How to Experience Fall in Portland

My First Bowl of Salsa

Gotta admit, the fall version of my local farmer's market is INSANE. Warm leaves, fun folk tunes, juicy apples, handmade pasta, gourds of all colors. No two weeks are the same - the seasons bring fresh stuff for me to discover every Saturday morning!

This week, I grabbed a cool "salsa bag" full of all ingredients (except chips) to make some farm fresh salsa. Sold!!!! The next day, I eagerly diced and sliced the produce up according to the following enclosed recipe:

     5-7 tomatoes

     1/2 sweet white onion

     1 clove of garlic

     a bunch of cilantro

     1 squeezed lime

     7 assorted spicy peppers 

     1 bell pepper

The flavor was refreshing, the texture was somewhat course, and the heat was almost too hot. Just hot enough to be racy and exciting without terrifying my taste buds. The longer I leave it in the fridge, the more garlic seeps out. I'm throwing it on gluten free chips and in rice bowls like a BOSS. 

Now that I know how easy it is to mix up salsa, I plan to grab my own ingredients next time. Experience is sure empowering, isn't it? :)

Try this combo out and let me know YOUR favorite salsa recipe! Heck....that could be a blog all it's own.

The Solitude of a Cemetery 

Who hear frequents grave yards? Any tombstone buffs out there? Perhaps you could better explain the macabre allure of gazing at weathered stone with the names of the long-dead deceased consumed with moss. Perhaps it's the artistry - so seldom do we carve anything into stone. The link to the past is another thought....somehow history still lives within these relics. Could it be our morbid fascination with the edge of our existence? We hope, dream, fear, anticipate the afterlife and these stone sentinels are the last link to those who've crossed over before.

I went for the leaves. 

And fell for the spell of the grave stones. 

Sleepy Hollow is in the air.

Perhaps Nathaniel Hawthorn's haunting tale calls to the reader every October. Who knows! A little spooky does the soul good. 

Granite and fading leaves

Who does this belong to?

Field of Souls.