Ukulele Art, Salsa

A while back I posted a shot of my altered recipe book, that I have turned from a dated microwave book into a personalized recipe collection. At that stage I hadn't altered the cover, but now here it is...a collaged front cover.

Altered cookbook cover - collage. The little caption reads "Femineering at it's finest"

I love my altered book now - it feels so fat and handcrafted with its glued in recipes, and some other random stuff. When it's filled up I'm going to add an index which will make it easier to use.

Altered Ukulele
While I am on the subject of altered things...here is a ukulele that I decorated as a gift for Derek a while back. I picked up two preloved ukes, both the same and gave one a Kiwiana twist. The cut out images are glued on with Modpodge, then I Modpodged over them to seal. Little paua shell tabs added to the ends of the strings.

Kiwiana decorated ukulele

Salsa

No, not the dance. 
I didn't like salsa on my cornchips, but that was before I went all slow living and vowed to not buy any more premade dips etc from the supermarket.
I have just made a recipe from Annabel Langbein's "Simple Pleasures" cookbook. It is called 
                                   Pico de Gallo
2 large tomatoes cut into 1cm dice
2 Tablespoons of very finely diced spring onion or red onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 tsp finely chopped red or green chilli
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp salt
ground black pepper
a pinch of sugar to taste
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves

Mix all ingredients except the coriander leaves in a bowl and allow to stand for at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours in the fridge to allow the flavours to develop.
When ready to serve, taste and adjust the seasonings. Stir in the coriander leaves and serve with chicken, meat or a bowl of tortilla chips.

Pico de Gallo (salsa) - minus the coriander because it was raining hard out.

I just love how "slow food" produces much tastier food than what we had got used to. So worth it.