Grilled chicken with tangy veggie salsa.
Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

Salsa is the Spanish word for sauce.* It can be any type of sauce, but most Americans identify it as a tomato-based hot sauce used as a dip with tortilla chips.

There is no one classic salsa recipe: Every region of Latin America has its own style of salsa. In Mexico, recipes are divided between tomato based red salsas and the tomatillo-based green salsas. Even in this division, there are many different salsa styles (see our Salsa Glossary).

We recently received a variety of condiments from Black Angus Saloon, a specialty food company in Lake Ozark, Missouri. The packaged foods are an extension of the local Black Angus Saloon restaurant.

The first two we sampled were salsas: Veggie Salsa† in Sweet and Tangy (with vinegar) and Sweet & Spicy (with chiles). There’s no tomato or tomatillo, making these “clear” salsas. The minced vegetables and small beans provided a charming topping to grilled chicken and fish.

You can purchase Veggie Salsa from BlackAngusBrands.com ($6 per 16-ounce jar) or make your own from our “approximate” recipe, below.

There’s no cooking involved (unless you want to cook the beans from scratch); just chopping.

We love salsa, so are always looking for a twist to our standards. Salsa is a food bargain: fat free, gluten free, vegan, all natural and low in sodium. Traditional recipes don’t use sugar, either; so they’re low carb, too.

*The Spanish word salsa derives from the Latin salsa, meaning salty, which itself derives from the Latin sal, salt.
†The name may seem redundant as all Latin American-style salsas are “veggie salsas”: no dairy, no meat or fish-based stock, just vegetables, spices and vinegar. It would have been more interesting to call these products “clear salsa.”

Consider how much you want, and use appropriate proportions. This is a very versatile condiment: We also used it on eggs, on steamed vegetables, mixed into mayonnaise as a sandwich/wrap spread and mixed into cottage cheese and plain yogurt. We enjoyed the “salsa yogurt” plain, in a baked potato, and as a dip. And it’s a refreshing topping for bratwurst, burgers and franks (it’s much more complex than pickle relish).

Ingredients

Black Angus Saloon’s tasty “clear salsa.” Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

 
You can build on the ingredients by adding whatever you have on hand. We added sliced olives and chickpeas (garbanzo beans) to a subsequent batch.

Preparation

1. COMBINE chopped vegetables, herbs and salt in the bowl of a lidded container; mix until blended.

2. COVER with vinegar. Place lid on container and let the salsa marinate in the fridge for a few hours or overnight (you can actually use it in as little as an hour, but the flavors blend with time).

3. TASTE and adjust seasonings to taste and add any spices, like the clove and nutmeg we used.

The salsa will keep in the fridge for two weeks or longer, but we doubt there will be any left after a day or two!

Find more of our favorite salsas and dips.

But today’s inspiration comes from a cup of Liberté Méditerranée Coconut Yogurt, one of our favorite yogurts, with coconut on the bottom. It has lots more coconut flavor, but it isn’t easy to find.

Fortunately, it’s easy to make luscious coconut yogurt in your own kitchen: Just add flaked coconut from your pantry to your favorite yogurt flavor.

We add a heaping tablespoon of coconut to banana, chocolate, coffee, plain and vanilla yogurts. For a piña colada effect, add crushed pineapple to plain or vanilla yogurt, along with 1/4 teaspoon of rum extract. Yum!

It’s delicious for breakfast or lunch, and special enough to be served for dessert. Feel free to garnish with some chocolate chips.

Find more of our favorite yogurt brands and yogurt recipes.

Handmade to order, they let you “enjoy” cupcakes in a different way: on chalk boards, roll-up chalk mats, chalk board place mats or good old driveways and sidewalks.

Or, they can be used as objets d’art in kids’ rooms.

The set of six mini chalk cupcakes is available in your choice of blue, green, orange, pink, purple or yellow. They are 2 inches tall and 1.5 inches wide, just about the size as a real mini cupcake.

Each cupcake is hand piped and topped with glitter. Each set is packaged for gifting.

They’re great For party favors as well as stocking stuffers.

And there’s more of a choice than cupcakes: We love the chalk popsicles, as well as apples, tea cups and some 15 non-food designs from ballerinas, bees and butterflies to dinosaurs, lady bugs and owls.

The set of six cupcakes is $7.00 from The Chalk Shop, which sells via Etsy.com.

Beyond cupcakes, we love the popsicle chalk as well as the apples and tea cups. In the non-food arena, there are some 15 designs, from ballerinas, butterflies and flowers to circus animals, dinosaurs and owls.
  

It’s easy to follow a recipe and bake a delicious cake. Icing it beautifully is the challenge.

Pastry chefs practice long and hard until they perfect an absolutely smooth icing. And they learn some tricks along the way.

You can use the holiday season to practice, practice, practice. The people upon whom you bestow your homemade cakes will be thrilled, not critical.

A rotating cake stand and an angled spatula will be your two best friends.

Here’s a video demonstration on how to ice a cake from Clarice Lam of The Baking Bean, an online pastry business that delivers delicious desserts straight to your door.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ICING & FROSTING

The difference between frosting and icing is in the sugar:

Icing is made with confectioners’ sugar (also called icing sugar), frosting is made with granulated sugar (table sugar). The two words are often used interchangeably, but that doesn’t make it correct!

More on how to frost a cake.

Find our favorite cakes and cake recipes in our Gourmet Cakes Section.

Strawberries are our last link to that sweet summer bounty. Strawberries are grown year-round in California, where numerous varieties have been bred to accommodate the different soils and climates.*

So while we’re making seasonal pumpkin desserts, carrot cakes and apple pies, we just had to make these summery strawberry shortcake cupcakes:

Here’s a recipe for yellow cupcakes.

Here’s a video recipe for whipped cream, loaded with important professional tips.

You don’t have to use as much whipped cream frosting as shown in the photo—although it is a lovely excuse to eat whipped cream!

You can make the whipped cream a few hours in advance and cover it with plastic wrap in the fridge; if it has begun to separate, put it in a bowl and mix it back together with a wire whisk.

Frost the cupcakes right before serving. Use a piping bag for the effect shown in the photo, or a spatula for a simpler effect.

SURPRISE VARIATION

Before frosting, we used a melon baller to scoop a well in the top of the plain baked cupcakes and inserted a “surprise” whole strawberry. You can also use lemon curd or other fruit curd, but you’ll have a lemon curd cupcake instead of a strawberry shortcake cupcake.

Or, split the batch and make both!

Enjoy this last breath of summer.

Find more of our favorite cake and cupcake recipes.

WHIPPED CREAM TIPS