It is has been discussed here several times that I love salsa; more specifically hot, spicy salsa.  I used to cook my chili with ghost peppers before the baby was born.  Now I have not cooked anything at a level past habanero.  I simply cannot live without fresh jalapeños and we are never without an array of hot sauces at our house like Cholula, Valentina, or Tabasco.  I have elevated my husband’s tolerance slowly over time so I am able to cook more to my taste.  The baby had the hottest food on the planet when I carried her and she loved it — so much in fact that now she simply drinks salsa straight.  She has been doing so ever since I started letting her I think sometime when she was around a year and a half.  Some restaurants still refer to her as “salsa baby.”  My girl has a cast iron stomach, just like her mama.  I came across this old picture from about four years ago; this was all the salsa I let her have before cutting her off because she wasn’t eating her food.  She screamed.  It was not pleasant.  My mother didn’t like very spicy food so I suppose I got it from my father.  One of my earliest memories is of him dousing red pepper on everything and showing me how to “add” to chili.  The American writer Orison Swett Marden said:

“Nothing else so destroys the power to stand alone as the habit of leaning upon others.  If you lean, you will never be strong or original.  Stand alone or bury your ambition to be somebody in the world.”

I have stood alone all of my life but with the loving support of my parents.  Now I stand alone but with the loving support of my husband and daughter.  We all need support in our lives but it is my hope that my family and I continue to stand alone, each in our own way.  Much like the Leaning Tower of Pisa is freestanding, so too is our leaning tower of salsa.