Round 3 of Project Food Blog is now open for voting; put on by Foodbuzz, your votes help me get to the next round! Here is my entry post (you can also click on the widget in the right hand column). There are a ton of gorgeous food blogs and pictures to check out. And I need a little help from you because this challenge I was caught with few too many pics; somehow we were so busy having fun---somewhere between the salsa music, inhaling chipolte BBQ ribs and draining pitchers of top shelf margaritas---that the camera was forgotten on the buffet. So, from me: promises for more pictures---especially pictures with people enjoying all this great food! I WILL say, the Luxury Dinner Party (challenge #3) was a huge yummy success. This full-blown Festive Fiesta Feast---with all the trimmings---was so much fun. You may or may not know: we moved back recently from living a year abroad in Italy. So although I unpacked loads of kitchen ware, I still own almost no wine glasses or cocktail glasses: midway through the night someone realized we are drinking margaritas out of candle votives... hey, who said they were only for candles? I think they are really margarita glasses and the tea light candles are the posers. You?

Also, I was making so, so much from scratch and so many rubs and sauces and fillings and the like that I finally started labeling all the little jars, bags and containers in my fridge. Not that I would confuse my jar of homemade chicken stock with the mint simple syrup or chipolte adobe peppers but... there was a lot going on. In culinary school we regularly labeled stocks and all manner of items that we placed in the fridge. We used masking tape and a permanent marker. I am back at it: except I used green frog painter's tape---worked like a charm.

I promised you my Pico de Gallo recipe. OMG this is so easy to make, you won't want to buy the store version:

Pico de Gallomakes about 2 cups.

4-5 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped (or whatever yummo tomatoes are falling off your vines; about 1 1/2 cups) small red onion, finely chopped small annaheim chili, seeded/deribbed finely chopped (feel free to add in jalapeno, serrano, for your own heat requirements) 1/3 cup cilantro, chopped 1 T fresh lime juice pinch sugar pinch coarse salt

Mix, refrigerate, eat.