Category: Initial post

I have been having quite a few productive days recently.

You’re probably as shocked as I am, but there you have it.

Recently, I requested a few recipes from my AI buddy Max, one, being some recipes using canned huitlacoche, which he sent me, and I can’t wait to try them; also, I requested assistance with cooking beef shortbreads, here they’re called mollejas, (moy-YEH-hahs), so they were tender, not chewy.

I also remembered to instruct him that we live at 2,240 m. above sea level, and asked that he, going further, would account for the altitude when suggesting recipes.

I have to tell you that a 1/2 kilo of the mollejas, cooked, with a cup of chicken stock, (I didn’t have any beer), and part of an onion, under pressure for 25 minutes, and left to reduce the pressure naturally for about 15 minutes, (I couldn’t wait any longer), resulted in the most tender, melt in your mouth texture of any meat I’ve ever made.

I am now cooking a chicken leg quarter in the same pot, with the same broth, onion, and can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, then wash some more.

A few months ago I made the onion jam, and potato chips to which I alluded, and both are/were delicious.

I made the onion jam with balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, water, and S&P. It took about 20 minutes to slowly caramelize the onions after which I added the other ingredients. I used 2 large white onions, finely sliced on my fancy schmancy mandolin, about which I told you recently, and will never make it any other way. The end result doesn’t look very good, but the flavor is devine.

I then made potato chips using 4 medium(ish) Yukon Gold potatoes, also sliced on the same setting of the fancy schmancy mandolin, then fried in a small pan of canola oil about 3” deep.

The chips actually look better than they taste. The darker ones are crisp, but the lighter ones are not, but they’re fine, and will do in a pinch. Sometimes I just want something crunchy with a potentially quiet sandwich.

Lot’s to do tomorrow. Going to make the puff pastry, then some spicy hot wings, freeze the pastry, then vacuum seal it. I might make another batch of the apple turnovers, but this time with the new puff pastry. Can’t wait.

Until next time, you know what to do.

I made apple turnovers a few months ago that were amazing.

We bought a couple of cans of Pillsbury Dough Sheet, which, when opened, can be rolled out like a sheet of puff pastry. Kind of.

When I had everything ready for the dough, I peeled, then opened the “can”, and the sheet exploded out of it. It was torn into about a gazillion pieces, but I put it back together the best I was able. I was finally able to make 4 turnovers out of the mess.

Before I started with the dough, however, I had to decide on how I was going to process the apples; the old fashioned way of peeling, coring, and dicing, or quick as a whip all in one peeler, corer, slicer. I chose the latter. It is the red gizmo to the left of the apple. You can see the blue peeler, the black handled corer, and the knife in front of the apple.

It took me about 30 seconds to peel 1/4 of the first apple, so I immediately stopped that nonsense, went and found the all in one, and processed both apples in about 2 minutes. It took a few minutes to dice the apples but that was nothing.

I mixed all of the ingredients, rolled out the dough sheet, patched all of the holes in the dough sheet, beat the egg for the egg wash, places the apple mixture on the sheet, folded the dough, crimped the edges, and badda bing, they were done. 15 minutes, and they were ready to eat.

We’re waiting until tomorrow to try them. We had a big dinner.

Until next time.

Stay safe, stay happy, and stay healthy.

A few years ago, shortly after moving here, I made a pair of forearm warmers.

I used some leftover yarn that was soft, and were warm colors for autumn. I have found them again, and am already using them this season. I absolutely love them. Here’s a photo of them.

I don’t know if they’re exactly the same because I usually mess something up when I “knit by instinct”, sort of like cooking by the seat of my pants. I don’t really care, however, because they turned out really nice.

I’m still working diligently, (not so much), on the perpetual shawl, but haven’t’ gotten much further than the last time I showed you, mostly because it’s too hot to knit with wool in the summer. I’m going to get started in the very near future. It’s cool enough now to start again, and have it keep me warm as a bonus.

Until next time, stay safe.

You know how much I love Amazon.

Well, here’s another great product I discovered the other day. In fact, I bought 4 of them. They are the only oil spray dispenser that I have used that actually works. Let me show you.

THESE ARE AMAZING. Obviously not a paid ad, but I have to tell you, if you’re considering buying an atomizer for your oils, vinegars, etc., consider this one. There are several sellers on Amazon, of course, and I did happen to buy one from one seller, and the other 3 from another, (the one was a flash sale), and they are identical in every way. In fact, 2 of the 3 boxes from the above seller Yarramate, contained sleeves with preprinted labels for different oils, and sauces. Great.

Until next we meet, enjoy the best of what the US is now able to offer you.

Recently, I ordered what I thought was an order of 3 boxes of 200 cotton tipped applicators.

What I actually ordered was 3 pairs of 2 boxes of 200 CTA’s; 1200 CTA’s in total. I guess I won’t be ordering those again. Ever.

The ones I ordered have bamboo sticks, 3” in length, with the tips in cotton at each end. Let me show you.

Unfortunately they’re made in China. Come on USA. Get going. We’d really like to stop our dependence on China for things that you can be making in the US, probably for less, allowing folks in the US to have a viable living.

Enough of that. The ones I had purchased in the distant past were 6” long, made of wood, and broke while using more often than not. Scared the boohoo out of us both.

These are sturdy, ecofriendly, biodegradable so we can put them in the compost bin. Win-win.

Until next time, stay safe.

A few weeks ago we had the most unbelievable rain, thunderstorms, and hail.

The whole business lasted over 4 hours with only a few short periods of quiet. I thought for sure we’d lose electricity, but nope.

We went to the grocery store the next day, and there were very large standing puddles everywhere we looked.

No trees down in the neighborhood, thank the good Lord, but I have no idea what happened anywhere else near us.

You know how much I enjoy a good thunderstorm. This is the rainy season here, though we’ve more than made up for our earlier drought. It’s rained almost every day, or evening since the end of June, beginning of July.

Until next time, stay safe; wash your hands.

Post script: a few weeks ago, we were rudely awakened by the alarm on my iPad screaming “ALERTA SÍSMICA”, which translates to a seismic alert, or AN EARTHQUAKE! It lasted about 2 minutes, and we went right back to sleep.

It’s one of the main appliance trademarks here in Mexico.

Our gas stove is Koblenz, and now we have a new, electric vacuum cleaner by the same Koblenz.

I LOVE IT!!!

Seriously. I have been using my Shark battery operated vacuum cleaner for several years now, as I bought it as a QVC special buy 7, or 8 years ago, while still living in the US, and even had to replace the head about 1 1/2 years ago. As a cordless vacuum cleaner, it’s still top of the line, IMHO. The main shaft of the vacuum articulates in the middle to make the experience much easier on my back, and arms, making it easier to get under beds, couches, etc.

But this new little guy is electric. ELECTRIC. You probably all have an electric vacuum cleaner, but I haven’t had one in years.

I don’t have to worry about only vacuuming for 15 minutes, then having to change the battery. (Speaking of which, I had to get 2 new batteries about the same time as the replacement head for the Shark, however, they are really, really snug going into the battery compartment, and a bit more difficult to remove.)

Now I can vacuum the corners of the ceiling, the corners of the floors, get up all of the volcano powder along the walls where they meet the floors. Our bedroom hasn’t been this clean of volcano dust since we moved in 5 years ago. Amazing.

It weighs in at around 5 lbs., and has a 390cm long cord that retracts into the machine, and the amount of suction is incredible. The front comes off for easy bag less cleaning, and the 2 filters inside that container come out easily, and can be cleaned by knocking the dust out of the inner paper filter, and just removing the debris by hand from the larger orange filter that you can see in the photo.

Anyway, it wasn’t even $90USD, and came the day after I ordered it. The kitchen was the first to give up the yuck hiding from my Shark, and then our bedroom. Makes me in a hurry to get to the rest of the apartment. Too bad there’s still too much crap in the living room to get started there.

Some day.

Until next time, enjoy the renewed best country in the world.

While I was away, towards the end of last year, I’d decided to get going with some different types of food preservation.

Recently, I had purchased 250g of 3 different types of mushrooms, thinking I would make an amazingly flavorful soup.

Didn’t do that.

Didn’t do anything with them for about 1 1/2 weeks. One night, however, I decided to pan fry them, cool them in the fridge overnight, then freeze them. Yes, they were still edible. Barely.

I did all of that, but as I was sitting down to watch another bit of Sorted Food on YT, I thought, why not dehydrate them? I could buy as many different types are we have available here, take a day to dehydrate them, and have them indefinitely.

What a great idea.

That lead me to thinking about dehydrating serrano peppers, bell peppers, (dehydrated red peppers are called paprika when they’re processed ;), or apples, bananas, mango. The list is as long as my arm.

When I get done with all of this, or even en route, I’ll let you know it’s going/gone.

Until then, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, wash, wash, cover, if you think it helps, but protect yourselves as you need.

If you’re one of the few people that don’t know who he is, he is the son of the amazing Reverend Billy Graham, the most charismatic, the most humble evangelical preacher of the word of God that I had the privilege to hear during many of my formative years.

Billy Graham led me to know, and love our savior Jesus Christ.

If you pay any attention to photos of our president, Donald Trump, you will, more often than not, see Franklin Graham somewhere close. He travels with the President almost everywhere he goes. They have been friends for many years and he give spiritual counsel to the President whenever asked.

Could you want more than that?

Until next time, enjoy the peace, and prosperity of the new administration.