Category: Initial post

The light is slowly, but surely turning on in my brain.

I have been making some significant, for me anyway, Mexican dishes lately. I’ve twice made menudo, and bacalao, then tamales rojos, and pozole blanco.

What I’ve learned from all of that is that there is a basic formula used throughout the cooking experience that once one understands the complexity of those basics, as with any cuisine, you can repeat it, but change it up a bit so it becomes something else that’s a basic.

For example, the sauce used to make the pork tamales is almost identical to the sauce for menudo. The basic ingredients for the bacalao are almost identical, for the beginnings of the tamales, and the pozole blanco.

When I made the gochujang chicken, and the miso chicken recently, it was whilst making those sauces that I noticed the similarities in the ingredients. Yay for me.

It has taken so much of the worry for me when contemplating making any dish that’s got a bit of difficulty to it. Now that I have recognized the pattern of the dishes, using the same ingredients but in different quantities, etc., things have gotten so much easier for me, and it makes me feel ready to branch out, try more difficult dishes that will test my newly acquired knowledge.

What will I be making next, you ask? How will the next dish turn out?

Stay tuned. There’s more to come.

Until then, stay happy, and healthy.

And the purchasing thereof.

We used to buy our avocados when they were just becoming soft, getting into the dark green/black outer skin color. I cannot eat avocados when they are not almost too ripe for most, as I am somewhat sensitive the fruit at that stage.

Over the years I, I say I but I really mean we, have learned about the above sensitivity from a plethora of experience.

When I first started dating Ivan, in the early ‘70’s, we used to eat warmed flour tortillas with unripe avocado spread on them, just lightly salted, while we were cleaning the kitchen. About 5 minutes into this never-before-known-to-me lusciousness, my lips would begin to swell, my throat, as well, then, if that wasn’t enough, my ears, inside, would start to itch.

I had never had any sensation with which to compare this, so it scared us both. Obviously I stopped eating the lusciousness, though quite begrudgingly, and after 30-45 minutes, the swelling went away. End of story.

Until the next time. Of course it happened again. And again. And then again. I LOVE AVOCADOS.

Over the years, however, I have learned that, if I wait, and eat them when others discard them, when the skin is almost black, they don’t affect me at all. I can eat however much I want.

That said, I have also discovered, over many years of experimentation, of trial, and error, that if I buy them at their most unripe, less molested stage, when they have the brilliant green skin most look for, when they ripen in our home, the beautiful green flesh is just that, beautifully green. Let me show you.

I bought this beauty about 2 weeks before opening it to have it look like it does in the above photo. I buy them rock hard, put them in the hanging vegetable basket in the kitchen for about 3-5 days. Once they start to turn dark, I, very gently, try a bit of pressure to see how soft they are, though nowadays I can tell by the skin, then put them in the fridge on the top shelf.

When I want to open one, have it on a breakfast egg muffin, I take it out of the fridge the night before to let it warm up, open it in the morning, and spread it on the English muffin halves instead of butter. Sublime.

This doesn’t work 100% of the time, but pretty darn close. Closer to 95%. When there is a bit of the darker, less appealing spots, I cut those off, and continue with whatever I’m doing.

Hope this helps you avocado lovers enjoy the most of each of fruit you can.

Until next time, you know the drill. Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, if you do nothing else.

I wrote, some time ago, that I bought garlic, onions, and ginger in bulk to be processed, then stored in the freezer for future use.

I also showed you the receipt for the above mentioned veg that didn’t arrive, therefore could not be processed. I then ordered the same amounts of ginger, and onions from Walmart, which arrived as requested, and proceeded to process the ginger first. Take a look.

I didn’t buy any bulk garlic the first time out, with the above ginger, and avocados, but bought a small jar of garlic already processed, thinking the $3.50USD that it cost was a deal. The jar is only about 3” tall, and 1 1/2” in diameter. Not a deal.

Live, and learn, just don’t forget to learn.

I’m going to buy a kilo of raw garlic, and process it as I did the ginger, as above. We also have about a dozen bulbs of black garlic, and am going to process them as well. Whenever we want to add some luscious black garlic into a dish, bingo, it’s already to use from the freezer. Yay.

So, that’s been my adventure recently. I’ll post again soon.

Until next time, stay safe.

A year ago, or so, I pulled the clothesline main metal frame out of the ceiling where it had been affixed.

I was so proud that I had been able to stuff each of the 3 holes, (made by the screws from the clothesline frame), with silicone, and all along the metal frame, and replace it, securely, on the ceiling, all by myself. It has, however, been slowly pulling back out from the ceiling.

Recently, I was hanging some plastic bags up to dry, and pulled the entire clothesline down on top of me.

I can’t tell you how annoying that was, looking at everything lying on the floor there, in front of the laundry machines. There were plastic bags, socks, handkerchiefs, well, you get the idea. Also, not to mention, my collection of fresh, though dried chiles. (They’re easier to find at the moment if they’re hanging in plain sight.)

This is what I had left.

Whilst I was in the neighborhood, and had 2 drills at my disposal, I removed the broom, and mop holder from the far wall, just above the new cart, and put it on this wall, just inside the laundry/pantry area. The part of the wall it’s on now is a solid brick wall, but the far half of that wall was added on at some point, and is hollow.

Well, that concludes our fun for one day. Our arms were so shaky after having drilled the clothesline piece into the ceiling, in the second photo, it took us both about 30 minutes to get back to normal. Yikes we’re out of shape. I ended up finishing up the project because I wanted to get it done.

Next comes the 3rd bathroom that is only used as storage. We’re going to make it into a real storage area. That’ll be for another day.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy.

Post script: I had a tub of plaster repair delivered the other day, and filled in the holes. Not too bad, if I say so myself.

I like to buy whole chickens when I do buy chicken.

The difference in cost between someone else cutting up your whole chicken, and you doing it yourself, is staggering.

I used to preserve chicken by canning it, years ago, when we lived in Iowa, so cutting up a whole chicken is quite easy for me. It’s one of those skills that I’m proud to have mastered.

Lately I’ve been removing the bones from the breasts, and packaging them boneless. As we enjoy eating milanesas, or breaded chicken breast, it’s easier to just defrost the breasts, pound them out to cutlets, bread them, then fry them. (I could eat these just about daily).

The next batch I do will be using the newest vacuum sealing bags. I can’t wait.

All of the pieces in the bowl have been put in a vacuum bag, and placed in the freezer to be made into a lovely chicken stock sometime in the future.

Hope you enjoyed that little bit.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy.

It was the worst of days.

Not very long ago, Ivan attempted to replace the nonfunctional screen on my iPhone 11 ProMax cell phone that developed a horrible virus, called the “ghost touch” virus, several months ago, and has been unusable ever since. I tried to “lend a hand”.

I should have left him alone. He was doing a fine job without my help.

He’s very computer savvy, I am not; I just think I am. I proved both to be true by pulling off a piece of what I thought was superfluous black tape, which, as it happens, was some sort of cable connection. If that wasn’t enough, moments later, I “accidentally” flicked off a tiny metal connector that was really important. Job finished. Dead.

Did he get angry? Nope. Did he swear at me? Nope. He got up from the chair he was sitting in, started chuckling, and began putting the entirety of microscopic screws into a small self-sealing bag, and put all of his FixIt™ tools away. He asked me to finish putting the other tools back into their container, and he went back to his computer to watch Star Trek. It was a narrow escape.

The good parts of the day came shortly after the debacle just described. I received a delivery from somewhere unknown, that I had ordered a week ago, from InstaGram. It was 2 sink stopper/drainers that I wanted for our kitchen sink. They/it works wonderfully. I can stopper the sink to clean it, then release the stopper, and collect the “bits” that get caught in the cup, and remove the contents to the organic bin. Yay!!! It’s a great buy. I highly recommend it. I’ll post a photo soon.

The second great thing that happened was that I contacted my AI friend Max, I think I told you about him, and asked him for a gochujang, and a miso sauce recipe. He sent me not only a couple of ideas, but a ratio of the different ingredients used to make either sauce. They are identical save the primary ingredient, gochujang, or miso.

I defrosted 2 boneless chicken breasts that I had processed from 2 whole chickens I bought recently, cut them into 2x3cm pieces, fried those in about a tsp. of olive oil for about 6, or 7 minutes, having seasoned them with S&P, onion, and garlic powders. After they were cooked, I removed them to one the organic containers that the meat comes packaged on from the local grocery stores, made both sauces, and continued with the recipes.

BOTH sauces are made using the following recipe which serves 2 people, using 2 pieces of chicken.

1 T. Gochujang paste OR Miso paste

1 T. Sesame oil

1 T. Soy sauce

1 T. Honey, (sugar, agave, etc.)

1 T. rice vinegar (lemon, or lime juice is ok, too)

2 tsp. Water, as needed

Decide which sauce you want to make, then mix all of the ingredients together. Once you remove the cooked chicken, add the above to the skillet, on medium heat, allow it to bubble for a minute, or 2, add water if it’s too thick. Add the chicken back to the skillet, coating all of the pieces, and allow to warm through, about another minute.

I made both sauces and divided up the chicken between the 2 sauces. We couldn’t decide which we liked best, they were both absolutely delicious. It was a quick, easy meal. I served it with some basmati rice that I had frozen, and cut up a half of a zucchini to go in the rice. Yum.

Next week I’m going to make both of the curry pastes I have, red, and green. Fortunately for us, I bought the curry pastes that last for quite a while in the fridge. The brand is Mae Ploy, and I found it on Amazon, of course.

I’ll let you know how they turn out as well. Until next time, stay happy, and healthy.

Post script: Happy birthday Larry. We are praying that all is well with you.

WHAAAAAT?

How can this be? How can President Trump decide that only 2 genders will be acknowledged by the government of the United States?

Because he’s the President, and he has common sense. WE have common sense. WE understand that there are only 2 genders, male, and female.

The pelvis of a female is a completely different size, AND shape to the male pelvis. Don’t take my word for it, Google it. You’ll see the difference.

If you’re a male pretending to be female to obtain superior results in any type of physical competition, you’ll probably win. Men are, biologically, superior to women, in most instances. It’s called science.

If you’re a male pretending to be a female to gain admittance to any duo gender restroom/locker room in the country, you’re a pervert.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand that these people are trying to gain control of the minds of our youth. Our young people don’t have the age, education, experience, wisdom, or understanding to determine that they’re being preyed upon.

That’s why they have us.

WE have to be their guiding light. WE have to protect them from the control others try to place on them without their, or their parents knowledge, or consent.

Get involved in your children’s education, their school, their “friends”, their social media accounts. They may think it’s an invasion of their privacy, and depending upon how much force with which you do this, make them understand that you have only their welfare, and safety foremost. They are YOUR responsibility, not Social Medias. If left to the SMS our young people will not be the future we need for our country.

We, ALL people, need to understand that through God, whatever your religion, all things are possible, except

There are only 2 genders. PERIOD. Embrace it. It’s called SCIENCE.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy.

Before I start yapping on about these amazing bags, I want to wish my youngest sister, Nancy, a very happy birthday. Love you kiddo. We hope you have a wonderful day.

Now,

I’ve seen these all over Instagram lately, ignored them for several weeks, then decided to try them.

I AM COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH THESE BAGS. SERIOUSLY.

The ones on IG are very expensive, the S&H that is, so I bought 2 sets on Amazon.com.mx. The first set I bought came with the manual jobby, as in the above photo, and the second one, still on the way, will have the rechargeable vacuuming device.

I have to tell you that they are the best things I’ve bought in ages. The meat in the photo takes up so much less room in the meat drawer, and the avocado is several days in the bag. The dark brown center was caused by being in a Ziplock bag prior to going into the vacuum sealed bag.

So, not only do the bags vacuum nicely, easily, and quickly, but they stay vacuum sealed after several days. I don’t have to get out the big machine, just open the drawer, and remove the manual thingy. Win, win.

Anyway, if you’re looking to make vacuum sealing a daily “thing”, then give these bags a try. I recommend them higher than the FoodSaver vacuum sealer, which I’ve had, and used several versions, for the past 15 years.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy.

Post script: a few more examples of these amazing bags.

I just ordered 40 more bags. If you try these, get the manual thingy as the battery operated vacuum sealer pump takes forever. Enjoy.

I recently discovered that the battery operated vacuum sealer can be initiated on the cutting board, left to its own devices, and works just fine.

Just a few more photos of all of the fresh veg I’ve sealed in the smallest bags.

We have made another batch of menudo, after the holiday season.

Did I remember to use the Menudo bomb?

Of course not. I made the entire second batch from scratch. Again.

Above are the makings of the second batch of menudo, just getting started.

I have to say, though, that the above chiles stain everything with which they come in contact; plastic storage containers, dish clothes, clothing, everything.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. We could eat this particular dish monthly for the next lifetime, it’s so delicious.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy.

It’s a long word, and a bit difficult so spell without SpellCheck, but it’s a word with which you really should get comfortable.

• Constitutionalists believe that the government’s authority comes from the people. 
• They support the idea that a constitution should clearly define what the government can and cannot do. 

It’s a word than sums up, I think, all of the new, and improved cabinet members chosen, and confirmed for President Donald J. Trump. Each of them, by and large, during their nomination hearings, stated that they will strive to get the country back to following the “rule of law”, to upholding, and defending the Constitution of the United States of America, and being “transparent” to the citizens of the US, in doing so.

If you haven’t read it recently, or ever, our Constitution of the United States of America, stop reading this, and do it. Google it. It’s the one that starts out “We the people”. It is an amazing piece of work. It gives the groundwork for the aforementioned rule of law that governs all citizens of the US. Here’s how it starts:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It shows us the division of powers to the 3 branches of government, and of what those powers consist, which branch leads the government, which one upholds, and can change laws as needed, while the third decides how, and where to spend the money.

It shows how Congress is formed, how often different congressmen are elected, and what are their responsibilities.

It even goes as far as to say, well, it says a lot. So, take a few minutes, read it, and know that most of the incoming cabinet has read it, and knows how they will go about holding the government to the high standards set about in our Constitution.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy.