Backyard Farmgals

To celebrate summer and because it's just too darn hot to really do any cooking (or even much farming), I whipped up this delightful and cooling tropical salad.  It is loaded with all kinds of fruit, nuts, peppers, and super nutritious quinoa, one of my favorite grains.  My kiddos have gobbled bowls of this over the summer, it's sweet but only because of the fruit.  Even my hubby keeps asking for more! This is great for parties or just a light dinner out on the patio.  Make sure that you use really ripe mangos, they are the key flavor, sour mangos just won't do the trick.  Also, make sure you rinse the quinoa really well before you cook it, otherwise it will be bitter.  This makes a huge amount of salad, but it is great stored in the fridge for lunch the next day, and the flavors get even better overnight. TROPICAL QUINOA SALAD backyard farmgals printer friendly version 1 cup (dry) quinoa (I used 1/2 cup black and 1/2 cup regular), cooked according to

I can't remember the first tomato I ate, what it's color was, or how it tasted.  There are, however, tomato colored memories that flash through my mind when I am out among those big green vines. Some of my very first memories have tomatoes ingrained in them.  In his garden, my grandfather introduced me to a Better Boy.  Salt shaker in hand, he would pick a soft, red, warm tomato.  Sliced with a pocket knife, he would give me a wedge liberally sprinkled with sea salt.  I can remember tasting the sun.  Warm, sweet, and tart all at the same time.  Juice running down my chin and the slurp associated with the big greedy bites.  I remember the taste of that tomato patch, along with weathered hands and wrinkled smiling eyes. I have different memories later on.  When I married, the first thing I bought to go with the newly remodeled house (the home where my grandfather was born) was a tiller.  $400.00.  The price tag seemed hefty to a couple of newly weds with barely a penny to