Somewhere along the way, I've developed a love of fruit and veggie salads. It's that combination of sweet and savory that gets me every time. This salad has been a go-to a lot this summer after I rediscovered it, and our produce-stand watermelon produced a wonderful watermelon and feta salad. (Get what I did there? The produce stand produced...). So when I saw a blueberry salsa, meant for fried catfish posted here by Patrick Evans-Hylton, a local, beloved chef, I was keen to try it.

Only we were having blueberries for dessert and we weren't having fried catfish.

Enter the blackberry. I figured if it sounded good with blueberries, it must also be pretty awesome with blackberries, right? And if it sounded good with fried catfish, it might also be good with grilled chicken right?

Here's what we did.

We marinated our chicken with Stonewall Kitchen's Roasted Apple Grille Sauce. Then Neel took over the grilling part. (He did some corn on the cob too. I can't seem to get enough of it this summer.) And here's how we did the salsa:

Blackberry Salsa, adapted from Patrick Evans-Hylton's Blueberry Salsa

2 10 oz. packs of blackberries
1/2 of 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped fine
1 small red onion, chopped
2-3 small red and yellow sweet peppers, chopped
a handful of cilantro, chopped fine
juice of one lime
a couple glugs of olive oil (Evans-Hylton calls for 1/4 cup. I just glugged.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of pepper

Divide the berries into thirds, chopping 2/3 and leaving 1/3 whole. Combine chopped berries with jalapeno, onion, peppers and cilantro. Add lime juice, olive oil and whole berries and gently stir. Season with salt and pepper to taste, chill and serve alongside chicken, fish or even pork or beef.

I just want to go on record that every time I try to type "fried" I type "friend," which feels appropriate.