The problem with living in the Bay Area is that it is hard to pick a place for a day trip as there are so many amazingly beautiful places within driving distance.  And on a lovely spring day such as yesterday, the world is your oyster.

For my mother-daughter day out with amma, I had originally planned to do the coastal drive in Monterey with a lunch stop in Santa Cruz, but I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to drive inland towards Mount Diablo, carrying a picnic lunch.  At 3849 ft, Mount Diablo is one of the tallest visible peaks around the Bay Area, offers a great panoramic view from the top and is assessible by car.   V and I have hiked up to the top several times, but I took amma by car and it was a fun day!

Well, goofing off is not the only reason I haven’t posted anything over the weekend.  It is also because one of us (won’t point fingers) spilled all of the kombucha that was fermenting quite nicely.  Well, no use crying over spilled ‘booch’.  I have started over again, undaunted!  In the meantime, I have also started to ferment a batch of basic salsa.

Salsa fermenting on the kitchen counter

Fermented salsa is a very easy, fast way to preserve tomatoes if you have a large crop.  And you can use it in a variety of recipes as I will share in the next post along with the salsa recipe!