Author: iagardener55

You know me! Everything I do, and have done for years, is, was, and will probably be, always done “in theory”. Why is that, you ask?

Who can say what outcome will prevail when you are doing a certain task, or are asked to perform some, normally, routine thing? So, as a consequence, and to ward off imminent failure, I have always said, when asked, “can you ….?” My response? In theory.

Yes, I probably have the ability to perform the request, and, I probably have the time to perform said request, but, will it turn out the way you expect it to? Who can say?

Ivan asked me, just tonight, would I “make the salad with the shell noodles that you made in Bettendorf”? Really? Which salad did I make with little shell noodles? Where did I get the recipe? He remembers it was sweet and sour, so it probably came from Allrecipes.com.- my favorite recipe sight.

Will I be able to find said recipe? Sure- in theory.

We have been sitting here, this Christmas Eve, in the living room, for the past five hours, grazing on Ivan’s incredible chicken paté with Ritz crackers, cashews, mixed nuts, Tequilas, and flavored water. Family members are finally arriving.

This is the second Christmas we have spent here, in this house, with this beautiful family. This time, however, we are twenty years older, retired, and, have money in the bank. The last time, we had to request time off, from the twenty third of December, in the year nineteen hundred ninety nine, until the third of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand.

I do not remember much of that Christmas, mostly, because we always had work, and kids, in the back of our minds, not to mention rent, bills, car payments, etc.

Now, we are living here, and have not a care in the world. Our condo is almost finished, and we will be able to move soon. This will be a Christmas we will be able to remember easily as it is our first Christmas that we are both retired, and, at the moment, have nothing but time, and blessings.

Thank you, all, for coming along, with us, for the ride of our lives. There is so much more to come.

Making the dough for the turcos is, I will say up front, a lot of work. Next year, however, we will be using my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, and that should help with that. If not, that is a deal breaker for me. The recipe I used belonged to my in-laws, which was lovely, but you-know-who wanted me to double it. All good. Except that is four kilos of flour, one kilo of lard, etc. All had to be mixed, then kneaded by hand. My hands.

The meat was the easy part. Yesterday evening, (actually, the twenty second of December) I boiled 2 kilos of leg of pork, cut into three to four inch pieces, with two large piloncillos, and two large pieces of canela. (Roughly translated, that was brown sugar, and cinnamon). I let that cool overnight, then shredded it this morning.

This afternoon, I fried the above shredded meat in one pound of butter, (I know it sounds like a lot of butter, but that is four and a half pounds of meat), added ground anis, cinnamon, and cloves, then chopped pecans, and raisins. That was the filling for the turcos. I cannot begin to tell ou how wonderful it tastes.

This evening, I got to roll out thirty, four inch diameter balls of dough, fill them with the sweet meat, fold them in half, seal the edges, brush each top with an egg wash, and sprinkle sugar on top. They baked for twenty five minutes, and are, now, ready to give away.

I am thinking, already, to next year. I am also thinking that a puff pasty, bought in the store, would work just fine. Hubs does not agree. He says the dough is supposed to be a little sweet. I also needed to roll the dough out thinner, to which I wholeheartedly agreed. Unfortunately, this is not our home, these are not my kitchen utensils, so I am unable to do some of the things to which I have become accustomed. (Will that excuse work for you)? I works for me. That is really all that matters at the moment.

Post script: I made the above turcos, in the evening, on Sunday, the twenty second of December. Today, I am writing this PS, and it is Christmas Eve. I am having a quite time using my arms, and back. Suffice it to say, I need to get more exercise. This is a prelude to the “day after moving day”. I suspect I will complain of the same muscle soreness as I am today. All for good reason. Family!

🎶If I were a rich man. Yada dida dida”🎶 😉 Enough. (I hope you were able to recognize the Fiddler on the Roof reference.) Let us get serious a moment. Surely, you did not think that I could go more than a day, or so, without writing, did you? Good, because you were correct.

Well, I trust your Christmas festivities, thus far, have been all you had hoped, and planned? The presents all got wrapped, and, all of the decorations got hung on the tree, and, the awesome meal you planned was, truly, awesome? Great. I am very glad to say the same for the holidays, thus far, here in México.

In México, at the holidays, there are several traditional things that happen. One of them is preparing, and, sharing a delicious fish stew called Bacalao, and, another, is enjoying a Mediterranean bread that is filled with sweet pork, raisins, and nuts.

Now, Bacalao is made, using a goodly amount of salted cod fish (I believe they used six kilos, in this house), six kilos of new potatoes, two kilos of onions, six heads of garlic, two jars of capers, about a dozen Bay Leaves, one cup of thyme, two large bunches of parsley, two kilos of olives (with the pit, as I have been told, by Pepe, it helps maintain the shape of the olive), and, I believe ten kilos of Roma tomatoes.

We bought most of this at a local market, called Mi Mercado Esquadrón, which is close to five kilometers from the house here, but will be much closer once we move. Yay!

Paty, and, Pepe, and, yesterday, our cousin, Glorita, (we call her Glorita, because, like the name José, which is the primary name in this family, Gloria is also very common name in this family), have been working tirelessly on all of the ingredients, for the past two days, because each ingredient requires its own amount of care.

Try to imagine, if you can, dealing with twenty pounds of tomatoes (envision a reusable grocery bag three quarters full), needing to be “burned”, (normally done on a griddle, on the stovetop), according to the recipe.

Always looking for the easier, faster way, (you knew I was going to say that), I suggested to P&P, that, since I was already using the oven to bake the Turcos, (coming up in another post), we could use the oven. Simply put them in the baking pans I was using, and roast them all until they were the desired consistency. It took the male Alpha a few minutes to come around, but, eventually he did. It took only about forty five minutes to roast all twenty pounds of tomatoes, instead of hours, burning them on the comal.

Do you remember, I said that the bacalao is salted cod? It is salted as a means of preservation, so all of the fish has to be desalinated prior to cooking it. That requires a day, or two, to change the water it is soaking in, until it no longer tastes salty. It is not a “heavy” chore, in itself, nor is it time consuming- meaning, no one has to be around to “tend it”. But, if not done properly, it will be the demise of this spectacular dish.

So, for the past twenty, or so, hours, the aroma in this home has, well, it has left this one speechless. That should be testimony on its own. I cannot wait to have some, later this evening, after all of the cousins arrive. Until then, we only get to enjoy the tease.

Post script: The bacalao tasted just as wonderful as it smelled. But, then there were the Romeritos en Mole. That is for another post.

I will be taking tomorrow off after wishing you all a very happy Christmas. I will start up, again, soon. If I do not have anything to write about before the New Year, I hope you all stay safe, and are happy in the coming 2020.

God bless us, everyone.

Did I already post that, being forty pounds overweight, is absolutely nothing here?

Having said that, let me also say, this affliction, though, very uncomfortable, is only temporary.

Never in my life, even through two pregnancies, have I ever weighed as much as I do this minute. I think, last I could face the music, so to speak, I saw eighty two kilograms!! When we get to the condo, with the park just outside, I swear, to all of you, I will lose at least fifteen kilos, maybe a bit more.

I must say that the women, here, carry their weight differently than we Germans. Not only that, but many just do not care if they appear overweight. Good on them. They carry themselves upright and proud. Me, not so much. I do not recognize the reflection in my mirror.

Unfortunately, there is not much that I can do right now. I am not in charge of food preparation here, and to refuse to eat a meal because it is full of carbs would be ungracious to our family. A few more weeks is not going to make that much difference. Patience, while not only being my mothers name, is, as I have been told, a virtue.

And, you can all attest that I am a virtuous person. 🤓

Thirty minutes, and one hundred fifty pesos, (seven dollars), later, we have, once again, a beautifully detailed car. It always makes us smile. 🙂

We have to wash whichever vehicle we are driving currently, each week, because, for now, we have to park on the street. As the streets, here, are all tree lined, we get scads of bird poop, leaves, and powdery dirt on the car, just overnight.

Speaking of things that make me smile, one of those is my beautiful Mercedes Benz. You saw her- my silver beauty. She is so much fun to drive, (now that she has been shocked, and strutted), but, frankly, for me, I just enjoy looking at her. I cannot believe that, even after these few months, she really belongs to us (read mine). Never, except in dreamscapes, did I ever think we would be where we are, having the “things” we have, living the life we have always wanted. We are truly blessed.

I will tell you, though, that there are only a handful of “drive through” car washes here. This is full time employment for lots of young men and women. This is not getting your car washed, it get detailed every time you stop in. Do they do as good of a job as we pretend that we can do? Probably not. But they do very nice work for the money they make. When was the last time you worked, doing anything, for $7.50? The twelfth of never, most likely.

Instead of hoses, to rinse your vehicle, they have a long, three feet deep trough from which they pull buckets of water to through at your car. The only real hose they have is hooked up to some big container that sprays out foamy detergent on your car, and they, then, use industrial towels to wash the vehicle.

For the wheels, they have a sponge, that has some cleaning fluid on it, that they clean the rims, the tires, and the wells with. They use the towels on the outside of the car, from top to bottom, doing windows last.

Then, if your car is not near the front of the building, they drive it to a closer spot to vacuum the entire inside, and the trunk. While that is happening, there is another elf wiping down the inside of the car- the dash, the doors, around the door panels, even the headrests, and console.

They never do the vents, which need cleaning more than anything else in the car, but that is fine with us. We never have done those either. One of these days, when we have moved, we will take the time to do the vents, I promise.

Suffice it to say, having the car detailed every week, is bliss. Getting into a clean car everyday, and we do go somewhere everyday, is priceless.

Wow! We have never seen this place so crowded as it is tonight. We thought, originally, that it was because it was payday. Not so.

It is so noisy in here that I think I will have to take off my hearing aid.

There are four long tables, each able to start with twenty people. Of course, most have more than that, and it is only four o’clock in the afternoon.

One table, with about thirty people, is having the best evening of the year, by all appearances. They are all laughing, drinking, laughing more, then, doing the inevitable counting down for someone to have a drink.

Surprisingly enough, it is four thirty, and the party is over. Everyone is leaving without assistance. Good on them. A very happy group.

I can not remember ever being able to walk out of Ivan’s Christmas parties without at least some assistance. I wonder how they do it?

Post script: We left Berlín, only to go home to the aforementioned party for Arturo’s coworkers. Yikes! It was quite the night, as I said. 😉

I know, I have said it before but I will risk repeating myself. It is still hot down here.

One would think, it being December, for crying out loud, that it would cool off, at least a bit! But, no. It is still in the seventies during the day, graciously dropping in to the fifties at night.

It is always a treat when we go to the condo to switch cars. The garage is underground, and, therefore, quite cool, day or night. So, when we get in the car, the temperature is about sixty degrees, for a few minutes anyway. Bliss.

I saw on my weather app last night that there is hope that it really will start to cool off. Supposedly, next week will be in the sixties for the highs, and down in the forties at night. I pray it is accurate. I feel bad that everyone here is freezing at night, with the temperatures in the fifties, but they are acclimatized, and we are not, yet.

I will let you know if it truly comes to pass. I am wearing some new clothes we bought here, at Costco, but I am very, very warm. None of my Lula’s fit right now, but I do have them to look forward to. (Merry Christmas to me).

Post script: My hands are actually cold, and a bit stiff, as I type this, therefore, I cannot type as lightening fast as I usually do. (That is funny by itself.)

My watch tells me it is 18ºC, but my phone says it is 9ºC. Either way, it is mentally colder using Celsius, instead of Fahrenheit. As to that, my hands will warm up soon enough, as I hear hubby pouring us a Tequilita!!! Thank you honey.

I find it difficult to even begin to tell you how excellent the chicken was that I made recently- roasted in the Instant Pot, no less. Seriously. I doubt I will ever make chicken any other way, not after this.

It was so incredibly easy, as well. I mixed together the spices it called for, dried each piece of chicken, then coated each with said spices. (Of course, you will have to look it up yourselves, just as the headline says, if you are interested in some amazingly delicious chicken. Why? You already know that I have trouble opening, uploading, viewing stuff on the internet. This is no exception. Sorry.)

Really, though, it only took about thirty minutes to brown all of the pieces in the Instant Pot, (I used two whole chickens, cut in pieces), so, once that was done, I carefully added a cup of chicken broth to the bottom of the Pot, as it said to do, placed the trivet on the bottom, then carefully added all of the seasoned, and, browned, chicken pieces.

Secure the lid, making sure the vent is closed to allow for pressure cooking. Program the Pressure setting to twenty eight minutes, push Start, and be on your way.

That is one of the major reasons I enjoy using the Instant Pot. You can program it, and leave it for hours. A stove top pressure cooker, you have to “tend to” in order to keep it safe. With either, if you cut corners, and do not read the directions, or do not clean it properly, there is always a danger, when cooking under pressure, that your pot will explode. If you are smart enough to use it the way it is intended, you can have some of the most juicy, tender, chicken in about an hour, start to finish. (Potatoes in less than ten minutes!!)

If you do not have an Instant Pot, get one, (or two). It is worth every dime. So, this Christmas, (or, even after Christmas, if you did not ask someone, in your house, to buy you an Instant Pot), get on the internet, buy an Instant Pot, and start looking on Pinterest for Instant Pot recipes. You will not know what hit you.

Two hours later, having not moved an inch, you will have found everything you need to get started. For you that work, or are busy all day, this is for you. You can make whole meals in the thing, once you find the recipes you like.

Enjoy. I am hungry, again, for this chicken. Will have to make it again, soon. (I will use Paty as my excuse, because she was out of town when I made it the first time.) Whatever works, I say.