If there’s anything that tastes like summer to me, it’s this cabbage pico de gallo. My parents made it for family gatherings growing up, and we’d all hang around the bowl the rest of the evening.

It’s, of course, the perfect complement to tortilla chips. But it’s also great on fajitas, tacos, and rice. It delivers the lime punch I’m always searching for in salsa. And it’s not so saturated with tomatoes that they’re all you taste.

I made it with my mom a couple of weeks ago, and the first bite took me right back to childhood. 

When we stayed with my grandparents in a small town in Washington’s Cascade mountain range, called Leavenworth,* we spent what felt like hours blowing up every flotation device available. We reserved the pumps for the larger projects—like:

And we used our lungs and spit—mostly spit— to blow up the smaller ones like:

Then we piled all the inflatables into my grandpa’s old, orange-and-black-striped truck that sounded like it was gurgling gasoline. We tied everything down with a little twine but a couple of us would ride in the back, too, to hold everything down. You know: for safety’s sake. I’m sure we looked like a traveling circus.

We dropped the inflatables off at a hidden little entry to the Icicle River and proceeded to run carloads of family members from the house to the river. Approximately nine hours later, we packed into the boats and onto the air mattresses and shoved off for our downriver destination.

The Icicle River is aptly named. It is body-achingly cold. And I could not wait to dive in. While the adults sunbathed in boats, we swam alongside and popped onto intertubes or air mattresses for rest. We stopped along the route at a rapid that dropped us about a foot and then shot us out into the middle of the river. We dove for golf balls left abandoned from errant swings at the adjacent country club. And we ended at this little inlet guarded by rapids. When the river was just the right depth, we treated those rapids like the greatest water slide of all time. The kind of water slide that required a mad dash at the end to exit the current and avoid death.

I spent hours in that water. I realized last week that it’s not that I didn’t feel the cold. It’s that I was so present for the fun of swimming that the cold was simply part of the experience. I didn’t suffer from the cold because I didn’t wish it was warmer.

I remember adults telling me time and again to be grateful for being a child because it goes so quickly and I could never get childhood back. I guess that’s true on the surface. But there’s a truer truth. Being a child is being present. And that’s always possible.

I felt like a child most of last week. Jonathan and I stayed at a friend’s (unoccupied) cabin on the Kitsap Peninsula. We spent hours sitting and wading and running through 59-degree water. We felt the cold. But we were so busy with the moment—with the fun—that the cold became part of the experience. This is what cold feels like. This is what joy feels like. 

And this is what my childhood summers tasted like:

*This Leavenworth is modeled after a Bavarian village and has nothing to do with a famous prison that’s also called Leavenworth. The town isn’t really Bavarian, but when the railroad left decades ago, the town became economically depressed. Apparently, some local folks hatched the plan to lure tourists with a Bavarian theme. It worked. And still does today.

Servings: 4-ish Time: 30 minutes Via: Apple Tree

I’ve got some spice-averse people in my life, so I don’t add jalapeño. But it’s a fantastic addition.

If you can’t find Johnny’s seasoning salt, Lawry’s will do.

This makes for some very lusty leftovers. Just dump a little of the accumulated juice down the sink before storing in the fridge for the night.

3/4 head of green cabbage, shredded
1 sweet onion, diced
5 small to medium tomatoes on the vine, diced
Half a bunch of cilantro, chopped
Juice of two limes
1/2 tablespoon Johnny’s seasoning salt + more to taste

1. Shred the cabbage.

2. Dice the onion.

3. Dice the tomatoes

4. Remove the cilantro leaves from the stems and roughly chop the leaves. (Compost the stems.)

5. Combine cabbage, onion, tomatoes, and cilantro in a medium to large bowl.

6. Squeeze the lime juice over the bowl and give the pico de gallo a stir.

7. Add 1/2 tablespoon Johnny’s, stir, and taste with a chip. Add more Johnny’s as necessary.