Tropical fruit in the snow

It started snowing around 3 am, and the weathermen are saying we'll be blessed with 3-6 inches before it tapers off this afternoon. It's cold, so nothing will melt today or tonight. In other parts of the county people are laughing at us, but that's all it takes to shut Seattle down. The schools and some businesses are closed; the airport is in crisis mode this morning and everyone who can stay home is doing just that. John is not underfoot at home, preferring to save his vacation for real vacation, so he went to work as usual at 5:15 in Little Beep. His commute looked something like this:


How about tropical fruit on a snowy morning? Mangoes and papayas are as common as apples at the grocery store these days, and sometimes cheaper. Once upon a time, you could only get these big papayas on a tropical vacation. I think of them as "Mexican" papayas because that's where I had them first, but the sticker said this particular one came from Guatemala. It's on the small side-- they are usually immense.

What a deal at 99 cents a pound and sorry about that big carbon footprint, but I just sliced the luscious thing and squeezed lime juice on it. Platos de frutas with toast and coffee is the perfect tropical breakfast. Even better on a snowy January morning in Seattle.

Mangoes used to be an exotic, expensive fruit too, but lately Safeway runs specials for organic mangoes a cheap as a dollar each, sometimes two for a buck.
Fresh mango "salsa" is easy to make and great with fish or pork. It's just minced jalapeño, onion, tomato, dried cilantro (if you don't have fresh) with a little dressing of citrus juice, oil and salt and pepper.

What's for dinner on a snowy night? Pork loin roast with baked acorn squash. Apple pie. Wine.