A helping hand

Thank goodness for friends! This weekend we had a visit from our delightful and easy-going main-man from Charlotte. It's always great to have Steve in town, because, among a thousand other reasons, he's fun to cook for, and will pretty much be up for whatever. Lucky for me, then, to have him here for canning 35 more pounds of tomatoes. We got an amazing deal on some second tomatoes from Black River, which had to be processed that day. Plus, Steve brought some peaches that he picked up for us on the way, which needed canned ASAP.

While many guests may shrug off the kitchen for the beach on a 90 degree day, not Steve - like champs, he and Sal helped blanch, core and can the tomatoes. It may have helped that we were all fueled by mojitos made with fresh mint and some renegade rum, graciously gifted by Steve. Meanwhile, Sal and I put up the peaches and used some spares to make a peach pie. After our marathon canning episode, we finished off the day with fish tacos and more of the aformentioned mojitos.

Fish tacos were one of our favorite meals pre-local eating, and we were worried we'd have to give them up. Not so, what with our local fish bounty and the lovely folks at the Tortilleria next to Elizabeth's Pizza. We picked up 1/2 lb. of fresh, homemade tortillas for $0.65, plus I got to practice speaking Spanish - that's a true bargain folks.

Our previous recipe for fish tacos used battered tilapia, black bean mango salsa with cilantro, cabbage, and queso fresco. We've managed to create an equally delicious version using local mahi, peaches instead of mango, dried black beans from the stash, gouda from Nature's Way, and homemade sour cream. We tried to get some cabbage from Mr. Gilbert because we had seen some there last week, but no luck - he's totally out now. If you make this recipe when cabbage and cilantro are still in, it will be even more fabulous. I'll include them in the recipe just for good measure. You can also make a spicy salsa if you want, with tomatoes, red pepper, jalapeno and cucumber, but that's up to you. Es muy delicioso!