Grape Salsa

Our neighbors at the cottage are an amazing couple. From Vancouver, they travel every summer with their family to the tiny strip of Georgian Bay beach we all call home come June. Now, when I say family, I mean family. They have the biggest family ever. I’m not just counting their three children. I’m talking about their extended family. Both from huge households, Elizabeth (one of 7) and Paul (one of 6), spend the summer surrounded by all their siblings, in-laws, neices and nephews. Plus anyone else who happens by.  As a result, their cottage is never quiet. It’s what makes them the best neighbors. All the activity–tight rope walking, body surfing, bows and arrows, playing clarinet or sax on the deck, shooting potato guns and boisterous camp fires–are just par for the course per weekend at the Clarks. (I swear they do this stuff. Even the tightrope.) And, luckily, they invite us to jump in whenever. It makes for some great afternoons and Scarlett loves all the crazy activities.

With a lot of family around, comes a lot of mouths to feed, and Liz makes preparing meals for a dozen people look easy. She’ll disappear for what seems like 10 minutes and then, viola, there’s an amazingly delicious spread available for everyone. She generally laughs off people’s comments about how efficient she is, but I think I figured out her secret. She has a great repetoire of salads, entrees and snacks that she knows are easy and crowd pleasing. This salsa is one of them, and she got our family addicted to it this summer.

(The below picture is a vintage shot of the grape salsa from 2011 when this blog was only a few years old. )

Do you like the picture Scarlett drew for you? I thought it would look great with the salsa.

I made this batch for Scarlett while she was at school. When she came home I had it waiting for her along with some baked multi-grain chips as well as polenta crackers. I thought she would be excited to see her “summer” dish waiting but instead she said, “that again?!” I wasn’t discouraged. I took that to mean she had her fill of a lot of great moments this summer–eating as well as playing.