing and you should probably hire us for your next party. then i can just make this salsa for you. wink. wink. 

fire roasted tomato salsa
serves: 8 cups (this recipe yields a lot of salsa as it is meant for big parties. if you are making it at home, you could easily half or quarter the recipe with out issue)
prep time: 10 minutes
cook time: 30 minutes
total cook time: 40 minutes
ingredients: 2 lbs roma tomatoes, sliced thick. 2 yellow onions, sliced thick. 1 red onion, sliced thick. 5 garlic cloves, smashed. 1 large jalapeño. 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped. 1 tsp fresh oregano, roughly chopped. 1 tbs brown sugar. 1 tsp cumin. .25 c olive oil. 2 cups chicken stock. 1 tbs salt. .5 tsp pepper. your favorite chips for dipping.

start by heating your grill to a medium high heat. 

in a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, both types of onions and the jalapeño. drizzle everything with the olive oil and season with almost all the salt and pepper, the cumin and the brown sugar. toss everything well to coat. 

head out to your grill. working in batches so that you do not over crowd your grill, place the contents of your bowl onto the grill. place the onions and jalapeño on the hottest part of the grill with your tomatoes on the cooler areas. grill until everything has good grill marks and the onions are cooked. about 4 minutes a side for the tomatoes and about 8 minutes a side for onions and pepper.

when your fruits and veggies (tomatoes are fruits not vegetables) have been grilled, return them to the bowl and take them back to the kitchen. remove the stem and chop up your jalapeño and return it to the bowl. toss your grilled produce with the garlic, oregano and cilantro and add them to a large, heavy pot. 

place the pot on the stove and bring the burner to a medium high heat. start to sauté your ingredients until the contents of the pot begins to sizzle. stir in the remaining salt and pepper and chicken stock. 

bring the liquid to a boil, allow to simmer 5 minutes and remove the pot from the heat. allow the salsa to cool slightly.

when the salsa has cooled a bit, blend everything together with a hand emersion blender or in your blender.

serve at room temperature with your favorite chips or over a delicious enchilada or taco.

xo
a

fire roasted tomato salsa
serves: 8 cups (this recipe yields a lot of salsa as it is meant for big parties. if you are making it at home, you could easily half or quarter the recipe with out issue)
prep time: 10 minutes
cook time: 30 minutes
total cook time: 40 minutes
ingredients: 2 lbs roma tomatoes, sliced thick. 2 yellow onions, sliced thick. 1 red onion, sliced thick. 5 garlic cloves, smashed. 1 large jalapeño. 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped. 1 tsp fresh oregano, roughly chopped. 1 tbs brown sugar. 1 tsp cumin. .25 c olive oil. 2 cups chicken stock. 1 tbs salt. .5 tsp pepper. your favorite chips for dipping.
start by heating your grill to a medium high heat.
in a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, both types of onions and the jalapeño. drizzle everything with the olive oil and season with almost all the salt and pepper, the cumin and the brown sugar. toss everything well to coat.
head out to your grill. working in batches so that you do not over crowd your grill, place the contents of your bowl onto the grill. place the onions and jalapeño on the hottest part of the grill with your tomatoes on the cooler areas. grill until everything has good grill marks and the onions are cooked. about 4 minutes a side for the tomatoes and about 8 minutes a side for onions and pepper.
when your fruits and veggies (tomatoes are fruits not vegetables) have been grilled, return them to the bowl and take them back to the kitchen. remove the stem and chop up your jalapeño and return it to the bowl. toss your grilled produce with the garlic, oregano and cilantro and add them to a large, heavy pot.
place the pot on the stove and bring the burner to a medium high heat. start to sauté your ingredients until the contents of the pot begins to sizzle. stir in the remaining salt and pepper and chicken stock.
bring the liquid to a boil, allow to simmer 5 minutes and remove the pot from the heat. allow the salsa to cool slightly.
when the salsa has cooled a bit, blend everything together with a hand emersion blender or in your blender.
serve at room temperature with your favorite chips or over a delicious enchilada or taco. 

bom dia friends. (brasillian good morning and one of the only phrases i was able to nail.)

after 20 hours of travel, wes and i arrived home yesterday afternoon from what can only be described as an epic trip. 

sure, if my brother had come home with a gold medal i would have to come up with an even more enthusiastic word than epic, but i'm pretty ok with epic. 

watching joshua compete as an olympian was one of the great highlights of my life. until of course he scored his first olympic goal. and his second. and third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, you get the point. it was pretty spectacular watching him thrive and lead among the world's greatest players.

even though the team was unable to advance to medal rounds, his infectious optimism, never say die attitude and obvious leadership brought me to tears multiple times. he is a true athlete and leader, but most importantly, just an amazing guy. 

the only highlight of his team's early exit was that we got to spend a really good amount of time with him as we experienced what rio has to offer. beautiful landscape, delicious food and some of the most energetic and inviting people i've ever had the pleasure of meeting. plus, they really know how to party. 

wes and i even managed one night of partying that led into the wee morning hours. circa three am we were feeling pretty good and we coined our new anthem. "we're old, we can hang. we're old, we can hang." complete with raise the roof hand motions of course. 

rio had many highlights. we spent plenty of time at our favorite beach kiosk enjoying the stunning beaches and amazingly fresh seafood. christ the redeemer was so nice, we hiked it twice. we strolled and dinned the famed copacabana and ipanema beaches, browsed the sunday hippie market and spent a day at the stunning prainha beach just below a nature preserve. we even managed a dinner party for fifteen despite the challenges at the local market and severe lack of kitchen tools. 

i decided to give myself a much needed vacation while away since my plan is to grind hard from this moment through the end of the year, but i just couldn't resist shooting one dish in our beautiful brasillian treehouse. 

despite the challenges of the local markets, eggs, bread and avocado were easy to come by. and while poached eggs may seem overwhelming, wes taught me the perfect trick to make perfectly poached eggs a snap. 

poached eggs + avocado toast
serves: 4
prep time: 5 minutes
cook time: 10 minutes
total time: 15 minutes
ingredients: 4 large slices sourdough toast (we were only able to find mini loaves so i used a few pieces to equal 1 piece). 2 large avocados, halved and sliced. 4 eggs, cracked into individual small bowls or cups. juice of 1 lime. 1 tsp salt. .25 tsp pepper. 

start by bringing 2 medium sized pots of water to a boil. you do not want to over crowd your pots, so if you want to eat at one time you will need two pots. divide .5 tsp of salt between the two pots of water. 

while your water is coming to a boil, toast your bread. you can do so by toasting it to your desired doneness (i prefer lightly browned) in a toaster or in a 375 f oven for 5-7 minutes. if you are toasting your toast in the oven or toaster oven, make sure to flip the bread halfway through so it is toasted evenly. 

once your water has come to a boil, use a spoon to create a whirlpool in each pot. once the water is swirling, pour in one egg at a time. once you have two eggs in a pot, turn off the heat, cover and set the time for 5 minutes.

as your eggs are poaching, set out a piece of toast on each plate. 

spread .25 of the avocado slices onto each piece of toast. season the avocado with half the remaining salt and pepper and squeeze a bit of lime juice on the avocado. 

when the 5 minute timer goes off, using a slotted spoon, remove each egg from the water back into its own dish. 

after all the eggs have been retrieved, gently top each toast with a poached egg. season the eggs with the last of the salt and pepper and serve hot. 

xoxo
a

poached eggs + avocado toast
serves: 4
prep time: 5 minutes
cook time: 10 minutes
total time: 15 minutes
ingredients: 4 large slices sourdough toast (we were only able to find mini loaves so i used a few pieces to equal 1 piece). 2 large avocados, halved and sliced. 4 eggs, cracked into individual small bowls or cups. juice of 1 lime. 1 tsp salt. .25 tsp pepper.
start by bringing 2 medium sized pots of water to a boil. you do not want to over crowd your pots, so if you want to eat at one time you will need two pots. divide .5 tsp of salt between the two pots of water.
while your water is coming to a boil, toast your bread. you can do so by toasting it to your desired doneness (i prefer lightly browned) in a toaster or in a 375 f oven for 5-7 minutes. if you are toasting your toast in the oven or toaster oven, make sure to flip the bread halfway through so it is toasted evenly.
once your water has come to a boil, use a spoon to create a whirlpool in each pot. once the water is swirling, pour in one egg at a time. once you have two eggs in a pot, turn off the heat, cover and set the time for 5 minutes.
as your eggs are poaching, set out a piece of toast on each plate.
spread .25 of the avocado slices onto each piece of toast. season the avocado with half the remaining salt and pepper and squeeze a bit of lime juice on the avocado.
when the 5 minute timer goes off, using a slotted spoon, remove each egg from the water back into its own dish.
after all the eggs have been retrieved, gently top each toast with a poached egg. season the eggs with the last of the salt and pepper and serve hot.