Category: Initial post

You will be happy to know that traffic, here, is back to stop and start; each car moving only about four, or five car lengths per light change. Yippee

It would not be so bad except that the temperature rises in the afternoon to the mid to upper seventies. Right now, it is only sixty six. It feels like eighty when stuck in traffic traffic with the sun shining on you, through the open car window.

When we finally got back to the condo, we put the groceries away, and tucked into a couple of bottles of Kombucha, over ice. I finally got them put into the fridge but not before holding two of them back, for us.

Here is how they looked after opening.

This is our fourth batch, and, the best of them all. It is a pineapple and blueberry combination; our favorite.

I also had a chance to quickly plant three of the five basil plants I started from some of the basil we bought at the store. When the planters get here, next week, I will plant all of the basil together. Right now, they are in a styrofoam cup. Yikes.

While we wait for the planters, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

Once again, we are out and about; footloose and fancy free. On our way to Toks for coffee, and breakfast. Yay.

We joined their “club” yesterday, which will give us one point per peso spent. At the rate we go at Toks, we should have a free meal soon.

After we eat, we are going to look at Christmas trees, first at Sam’s then Costco. The one I like is at Sam’s but the one I can live with is at Costco.

Until we decide which to bring home, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

Post script: we are going to order the tree from Costco and have it delivered. The box is too large to fit in the car. It is the tree we will make work for us.

I am in Heaven, figuratively speaking.

We are waiting to go to see our favorite dentista, sitting outside our favorite café, Café Arbol, enjoying our favorite drink, a large Café Americano, with our favorite friend, Enrique. The temperature is a brisk fifty eight degrees Fahrenheit, the sun is shining, and it is a perfect day.

I expound because it feels like it has been months since I was outside, though it has really only been a week. This absolutely recharges my internal batteries to the fullest.

This is exactly the weather I thrive in. Cool in the morning, warmer in the afternoon, then cool at night. We love to sleep under a beautiful duvet, with a medium weight comforter inside it.

Getting up, in the middle of the night, to run to the bathroom, and run back, is a bit of a challenge, however, as the floors are all tile, and, as cold as outside.

We are off the the dentista, so, while we are on the way, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

I am still here, plugging away, but having just a bit of sluggishness from this computer. Several weeks ago, maybe longer, I do not recall, “someone” spilled cranberry juice on the keyboard. We got it wiped up quickly, and, used my hair dryer to finish drying it, but the poor thing has never been quite the same.

I Googled how to clean sticky keyboards, so I tried Isopropyl Alcohol, as suggested. That seems to have eased things a bit. Onward, and upward.

I have been up to my chin in bread baking recently, now that I have a beautifully active starter. I am baking bread every other day, sometimes daily. My sister-in-law, Mayra, is kindly sending me the baking supplies that I recently ordered from King Arthur Baking Co. I will then have four bread pans, of the same nine inches by four inches, enabling me to bake several loaves at the same time. This will save me time, and, money, in the long run.

I have discovered, recently, that I can make one loaf of bread, using instant yeast, which allows it to rise quickly, and make one loaf on my sourdough culture, which takes several hours to rise, all on the same day. And, with only one loaf pan. Am anxious for the new pans.

Right now, I am buying my flour online, as none of the stores, here, have the organic flour for which I am looking. (I do not want to take a chance that Customs will keep it at the border, as you cannot ship food products across the border anymore. Bummer).

The bread is turning out very nicely, however, and, I am very encouraged by that. I am going to start venturing out into the world of sweet things, like small cakes, pies, quick breads, etc.

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

Post script: you may be interested to know that I removed, and cleaned, and successfully replaced the return, the right shift, and, the space bar keys. They are, once again, fully functional. Yay me.

Post script two: Vote. Find a ride, if you need one. Find a carpool, and ride with them. Do what you need to do, but VOTE. There is NO excuse, other than a life threatening illness, God forbid, so get out there and VOTE. If you do not vote, you can have NO OPINION on the results.

When it rains, it pours.

The other day, we were at the auto repair shop, and, Enrique and I were waiting in the BMW for Ivan to finish talking to the guys about the Mercedes sensors. All of a sudden, E gets out of the car, after popping the latch for the hood, goes around the front of the car, and tries to open the hood.

When I looked up, I saw steam coming from under the hood, so I got out to help. E was unable to get the unfamiliar hood latch opened, so I reached around to do it. We both saw, immediately, that there was a spray of water coming from some sort of container, squirting onto something that was rotating.

I whistled at Ivan to get over here quickly, and E told him to bring Luis, the shop owner. Both came over, turned off the car, and said we had a hole in the overflow reservoir for the radiator.

Whew. What a miracle that we were outside their shop. What if……?

So, Luis is resetting the sensors, and we should be on our way soon. This time, however, we will still be in the Mercedes, leaving the unsuspecting BMW for a sleepover in the shop. Hopefully this will not cost an arm and leg.

Until we find out the cost, and the repair is completed, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

I am, once again, amongst the living, and on our way to have someone check the sensors on the Mercedes.

You may recall that we got new tires for it a few weeks ago, and, ever since then, the sensors have kept telling us to have them checked. Ivan has been unable to find anything wrong with the vehicle, having used his scanner, nor has he been able to clear the warning. So, back to Autofix we go.

At this point, however, I will use any excuse to get out of the condo, since I am finally out of the bathroom.

In theory, we are also going to stop at Costo, then Sam’s Club, then Toks, for lunch.

Unfortunately, I have not had the time, or energy, to finish my most recent sourdough sandwich bread loaf. It is rising, slowly, in a very cold refrigerator, at home. That should give it a deeper, richer flavor. Time will tell.

Until I can get done with that, and get it delivered, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

Well, I have found two bread recipes that work well for me in this altitude; Joshua Weissman’s (Youtube) Supermarket Bread recipe, and a Sourdough sandwich bread recipe by baking-sense.com.

I feel that I have tweaked Joshua’s recipe enough that it is really now my recipe, and, it is delicious. I have made only two loaves of the sourdough sandwich loaf, actually, the second loaf is doing a slow rise as I type, but I have made only one small adjustment. It calls for applying an egg wash to the crust before baking it, but the crust came out too hard, so I will not be doing that again. I will, however, butter this crust when it comes out of the oven. That should give it a nice, soft texture that even Ivan can chew.

Not much else to report today. No contractor, or workers in sight yet. So, while we wait for them, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

What kind of nurse does not even have a package of Lomotil in her home, you ask? A retired nurse that no longer has close medical ties in her community any more, that is who. And, now, that is me.

I do want you to know that Ivan brought me my consumé yesterday; gone in a heartbeat. He also brought me Fruit Punch Gatorade. Amen for that stuff. PLUS, I found the last of my Loperamida, (Lomotil), that I needed while we were in la Ciudad Victoria last year, getting Ivan’s paperwork sorted out. That was a fun trip we will not soon forget, I can tell you.

So, hopefully, I will stop this incessant running to the bathroom every hour, my belly distended beyond my thirteen months pregnant belly before the diarrhea. One can only hope.

Ivan bought some pancita (stomach) at Costco the other day, so we can make a trial batch of menudo before the holidays. We made a batch while still up North, and, it was delicious. For those of you that enjoy menudo, I will include a recipe when we perfect it. For those of you that do not care for menudo, ignore the recipe. Better yet, try it with someone who knows how to enjoy it.

What I really want to tell you about the aforementioned pancita is that, normally, when purchased, one needs to bring it home, and spend hours, sometimes days, cleaning this stuff. Not when purchased at Costco. It has the faintest smell of bleach, which has been absorbed into the fat of the pancita. No problem as we will be cleaning all of the fat off of the pancita, removing the fat, and then, cutting it into its one and a half, by one and a half inch squares. We cannot wait.

We have never seen this selection of the cow cleaned so well, prepped for us so nicely. While we get busy perfecting our recipe, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover you mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

I am so bummed. I cannot shake this session of “the revenge”. It has been five days now, and I cannot eat anything! Believe me, I have tried.

The day before yesterday, I tried a poached egg on dry toast. No good. Yesterday, I tried mashed potatoes. Nope. Did not work. I tried Kombucha. I cannot really say if that did anything one way or the other, but, so far, nada.

Let me tell you that this is not the way I wanted to drop a few pounds. At this point, however, I will take whatever works.

Ivan, and Enrique, went to do some shopping, (I do my best cleaning when I am by myself), as I managed to sweat through a bit of light housework; nothing too strenuous. I absolutely have no energy left to do much, but sit. I told him they should go out for lunch, but, to let me know where they were going, so I could pretend I was able to eat something, too. Unfortunately, for me anyway, he did not tell me they were at Toks until after had they left. I would like to have ordered a large bowl of chicken broth to go; they make the best caldo de pollo. Yum.

After texting him, he said he would buy me a consumé somewhere in the mercado, and bring it home. I cannot wait. I am not hungry, really. I just know that I have not eaten, and, cannot eat, ergo, I should be hungry.

Luis, and Martín are coming back sometime this week, to continue work here, so I am going to suck it up, and make them, each, a loaf of bread. The one I made the other day for E, turned out beautifully. I am going to stick with that recipe for awhile.

While we wait for the consumé to arrive, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: the caldo de pollo was indescribable. It had a bit of rice, and a small leg of chicken. It is my next quest to make a caldo that rich. Life sustaining.

Sorry. I slept through most of day 170 and 171. Fever, chills, muscle and bone aches, plus, and not to be forgotten, lovely diarrhea. Not sure from what, but I can tell you that I am glad that has passed. Well, all but the diarrhea, that is. On to happier subjects.

I want to tell you about my new Apple AirPod Pros. They are amazing. I can listen to a book while making Kombucha, or doing laundry, or making the bed, all without having them yanked out of my ears, having gotten caught on any silly little protuberance in my vicinity. That is so annoying, not to mention, occasionally painful. The Pro version has little silicone buds that keep the pods from falling out of your ears, are (supposedly) waterproof, and are very comfortable. Worth every dime, in my estimation.

Well, I am experimenting on different bread recipes, and, I think I have come across, what could be, a winner. I have taken the recipe from Joshua Weissman, on Youtube, but made a few modifications. Unfortunately, I forgot to decrease the amount of liquid used when I added an egg. (Adding an egg, as just mentioned, causes the dough to become very wet, and sticky, and difficult to manage.) Then, I forgot to do the slap, and fold technique, to beat a portion of the air out of the dough. (You really only need to do this with a wet, or high hydration dough.) Consequently, when baked, it leaves a rather annoying tunnel, usually running right through the center of the loaf. And, unless you want to make a whole loaf of eggs-in-the-nests, it is difficult, though, not impossible, to make a sandwich. And, I sure as heck do not want to give it to someone who is expecting a beautiful loaf of bread.

After a few minutes of online research, I discovered the tip about, if adding an egg, you must decrease the amount of liquid. Normally, this would mean that you put the egg in the measuring cup first, then add the rest of the required liquid. I use the metric system of weighing my ingredients, so I checked on the King Arthur Baking Company website, and found that a typical egg weighs fifty grams, so I am golden. I think if I make that small change, I will not have such a wet dough that will require it being beaten into submission. Well, at least I hope not. A lot of incredibly important information in so little time. (I wonder if the youth, now a days, has any idea how long it would take, how arduous a task, getting that information would have been to obtain, without the internet?!)

I am off to try putting this information to practical use. I will return, eventually, to let you know what happened. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover you mouth, and, protect your loved ones.