Here are the photos I promised of the bacalao we made for NYE.
The final product. It tastes so much better than it looks.
You can see almost all of the ingredients we used; the small potatoes, red bell peppers, capers, parsley, chiles güeros, and the cod. As the cod has been shredded, it is the clumpy stuff you see. It smells like a Mediterranean kitchen here. Can’t wait to dig in.
This is how much 2 k of cod made for us. One 6 qt. pressure cooker full, plus 3 large plastic containers full. The containers are resting in the freezer, and the pressure cooker is in the fridge here. It was Ivan’s bright idea to put it in the pressure cooker so it wouldn’t open, and spill in transit. He’s so smart.
When we get to eating it, I will let you know how that went.
Until then, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
She is Jesús’s mom, who just got home from visiting her oldest son, Ramón, who lives in Cuernavaca, with his family, about an hour and, a half south of Mexico City.
She is the matriarch, not to mention the heart of this family. Everyone is happy to have her here, safe, and sound. Now the end-of-year holiday can really begin.
I’ll keep you posted of the going’s on. Until then, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
A quick follow up: it’s 1:51am, and there’s no sign that anyone is going to bed anytime soon. We, however have been in our room for about 30 minutes, after visiting Liz’ parents, her brother , and his significant other, just after midnight.
We have hugged, and kissed, everyone, (on their cheek, of course), and wished all a prosperous new year.
The music is still playing at a huge decibel number, so, instead of getting upset, as I used to do, we have another drink, and let the night pass as it will.
It will.
Eventually.
At the moment, several very relaxed family members are singing, at the top of their lungs, in the street, in front of the house. Too funny.
We have decided there is absolutely nopoint in trying to sleep so we’re both on our computers, watching whatever comes our way. I am using my iPhone to update this post. 🥳🎉🎊🥂🪅🍾
Happiness, health, and security to all.
Second follow up: it’s now 2:30am without any change. Am looking forward to the end of the night. Hopefully we will be able to get some sleep in a bit. I’m going to bed at 3am. 🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🛏️🛏️🛏️
Need I say more?Ok. To bed at 3:30am. ???????😱😱😱😱4:00am, and that’s it!!!!Aldo and Angel watching one of our favorites.
The music is back. 🥱🥱😩😂😩😂🥱😩😂🥱
Is there an end to this? We’re older, and can’t stay awake much longer. Even the babies want it quiet. Two are crying as I type this.
5:00am, and I’m putting my deaf ear up, towards the ceiling. Hoping for the best. 😩😩
I’m going to make everyone of them eat Bacalao tomorrow 😡😡😡🤬🤬 Actually, later. 😡
I have to tell you that I have no problem sleeping in a very cold bed, room, or house.
I draw the line, however, at having to sit on an ice cold, 40ºF toilet seat.
It’ll wake you up faster than a swift kick in the rear. Trust me.
We are luxuriating in Veracruz, in our forever home, where the temperature is about 37ºF tonight. Have I mentioned that there is no central heat, electric blankets, etc.?
Well, there isn’t. We are actually wearing a stocking cap on our heads; there’s a first time for everything. He has on wool long johns, flannel pj’s for me. We will be under a flannel top sheet, a wool blanket, and a down-alternative, winter weight comforter inside a heavy flannel duvet.
That all seems copacetic, however, we sleep with a fan blowing on us, at medium speed, mostly for the white noise it provides, pas we both have ears that scream when it is quiet. Ivan’s is from injuries received while in the service; both of his eardrums are scarred terribly,while my right ear is mostly deaf, except for the screaming. Needless to say, we need the noise to negate said screaming.
For us, though, to be here, in our future home, with our wonderful, loving, beautiful family, complete with the Bacalao Navideño that we made, (that very few will probably even taste), is all we really care about. It has been 6 long months since we were here last, and then, it was just me, without him. Bittersweet.
It’s late, 2:45 am, so I will schedule this to post soon. I must tell you, however, the cold temperature makes snuggling really quite enjoyable. Usually my heat, (I’m too fat), next to his heat, minimal, makes me want to implode. Not so here. Yay. Another plus.
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves. Drive carefully, always, but especially in inclement weather.
Post script: a very happy birthday to our B-I-L Larry. Felicidades.
Everything is cooked, and ready for assembling a large pot of bacalao to take with us to Los Altos for the New Year.
We leave in four days so I will defrost those items in the freezer starting tomorrow morning, I think.
I have cooked down 2 kg of tomatoes, blended them, put them through a sieve, but have decided not to remove all of the seeds, and skin, as it will make the sauce like a thin tomato sauce. It needs to be more substantial than that. The potatoes are cooked, and in the fridge, along with a jar of roasted, and peeled red peppers that I have roughly chopped. The three large batches of parsley have been stemmed, minced, and are also in the fridge. Yuck. We are not parsley fans.
Here are a few photos of the items going into the stew.
The bag at the top is the 2 kg of salted cod, shredded. The container just below it but in the same bin, is the parsley. The next two containers are 4 onions, diced. 2 kg of papa’s chambray, or baby potatoes, cooked, and ready to go. On the second shelf are the chiles güeros in vinagre. On the bottom shelf, in the container on the left are the red peppers. Next to that are the tree containers of the processed tomatoes. Two jars of capers, and a large container of chopped stuffed green olives. The bag of leafy green, bottom shelf is for another dish, when we return, called Romeritos en mole con camarones.
Hopefully, it will taste better each time it’s reheated, as it has in the past. We usually eat it with a bolillo, sandwich roll, to sop up the juices. The chiles güeros are similar in flavor to a pepperoncini, except just a bit more zing.
Wishing you all the joy, and happiness of the season. Stay happy, healthy, and safe. And warm. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
If this rain, today, Christmas Day, was snow, we’d be in a blizzard.
It has been raining, quite heavily, for about 20 minutes at a stretch, almost the entire day. It started as a drizzle last night; this morning, however, it has been raining in earnest. It stops for about 30 minutes, just to start up again.
Not a lot of thunder, unfortunately for me, but one can’t have everything, can one?! Funny that. I have been thinking these past few days how much I have missed the rain, wishing it would rain a bit.
Voilà. It’s raining. I got my favorite present on this Christmas Day.
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
I know this has been a hard year for some, not for all. For us, here in dream land, it has been wonderful. Thank God.
The politics of the US has been right up there with the CoVid19 pandemic, in terms of the worse things happening in the US this year past. May both get better in the coming year. It could happen.
I have had news, recently, about a few of the folks I used to work with, staff, surgeons, anesthesiologists, that have all had terrible health issues. I am keeping all of you folks in my prayers; families too.
As I said, this year, for us, is the year of famine, as far as “things” go. We only bought one gift for Gabi, and nothing for anyone else. I am going to give my pashmina scarves, 5 of them, to the Garcia women, one for Liz, and Liz’s mom, Alicia, and one for Abelina, Jesús’ aunt, who did a special favor for us. It will be a joy to see their faces when they open them. They are, each, more beautiful than the last one.
We will be here for Christmas, but in Veracruz for the New Year. I’ll post photos as I can, but know that we will be enjoying the heck out of each second we’re there. Can’t wait to move.
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
Those of you that are working today, thank you so much for what you do, no matter what your job is.
We hope all of you are enjoying this time with your families, friends, and loved ones.
Unfortunately for us, the Garcias are all sick with terrible coughs, colds, and the flu. Now that Gabi is in Kinder(garten), he is bringing home all kinds of yuck. They think it’s a change in the weather, but we explained to them the truth; kids spread millions of germs, just by being kids.
I will surmise that the kids don’t wash their hands after sneezing, (a bacterias keen, evolutionary way of spreading itself everywhere), as the staff have not quite the education levels to insist on such things. Nor do they have the time, I suspect.
We’ve not put up any decorations this year, nor have we wrapped any invisible presents we may, or may not have. This is our famine year.
When our kids were growing up, every other year was feast, then famine; it’s the way it was for years. We almost never had two consecutive years of feast. Personally, it made the kids appreciate the things they got all that much more.
As we are so thankful for all of the abundance we have, we routinely give most of it away; especially food. We always seem to have too much food, usually fresh, which becomes, quickly bad. So, before it goes bad, we give it to whomever needs it. Relieves my conscience.
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
We are virtually mask free down here; in the stores, on the streets, anywhere, and everywhere one looks. How about the states?
Beautiful, soft, almost white homemade butter; half a liter of buttermilk, as well. Buttermilk is nearly impossible to find here in Mexico. All I have to do now is remember all of the things I wanted to do with said buttermilk.
I think I will freeze it for now, and defrost it later, when I remember what I would use it for.
Whipped cream phase.Becoming butter.Buttermilk, on the left, and butter, right.
Now that I know how easy it is to make homemade butter, plus, the advantage of making buttermilk as well, I will probably remember what I wanted to make, and be able to make it whenever I want.
As soon as I remember what it was.
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
Pronounced bah-cah-LAH-oh, it’s a cod dish that originated in the Mediterranean part of the world. It is absolutely delicious.
It’s a dish that is usually prepared at Christmas time, as a special treat, as it takes several days to prepare. Making it is quite an undertaking that’s worth every minute.
Bacalao, the cod, comes salted, and in 2 liter containers, needing to be rinsed, and soaked over a 48 hour period, changing the water at least 3 times a day. By the end of all of the that, the water is no longer salty, and it’s ready to shred.
There are a lot of ingredients needed for this stew, and we are making enough to take with us to Los Altos for the New Year. We have, coming today, 2 liters of small white potatoes, 2 liters of Roma tomatoes, and 2 bunches of parsley. We already have the chiles, (chile güero, or Santa Fe chile), onion, garlic, red, and yellow bell peppers, olives, capers, (alcaparras), and the cod. We (I) just have to shred the desalinated cod, remove all of the bones, and we’ll be ready to go. Sounds like a lot of work to me.
The capers, and the chiles güeros, (GWEH-rows).Fresh from the fridge, already desalinated. Ready to shred. This is the junk we aren’t going to use; the bones, and tough meat.
It ended up looking like this.
The shredded cod. The final product from when we were living in Iowa, 12/2016. It was delicious.
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
The state of Guerrero, to the Southwest of us, just got hit with at least a 7, maybe stonger, earthquake.
Fortunately for me, at least, I was notified by an app I have on my phone, and iPad Pro called SASSLA. Obviously, it is an alerting app that warns us of seismic activity in the entire country. So far, though, only the state of Guerrero has experienced quake, after quake.
Probably doesn’t mean a lot to any of you folks, but down here, well, you can see, it’s less than an hour Northwest of Acapulco. They are getting hammered by all of the activity.
This was the first earthquake I have actually experienced, start to finish, sitting down. I was sitting on my glider, in the bedroom, when my alarms went off. I silenced both the phone, then the computer, (YKW was sleeping. Didn’t want to wake him unless needed.), and started counting; the alarms told me we had 41 seconds before we would feel it. They were spot on.
The dogs in the area all started barking, at about 30 seconds; that’s when I knew it was going to happen. The dogs are never wrong.
As I got to the final 5 seconds, my glider started moving backwards, and forwards, gently, at first. The chimes in the laundry area started clanging; I could hear them from the bedroom. As the quake intensified, so did the motion of the glider. Strange, though, that the alarm outside, in the park, never went off. Hmmm.
If you’ve never experienced an earthquake, I have to tell you, it is the strangest sensation I have ever felt. It feels as if you are drunk, trying to stagger from one place to another, looking for safety. The entire floor, where you are standing, starts to move out from underneath you.
While standing, your first inclination is to remain standing, but your entire frame of reference is gone. The step you want to take forward, ends up being sideways. Your orientation is completely confused. While you wait for the world to right itself, all you can do is
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
The wind chimes, and the dogs, are still, and silent. As well, most of the residents here must have slept through it as there is no shouting, or talking in the garage below us. Me? I’m sending word to all of you that we are fine.
Post script: it has been registered as a 6. Another one was just declared, and is in progress, in Guerrero. Probably the aftershock.
