Author: iagardener55

I just finished doing something I wish I had done years ago. Let me show you what I mean.

As soon as I finished, I actually turned this paper over, and, guess what? There were the instructions. Hah! We don’t need no stinking instructions!

All I did was place the gas flames ignition spike in between two of the already cut sections, lined up the hole in the center of the liner with the larger gas port, where the gas comes out, and replaced the silver, and black caps. Y ya. Listo. (And there. Ready).

Of course, as I finished the first burner, I checked to make sure the gas would ignite, and it did. Then I knew I did not have to cut around silver caps, like it shows in the instructions, and, therefore, will have even less cleanup than if I had cut around the caps. That would almost defeat the purpose, in my book anyway. So, when they get dirty, all you have to do is wipe them off, or rinse them in the sink, and replace them on the stove.

So, job well done. I think this is going to say me oodles of time doing one of my least favorite jobs- cleaning the stove top. In fact, I wish I had done this when I got them three days ago. Last night I cooked some NY strips on the cast iron griddle, and there was splatter everywhere. It took about fifteen minutes to get all of the grease off the stove. Who cares, really! The steaks were great. BTW- they come in different colors, (the protecting sheets, not the steaks) though I cannot remember which ones. Probably black, white, and silver. Check it out. I ordered them from Amazon, of course, and they only took a few days to arrive. Well worth the few dollars they cost.

You know, by now, that I will be waiting to hear how you like them. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

Have you seen the movie, “The Green Book” yet? Be very careful, because it is probably considered a “racist” movie in the States, at present.

This is a movie with Viggo Mortensen, and, Mahershala Ali, in the starring roles. It takes both men from NYC to the Deep South, in the sixties. MA is a black concert pianist, who actually has a Doctorate in Music, and VM, who is a bouncer in a NY nightclub, the Copacabana.

The Dr. hires VM to drive him to his concerts, throughout the Midwest, and then, on to the concerts in the South, all for a huge amount of money, in this time frame.

The movie goes through all of the horrible things that happened to the Blacks of that era- discrimination, segregation, humiliation. VM sees this, lives, for a few months, with the Dr. and, ultimately, it changes both of their lives, and the lives of those around them.

If you have not had the opportunity, find it, take it. I hope it opens your eyes, as it did mine. It is a wonderful movie, so watch it, and, let me know what you think.

Until you watch the movie, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, protect your loved ones.

You may be happy to know that I am, currently, not drinking tequila, and, have not for several nights now. I feel great.

My ability to speak, and understand Spanish increases exponentially when I do not muddy my mind with alcohol. I know it sounds like a news flash, but I hope someone out there is learning from my mistakes.

I have lost, easily, five, or more, kilos from, mostly, bloat, and water retention so that is a plus. I am not wearing my wrap today, and have no back pain. I no longer appear thirteen months pregnant, with twins, either. Win, win.

My prosthetic tooth is not in yet, so I can only chew on the right side of my mouth. That, too, helps with the overeating as well. Another win, win.

When I was drinking, nightly, I forgot that I normally chewed my food on the left side of my mouth. This was because I had a tooth from Hell on the right side, that was fixed just before we moved. It was a long time getting fixed. (I do not like giving up control of the pain in my mouth to just anyone). That said:

Until my tooth comes in, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, and protect your loved ones.

I just sent an email to the administrator of the condo committee, María Lourdes, “Lulu” is her nickname, asking if it would be acceptable to use the condo email chain, to ask if anyone would like to buy my homemade liquid laundry detergent. She just wrote back that she thought “it would be a good option to help the planet”, that she would relay this to the committee, and get back with me tomorrow.

If this is okayed by the committee, who will, going forward, be known as “them”, or “they”, I am going to ask fifty pesos for four liters, or, two and a half dollars per gallon. I am pretty sure everyone, here, will be able to afford that. I do not recall charging much more than that of my working coworkers, in years past.

I am so excited. I told Lulu that I am not interested in making a profit, just trying to get a good, ecological product to the people in the condo- many of whom have not been working since December. Plus, they do not have to leave the condo to buy it. Win, win I say.

Until I hear back from them, Lula, as well, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: I just got an “excelente” from one of the inmates, by name, Claudia. She lives directly above us, and is so similar to us, in so many ways.

And, so it begins. 😉

I have a good feeling about tomorrow. I think I a going to try my hand at making rolls, or, maybe, pizza. I want to see what the fermentation of yeast is like, here, at seven thousand feet above sea level.

Probably going to start out with a garlic, oregano, thyme dinner roll. Going to use olive oil, salt, and, half and half AP flour, and bread flour. I have no idea how it will turn out, but I will keep a record, just in case it is awesome.

At some point, I would like to make bolillos, tortillas, and, maybe, even pan dulces- sweet breads. It has been about two years since I made bread of any kind, so, it may take me awhile to get back in the groove. I hope not, as I have nothing but time on my hands. Hopefully that will be to my advantage. I will let you know.

While the dough is rising, and the weather is beautiful, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, protect your loved ones.

Post script: my second batch of kombucha is just about the same as what I made in the states. It is sour, with a hint of sweet. Some bottles are highly carbonated, some are not. That is fine with me. Trial and error.

I was watching a video, on the YouTube channel, “Juaja Cocina Mexicana” the other day, searching for a recipe for a hearty chicken soup. In the video, Janet, the cook, calls for a sprig of fresh thyme, or, una ramita de tomillo. It is one of many items not yet in my pantry, so, on the shopping list it went.

This morning we went to Soriana to replenish perishables, and, low, and behold, there it was- una ramita de tomillo. Actually, it was in a small bundle of aromatics, or, hierbas de olor. Well, let me show you.

I do not know about you, but I, personally, have only seen bay leaves in a jar. All of those leaves are Bay Laurel leaves. The top right is Mexican oregano, and the bottom is ….. wait for it… ramitas de tomillo, sprigs of thyme. Yay!

As I was skeptical about finding the above, last night I ordered seeds, and growing materials, plus fertilizer from Amazon.mx. It should be here in the next week, or so. It has to come from the US. Oh, well. I will be able to grow some of the herbs I am learning to use in cooking.

When it gets here, I will be sure to let you see the progress. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

Post script: the soup is very tasty, and only used a few veggies, not the bazillion I used in my last soup.

Well, night, actually. This post is probably going to be MA-50, so act accordingly.

Listen, this may be TMI for most of you, so I advise that you go read someone else’s blog post, now, because I am going to get “real” here. And, if you think this is not something you want to read, go elsewhere. It will not hurt my feelings, or yours, most likely.

I have to tell you what happened to us, the other night, sometime after we went to sleep. (During this pandemic, for me to actually “go to sleep”, usually takes hours).

There I was, finally, sleeping, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I was beyond involved in this dream I was having, (which will remain entirely in my own memory, but feel free to insert your own as we progress through it). My body was soaring through the air, however, my mind knew exactly what was happening.

To say that I had the most incredible experience of my life, does not even come close to how I felt (and I have had a lot of amazing experiences). What seemed to take, for me, only moments, (in my recollection, I was asleep for gosh sake), took a bit of time, (according to YKW).

Who was right, and who was wrong? WHO CARES???? It was comparable to an eight, or nine, on the seismic scale of quakes!! Who lives through something like that? I am happy to say that we did. We will never forget it.

I was hesitant to share this with you, but it must be put out there- it happens. Maybe it is rare, as it should be, but it happens. I hope, someday, it happens to you. It is something you will never forget.

Do I want this same type of thing to happen again? Are you daft??? Of course I do. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, protect your loved ones. (Be ready to experience, and enjoy, your own dream!! 😉

I am sure that I have told you, multiple times, how much I absolutely love living this new life, here, in the heart of México. I have waited my whole life to live here, and, here we are.

We had a meeting, the other night, to discuss certain things, happening, here, in the condominium; things that needed to be discussed between all of the owners of their condos. Did that happen? Of course not. There were four of us condo owners there, two administrators, one Security guard, Ismael, and one, from Maintenance, Jesús.

What was discussed is still up for interpretation, as I do not, at present, speak, or understand Spanish fluently,. What I did get from this meeting was thus:

1: Dogs will not longer be allowed in the condominio, once Dr. Iram is spoken to. (He has rented his condo, next to ours, to a young couple that have TWO dogs!!! WTH??? He read the letter, stating the specification of condo living to all of us at the November meeting!!!

2: Owners, without a key to the front door, or a garage door opener, will not be allowed into the condo, without first speaking to one of the administrators.

Sorry. I have to go to bed now. I just ate the filling Dr. Priscila helped me with today. How stupid can a person be?

I will reconvene later this week to update you on every little thing that has transpired. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, stay vigilant. Protect those you love.

We both went to see the dentist this morning. Do you remember her, Dr. Priscila? This is how she looked as she took care of us today.

My last metal filling fell out three, maybe four, weeks ago, and then quite a bit of my tooth broke off, after that. Lovely. Not much I dislike more than going to the dentist.

I have had bad teeth since childhood, and nothing has changed that, in my adult life, except amalgam. That is the stuff they use to fill your teeth, then put that blue light on it for a few seconds, “to cure it”. It is amazing. And, it leaves the tooth white, and stronger than the original enamel. How cool is that, I ask you?!

Well, we went to her office, as I said, after calling yesterday to see if she was back to work yet. Ivan went first, to have some adjustments to his implant posts, and then, it was my turn.

To say that I am “one of those” patients, those, that clasp their hands so tightly over their abdomen that it is like holding on for my life, and do not breathe for long moments of time, then, yes, that is me.

I can, and, do, admit it- I am the white knuckler that people laugh about. A few years back, I had a cavity that needed attention so I went to a dentist quite close to our house. To say that he traumatized me for the past ten years, is absolutely no joke. He gave me the smallest amount of local anesthetic humanly possible, let my side, to go work on someone else, came back and started drilling. I almost got sick on the spot. It was like this for about four injections, directly over the tooth, not at the nerve bundle, at the joint of the top and bottom jaw. No siree.

We played this game of start and stop for about forty five minutes, in which time, he was finally able to get the worst amalgam filling on the tooth, and sent me on my way. Thank God.

I have been dreading the dentist visits, even just for a cleaning, ever since.

Today, however, Dr. Priscila has restored my faith in the practice, and I am now, going forward, going to be much more calm in her chair than I was today.

We have follow up appointments for next Wednesday, but until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, and protect your loved ones.

I should be excited about this being the one hundredth day of quarantine, because of the CoVid19 virus, but I am not. Is anyone?

Today, you may be happy to know, we had three bottles of some awesome homemade kombucha, pineapple flavored. I have found that, for a second fermentation, which actually gives the kombucha more carbonation, and flavor, pineapple, fresh, or frozen, gives the drink the most amount of flavor thus far.

I have not had the opportunity, down here, anyway, to do much experimentation with second fermentation flavors. I added some guayaba to the pineapple, and that fermented well. Before that, I found some ginger, in the grocery store, and added a bit of that, and that did as well. As the fermentation times are so completely different than that of up North, (it took a week to ten days for first ferment, then another four to seven days for the second ferment), this is all sort of a win, lose, or draw investment right now. I think, once the world is done with this blasted virus, things will be considerably different than they are at present.

That said, this last batch of “booch” is great. It has the right amount of sweet, tart, and carbonation. I am hoping the next batches are equally good. The first fermentation only took three days, in the two gallon jug, and two more days after being decanted into sixteen ounce flip top bottles. Once I saw the carbonation already present, after such a short period, I got them into the fridge, so they did not bust open the bottles.

I have since made two, two gallon jars of the “mother”, and am waiting to finish the bottles of kombucha already made. Now that we know how good it is, it will not take us more than a few days to finish the lot.

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

Post script: Have I mentioned “The Alienist”? An absolute must watch! Netflix. You will thank me later. Well, Lynn, you will not- definitely. Everyone else, watch it.