Tapatio: What Isn't It Good On?

Tapatio Fritos

Whew. That's all I have to say. "Whew." Not even with an exclamation point. At this point it's too hard to muster even that. I feel like the year has steamrolled me, but in a good way. You might have noticed the blogs have fallen off since the year started and it's all my fault. But I think I'm coming back and hopefully with some good stuff.

So what have we been doing to cause this neglect? Well, let's catch up. The year started out on a sad note when we lost Buttercup, the best cat ever. One day I'll write a blog for her. A month later we decided to move a new apartment, just steps away, but a world away in terms of atmosphere. We thought it would be easy--we would just take everything from our apartment and put it in the exact same place in the new apartment. It would be easy! Famous last words, right?

Then there was a lot of photography work, birthday parties, friends visiting, a trip to New Jersey to see my blogger buddies, Casey, Stephanie and Garrett, a ton of food shows, gardening, a car accident, and somewhere in there I went back to work full time. But it was finding out that I would be speaking at BlogHer Food 2012 in Atlanta that has consumed me the last couple months and, ironically, kept me from blogging at all.

So last weekend was a welcome relief from the frenzy of the last four months when I visited my best friend, Kirsten, in Salt Lake City. She's an amazing writer (and I don't mean that in the Hollywood-everyone-is-a-genius sort of way, she really is great, you can check out her blog for proof), and I always feel like a better person after spending time with her. (I actually got a text from her the week before, while I was on stage at BlogHer waiting for my presentation to start, that said she had just booked our appointments for our pedicure-and-wine appointment. That's the kind of friend she is, she always talks me down when I need it.)

In keeping with our usual vacation tradition, Kirsten and I made a stop at the grocery store for provisions, and I came upon the Tapatio Fritos I had heard about from my former boss, Kyle. Could it be they really did exist?

Now, in case you haven't visited our house, you should know that Tapatio hot sauce plays a key role in almost everything Anson eats, so much so that we don't even bother with the 12 ounce bottles, we buy the 32 ounce instead. Yes, we buy it by the quart. Anson pours it on pasta, stir fry, burritos (of course), eggs, burgers, etc. I think the only thing it doesn't go on is oatmeal. I like Tapatio too, but not the way Anson does. He loooves it. I do however looove Fritos, but rarely allow myself to buy them anymore. So when I saw them there, in all their glory (Fritos with Tapatio!!!), I decided I had to try them, you know, for the sake of research.

We had a lovely little cocktail party with Kirsten's neighbor and yes, the Tapatio Fritos were right there in the mix. Cheese, wine, good conversation and indulgent junk food; I was finally starting to relax.

Photography note: I made it a point to set up a little food shoot, just using what was around Kirsten's house. In the first photo, all I did was use my point-and-shoot and some natural light, with Kirsten's couch as the background. Not bad. A lot can be done with the right light and selective framing.