Little Tangles: [Birthday Bash] Perfect Party Food

Hello girls - Welcome to Day 4 of our little Birthday Bash!

On Day 2 I asked you lovely readers what you're hoping to see during our Birthday Party, and in flooded your responses with fabulous ideas. So we will be working hard behind the scenes to meet some of your great requests. Here is a quick summary

masculine birthday cards
making birthday themed cards with non-birthday sets
inspirations using Ink Splash (no wonder it's in demand, this set is always sold-out)
more sneaks on upcoming releases (I will go beg Danielle on behalf for you, or bribe her with a cupcake ;)
inspirations using sequins, sequins, and more sequins

For the more specific questions that you have left, I will address them during our Birthday Bash through a Q&A format. So, check back to see if your question got answered.

I also said that I would draw a Little Tangles Perk for everyone who answered. Scroll all the way to the bottom to find out what it is, and who won.

Better yet, stick around, meet our first guest and see what she's bringing to the party. I would like to introduce you to Lisa Stein: Jill of all Trades; Neat & Tangled supporter from Day One; talented crafter; fellow vegan & healthy lifestyle advocate; and a big, passionate heart for 4-legged creatures. This woman never does or give anything less than a 100%. Check out her post...

I'm honored to have been invited to guest post on Little Tangles in honor of the Neat and Tangled 1st Birthday Bash!

When most of us think of a Birthday happening, we think of a party. And what do all parties need? Delicious food! Since it's a great time of year for fresh produce, I've made some summer salsa and want to share the recipe with you. It's very simple to make, and so flexible. Change out the ingredients for your favorite summer fruits and you'll have a delicious snack in no time. This is delicious as an appetizer, with tortilla chips, or served alongside of your favorite dinner dish. (I'm vegan, so I don't want to say salmon or chicken, ha!)

For this salsa I used the following ingredients:

Cucumber, peeled, sliced in half, seeds removed, then diced into a small to medium dice. If my market wasn't out of English Cucumbers, I would have just used one of those. No peeling, no seed removal. They're my favorite.
Ripe peach, medium to large dice.
Red onion, small dice. (I like red here for the color and the flavor)
Tomato, medium dice.
Strawberry, small dice.
Jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed (unless you want it HOT), fine dice.
Seasoned Rice Vinegar (this is my favorite brand, but use what you can find. Please note that the one I use contains sugar, if you get it sugar free, you might need to add some sugar to your salsa, depending upon your preferred taste.)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Personally, I don't like my food to be perfect, which is why I do a different size dice on each item. Some ingredients will break down on their own, for instance, the peaches. Even though I cut them into a bigger size, while the salsa gets tossed around they will break up on their own a bit. I also like people to know what they're eating, so I don't want to make things too small, and then you can't see the different ingredients.

To prepare the salsa, put everything into a bowl. Depending upon the amount of salsa you're making, add some rice vinegar to the bowl. Not too much. For this salsa, above, where I used one of each item of fruit, and eight strawberries, I used about 1/4 cup of rice vinegar. Toss the ingredients around to coat them, and then add salt and pepper to taste.

A few extra tips:

The vinegar will break down the fruits, macerate them. So try to serve this pretty quickly after you make it. If you notice that it's too juicy to serve, drain it, then add another splash of vinegar, just to refresh the taste.
Switch out the ingredients to your taste! I always use cucumber, red onion, and jalapeno. Always. :) But I often use pineapple, mango, orange sections and other fruits, too. Watermelon would be great in this.
If I have it on hand, I add cilantro to this. Just a wee bit. Not too much, you don't want to overwhelm the other flavors.
Don't go crazy and add in too many fruits at a time, but definitely mix it up a bit for your tastes.
As I was making this yesterday I thought, for the first time, that some avocado would be very delicious in this. My husband readily agreed, and I will definitely add some next time.
Use ripe fruits. The flavors will be obvious. Unripe fruits will just taste like different sized pieces of food. No flavor.
If you're bringing this to a party, make more than you think you'll need. Believe me, people devour this. I think because it's not something you can get just anywhere, yet it's really refreshing.

I hope you'll give this easy Summer Salsa recipe a try. I hope Neat and Tangled had a great Birthday and a wonderful second year!

Enjoy. Lisa

Supplies: Photoshop template from Cathy Zielske. Download it here.

Yumm-o. Thank you Lisa for your delicious contribution. What an honor to have you kick-start our guest post for the Birthday Bash. You are setting the bar pretty high for the rest of us, who have to follow your act ;)

For those who love the kitchen as much as I do, we have a challenge for you. Lisa brought Summer Fruit Salsa to our Birthday Bash, what are you bringing?

Potluck Party Challenge

Create something delicious and post it on your blog
Grab our Birthday Bash Banner so that we can spot you easily
Link up yout post below
The link is open until August 18, 11:55p Eastern Time; yep I am giving you 2 weeks to whip up something yummy. So bring on your culinary A-game!
We will draw a random winner to win a Little Tangles Prize.
The Little Tangles Prize is a $5 gift card to the Neat & Tangled shop

Day 2: "Birthday Bash Wish List" Winners

Everyone (yep, you read right, but don't tell Danielle. She might fire me ;) who commented on our Neat & Tangled Birthday Bash post, please send me an email at neatandtangledstamps(at)gmail.com with the subject line "Little Tangles Winner Day 2 Perk" I would like to award each of you with a Little Tangles Perk: Get a free pack of sequins with a $15 purchase or more.

That's a wrap. Check back tomorrow for something completely different. I think you will like it... *wink wink*

PS. Since we have so many great things going on this month, there is a quick cheat sheet on the right side bar on what challenges are currently going on and by when they close. We like to keep things easily accessible to you. Hope it helps!