… and some fruity salsa too

Happy Valentine’s Day! And Happy Centennial to my Native State – Arizona – 100 Years Young today!

Yes, Arizona, “The Grand Canyon State”, “The Valentine State”, and “The Baby State” turns 100 today!  The “Baby State” because Arizona was the last state of the contiguous United States to join the Union, on February 14, 1912. To see a wonderful slideshow of our beautiful state, GO TO THIS LINK, and enjoy. That is from where I snatched all of the Arizona pictures I have here today.  As a special birthday bonus, there’s a little Arizona quiz and a fun name game at the end of the post – just in case you want to play along.

Oh, and I have a fruity salsa recipe to go along with the fruity guac from yesterday too.

Papaya-Tomato Salsa

2 ripe papaya
4 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 large jalapeno, seeded and finely minced
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Peel, half, and seed the papayas. Dice the fruit and place it in a medium glass bowl.

Add the tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, cilantro, lime juice, and orange juice to the bowl and gently blend together.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Makes about 3 cups

Quiz:  This was required knowledge in Arizona history class back in my elementary school days –

What are the five “C’s” of Arizona?   If you are reading this, then obviously you have a computer! Since you can get the answer through Google in a flash, I’ll make it even easier – CLICK HERE for the answers, direct from our Secretary of State.  And OMG! (that stands for “Oh my gosh!” by the way) – I was just playing around on the Secretary of State site and I found THIS – a small snip-it of the “official” state song – so corny and yet so totally awesome!  As for me – I prefer This ARIZONA song!

This name game comes from my old Valley Dish home. My Arizona name is Sunny Sedona – how pretty!

Have a lovely Valentine’s Day. xoxo