Friday's Fun Treat!

According to the news, the weather folks and everyone shopping tonight, there's supposed to be a HUGE storm tomorrow. This is why the two food stores I shopped in tonight were chaos. This is also why Gloucester County is low on windshield wiper fluid. (Three stores, no luck...the fourth place was a jackpot!)

It's been quite the day; water aerobics, pretzel baking, mourning the truck's death, car shopping, learning about inheritance laws, learning about safety deposit box laws and loopholes, grocery shopping and finally making the Friday treat!

Fruit Salsa, with Tortilla chips

Ingredients:

Salsa:
Pineapple
Peaches
Kiwi
Lime or lime juice
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blueberries
Starfruit (optional)

Tortillas:
1 package of corn tortillas
vegetable oil
salt (optional)

Directions:

Salsa
*Wash your fruit. I'm not counting this as a step because you should always wash your fruit. Do you know how many germs, pesticides and bugs are around? Do you know how many dirty hands have touched it? Wash your fruit!*
1. Dice up your pineapple, I used two. This will be the base of your "salsa", you want it to be a little mushy and a little chunky mixed together. As you dice it up, it'll be messy and runny, you'll want some of the juice. Put it in a nice big bowl.

Usually, I buy a fresh pineapple and core it myself, but the nice gentleman at Shoprite offered to do it for me. It cost a dollar, but my time is worth more than that sometimes. It is fresh, I promise!
2. Add some peaches! I leave the skin on, if you're really adventurous you can skin them; I'm lazy and I'm okay with that. I used two tree ripe peaches, pretty rips and juicy.

3. Strawberries are next. Slice and dice them up. I judge how many to use by how colorful the mix is getting.

4. Time for the kiwi. You'll want to skim these, a paring knife works well. Usually I use 2 kiwis per a pineapple.

5. Mix in blueberries and raspberries. just toss them in and stir.

6. If you're using real lime(s), this is the time you should juice them. Roll them on the counter before cutting and juicing. Or pour about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of juice. The sour flavor of the lime combine with the sweet flavor of the pineapple is delicious!

7. If you want to garnish it with some starfruit, slice it up and add it in now. This is more to garnish then eat, but it still tastes good.

8. Stir everything together. If you're lazy like me, put the lid on the container and shake it up. (Shaking is more fun.) Refrigerate! If you let it sit for a bit, everything had an opportunity to mix and marinate. You can add other fruits too, melons, nectarine, pomegranate....sometimes even some green onions or cilantro to add some spark.

Tortillas
1. Heat oil in a skillet.

2. Cut corn tortillas into the shape/size you desire.

3. Put tortillas in oil and fry. Flip over and fry a bit more. when the oil is hot they will take about a minute total.

4. Remove from pan and add salt. Set aside to cool.

The first time I made this it was for my former roommate's grilled dinner. (Remember folks, I'm a vegetarian.) He really wanted some kind of fruit thing to put on his slab of fish. I grilled up a portabella mushroom, and added it too. Delicious! We had a tiny bit left over, so out came the chips...and this became one of our house hold treats. Eventually we started eating it on waffles and french toast. It was a great alternative to syrups, heavy dips and weird sauces that have mysterious ingredients.