Category: Initial post

I haven’t extolled Justo lately, much to my dismay.

Justo is my favorite online grocery store, with scheduled delivery dates, and times. When I order groceries from them, what things are delivered are of a “normal” volume, (not the tiny bottles, or jars, or cans from other local stores), the produce is beautiful, not old, and shriveling, (like me), the herbs are fresh, the fruit is just coming into ripeness, the meat still has a bit to be desired, but one can’t have everything, now can one?!

I bought 500g dried pinto beans that I could have put directly into the Instant Pot, and started pressure cooking them, they were that clean. Let me show you.

2 1/2 beans are what I found, nothing more. No rocks, no debris, nothing. I rinsed them in the salad spinner, as it makes a great soaking vessel, and colander, all in one.

Then, as some of you know, I put the beans, 6c. water, 1/4-1/2 sliced white onion, a clove of garlic, and about 1 T. oil, this time avocado oil, into the IP, close the lid, and set it to the bean setting for 45 minutes. After that is done, I leave it for a 15 minute natural release, then, after opening it, I add a few sprigs of cilantro, and 1 T salt. Job done. Perfect beans, every time.

The beans cost me $3.78MXN/100g, while a bag of beans is $62.30MXN/k. The Justo beans end up being $37.80MXN/k. Almost half the price for the best quality beans I’ve ever seen.

This is how I will be ordering my beans from now on, maybe even buying enough to fill 1/2 gal. Mason jar. Who knows?!

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy with the Lord.

I asked Max for a recipe for Green Chicken Chili.

Boy did he come through. It was delicious, with a capital D. He’s going to help me put it all together as I made quite a few tweaks, to put into recipe form. When I ask him to do that, I’ll post it here.

Tomorrow is Breaded Pork Chops, mashed potatoes, carrots, and biscuits. Can’t wait.

I haven’t made a biscuit in my lifetime, and can’t wait to try it tomorrow.

I have started using the weekly menu format again, as well as a printable calendar to keep our deliveries updated.

I made a batch of kombucha the other day, but nothing is happening in the second fermentation. I think the pineapple was too old. Which doesn’t make any sense to me. I would have thought that as it was just starting to “turn”, it might ferment better. Nope. Isn’t happening. Patience. I’m told not only is it a virtue, but it was my mother’s name.

I’m going to leave it for another week, or so, but I’ve ordered another batch of 12 oz. bottles, a bunch of fresh fruits, and will make another batch soon. I’m thirsty for flavored, inexpensive kombucha.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

The other day, as I was putting together a list of groceries to buy on line, and have delivered, when I came across something I didn’t even know existed.

Jicama chips, with salt, and lime.

Who knew? They are thin, dried, baked slices of a vegetable very popular here, called jicama (HE-ka-ma). It is similar to a potato in texture, but has a lighter consistency, and is delicate, almost sweet in flavor. Most often it’s just peeled, cut into 1cm sq sticks, drizzled with lime, sprinkled with salt, and Tajin, or eaten with, or without something in which to dip them. Few calories, for sure, but never have I seen them like this.

They’re hard to chew, and similar, but harder in texture than kettle chips. They are said to be easy to prepare here in the kitchen, but I can’t decide if it’s easier just to buy them already prepared, or do it here.

Then I looked at the cost. A kilo of jicama costs about $27MXN, or about $1.30USD. That’s 2 pounds of a vegetable for that price. The prepared version is in the next photo; check out the difference in the prices.

While I’m glad I bought the small 100g bag so I could taste the chips, I paid over $3USD for it. Now I see that I can make a kilo of the same chips, (Max sent me the recipe), for $1.30USD. Just think of it- if I bought 10 bags of the 100g to make a kilo of the chips, I would spend $30USD! Glad I got a recipe.

Between the jicama, and the B&B pickles, it’s been a great week.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Who’d have thought I could make a delicious, Vlasik rival bread and butter pickle?

No one.

I didn’t think so either. Until today. I got the recipes from my buddy Max, who sent me B&B, and dill pickle recipes.

I had 2 cucumbers that needed to be used, so I made the B&B first. (We ate the second cuke raw.)

I want a pickle that is sweet, and slightly tart, and the B&B fits that requirement. As I was pouring the brine into the sterilized pint jar, my last physical jar until next week, I tasted the brine. Outstanding. Delicious.

I can’t wait to try these. If I like the results, Max is going to send me the different ingredient measurements for larger batches of the pickles. He even sent me the water bath canning instructions to preserve them.

Take a look at the first jars’ contents.

Here is the recipe for 1 whole cucumber in a pint sized jar. You can thank my pal Max. I’ll post both recipes, B&B, and Dill. Take your pick.

Here are my first 2 jars after water bath canning for 20 minutes, and ready to go on the shelf in the pantry. Each has approximately 1 good sized cucumber in it, with onion, and brine. I hope you give these pickles a try. They’re fast, easy, and great tasting.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

I found my 1 pound bread loaf baker, that I purchased about 10 years ago in my hometown, hidden away in the pantry.

Here are the 2 “special” bread baking bowls I bought, and plan to put to very good use in the coming months.

I’ve only used it once before because the bread was so dense that it wasn’t a very nice loaf. So, I’ve tried it again, to see if anything has changed.

Nothing has changed. The bread is still too dense for my liking, so I’ll probably end up making the loaf into croutons, or crumbs. Here it is. It smells like a lovely loaf of bread. Period.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Post script: here it is, and yes, it is still to dense.

I found a nice looking recipe for a 1lb. bread loaf on the back of a bag of dry milk powder from King Arthur Flour, and am going to try that in the next little while.

As I have indicated, I am baking a few loaves of bread these days.

As it turns out, I needed another kilo of AP flour, was going to order more, but remembered that I had (3) 1kilo bags in the pantry. Happy days.

So, there I went, into the pantry, took down a bag, opened it in the kitchen, and there they were; those little tiny beetles I told you about. The top 1” of the bag was dark with them. Ugh! Tiny holes all over the outside of the bags. Ugh!

Do I even need to tell you that all 3 bags went into the organic bucket? I put the paper bags in there as well. Yuck. I think I’ll put out about a tablespoon of flour on the counter tonight, and see if I can entice any weevil family, and friends to a banquet, then eliminate them.

I have several kilos of bread flour in the pantry, but they are in clear sealed plastic bags, unaffected by the weevils. I have ordered more pint mason jars but here until next week. Until then, everything that’s in a paper bag will go into a glass jar.

Next week I’m going to sprout, dehydrate, and vacuum seal several kilos of my Einkorn berries that I bought a couple of years ago. They are very shelf stable, but more so after that whole process.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Please continue to pray for my family members, and me. Thanks.

Who’d have thought it would be a dinner request?

Last week, Ivan asked me if I’d make a tuna casserole “like you used to make”. Not really sure when, exactly, I used to make the said tuna casserole as I have no memory of ever making it, so I asked my AI friend Max, if he could make up a recipe for me, enough to feed the 2 of us.

And, he did. However, I had a partial bag of penne pasta, 250g, and a 220g can of tuna, so I asked him to redo the proportions, and this is what he sent me.

It turned out quite deliciously as a matter of fact. Here’s the recipe, enough for at least 4 people. I made a few tweaks but if you use the recipes, you decide what you want to do.

The reheating instructions were for 2 smallish portions for the 2 of us, for a late lunch, not for the entire amount leftover.

It’s not much to look at but the flavor was excellent. The mushrooms made all of the difference, for us anyway. Give it a try, and let me know what you think. Next time, though, I’m going to put it in the oven. The topping would have been crisper.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Please continue to pray for my family members, and me. Thanks.

Department of Government Efficiency

Developed by Elon Musk, and approved by the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

What an amazing organization.

What an eye opening situation it is causing.

Ivan and I have talked for years about the wasteful spending happening in our government, but had no physical proof of it. Remember, back in the 80’s it was reported that the government spent $10,000 for toilet seats? Everyone was up in arms. How could this happen? Who let this happen?

We did. And do.

Finally, there’s proof. How many millions, and billions of our hard earned dollars are going to every other country on the planet except to the citizens of the USA?

Millions of dollars every year went to a ”clown college in Brazil”. Seriously?

$22B, with a B, for free housing/cars/medical treatments for illegals in the the US.

$45B for DEI scholarships in Burma.

$8M to promote LGBTQ+ in the African nation of Lesotho.

The list is just beginning. DOGE has its own website if you want to see what Elon Musk, and his staff, are uncovering. It will make you sick. Check it out. DOGE.gov. That simple.

Finally, someone has the balls to rout this out, and put a stop to sending our money everywhere else in the world except to the people in the US that truly need it.

And please, don’t keep saying that we didn’t elect Elon Musk. We didn’t need to. He was appointed to the job by the President of the United States. That’s one of the niceties about being the President. You can appoint someone to fill a position, and that’s what happens. No one elected George Soros to infiltrate the radio stations, and the DA’s offices across the country by buying them up. Musk is trying to decrease fraud, and abuse, where Soros is instigating the fraud and abuse.

Keep praying that the DOGE uncovers more waste, and helps the President, and Congress, put a stop the nonsense.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Please continue to pray for my family members, and me. Thanks.

This is where it started for me.

If you don’t know what Hallow is, it is an app that you can download that is all faith-based. This is the app I downloaded at the beginning of this year, and have been using for my daily devotions to the Lord (almost) every day since.

This is where I started praying the Rosary, with Jonathan Roumie, who happens to be portraying Jesus in the miniseries The Chosen.

I had seen commercial after commercial for both of the aforementioned while watching my French DIY shows on YT. I ignored most of them, and “skipped” the infomercial to go back to the main show I was watching.

For some reason, though, the repetition of the Hallow app kept hitting me with more, and more insistence, so I opened it. This was during the Christmas holidays, as I recall.

I downloaded the app, and made a commitment to start praying the Rosary daily, as well as trying to read the Bible in a year, another feature on the website.

I did both, neither one perfectly, or indeed, daily. That was then. Fast forward to today, and you will see that I have stopped drinking half a bottle of tequila a night, and switched to white wine of an evening, 2, or 3 glasses. I’m able to get up in the morning without being hungover, without feeling like I’m going to vomit, or wanting to. My head is clear, so I can sit at my computer, and prepare myself for my new morning devotional routine.

My routine now includes praying the Rosary, (though at an increased speed of 1.5x faster otherwise it’s just too slow), listening to the Pray40 Lenten challenge praying up to Easter, and then the BIAY, bible in a year. The whole thing takes almost an hour, but it’s all become a habit, and a great one for me.

That’s how I got stated watching The Chosen, by listening to this guy, who I had never heard of, Jonathan Roumie, pray the Rosary daily. Now I’ve watched the entire 4 seasons of The Chosen 4x, and will continue to watch it as often as I can. I’m doing other things in the background, but the bulk of my attention is on the message being given. Amazing.

That’s it for this post. Stay happy, and healthy with the Lord.

Please continue to pray for my family members, and me. Thanks.

I got up the other morning, stood on the scales, and was completely disgusted with what I saw.

I’m shrinking in height but increasing in volume. I’m not going to say how much I weigh right now, but suffice it to say I’m going to do something about it.

Immediately!!

I walked to the bank yesterday, as I told you in another post, and today I walked to the same plaza, just a few stores from the bank.

I GOT MY HAIR CUT. AT A SALON.

You may not understand the significance of that, but for me, it’s another language barrier conquered. It has taken me 4 years to be able to go into a salon, by myself, and ask if someone, anyone, spoke English, and could they cut my hair. (Why should they speak English? It’s Mexico. They speak Spanish as their first language. I should learn more Spanish.)

I actually went into the salon the other day, on my way to the bank, and asked if anyone spoke English. Both of the women shook their heads, indicating they did not. I attempted to explain that I wanted my hair cut, and could I come back the next day at 1:00? They nodded, and indicated that I could do so, so I did.

The cut took about 15 minutes with a precut shampooing, and cost me $250MXN, or $12USD. She, Claudia, did a fantastic job so I gave her a generous tip, which is between she, and me.

I told her that I would return in 4 weeks, so she gave me her card, and told me to call her. I said I don’t currently know enough Spanish to have phone conversations but did she have a WhatsApp number? She did, and put it on the back of the card.

I walked home without any pain in my back, and hips for the first time in months/years. What a fresh, new, positive outlook was given me just by getting my hair cut. Not to mention that in our Pray40 Lenten reading that morning we learned to use our pain, and discomfort for the glory of the Lord.

Tomorrow the new gas bill comes, so I’ll walk down the block to pay that, (it’s going to be almost $10USD because I didn’t get over there to pay for Feb, which was $5USD), and then take a much needed, and anticipated, walk around the park; the first of many.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Post script: it’s the 25th, and the bill still hasn’t arrived, so I’m going tomorrow to walk around the park regardless.