Saturday, September 5, 2009

Tia Linda's Scrambled Eggs

You want product promo? Here's a product promo. I was strolling through my local grocery this morning and happened by a free sample of Tia Linda's Grilled Salsa. Holy crap y'all. It is delicious.

Definitely not made in New York City.

Upon arriving home I discovered that my assumption that I had chips was incorrect. So I had to come up with another way to get that incredible substance into my belly. I considered a spoon, but that seemed unworthy of its greatness. So I decided to make some eggs.
I don't always put bacon in my scrambled eggs, but I thought the salty porky flavor would compliment the smokiness of the salsa beautifully, and you know what? I was totally right. Aside from the pig, I added half a chopped onion, a handful of sliced bell pepper (more product promo - Trader Joe's sells bags of frozen sliced bell pepper. It's one of the more convenient inventions ever, maybe.) and a diced jalapeno from my garden, just to give it a little kick. I sauteed all that together over medium-low heat for a few minutes, until the bacon was darkened and the vegetables were softened but not overdone, then I cracked two eggs in the bowl and commenced struggling with the lid of the jar. Why in the hell am I having such a hard time with jar lids lately? I banged on it with a knife a few times and thankfully, it came right off. I glooped some into the pan and stirred it, breaking up the yolks and initiating the flavor meld, then let it sit for a minute or so while I made toast. I contemplated adding cheese, but decided it would cover up the other flavors too much, so I settled for sprinkling a little on some of my toast (another reason why toaster ovens are so fantastic).
Voila!


Now, if you are seeking to recreate this at home and you don't live near my grocery store, you're going to run into a big problem, namely, the lack of Tia Linda's salsa. I suspect it doesn't get particularly wide distribution, but the label does include an email address - linda@tialinda.net - so you might try emailing and seeing if you can mail order it? Otherwise, explore your local possibilities. You want a salsa, not a pico de gallo (though that'd probably be tasty too, really) - something with a good smoky flavor. But try emailing Tia Linda. I totally want to give this person more business, because goddamn, it's a good salsa. I've been seeking a good jar of salsa for ages - I've tried Rick Bayliss' Frontera Brand - they're great at the actual restaurant - and numerous options from Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, etc, but none of them gets it right. They verge from uninspired and vaguely preservative tasting to bland and uninteresting to straight up yuck.

Man, I think I need to go back to the store and get some chips.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW!!! That'sgreat that you loved the salsa, we all love that salsa too and by the way Tia Linda is actually myyyyy Tia Linda so congrats to her and her famous salsa!!!

pluto said...

I couldn't agree more! Tia Linda is my aunt and from the first time she sprung this wonderful salsa on us (her family) we have been in heaven. I am so proud of her. We have been enjoying this salsa for sometime now and it's only been a few years since she decided to start making it available for sale at local grocery stores. She does everything herself from roasting to bottling (every now and then she gets some help from my mother and other family members) but it's all my Tia. I can testify that she puts so much love into every bottle she makes. I'm so glad your enjoying it and I can't wait to print this page out so she can read your post. I truly believe that this salsa is about to blow up and my wish for her is that soon it will be available nation wide. She gets so excited about her tomatoes (picking only the best ones) and has a true talent for knowing which tomatoes are ready for the salsa and which ones still need time. Since she retired all of her energy is going into making the best possible salsa. She truly is an inspiration to me and her family and I hope that you find some more tasty ways to dress up your meals using Tia Linda's Salsa (we put it in everything) :)

culture_vulture said...

Cool! It's rare that I actually love a specific product enough to blog about it, but oh man, I love love love that salsa. I still buy it all the time and put it on everything.