Author: iagardener55

While we were waiting, the other day, for the tires to be balanced, we went across the street, to the boulevard, in the middle, and, sat, listening, and, watching the vehicles pass by. They were loud, and, much more frequent than the past months.

The day was as beautiful as it could possibly have been. The temperature was seventy two degrees, and, a lovely breeze was passing us. We sat in the shade, and became one with our surroundings. It was so lovely getting outside, especially on a day like that.

Sitting on the tree surround, I was able to take the following photos of the most commonly used plants in this area. They are all of African origins; easily grown here, as well. Let me see what I have.

Once again, I wanted to show you how beautiful the boulevards are here. This is one of my favorites, but there are many just as beautiful; some, even more so.

We are still waiting for the tires to finish balancing, so, while we wait, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

Post script: the balancing cost us nine dollars and seventeen cents.

It was sixteen years ago that my dad, Robert L. Nelson, passed away after having had multiple strokes. He was seventy six years old, and, far too young.

This is Labor day weekend, for those of you up North. Down here, it is just another weekend, in the time of the CoVid virus quarantine. Every day is just another Saturday, or Sunday, right now. Boring.

We do one little thing daily, because we do not want to have absolutely nothing to do for the day. If we got everything caught up, what would there be to do?

We are on our way to have the new tires balanced on the Mercedes, after having dropped off the older tires at Juan’s house. We can enjoy a bit more of the beautiful weather before having to go home.

While we wait to finish this latest episode of our continuing saga, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

We have come to Costco to have our new tires put on. In the same parking lot is our favorite restaurant, Toks, so, because it is only nine fifteen, of course, we need to have coffee, and breakfast. No better place away from home than Toks.

This time, instead of splitting a plate of machaca con huevo, with Ivan, I had the Huevos al Albañil con Arrachera. I will try to show you a photo.

Arrachera is incredibly tender fajitas, huevos are eggs, and, albañil is to build. So, you are building your eggs with salsa and fajitas. The little nest on the plate is a small corn tortilla, holding a cut serrano pepper, and sliced, sautéed onions.

The tires were installed successfully, and we are taking only two of the four older tires with us. Here is a photo of what they do with the tires you take out.

Neat, huh? I do not know if they do that up North, but I think it is great. Now, when they are taken out of the trunk, our clothes will not get dirty. Win-win.

While we were having breakfast, we were able to communicate with Luis, our friend, and, contractor, who says they are coming down next week to continue the remodeling of the condo. We are anxious for them to continue.

While we wait for them, be sure to stay happy, stay healthy, and, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

We celebrated quite well the other night, for Ivan’s birthday! To say that none of us was able to go about our daily business the next day is an understatement!

The four of us, Ivan, the birthday recipient, (no, he is not a birthday boy!), Enrique, Marco, and I, shared two lovely bottles of vino tinto, (red wine), one from Argentina, and one from Baja de California, and, then, had a fine, not yet spectacular, dinner.

We, each, had a goodly sized portion of thirty day, medium rare, dry aged sirloin steak; a jus with butter; lovely mashed potatoes; a tossed salad, with cherry tomatoes, and, avocado, (with diced hard boiled egg, and, diced purple onion, on the side,), and, asparagus, grilled, with olive oil, coarse salt, then drizzled with Vinagre de Balsalmico!

There was very little to send home with “the guys”, but I did manage a bit. Each got a bit of potato mash, asparagus, and, whatever was left of the steak they had eaten. Not such a bad deal, I had to think!

Did I tell you how well my husband cleaned, and arranged the rooms, to accommodate the party? I hope I have the photos to show you what he did. (I just made the two dozen flour tortillas, potato mash, asparagus, steaks, and, salad. We share the load. It is the only way!)

These next forty, plus, birthdays, for both of us, are, and, will be, so special! Each one signifies another year of wonder, learning, exploring, learning, living!

We have found our Shangri la. There is no other place in this world we want to be. We are so at peace here, next to the beautiful parks, in the fresh air, the beautiful sunshine, the amazing people!

It is like nothing we have experienced before, except when coming here on vacation. But it is more than that; it is a new life experience! We are happy to embrace the lifestyle, the culture, the experience. This is why we are here.

Soon, in the next year, we are wanting to start traveling; within México, and, around the world. Until we do, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

I do not understand what is wrong with me. I wonder if I am losing what little mind I have left?!

So far, in just these two days past, I have misplaced a large, red, handheld fan from Japan, a gift, and, my small leather coin purse, full of coins!

Of course, I have not gone down to the cars, to check them; that is too much work. When Ivan goes out tomorrow, to get the new tires for the Mercedes, he will check the cars. Much easier that way. Of course, I will have to, at some point, go down, and check them myself. Either of us could be looking for an object that we cannot find, only to have the other one comment that it is in the other ones hand!!!

Such is life, eh? Until I find the dang things, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: I am going to try my hand at some sort of bread, or, rolls using some of the sourdough for leavening. I will let you know, good, or, bad, how things work out.

Can I write, just briefly, about the joys of constipation?

I have started making our own flour tortillas, and, let me just say- WOW. They have stopped me up like a plug in the sink. TMI- I know, but that is why you love me.

Now, we are finally outside, on our way to the grocery store, and, with all of the bumpy streets, my intestinal status is changing. Rapidly. If we do not get there, and, fairly quickly, well, I am not sure how to finish that thought.

Whew! Everything is fine. As an adult, I was able to control myself, therefore, all is well. We are on our way to drop off some groceries at Juan’s house, then, to Telcel, to check on our phone bill, and lastly, to Soriana, on a reconnaissance mission.

I have been trying to import King Arthur AP flour, but am unable. Now, I will have to start using whatever the best flour is here, locally. Should be interesting.

Until I can find all of the things I need to bake organically, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: after we dropped off the groceries at Juan’s, we stopped to chat for awhile, and, yes, business taken care of.

We did it. We cut up the thirty day dry aged beef primal of sirloin, and this is how it went. (This post will be mainly photos).

What an adventure. We started this on the twenty eighth of July, finishing today, the twenty seventh of August. Took up a bit of real estate in the fridge, but well worth the time, the space, and the expense.

I cannot recall how much we paid for the primal cut, but we gained two hundred fifty to three hundred dollars worth of steaks. They are going to be so tender, and delicious, we cannot wait.

The trimmings will be vacuum sealed and placed in the freezer. When we have enough room in the freezer to make some more ground beef, we will incorporate pieces of the trimmings as we grind the meat, which will impart deep, beefy flavor into the ground meat. Cannot wait!!

We are not going to eat the steaks until Saturday night, because we are going over to Juan’s house tomorrow night to have NY strips with them. Sacrifices.

I will let you know how they tasted, be assured. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

We just did another round of replenishing our staples; mostly for the birthday party tomorrow.

As we were driving down the streets, I was able to smell, in different places, the aroma of frying and/or grilling onions; something we have not smelled since last year. One of my favorite odors.

Now, we are sitting at a sidewalk table at the Copacabana, just down the street from Sam’s Club. We had lunch here, and are relaxing while our to-go burritos, for the family, are being made. Actually, here they called burros because they are so large.

I have to say there is nothing quite like the feeling of being on vacation every day instead of once a year. We are enjoying every day as it comes.

Here is what we saw at the Copa. (Feel free to break into song. Barry Manilow will thank you).

We each had one taco of brains, cheeks, tongue, jowls, and, steak. Brains, (sesos), not our favorite here. They were too soft. A little crispy would have been better. We both agreed.

It is overcast at the moment, and about sixty eight degrees. The perfect day to ride around town, seeing what is rejuvenating and what has closed, permanently.

Until we get done delivering our bounty, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

OMG!!! I went out to the kitchen, just a while ago, to finish putting away the remains of our supper, when I caught this out of the corner of my eye. I could not believe it. Wait until you see it. You will not believe it either.

I could not believe it. I have been dumping, and feeding, repeat, twice a day, for about sevenish days, with little, or nothing to show for it. All of a sudden, when I looked at the measuring cup, I could not longer see through the glass. I have always been able to see through the glass. What was happening? Could it be taking off, finally? YES! It did. It is. You know what I mean.

I am going to relax, go back to the bedroom, start typing this post so you folks can see what happens when you group your living fungal colonies within drifting distance of one another.

In the past, I was taught to keep different cultures at least five feet from each other, so they do not cross contaminate. Yesterday, however, I got to thinking that if the bacteria and yeast are all floating around in the atmosphere, what possible difference could it make how close together they sat on the countertop?! Let the experiment begin.

You can see for yourselves, from the above photos, it makes only a positive difference. I was getting nowhere with them across the room from each other; now we have sourdough, and, kombucha. Success in my estimation.

While I am now, more patiently, awaiting a loaf of crusty, crunchy crusted, open crumbed, soft interior artisanal sourdough bread, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

PS: happy birthday, honey.

Tomorrow is my husbands birthday. Happy birthday, honey.

In celebration, (we have been planning this since my birthday), we are going to have dry aged sirloin steaks for dinner. What are dry aged steaks, you ask? Let me show you.

Disclaimer: this is not for the faint of heart. Some photos may be unpleasant. Viewer discretion is advised.

Ok. You have been told about the photos I am going to post. Let me start by telling you what happens during the dry aging process, and, why we have waited thirty days to eat a steak.

We bought a primal cut of sirloin late last month, after having procured dry aging bags online, probably from Amazon, (where else?). Be assured, you need to get the bags first.

What is a primal cut? Google it, then you will not forget. I can only do so much 😉

Ok. Continuing on- we got the bags, got the meat, used the vacuum sealer to partially seal the end, then, had to use a baggy clip for the rest of the seal. (Oft times one needs improvise). Plenty of videos to watch on how to dry age meat. I like Sous Vide Everything. The guy’s name is Guga, and, he loves steak.

Normally, when one purchases a primal cut, it is taken home, cut into individual steaks, grilled, and, consumed; all within a relatively short amount of time. We, however, brought it home, put it in a wicking bag, sealed it, and, put in the refrigerator, on a cooling rack, to be left there for thirty days.

Here is what we have at day twenty eight. Ready?

When we take it out of the bag day after next, Ivan will trim off, but save, all of the outside of the primal. All of the fat, all of the meat, down about one quarter, to possibly, one half inch; whatever is needed to debride the dried exterior. (Save the cuttings, so when you make your own ground beef, or sausage, you can add some of the savings for better flavor. It does not taste good in this application).

What will be left is still a significant piece of beef that he will cut into one and one half to two inch steaks. We should be able to get at least five, if not six steaks out of this. If you ever get to go out to a nice restaurant again, check the price of a dry aged sirloin steak. An eight ounce steak can easily cost you forty five, or fifty dollars. Doing this ourselves saved us more than half of that cost.

The taste? In a word, amazing. It is completely different than a fresh steak, more nutty, more depth. I know how that sounds, and, many will say why? We say why not? It took a month, but it was worth every day.

We waited, and were rewarded with beautiful steaks. I will be sure to take photos of them throughout the process, all the way to the grill.

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