Month: September 2022

The other day, Ivan was out in the kitchen, puttering.

That’s what I call it.

Ok, he was messin’ in my kitchen. Usually, when he does that, he has decided that the fridge , or freezer, needs to be “cleaned out”, and/or reorganized.

Wrong!!! My fridge is micromanaged, poor thing. (I won’t even tell you about the freezer.) The mustards are all in one door pocket; the pickles, sauerkraut, and the like, are in another; the Oriental condiments in another; the really tall things, like the mega Costco bottles of catsup, yellow mustard, bottles of red, and white wine (for cooking,) fish, and oyster sauces, really nice dressings, all in another one, or two. The smaller things like Better than bouillon, instant yeast, freshly (at the time) squeezed lemon, and lime juices in the top slots. What’s not to like?

Everything is where it needs to be to open, grab, and cook.

Ok, so he’s puttering, then calls me into said kitchen, and I am ready to take on whatever challenge he’s put me up against.

There was none.

What?

He had taken the 3 jars of different brands of pineapple jelly, his favorite, and cut up a serrano pepper, and mixed it with the jellies.

I know you’re saying OMG why would he do that?

It is amazing people. It is sweet, but not too sweet, as one of the jellies, we discovered, was sugar free, but has the very slightest kick from the chile. Seriously. There is nothing like sweet, and spicy to take a dish over the top.

When I make us pancakes, I always fry one egg, sunny side up, for each of us. I put it between the top two pancakes, along with a dollop of salsa, then top it with the last pancake. Maple syrup, not too much, goes over the top. TRY IT.

As most of you know I am not a fan of sweets. Been there. But I have come to be able have the occasional sweet if it is mixed with something with a hint of spicy. Even Ivan has come to embrace this.

Here is the final product of his creation. I hope you will try it, and let me know what you think. Really, the serrano was not even whole; he used only half he said.

Seriously. If you have not tried sweet, and spicy, please do. It is simply out of this world delicious.

We plan on putting it on roasted pork tacos, carnitas, peanut butter sandwiches; well, you get the idea. Try a bite, at first, and see if you aren’t smiling when you’re done.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves. And don’t believe anything CBS, NCC, ABC, MSNBC, or CNN tells you. Don’t be a spoke in the wheel. Be the wheel!!

Post script: think about bacon wrapped jalapeño poppers, sprinkled with brown sugar, just before they come out of the oven. It doesn’t get any better people. Trust me on this.

The hair, and the beard.

And, that’s a okay.

Ivan has been letting his hair, and beard grow, by my request, for the past month, or so. Yikes.

He shaved both, just now, and wow, what a difference. For the better.

He was not made for the Santa look. He is best bald, with a goatee. His goatee is a beautiful white throughout, and is kept trimmed nicely.

Enough experimentation. He, we, are both happy with the original look.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

9.22.2022 1:32am.

We had another quake about 20 minutes ago.

The epicenter continues to be in the state of Guerrero, and this one has been considered violent.

The alarms went off on my phone, and iPad, thank the good Lord. Then, we noticed the wind chimes in our bedroom were swaying. (Yes, we put them there exactly for this reason, and long before I had the app.)

Jesús, and his family, got out before we even woke up. We had taken some Benadryl, hoping to get to sleep before sunrise, however, just as I was falling to sleep, the alarm started.

I staggered to my phone, shut off the alarm on it, then on the iPad as well. While I was walking/staggering to the kitchen, I could feel the floor moving under my feet. It feels as if one has had about 8 shots of some horribly powerful alcohol, drank within a 15 minute binge. (I assume as much, as I never drink like that.)

When I was able to get back to the bedroom, grab my phone, and get back to the kitchen, the chimes were banging against the closed door, making quite the racket.

Here are the last few seconds of the wind chimes in the laundry area, just at the end of the swaying. Notice the rug as well. It’s only 19 seconds.

Of course, we went outside, though not everyone did.

We are back in our apartment; the Garcia’s as well, and are trying to relax enough to go to sleep. Another 5am bedtime, if I had my guess. One of these days, we’ll be back on a better schedule.

Oh, we are fine; no damage to our building, or our possessions. It’s really mental stress, fortunately for all of us in the building. Evidently this building was given top marks for its ability to withstand the effects of most earthquakes. Good to know.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

I have started, in the past couple of weeks, at night, while I’m trying to go to sleep, to have complete conversations, in my head.

In Spanish.

Yup. You read that correctly.

In Spanish.

It has taken me 3 years to have this ability; one that I have waited for for years, and years. Now, it is with me.

All in thanks to Jesús, and Liz. They talk to me in Spanish every day, unlike someone else we all know, and love.

I have conversations, in my head, with any number of people; family members, in-laws, people that I don’t even know. Everything, however, is in Spanish.

When I get to a word which is unfamiliar to me, or I just don’t know, I’m stuck. Do I get up, and look it up, or do I wait until the morning, (afternoon), and hope I can remember what I was trying to think of?

I always wait until the next day.

I never remember the word I was trying to say, but, oh well. Maybe someday, soon I hope, I will be able to have a complete understanding of the Spanish language.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves. (Mantenerse feliz, saludable, y seguro. Lávense, cúbranse, y protéjanse.)

Post script: felicidades a nuestro hijo. El tiene 44 años de edad en este día de hoy.

We just had an earthquake.

For real.

About 10 minutes after the city wide “alert” testing. The city initiated a system of alert a few months ago, and were testing it for a few seconds, making sure it worked.

It works.

A few minutes ago, I was in the kitchen, had just opened the fridge to make something to eat, when I heard the chimes going off, saw them swaying, about 5ft. in front of me. I also saw the rug, draped over the clothes line, moving back, and forth, aggressively.

Then I felt the swaying of the building. The movement always makes me nauseous.

I hollered at Ivan that this was a real earthquake, and we needed to get downstairs. Get outside.

We all gathered outside, even baby Brandon.

My stomach growled.

We’re back inside, eating our lunch, no worse for the wearing.

On my seismic app, the quakes, 3 registering 7.5, 7.5, and 7.6, within minutes of each other, happened in the western state of Colima. T

he western side of the country is getting hammered by quakes. Further south, in the state of Guerrero, in which contains the city of Acapulco, has had multiple quakes over the past few weeks.

Damn Skippy.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

We caved.

I finally gave up the fight, and let Ivan buy us a microwave.

I have been a staunch supporter of a non-microwave household for 3 solid years. Until the other day.

It was delivered today, and I have already fallen back in love with the convenience. I heated some refried beans, and chicken for a taco for Ivan, taking all of 1 1/2 minutes; more than the time it took to warm the tortilla on the stovetop.

It takes up a bit of room at the moment, but Ivan, and Jesús have plans to build a shelf in the pantry, and put it there. They wanted to move the small oven in there, but, as I explained, there is too much heat given off by the oven, so it needed to stay closer to the exhaust fan. (The fan which does nothing but suck up the heat, throwing it back into the kitchen, Lovely,)

When we get to our forever home, (to be known as FH; no, not funeral home. I said forever home.)

To change the subject for a moment, we were picking up in the living room yesterday, vacuuming, and mopping, when Ivan moved the big tote in front of the metal shelves we have, and this is what we found.

Remember the fruit fly epidemic? We missed this area all together. Had no idea it was also a source. Jesús was kind enough to take it downstairs, and dispose of the contents. He was pretty grossed out. That says a lot as he cleans the entire inside of the condo here, and comes across all kinds of filth.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Brandon.

Next week he will be 6 months old, and is growing fast.

He has just started with a tooth on top; not the front tooth, but the second tooth, on the left side.

He’s been rolling over now for at least a week, though, he needs a bit of help occasionally. He is trying to crawl on the sheet of their bed, but, as I said, he doesn’t get anywhere. He is making the correct movements, but nothing is working yet.

Here he was, just a few minutes ago. Enjoy.

Today, Friday the 16th, is Independence Day, here, from the Spaniards. Nothing got done today, except I baked a juicy, delicious spatchcocked chicken. It was probably the best chicken I’ve made in awhile. Can’t wait until tomorrow to have more of it.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

What is this about?

Tomorrow, I will be making croquettes de huauzontle.

What the heck is huauzontle you ask? (Pronounced u-a-u-zont-lay, but quickly. More like wow-u-zont-lay).

Huauzontle is a green vegetable that grows here, in Mexico, and is considered a weed in the US. Not so chicos.

Like the “weed” called purslane, or verdolagas, here, verdolagas, as well as huauzontle are much a part of the indigenous cuisine of Mexico.

I am determined to learn how to make a decent meal of the huauzontle plant. This is what it looked like before I removed the thick stem, and brought it down to just the “florets”, if you will.

When I finished removing the stems, and was left with the florets, this is what I will use to make the croquettes.

I must tell you that it smells very ”green”, meaning that it smells very

green.

I will be mixing it with crumbled cheese, onion, and garlic powders, a bit of AP flour, S&P, and a couple of eggs. I will form small handsful of said greens into small rounds, and fry them in about a teaspoon of a neutral oil.

Before all of the above, I will be making a salsa de pasilla chiles, using tomatoes, onion, and garlic, all toasted on a very hot comal, (coe mal), or griddle, and dried pasilla chiles, rehydrated in boiling water. When everything is toasted, and/or rehydrated to my liking, I will put everything in the blender, blend it up, and then fry it in a teaspoon of oil for a few minutes. This will be the platform on which the croquettes will sit. I am hoping for the best outcome.

Neither of us has ever tasted huauzontles, and have no idea what it will taste like, but, according to the “likes” associated with the recipe, it should be good.

By the time you read this, we will already have made, and eaten the above. I will definitely let you know how it tasted. Looking forward to the challenge.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

You folks probably already know, and have done the thing I just figured out.

That’s ok. I’m frequently the last one to do things.

It is amazing, however.

Unsubscribing from email senders for whom you are no longer, or never were intererested.

That simple.

I opened my phone the other day, having deleted about 50 emails the night before, to a whopping 91 emails; just overnight.

I spent the next hour, or more, opening each email, scrolling to the bottom, to search through the microscopically tiny print to find the word “unsubscribe “. Finding each one, and eliminating each one, was cathartic in the best of ways.

This morning, or afternoon really, I found I had 2 emails; both in which I had interest.

“Lose 40 lbs. of belly fat in 30 days.” “Eat this before bedtime, and lose 20 lbs the first week.” “Confirmation necessary: you’ve won…..”. Really? I don’t care about any of those silly things, and I was really getting upset at all of the crap I had to go through to find the very few emails I needed, or wanted to read.

No longer. Try it, if you haven’t already. It truly is amazing.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Post script: this afternoon, I had 4 emails. 🙂

Finally.

Last night, well, 2:30am this morning, I thought I would try the expired Melatonin 3 mg. tabs I have on the shelf in the bedroom.

I know that 3mg. does nothing for me; 6mg. either. So, in my heightened need for sleep, I tried 12mg.

That worked. I slept 12 hours. A wasted day, but much I am much refreshed.

Tonight, I think I will cut back to 9mg. and see what happens. I will either get some more much needed sleep, or I won’t. Stay tuned.

Not much happening around here.

It has been raining daily. In fact, Jesús said last night that yesterday, Gabi thought he could stay home from school because it was raining so hard. We all laughed; Ivan, and I remembering about how we hoped to stay home from work having had 12” of snow during the night.

In the nursing profession, especially nurses in the Operating arena, there is no such thing as staying home, unless one is on death’s door. And, even there, you’d better be highly contagious. If not, off to work you go. Many go, even though they are contagious. That helps the entire staff becoming ill. Not good for excellent patient care, for sure.

In the coming season, please, stay home if you have a contagion. No one wants to get sick in this time of CoVid, etc.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.