Faith, Folklore, and Friends

One of the joys of having a backyard garden is fresh tomatoes.  This year, we have managed to grow more tomatoes than the squirrels can eat, and we have enough for salsa.  There are thousands of recipes for salsa, and this is my favorite one.  One large green bell pepper chopped fine. You could use a red one as well. One medium purple onion chopped fine.  A white one would work, but I love the way the purple looks in the salsa. Two jalapenos with the seeds removed, chopped very fine.  We love the heat in ours.  You can leave this out if you want to.  But why would you want to? Chop the tomatoes, although they don't have to be as fine as the jalapenos.  I do not peel the tomatoes. Ain't that pretty?  It is ready now, but I like to add a little extra. This is about half a bunch of cilantro.  It is hard to chop when it is wet, so I wash it before I start and use paper towels to dry it.  Hub loves t...

We always grow hot peppers. We enjoy watching them grow, then eating them with just about everything. Here is one of its many uses. The young African general Hannibal is mainly remembered because he trekked over the snow-capped Alps with elephants. Hannibal came from Carthage, a North African city in an area near modern Tunis. Romans sacked his city and killed his beloved father. Hannibal swore that he would avenge his father's death. Since the Romans could repel his attack if he arrived from North Africa by a southern sea route, Hannibal decided he would surprise the Romans from the north. That meant taking an almost impassable path through the Alps. In 218 B.C., Hannibal took ninety thousand infantry, twelve thousand cavalry, and about thirty-six African elephants through Spain, across the Pyrenees Mountains, into the impregnable and bitter-cold Alps. Herbal legend has it that powdered Cayenne pepper was one of Hannibal's survival techniques. Being North African, Hannibal alr...