We have a beautiful home, but one thing, and one thing only, happens when our friends come over. We leave the beautiful house, all head to the back yard, and eventually end up in the “Tap Room.” This is a huge garage space that was constructed 2 owners ago as a car workshop. The last owners had an art/photography studio in there. We’ve turned it into a play space and workshop for Alex.

My husband is a home brewer, so one year I bought him a kegerator for Christmas (#WifeoftheYear). Now, he always has some home brew on tap, and we’ve created a pretty comfortable space for us and our friends. This is the place where you can grab a beer, kick your feet up, listen to music, play darts, and dance. (That’s usually the order of all our parties in the Tap Room, by the way.)

How to be Neighborly: When in the Tap Room… Dance.

What goes with beer? Chips & salsa. Alex’s mom is an award winning salsa-ist. Whenever she makes it, people go crazy for it. Simple. Spicy. Fresh. She’s shared her recipe with me, but there are no precise measurements. She just feels it. I’m not one with the ways of salsa, so I have yet to master her recipe, but this will get you pretty close to salsa perfection:

Ingredients

Roast Peppers

Remove skins

Dig in!

Save some for later!

Alex’s Mom’s Salsa

• One yellow pepper
• One jalapeno pepper
• One 28 oz can whole tomatoes
• ½ c cilantro
• 1 large garlic clove
• 1 tsp salt

Roast the peppers on an open flame on the stove top until the skin is black and charred. Cover the peppers with a paper towel and place in a plastic bag. Let sit for about 5 minutes. Remove the peppers from the bag, and wipe off the charred skin with the paper towel leaving the tender pepper. Remove the stem, and if desired, the seeds for less spicy salsa. I leave some seeds, but not all. It depends on how hot the pepper is, measure to your taste. Put the peppers, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro and salt in a blender and pulse until combined, but not pureed. Serve with tortilla chips.