From my honeypot to yours!

Christmas means parties, late nights and rich foods. Coming up with the perfect dish to take to your umpteenth party can be a challenge. Here is one of my favorite recipes: Lupe's Fresh Salsa Mexicana. It is delicious, and healthy (well, depending on how many tortilla chips you eat with it.) Enjoy.

Lupe's Fresh Salsa Mexicana

3 tomatoes, chopped

1/4 onion, chopped

2 jalapeno peppers, chopped

small bunch cilantro (5 or 6 branches), chopped

Salt to taste

Juice of one navel orange

Cut tomatoes, onion, peppers and cilantro into very small pieces. Add salt and orange juice, mix well. Serve with your favorite tortilla chips as a snack.

If you like your salsa on the milder side, remove and discard the seeds from the jalapeno peppers.

Note: Always wear rubber gloves when chopping jalapeno peppers!

Do the Renovation!

My darling hubby gave me the best birthday present ever! A week of slave labour (Canadian spelling) on my current renovation project. We laid laminate floor, put new baseboards, wainscot and chair rail in our baby girl's room. It looks amazing by comparison to its previous incarnation.

I wanted a somewhat sophisticated look that could grow up with my daughter. It is hard to find the right mix that can be little girl or big girl, but I think we have done it. Her walls and flooring are a chocolate brown (adding a sense of warmth to a cool north facing room) and the ceiling, trim and wainscot are a pristine white. Her room will be decorated with pinks, reds and whites (delicious with the brown background).

Want great step by step instructions on how to install wainscot? Follow this link to the best how to video that I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xXzho457nk&NR=1