Author: iagardener55

What kind of nurse does not even have a package of Lomotil in her home, you ask? A retired nurse that no longer has close medical ties in her community any more, that is who. And, now, that is me.

I do want you to know that Ivan brought me my consumé yesterday; gone in a heartbeat. He also brought me Fruit Punch Gatorade. Amen for that stuff. PLUS, I found the last of my Loperamida, (Lomotil), that I needed while we were in la Ciudad Victoria last year, getting Ivan’s paperwork sorted out. That was a fun trip we will not soon forget, I can tell you.

So, hopefully, I will stop this incessant running to the bathroom every hour, my belly distended beyond my thirteen months pregnant belly before the diarrhea. One can only hope.

Ivan bought some pancita (stomach) at Costco the other day, so we can make a trial batch of menudo before the holidays. We made a batch while still up North, and, it was delicious. For those of you that enjoy menudo, I will include a recipe when we perfect it. For those of you that do not care for menudo, ignore the recipe. Better yet, try it with someone who knows how to enjoy it.

What I really want to tell you about the aforementioned pancita is that, normally, when purchased, one needs to bring it home, and spend hours, sometimes days, cleaning this stuff. Not when purchased at Costco. It has the faintest smell of bleach, which has been absorbed into the fat of the pancita. No problem as we will be cleaning all of the fat off of the pancita, removing the fat, and then, cutting it into its one and a half, by one and a half inch squares. We cannot wait.

We have never seen this selection of the cow cleaned so well, prepped for us so nicely. While we get busy perfecting our recipe, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover you mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

I am so bummed. I cannot shake this session of “the revenge”. It has been five days now, and I cannot eat anything! Believe me, I have tried.

The day before yesterday, I tried a poached egg on dry toast. No good. Yesterday, I tried mashed potatoes. Nope. Did not work. I tried Kombucha. I cannot really say if that did anything one way or the other, but, so far, nada.

Let me tell you that this is not the way I wanted to drop a few pounds. At this point, however, I will take whatever works.

Ivan, and Enrique, went to do some shopping, (I do my best cleaning when I am by myself), as I managed to sweat through a bit of light housework; nothing too strenuous. I absolutely have no energy left to do much, but sit. I told him they should go out for lunch, but, to let me know where they were going, so I could pretend I was able to eat something, too. Unfortunately, for me anyway, he did not tell me they were at Toks until after had they left. I would like to have ordered a large bowl of chicken broth to go; they make the best caldo de pollo. Yum.

After texting him, he said he would buy me a consumé somewhere in the mercado, and bring it home. I cannot wait. I am not hungry, really. I just know that I have not eaten, and, cannot eat, ergo, I should be hungry.

Luis, and Martín are coming back sometime this week, to continue work here, so I am going to suck it up, and make them, each, a loaf of bread. The one I made the other day for E, turned out beautifully. I am going to stick with that recipe for awhile.

While we wait for the consumé to arrive, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: the caldo de pollo was indescribable. It had a bit of rice, and a small leg of chicken. It is my next quest to make a caldo that rich. Life sustaining.

Sorry. I slept through most of day 170 and 171. Fever, chills, muscle and bone aches, plus, and not to be forgotten, lovely diarrhea. Not sure from what, but I can tell you that I am glad that has passed. Well, all but the diarrhea, that is. On to happier subjects.

I want to tell you about my new Apple AirPod Pros. They are amazing. I can listen to a book while making Kombucha, or doing laundry, or making the bed, all without having them yanked out of my ears, having gotten caught on any silly little protuberance in my vicinity. That is so annoying, not to mention, occasionally painful. The Pro version has little silicone buds that keep the pods from falling out of your ears, are (supposedly) waterproof, and are very comfortable. Worth every dime, in my estimation.

Well, I am experimenting on different bread recipes, and, I think I have come across, what could be, a winner. I have taken the recipe from Joshua Weissman, on Youtube, but made a few modifications. Unfortunately, I forgot to decrease the amount of liquid used when I added an egg. (Adding an egg, as just mentioned, causes the dough to become very wet, and sticky, and difficult to manage.) Then, I forgot to do the slap, and fold technique, to beat a portion of the air out of the dough. (You really only need to do this with a wet, or high hydration dough.) Consequently, when baked, it leaves a rather annoying tunnel, usually running right through the center of the loaf. And, unless you want to make a whole loaf of eggs-in-the-nests, it is difficult, though, not impossible, to make a sandwich. And, I sure as heck do not want to give it to someone who is expecting a beautiful loaf of bread.

After a few minutes of online research, I discovered the tip about, if adding an egg, you must decrease the amount of liquid. Normally, this would mean that you put the egg in the measuring cup first, then add the rest of the required liquid. I use the metric system of weighing my ingredients, so I checked on the King Arthur Baking Company website, and found that a typical egg weighs fifty grams, so I am golden. I think if I make that small change, I will not have such a wet dough that will require it being beaten into submission. Well, at least I hope not. A lot of incredibly important information in so little time. (I wonder if the youth, now a days, has any idea how long it would take, how arduous a task, getting that information would have been to obtain, without the internet?!)

I am off to try putting this information to practical use. I will return, eventually, to let you know what happened. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover you mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

Usually, I have a pretty relaxed, easy going, retired persons attitude, so very few things annoy, or bother me. However, one of those things that does, is watching that evil little wheel, in the middle of my computer screen, when the internet is slow.

You know the symbol I mean- that never ending circle that continues to turn, and turn, and turn, and turn, and turn, until you are so hypnotized by it that, when it stops turning, you have no recollection why you were even on the site to begin with.

I just spent the previous several minutes watching the ever turning circle while waiting for a video to load. Since it still has not loaded, I thought I would write a post about it.

Ok. Now that I am done ranting; oh, as a side note, my husband got his Macbook back from the “cleaners”, so I got this one, (I used to call it “mine”), back from him. It has been so long since I used it, I had to go back over all of the little tips, and tricks, that I used to take for granted.

I must say, that is so much easier, and faster, for me to type on this than my smaller appliances. The others are better suited for when we are out and about, not here in the condo. Turns out I can type pretty fast, and with astonishingly few mistakes. The funniest thing, though, is I am way too comfortable with touch screens, and this one does not have that. I am forever trying to move things around on the screen with my fingers. Muscle memory, that is all that is. Only problem is that I have more muscle memory than brain memory these days. Hah!

I was going to go back to the rant, but instead, I will tell you about my bread baking plans. Hope that is ok with you.

Tomorrow, I am going to get up, and make my first, but, certainly not the last, loaf of soft crusted sourdough bread in my newest acquisition- a pullman pan. It is a bread pan with a lid that, when the bread dough rises, it becomes a square, more accurately a rectangular, loaf of bread, like you buy in the store. That way, until Ivan can chew things more easily, I can cut off the crusts when making him a sandwich, and use that for my croutons.

Of course, I will let you know how it turns out; do I not always do so? Until that happens, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

Bread baking is going really well. I am baking for family, mostly, and, so far, everyone says they enjoyed it. It is so hard for me to be comfortable with this! I do not want anyone to say they liked it if they did not!

So far, I have made two loaves of ciabatta, and three sandwich loaves; all much better than in the past.

The sandwich bread is so tender that even Ivan can eat the crust. Success.

We took a loaf to la Doctora this morning, after Ivan’s follow up appointment. She was excited to receive it. She does not have time to make homemade bread. I do.

But, until I can find the perfect loaf, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

I have got to tell you that the second batch of Kombucha I made was dynamite. We are both drinking at least one bottle, sometimes two, every day, and enjoying every drop.

We have decided, for us, for now, a mix of pineapple, and blueberries, is our favorite flavor. The next batch we are going to venture into the world of fresh ginger. We like ginger ale well enough, but neither of us has done any cooking, yet, with fresh ginger. Should be interesting. We will be doing more in future, as we got our new wok. Yay.

I have always used pineapple as the base of our Kombucha, because it has so much natural sugar, necessary for the second round of fermentation. The Kombucha will not develop carbonation without sugar to feed the SCOBY. It becomes just a flat flavored tea. Yuck. Does not interest us.

The bottle does not have to explode with carbonation, and, really should not explode, especially if it has been refrigerated. As I said, in the earlier post, once it is cooled down, the carbonation is present, but not explosively so.

I wish you could taste the flavors yourselves. Well, actually, you can. Go to the grocery store, and buy a bottle. They are usually three to five dollars a bottle. Homemade Kombucha, after the initial cost outlay for the few necessary supplies, the usual cost is pennies per bottle. If you become a Kombucha fan, consider it an investment. Plus, you get tons of probiotics as a result. No loser here.

Well, that ends my thoughts for the moment. Who know when, or what, will cross my mind for the next post? Certainly not I.

But, while I try to think of something, you all have your routine. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

Goodness gracious. We are going to have to save up for our new “forever” Christmas tree, from now until October.

We found one we like at Costco. It is nine feet tall, and will look gorgeous in our living room. That is one thing our “living area” has, and that is a high ceiling. It is, easily ten feet high, I do believe. We are going to put it in front of the windows.

Speaking of Costco, there is a huge Soriana grocery store in the same parking lot, so we stopped there to get the veg we need for the pozole we are making tomorrow. (Keep reading; you will read all about it). We have never stopped there before, I cannot say why not, but today we did.

It is amazing. It has almost everything we need, except shallots. No one here seems to use shallots. Or, scallions. There are spring onions, which, if you can find the smallest ones, they can be used as scallions. Works for me, anyway. Improvise, adapt, and overcome.

Completing that thought; in two days it will be the sixteenth of September, which is México’s day of Independence, when México first became a country.

Lot’s of things going on in the city. We are going over to Juan’s house to make, and, then eat, of course, pozole. It is, I am told, traditional.

Made with different parts of the pig for flavor, we bought several pieces from the head, the face, and the legs. It is made with hominy, and broth; some use chicken, some beef broth. Personal preference. We are bringing the condiments; the lettuce, onions, and radishes. All prepped for service.

We are, (read I am) going to chop up the onions, and radishes, then thinly slice the lettuce, before taking them there for dinner. Last year, (Ivan and I always chuckle when we remember it), the radishes, and onions were in big chunks, making it a bit difficult to eat as they both have a bit of heat.

I will try to remember to take photos of the dinner, and post it for you.

Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: second paragraph was wrong by miles. We will be getting the seven foot tree and loving it for half the cost. We will pretend it is nine feet tall. 😂

This post will give you a bit of follow up, on things, here, at the hacienda.

These small plants all came from off shoots from the garden at Juan’s house, which I was able to transport, in a small container, here, to our place.

Three pieces of the wandering Jew, however, somehow managed to find their way into my purse! They must have found their way there while we were sitting on the tree surround, waiting for the tires to be balanced. That was a few posts back. I do not know how it happened. They were just there, in my purse, when we got home. Hummm.

As it happened, I put them into a small glass of water, and, within four days, all three pieces had enough root development to be planted. I found my very small terra cotta planter in the pantry area, (do not ask, I have no idea), and, transferred the jade into it. That gave up the slightly larger planter for the WJ. Excellent! (If you look, closely, at the recent photo of the jade, it has two new leaves, petals, on the top. Success.

Now, the pepperomia; that is another tale. If you look at the first photo of the three plants, the pepperomia has the round, thick leaves, and is quite tall. I cut off the top two leaves, when they were large enough, rooted them in water, then transplanted them into the planter, when they had developed roots. You can see the transplanted leaves in the photo; one is in the front of the planter, while the other one is in the back. The plant is quite a bit shorter, for now. It will get taller, and more full, over time.

While we are waiting for these plants to grow more lush, and, vibrant, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

The following photos are testament to just a few things that have been happening around here. Let me know what you think. (Truthfully, it is a lesson in the making of the delicious, probiotic filled drink called kombucha. Better than soda, and, even better for you.)

First, you have my one, and, only two gallon container of my kombucha, complete with its SCOBY “mother”, resting on top. The bubbles are produced as a byproduct of the SCOBY, feeding on the tea and sugar, in the container, which is fermenting. The SCOBY will, in essence, completely seal the top of the fermenting tea, and, produce another layer of SCOBY.

What is a SCOBY, you ask? Well, let me help educate you; it is an acronym, (yes, I had to look that up, ok?) for the following: Symbiotic Colony Of Yeast and Bacteria. It is the “mother”, just like the mother in a bottle of unfiltered vinegar- see Bragg’s Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. It is the thing that, if you contain it, and, feed it, you are able to make more from whatever you took it.

I have (finally) discovered that, in this altitude, it takes less than a week for the kombucha to ferment, and, equally as fast, three, to four, days, max, for the second ferment. The second ferment is simply the process of decanting the kombucha from the large container, into individual bottles that contain whatever flavors of fruit you have decided to try in that batch. You also need to be aware of what fruits contain sugar, because you need the sugar, in the fruit chosen, to continue to feed the tea, to continue this second fermentation process.

Once the second ferment is decanted into flip top bottles, it needs to sit on the countertop for a few days, then, goes into the fridge to relax a bit. Yes, it is still carbonated, (see photo above), but is less carbonated than when it was still on the counter. The amount of carbonation decreases significantly, once refrigerated, because the fermentation process is retarded with the cold temperature of the refrigerator.

Let me say, here, and now, that the first batch was awful! Did we drink it? Of course we did. Probiotics are probiotics. However, now that we only have one large container of kombucha, I do not need to worry about us drinking up all of the bottled kombucha before we need to bottle the next batch.

That said, it also gives us the freedom to try several, different, flavors of this amazing drink. We did not appreciate the combination of blackberries with mango, but, really, did like the pineapple, with just about anything!

We are, soon, going to make another batch, but, while we wait to do that, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

Before I continue with this post, let me express my sincerest condolences to all of those involved in the horrific events that took place, on this day, in two thousand and one; specifically, the bombing of the World Trade Center, in New York City. We will never forget.

Moving forward, we went to the wonderful bakery, Esperanza, the other day; una panadería maravillosa. It is a bakery that is excelled by few, anywhere in the city.

Here is a photo of a few of the semisweet offerings we took to Juan’s house. (Better them than us).

The two large, round pastries on the bottom left, one chocolate, and one, vanilla, are called conchas, (shells). The heart shaped one next to the conchas, is called orejas, (ears). To the right of that, the round one, bound by another round pastry, (my personal favorite), is called an ojo, (eye). Above that, the double white pastry, with jam in the middle, is a beso, (kiss). The small, dark chocolate pastry is called a chocolate garibaldi- sorry, no translation. Last, but not least, is a muffin with, I think, pecans, no translation needed; a muffin is a muffin. 😉

Notice, if you will, that nowadays, everything is wrapped individually, for everyone’s safety. Hopefully, it will remain the same in future. Why go backwards? BTW, most of those pastries are less than one dollar each. Nice!

The bolillos, (in the photo below), are still one peso, (five cents) which, I think, is phenomenal! It is the only item not wrapped, mainly, because it is, usually, purchased en gross. Most folks that purchase these buy about a dozen, or more. They make the best sandwiches.

Down here, the bolillo has a delicately crunchy outside, and, a pillowy soft inside. What is not to like? Up North, they are much chewier inside; more dense, if you will.

Yesterday, however, I made my first two loaves of ciabatta bread that will, soon, become herbed croutons. I do not wish to be dependent on the croutons from the store, which are usually hard as rocks. Here is how it went.

I have, once again, been bitten by the bread baking bug, (or, in this time of quarantine, the BB virus). I have been feeding my sourdough culture for at least four weeks now, and it is quite healthy. Right now, however, it is resting in the fridge as I was unsure how it was going to go with the ciabatta bread.

I wish I could explain how wonderful the loaves smell. They actually woke Ivan up from his nap!!! He came to the kitchen, asking what that wonderful smell was!!! I cannot blame him, that he did not recognize it; it has been over three years since I made a loaf of bread. Wow. It has been too long!!!

I feel that the ciabatta was a success, thankfully, so, I will continue to produce more loaves, and, hopefully, have enough folks willing to eat said products. We will stay hopeful.

Until that happens, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

Post script: I just made a bacon sandwich from the bread loaf on the right, and, some lovely little roasted tomatoes on the vine. Suffice it to say I will wait a while to change these into croutons. The bread, this morning, is just the perfect amount of softness; enough so that Ivan might even be able to eat the inside portions. Cannot wait to see if he likes it. Yum!