Pronounced bah-cah-LAH-oh, it’s a cod dish that originated in the Mediterranean part of the world. It is absolutely delicious.
It’s a dish that is usually prepared at Christmas time, as a special treat, as it takes several days to prepare. Making it is quite an undertaking that’s worth every minute.
Bacalao, the cod, comes salted, and in 2 liter containers, needing to be rinsed, and soaked over a 48 hour period, changing the water at least 3 times a day. By the end of all of the that, the water is no longer salty, and it’s ready to shred.
There are a lot of ingredients needed for this stew, and we are making enough to take with us to Los Altos for the New Year. We have, coming today, 2 liters of small white potatoes, 2 liters of Roma tomatoes, and 2 bunches of parsley. We already have the chiles, (chile güero, or Santa Fe chile), onion, garlic, red, and yellow bell peppers, olives, capers, (alcaparras), and the cod. We (I) just have to shred the desalinated cod, remove all of the bones, and we’ll be ready to go. Sounds like a lot of work to me.
The capers, and the chiles güeros, (GWEH-rows).Fresh from the fridge, already desalinated. Ready to shred. This is the junk we aren’t going to use; the bones, and tough meat.
It ended up looking like this.
The shredded cod. The final product from when we were living in Iowa, 12/2016. It was delicious.
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
The state of Guerrero, to the Southwest of us, just got hit with at least a 7, maybe stonger, earthquake.
Fortunately for me, at least, I was notified by an app I have on my phone, and iPad Pro called SASSLA. Obviously, it is an alerting app that warns us of seismic activity in the entire country. So far, though, only the state of Guerrero has experienced quake, after quake.
Probably doesn’t mean a lot to any of you folks, but down here, well, you can see, it’s less than an hour Northwest of Acapulco. They are getting hammered by all of the activity.
This was the first earthquake I have actually experienced, start to finish, sitting down. I was sitting on my glider, in the bedroom, when my alarms went off. I silenced both the phone, then the computer, (YKW was sleeping. Didn’t want to wake him unless needed.), and started counting; the alarms told me we had 41 seconds before we would feel it. They were spot on.
The dogs in the area all started barking, at about 30 seconds; that’s when I knew it was going to happen. The dogs are never wrong.
As I got to the final 5 seconds, my glider started moving backwards, and forwards, gently, at first. The chimes in the laundry area started clanging; I could hear them from the bedroom. As the quake intensified, so did the motion of the glider. Strange, though, that the alarm outside, in the park, never went off. Hmmm.
If you’ve never experienced an earthquake, I have to tell you, it is the strangest sensation I have ever felt. It feels as if you are drunk, trying to stagger from one place to another, looking for safety. The entire floor, where you are standing, starts to move out from underneath you.
While standing, your first inclination is to remain standing, but your entire frame of reference is gone. The step you want to take forward, ends up being sideways. Your orientation is completely confused. While you wait for the world to right itself, all you can do is
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
The wind chimes, and the dogs, are still, and silent. As well, most of the residents here must have slept through it as there is no shouting, or talking in the garage below us. Me? I’m sending word to all of you that we are fine.
Post script: it has been registered as a 6. Another one was just declared, and is in progress, in Guerrero. Probably the aftershock.
I am giving away about a dozen, at least, tops that no longer fit, as well as about 7 pairs of slacks. Ugh.
So depressing, if I cared the least about how heavy I’ve gotten. My husband likes the feel of me now, at my age, now that I have “grown into my body”, as he likes to say. We laugh because when we were young, I always thought of myself as fat. Now that I am fat, I don’t see it, until I go to the shower. Then, a naked me has to walk in front of the bathroom mirror.
It’s a lying bastard, that’s all I can think. I’m sure I haven’t gotten that big. Ok, I have, but, as long as he still loves me, that’s all I care about.
He is helping me dress appropriately to my size, and, more importantly, to my age. In my mind I’m still in my 50’s; chronologically, however, I’m 67 1/2. I am slowly coming to accept that fact. Slowly.
While I come to grips, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves. Please.
We brined said Tomás in a mixture of apple cider, (obtained with a bit of difficulty), lemons, limes, mandarins, onions, garlic, rosemary, thyme, black peppercorns, brown sugar, and, of course, salt. Here’s a photo.
He swam in the brine, in a lovely, controlled 35ºF refrigerator, for 36 hours, then went into a lovelier hot, 375ºF oven, for about 2 hours. Half of the breast made it upstairs, to Liz, and Jesús, and the other half is in a foil wrapped blanket in our fridge, anxiously awaiting our enjoyment.
Nothing much else to tell you. We ate a box of Stove Top stuffing, forgot the cranberry sauce, and the sweet potatoes, but will put everything together, one of these days.
We also made a beautiful stock with all of the vegetables, and turkey neck, giblets, etc.. The breast was moist, tender, and the skin was a rich, deep brown. Can’t wait.
We will make some mole, eventually, that will, hopefully, knock our socks off, if we wore socks.
Hope all of you enjoyed your holidays thus far; I know we have. Going to the forever home for the Christmas/New Year. Can’t wait.
Will also be getting my haircut while there. Can’t wait.
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves. Maybe, someday, we can consider the use of masks a thing of the past.
We have had too much time to think about the final disposition of Tomás.
We have changed how we are going to finish him off; how much of him to brine now, and freeze for later; what parts to to freeze inthe brine, or not; what to roast for our “dinner”; well, you get the idea.
As of tonight, we are thinking about brining everything, individually, in ziplock bags, roasting 1/2 of the breast, and one leg, and thigh, freezing the rest in its brine.
There is so much differing information on the internet about freezing meat in its brine, however, most of it says that it stops the brining process until it is thawed before use.
The cream of mushroom soup came today, I am sure you wanted to know that. The canned green beans, come tomorrow, so that’s going to be ready to go. Corn on the cob is frozen, in the freezer, obviously; and the cranberry sauce came last week. Now, we are just waiting for the apple cider, and veg to be delivered tomorrow, and the brine will be made.
Can’t wait.
Hope things turn out as well as we hope they will.
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
A quick update on Tomás. I cut him into sections this morning, about 4:00 am. Put him, and his parts into our roasting pan, and another casserole dish, covered him in foil, and put him back in the fridge to finish thawing out. He is still so frozen, I could hardly cut him up.
All of the fruits, and veg. we need for the brine, and sides are coming tomorrow sometime, so we should be able to have roasted turkey, et al, by this Thursday. he was still full of ice.
Probably doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that the fridge is almost empty, and is set at 35ºF, do you suppose?
Hope everyone is happy, healthy, and safe. Don’t forget to wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
Tomas (toe-MAHS) arrived this morning, about 11am. Ugh!
Of course, we hadn’t been asleep but about 2 hours. Never fails.
HE’S HUGE. But gorgeous. This is what he looked like, squashed in the fridge.
The shelf was actually lifted up about a centimeter at this point.
Here he is in profile. We both said that we had never seen a turkey that wasn’t “unnaturally” yellowish white. (Batterball™ turkeys). Tomas is without anything natural, and doesn’t appear to have more than a few grams of fat on him. Plus, just look at that thigh. It’s actual dark meat; you can see it.
LOOK AT THE THIGH ON THIS BIRD!!!Look at those breasts. Wow!!!That’s the neck silly you.
We are anxious to get him thawed, cooked, eaten, and stored. Will it happen Thursday, as we hope? Don’t know; don’t care. We have so many plans for this big guy that it really doesn’t matter.
Why living on the edge, you ask?
Night night.
We are going to leave him on the stove top, covered nicely, for the night, and see how his is in the morning. Right now, it’s 11:37pm, and he is solid as a rock. As it is 56ºF here, I doubt salmonella will set in overnight. I’ll let you know if we get sick.
Plans are to cut off the leg, and thigh portions, and, the wings, leave the breasts, and back intact, brine everything in this wonderful sounding recipe we downloaded, then roast everything, at 350ºF for 13” per pound, according to the weight of each piece.
Figure it this way, if left whole, Tomas would take almost 5 hours to cook to completion. This way, however, when it’s time for the wings to come out, they come out properly cooked, not dry, and hard as rocks. Same with the thighs, the legs, and the breasts. The back/carcass will go into a vacuum sealed bag, the freezer, and then, to a stewing pot, or will be used for bone broth; to be decided at a later date.
Something to note; we have 4 different flavors of mole sauces, (really, do I have to do this? MO-ley), in the freezer, ready to be eaten with any leftover turkey pieces.
After it’s inception, moles were used, almost exclusively, with turkey as the meat source, for a meal of special importance. To make a mole sauce with turkey was not only time consuming, (the sauce), but expensive, (the turkey).
In the more recent past, however, mole has become more available to the masses in a paste form, which is used, more frequently, with chicken, (pollo- POY-jo) for any excuse available. This mass production of mole sauce has taken all of the 35+ ingredients, and the 2-3 day cooking/simmering time necessary to make a real mole sauce, out of the hands of the everyday home cook. If you find a good mole paste, it is hard not to want it more than once, or twice a year.
Mexican white rice, (arroz Mexicana- ah-ROS me-he-CAH-na), black beans, (frijoles negros- free-HO-les NE-grows), guacamole, and corn tortillas are the usual accompaniments to mole, especially when made with pollo.
We have decided that, for us, leaving Tomas on the stove tonight may frighten him, but, after cooking him at 350ºF for a few hours, it ought to kill any bacteria he may be harboring. We’ll let you know
One way, or the other. Hahahaha.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving in whatever way is good for you, and your families. But, please,
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect yourselves.
Post script: Tomas went into the fridge, forceably, about 5:30 this morning. He put up quite the fuss, struggled for about 3 minutes, and then succumbed. Ivan could move the wings; there was about a cm of skin depth felt, but nothing else moved. Looks like Thanksgiving for us will be on Saturday. Stay tuned.
It doesn’t matter where you are, the 4th Thursday in November happens all over the world. Not everyone makes the excuse to celebrate it however; their loss.
Look at how the US has embraced Cinco de Mayo, for goodness sake. That was a brain storm if ever there was one. We didn’t care what the Mexicans were celebrating, it became a day of celebration for everyone. Yay!!!!
We have a 10kg “natural” turkey arriving today before 5pm. (As it is 5:23am now, that’s only 12 hours away.) THERE ARE ONLY 2 OF US. THAT IS A 22 POUND TURKEY. Somebody, just shoot me.
HE ordered a 10k turkey, NOT doing the conversion, so we will have mole de Pavo for months. OR, those sandwiches that have the turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and gravy inside 2 pieces of bread. Either way, they’re both a win.
What’s not to like? There’s not going to be any room in the fridge, OR freezer after Thursday, for sure.
Don’t know what you’re going to be making, but, for the 2 of us, HE has paired it down to the following: the humongous turkey, (pavo- PAH-vo) brined for our first time; sweet potatoes, (camotes- ca-MO-tehs); green bean casserole, (cacerola de ejotes- ca-ser-OH-la deh ey-HO-tehs); jellied cranberry sauce, Stove Top turkey stuffing, (no translation is available at this time, however, we got both of them delivered just yesterday); there is a possibility of dinner rolls, (HE wants me to make buttermilk biscuits, as if I have nothing else to do. Oh, I’ll help you, he says); but there will definitely be pumpkin pie. Thank you Costco.
I will be making the whipped cream, (crema para batir), with my heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, (azúcar glas- a-SUE-car glass, and yes, I have to make that too), plus, a bit of vanilla. Can’t wait.
We hope your holiday season is starting out well, and that it continues to do so throughout. We will be trying to gut the living room, making room for our few Christmas decorations, so I’ll let you know how that proceeds.
Sorry the posts have been sparse lately. There is absolutely NOTHING to do here these days. Hopefully, after the new year, I will somehow be inspired to continue on with this blog. If not daily, then, possibly weekly. Surely I can find something to write about weekly.
Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
Post script: today would have been Mom and Dad’s 70th wedding anniversary. Felicitaciones.
Sorry about that. We have our days, and nights backwards, and are up all night, sleep all day. It is so incredibly
I couldn’t think of the right word to use so I left it.
We bought a beautiful slab of salmon, and 4 lovely chuck steaks, which have been in the freezer, and now the fridge, that need to be “processed”. Meaning, I need to cut them into our small serving sizes, and vacuum seal them, returning them to the freezer.
Our freezer is full again with two processed chickens, the carcasses, about 2 k. of ground beef, and 5 k. of pork leg. Pork is the most eaten protein here, but chicken is a very close second. Fortunately, we enjoy both of said proteins. Beef is plentiful, but so much tougher here that it is hardly worth trying to soften them up.
Back to the chuck steaks: they had the audacity to bleed all over the bottom shelf of the fridge last night. I had, without thinking, placed both of the styrofoam platters at an angle, still in their plastic wrap, and the plastic bag we put them in at the store.
Ugh!
Now, not only do I need to process them, and seal them up, but I have to clean the fridge, too.
Have I mentioned how much I really dislike cleaning the fridge? Fortunately for me, it’s been awhile, so the whole thing needs cleaning, and rearranging. Lucky for me I have a little spare time to do the very thing.
I’m not sure what time of the night I’m going to do that, but I hope it won’t make too much noise.
The other morning, about 3:40am., I cleaned the kitchen counters, the dishes, the outside of the fridge, the microwave, (what a blessing it is), and then the toilets in the 2 useable bathrooms.
Got to “sleep”, if one can call it that, about 10am. “Slept” until 2pm. That is my usual schedule. Once awake, I try to stay horizontal for at least another hour. Remember, mom called it “resting your eye”.
That’s about it for now. Wanted to make sure you all realize we’re still alive, and living the dream.
Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.
Our “forever home” is materializing at a wonderful speed. We are giving serious consideration to renting this apartment, but have not decided. The monetary climate right now, is not conducive to selling it, and receiving the amount of money we want for it. As it was paid for in cash, whatever we get will be a bonus.
