We are going over to the apartment sometime today, (read this weekend, or this coming week) so I will have the opportunity to take more photos of the remodeling going on.
Well, that was a quick look at the apartment as of last week. Since I was too ill to go over until this weekend, it is sure to be a surprise when we go back. More to come.
Ivan and I were talking the other day about my Gramma Manda, and the pork chops and sauerkraut she used to make once a year. It was a dish worth remembering, let me tell you.
The simplicity of the dish, first of all, was amazing in itself, but then you got to taste it. Even for a young, uneducated palate as I had, it was bursting with flavors. She browned the pork chops, (the ones she chose had to be thick enough to withstand some skillet, and oven time, and have a sufficient amount of fat along the edges to make plenty of nice brown bits that stick to the bottom of the frying pan), then used a bit of the juice from the kraut to lift those bits off the bottom, and add a richness to the dish that would have otherwise been lost.
She drained, then rinsed, the sauerkraut, added a teaspoon, or so, of caraway seeds to the kraut, placed the chops in the bottom of a Pyrex bowl, added the sauerkraut, and a couple knobs of butter, covered it with aluminum foil, and baked it for about 30” – 45”. She removed the foil, added the Bisquick™ drop biscuits she made, right on top of the sauerkraut, baked it again for, probably another 30”, until the biscuits were cooked. Then we got to eat it. I really only remember eating this two times, and one of those times was with my husband.
After we got to talking about this, and the different spices she used when she got to cook, Ivan started searching the internet for sausage shops here in CDMX hat might sell German-type sausages, and, out of nowhere, he discovered this shop where a, I believe he is British, gentleman, has started a sausage company called Simply Sausages™, and THEY DELIVER!!!! Now, how is that for good search results?
We went earlier this evening, to a local high end store, (one of those stores that imports food from all over the world, for all of us expats living away from our motherlands), and bought 3 packages of Classic Bratwurst, and a single package of British Bangers. Each package of brats has 4 sausages, the Bangers package has 5 (yay), each weighs 500gm, and costs $115, and $105, respectively. (Relax, that is in pesos.) So, that is a package of brats that weighs 1 lb. and costs $5.00! (That one is dollars.) Not bad for handmade sausages, right? I cannot wait to, first, try the meat, then, have this stuff delivered. There are so many choices, and so little time. Simply Sausages™. Thank you. We are grilling out tomorrow. (Any excuse, really!!)
And, for future reference, I will designate pesos as $115. MN. Here that means Moneda Nacional, or National Currency. I think you are all quick enough to know we would not spend $105.00 on 4 sausages. Right?
Ivan just reminded me that we will be putting the little beauties in a saucepan, with a beer, and butter, to bathe in after they are grilled. Yummy!!
Here, there is an amazing chain of restaurants called Toks that are affiliated with one of our favorite grocery stores called Soriana. Enrique introduced us, this morning, to Toks, and are we ever glad he did.
We have driven by a number of these restaurants hundreds of times over the years, and always wondered how the food tasted. I am here to tell you that it tastes great!
We all started off with a cup of Cafe Americano, which was pleasantly strong, and even more pleasantly large. I cannot remember what Enrique ate because Ivan and I had a wonderful machacada con huevo, en salsa Mexicano, con frijoles negros, y tortillas de harina. All of the aforementioned was eggs, with a special dried beef that is famous here, cooked in a small cast iron skillet with pico de gallo salsa, and black beans with manchego cheese on top. Of course I forgot to take a picture, because I was trying to convince myself I had an appetite sufficient to consume it all, but, alas, I did not. But neither did Ivan. We took our little packages home for another go later on- maybe in the morning.
Toks- a place we will be visiting, repeatedly, in the future.
Well, thanks to Paty, I survived the horrendous bout of diarrhea. She got back in town Sunday, saw the condition I was in, went to the pharmacy, and bought me a box of Nifuroxazida 200 mg combined with Metronidazol 600 mg, an antibiotic specifically for enteritis. She told me to take them twice a day for 4 days, so I am. This is the start of day 3, and I must say, it is doing the job rather nicely.
Yes, we made it to the Embassy, and, yes, I was able to fix, for the most part, what I needed help fixing regarding a few SS issues. My “appointment” was 8am -11am, however, unbeknownst to us, the Embassy does not open until 8:30am. So, from the house here, we, (Enrique drove us), had to drive North, to downtown CDMX, which, with all of the other early commuters, is a good hours drive. We left the house at 6:30am, arriving at the Embassy at 7:30am. We parked the car in a nearby parking garage, and walked a block, or two, to the front door of the building. We were then told to show our papers to the “people under the green umbrella, at the end of the building”. Did I mention that everything was in Spanish. At the US Embassy?
At the green umbrella, we were asked why were there, what department did we need. Responding with “Social Security”, a young man told us to go to the end of some line, and indicates a line to my husband, already 20 ft. long, or more. Of course, he is in no mood to stand in a line behind people that are sitting, and appear to have been doing so, for quite some time. He says that we will stand in the line that is actually moving, the two of them have “words”, but we continue to stay where he put us. He was, once again, told we were in the wrong line, and, after more words in which he indicated that this was the US Embassy, and that we are US citizens, and that if we are not allowed in with the next group of people, he would consider making it an “emergency”, (the only way you can even hope to just walk into an Embassy is if it is an emergency), and then we would be allowed in immediately. (The lady ahead of us turned, and gave him a show of her approval- all he ever needs). After about 15 seconds, we were issued little blue 2”x 2” tickets, with some silly numbers on it, and in we went.
Of course, you have to go through the usual security check in, just like at any government building, depositing everything into a tub that gets run through a scanner. (I forgot I had brought my knife, a 3”blade Ivan gave me some time in the past. I almost always have in my purse, but I always have it with me when we go downtown. A person cannot be too careful!) They gave us an ID badge to wear, and a card with a number on it corresponding to the number on the torn Ziplock bag were we were told to deposit our keys, phones, and my knife. They told us what room to go to, so off we went.
We sat in the waiting area about 2 minutes, when a very nice lady called my name, and in I went. A few minutes passed, and a gentlemen from the Embassy came in the room, and asked me for the aforementioned card for our belongings. He told me that my husband needed to get something out of it, so I gave it to him, giving it little thought. A little over 1 hour later, I was done.
Reunited with my husband, we left the facilities, on our way to find our friend Enrique, who was waiting in the lounge of the hotel next door. As we were having a lovely cup of coffee, he told me that the guards wanted him to take the knife out of the Embassy, so he took it to the hotel, and gave it to Enrique to hold. After everything, it was another hours drive home, then back to bed for a bit. I kid you not, here it truly is the survival of the fittest.
Let me, briefly, describe the last four days of my life, the 12th, until the 16th.). Fever, chills, and diarrhea. Every muscle, hair, bone, and inch of skin has been incredibly painful, in between bouts of Ibuprofen, that is. Sounds like fun, huh?!? Nope. Not even one minute. This is the result of not disinfecting the greens, and that includes the cilantro I used for a garnish the other night.
Last Saturday evening, I made three Spanish tortillas, one with mushrooms, one with chard, and one, in the classic form of just eggs, onions, olive oil, and salt, which we ate on Sunday. Monday, I made some delicious Pechugas Rellenas de Jamon y Queso en Crema de Champiñones, which translates to Chicken breasts stuffed with ham and Manchego cheese in a creme of mushroom sauce made entirely from scratch. Turned out really nicely. Did I think to get a picture of it? No. Tuesday, I made the Birria de Res, which was amazing. Then, the highlight of my five nights cooking for the family, was the most fatal, but, mostly, only to me. We started the first course with a bowl of some of the best Sopa de Fideo soup I have ever made, complete with a small garnish of cilantro at the last few minutes of cooking to completely brighten the taste. (Not to worry, that cilantro had time to cook.) Next, was a beautiful, 4 oz. piece of Norwegian salmon, cooked approximately 7 minutes on the skin side in Olive oil and butter, and approximately 4-5 minutes on the presentation side. This was served with a butter sauce, infused with white wine, lime juice, minced garlic, and cilantro, (the cilantro was added off heat while making the butter/wine reduction- not cooked.) Along side this were the hand-mashed potatoes with plenty of butter, and steamed mixed, fresh veggies, also in butter. I had chopped onion, and cilantro, to garnish the soup, at the table, but forgot to disinfect the cilantro. It is something I doubt I will ever forget, if I live long enough.
You should be reading this on Thursday, the 19th. We should already have been to the American Embassy here in CDMX, and we should have gotten a few things straightened out with our Social Security Administration. I hope to be very much better by then.
I leave you with the familiar quote from one of the Star Trek movies , “resistance is futile. You must comply.” This is a lesson I will never forget- if I forget to disinfect the cilantro, and it is not cooked, thereby killing the bacteria, there will be consequences.
Last night, (actually, on the 11th) I am proud to say, I made birria de res for the family. Paty is out of town for the week so I am learning, quickly, how to cook some wonderful Mexican dishes. Birria has so much flavor, mostly due the different dried chiles used. I also used two different cuts of beef, 1 kilo of chuck roast with the bone, and 1 kilo of beef ribs, cut into 3” pieces. I also included 2 leg bones for the marrow because it adds additional flavor. I browned the meat first then put everything in the Instant Pot.
I made the sauce by first browning the 8 guajillo chiles, while, at the same time, boiling 2 chipotle, and 6 morita chiles. Blended said chiles with 18 large garlic cloves, 1 1/2 tsp. oregano, a pinch of thyme, salt and pepper, then put it through a sieve strainer, on top of the meat, in the Instant Pot. Also into the pot went 4 bay leaves, 1 1/2 cups of apple cider vinegar, and 1 1/2 cups of water. Put the lid on, programmed the pressure setting for 1 hour, and that was that.
One hour later we had quite a feast.
I have not had much experience cooking sauces using the dried chiles but have wanted to try my hand at it for some time. Each combination of chiles creates a different flavor, obviously, but browning them, or boiling them, also changes the flavor.
Tonight we’re having salmon with wine infused butter and herbs, steamed veggies, and smashed potatoes. I made the potatoes last night so I had one less thing to do today. I also had to mash them by hand with one of those hand held mashers with the holes in it. It is no wonder women of my mother’s generation were so strong. Until modern appliances that is. There are still small pieces of potato’s throughout but everyone was fine with that. So, I am going to be fine with it as well.
If you are looking for a really special dinner that does not require hours of cooking, go to YouTube and search Birria de Res. There are hundreds of versions, but there are a few in English you might try. Enjoy.
Now that we are here, living the dream, we need to convert everything– money, weights, volumes, temperature, everything to metric. Easy, no- doable, absolutely!
I am so glad I have the Apple XR phone with me almost all of the time! It converts so many things, so quickly. I am even starting to convert them in my head. (See. I am teachable, still.) MPH vs K/H is still a bit difficult, but as I do a bit of cooking for the family, I have had to convert pounds to kilos frequently, when we go to the grocery store. Pesos to dollars, kilometers to feet, or miles; milliliters to cups, or teaspoonsful, etc.
Yesterday we made 3 tortillas Españolas for the family. It took me 2 solid hours, due to the altitude. When we went to the store to buy the ingredients, everything is in Kg/peso. There are 2.2 pounds per kilo, and 19.78 pesos per dollar. If you buy 1.75 kilos of tomato’s at 4 pesos per kilo, how much are you going to pay, in pesos? We bought 3.4 kilos of tomatoes. Now, how many pounds did we buy, and how much did we pay per pound?
As it is almost 9 pm on a Sunday night, so, I do not care what we paid. If you can do the conversion, let me know in the comments below how much we paid for the tomatoes, will you? Thanks. I am starting to enjoy the exactness of metric.
I know I have said in an earlier post, but bougainvilleas are, bar none, my favorite flowering bush/tree. They grow in some of the most beautiful colors that make you smile reflexively. Here are just a few stock photos I found to illustrate just how magical they are. I hope you enjoy them. I will add my own photos when I can.
Many years ago, we bought a painting by a friend of ours, here in CDMX, Rocio is her name (photo below), and it showcases the beauty of the bougainvillea in a way that made me anxious to move here, and someday, have bougainvilleas of our own.
I hope you enjoy these few examples of the bougainvillea, and, an even larger hope is that they bring a smile to your heart every time you see a bougainvillea.
As I type this post, it is after 2 hours of making 3 of the best tortillas Españoles I have made to date. Some of you are not aware of this amazing dish from Spain; let me explain.
They consist of eggs, potatoes, olive oil, and salt. The optional component is onion. From my research, onion is very controversial, therefore, as I am partial to a bit of controversy, now and then, we use onion. And lots of it.
Here I am cooking 3 medium, peeled, white potatoes, cut to about, 0.5 cm. thick, and 1 whole, white onion, cut very thinly. There is 1 tsp. Olive oil in the pan, and it is on the lowest setting the element can handle. I put 1/2 tsp. salt on the top, added 2 tbs. water, covered, and let cook for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, stir gently, (fold really), so nothing sticks, or darkens, but you do not break up the potatoes. Cover. Cook another 10 minutes, then fold again. Do this until, when pierced with a fork, the potatoes are tender. (Here, it takes almost 30 minutes, because of the altitude; up North, probably 20 minutes). When the potatoes are getting close to tender, beat 5-7 eggs, depending on their size- (here the eggs are small, so we needed to use 7), in a large mixing bowl until frothy. When the potatoes are done, set them aside, uncovered, to cool for several minutes. (Meanwhile, you can clean up the mess you made peeling the potatoes, and slicing the onions. Do the dishes you have dirtied, through out the peels, etc.; you get the idea).
Next, when the potatoes are done, and cool, and the eggs beaten, add the potatoes, and onions, to the beaten eggs, and mix them thoroughly, but gently, covering all of the potatoes with the eggs- no potatoes should be allowed to stick together. Let this sit, for a few minutes, while you reheat the frying pan. Put another teaspoon of Olive oil in the frying pan, and gently add the potato and egg mixture, making sure that all of the potatoes are covered with egg. (Everything is done slowly, and gently. Nothing is rushed in this dish, or it will not turn out well in the end.)
Cover the frying pan, again, and allow the tortilla to cook until the top of the tortilla is almost completely set. Take a silicone spatula and move the whole thing away from the edges. How? Gently!! You want the tortilla to be mobile at this point. If the tortilla moves in the opposite direction when you twist and turn the pan, in opposite directions, you are in good shape. Cover again.
When the tortilla is almost completely set, place a serving plate, somewhat larger than the frying pan, over the frying pan, place an oven mitt over the serving plate, take it over the sink, and flip the daggone thing over. With a bit of luck, then skill, the tortilla will be almost completely cooked, and ready to be placed back in the skillet to finish cooking. So do it. After another 5-7 minutes, depending on how done it was on the first side, slide it onto your serving plate/platter, and put it to the side to cool.
When allowed to cool completely, serve at room temperature with any sides you like. Here we serve it as is, and with chorizo, and salsa, on the side. The top, on the left, have mushroom, and the top right, has spinach. The last one, bottom right, is in the classic form
There are many forms of this “breakfast omelet”, breakfast tortilla, or Tortilla Español. This is how we make it, and enjoy it, a few times a year. Tonight, I made Tortillas Españoles- one with mushrooms, one with chard (here it is more spinach than chard), and one in the classic form. We will enjoy them tomorrow morning with strong coffee. Try it sometime- tortillas Españoles.
Several people have asked me recently, if I am able to speak Spanish yet. The shortest answer I can give you is, yes, more than 6 months ago, but, no, not as much as I will 6 months from now. The nice thing is that everyone, well, most everyone in my arena, speaks English as well as I speak Spanish!! We all get by, by simply helping each other with the language differences.
Verbs, and their tenses. Need I say anything more? They are the downfall of any person learning a different language. Think of how many times you ask someone about something that happened weeks ago, or something that will happen next week, next month, or next year. Each has a completely different verb tense, so, unless you are taking classes to learn these tenses, you have to listen, and retain.
Therein lies the problem for me, really anyone in this situation. You listen to the conversation being spoken in Spanish around you, then, you have to translate what you are hearing into English, formulate a response in Spanish that sounds remotely acceptable, then actually speak that response. All within seconds. Then, the next sentence comes, and you use the above algorithm, repeat, and so on, until the conversation ends. For the first few weeks I was exhausted, mentally, by days end. Now, I am able to speak in a somewhat more confident manner, and am definitely more easily understood.
I understand the bulk of most conversations, so I am able to make some sort of appropriate response. Fortunately, for me, they all, our cousin Pepe, in particular, gently correct me. But Pepe, his wife Paty, and Juan, also explain what I have said incorrectly, and how to say it correctly in the future. Big help.
Then there is their brother, Marco, who speaks 100 MPH, and I rarely understand him. When he notices me giving him the “you have got to be kidding me” look, he laughs, knowing all the while I understood nothing of what just flew by my hearing. After he has had his chuckle, he will either say what I just missed in a much simpler Spanish, or, if he feels like practicing, he will say the whole bit in English. We all come to an understanding, in the end.
The more important thing about learning a different language, for me anyway, is that here, they love me, and are willing to help me, any way they can, to learn this different, but beautiful, new language.
