Happy Thursday! How about an easy recipe?

I’m back in the swing of things after a great week away for spring break. I spent a long weekend in DC visiting my best friend Caite (more on that in my next post!), a few days at home with my mother and sister who came for an all too brief visit and finished it off with a fun final weekend at the annual RBC Heritage golf tournament here in Hilton Head. It certainly wasn’t the most relaxing spring break I’ve ever had, but all the friends and family were well worth the lack of sleep (and lack of warm, sunny weather…hurry up summer!).

It was so fun re-living my trip to Italy and re-capping those posts and going through those old pictures got me pretty excited for our next big trip… Thailand!!

Our tickets are officially booked and we are headed across the globe in June! I am 100%  ecstatic, Robert is probably more like 70% excited, 30% a nervous wreck who doesn’t know what to expect, but he’s getting there 🙂

Since Robert couldn’t take as long as we had planned away from work, my sister is going to join us. She and I are leaving ahead of him and coming home a little after him which should work out great. Our rough itinerary is Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Tao, Koh Samui, but more on that later. I’ll take a brief break from the trip talk and get to the kitchen talk. This salsa crud0 recipe is super simple and dresses up everything from eggs to grilled meats!

If you have a knife and a mixing bowl, you can master this with ease. It basically boils down to chopping, chopping, chopping, a good stir and a few hours to chill in the fridge. That’s it! I love to serve it over baked breaded chicken breasts and greens for a fresh, easy dinner, but it’s equally delicious over grilled beef, and my very favorite way to use it is over a simple omelet for a quick breakfast. It adds a punch of flavor to any dish you add it to and the bright colors will make your mouth water.

My only tip (since I assume you know your way around a knife) is the technique I use to chiffonade basil. If you’ve ever been to a restaurant and wondered how they sliced their leafy green herbs into such beautiful thin strips, this is how:

First, stack your leaves on top of each other.

Next, starting at one end, roll your leaf stack into a nice tight roll, like a baby basil burrito.

Then, start at one end of the burrito and make thin slices all the way down.

Voila! You’ve chiffonaded your basil and elevated your herb game to a whole new level! Enjoy this recipe and have a great rest of the week! I’m off to celebrate the upcoming wedding of a friend with a girl’s weekend in Atlanta. It should be fun (and potentially not blog appropriate) but I will definitely be ready for a few days of rest when I return. Can’t wait to share all my DC fun next!

Salsa Crud0

Ingredients:

1 Medium Tomato (or two plum tomatoes, a handful of cherry tomatoes etc), seeded and diced

1/3 Cup Purple Onion, sliced thin (about a quarter of the onion)

2 Tbsp. Basil, sliced thin

2 Tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar

1 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Seed your tomato (this means scoop all the slimy, seedy parts out with your knife) and chop all ingredients, combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl and mix gently but thoroughly. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Cover bowl and chill in fridge for at least an hour up to a day. Serve over grilled or baked meats, fish, eggs, etc. Get creative and enjoy!
3. Mixture should keep in fridge for a few days.