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We celebrated quite well the other night, for Ivan’s birthday! To say that none of us was able to go about our daily business the next day is an understatement!

The four of us, Ivan, the birthday recipient, (no, he is not a birthday boy!), Enrique, Marco, and I, shared two lovely bottles of vino tinto, (red wine), one from Argentina, and one from Baja de California, and, then, had a fine, not yet spectacular, dinner.

We, each, had a goodly sized portion of thirty day, medium rare, dry aged sirloin steak; a jus with butter; lovely mashed potatoes; a tossed salad, with cherry tomatoes, and, avocado, (with diced hard boiled egg, and, diced purple onion, on the side,), and, asparagus, grilled, with olive oil, coarse salt, then drizzled with Vinagre de Balsalmico!

There was very little to send home with “the guys”, but I did manage a bit. Each got a bit of potato mash, asparagus, and, whatever was left of the steak they had eaten. Not such a bad deal, I had to think!

Did I tell you how well my husband cleaned, and arranged the rooms, to accommodate the party? I hope I have the photos to show you what he did. (I just made the two dozen flour tortillas, potato mash, asparagus, steaks, and, salad. We share the load. It is the only way!)

These next forty, plus, birthdays, for both of us, are, and, will be, so special! Each one signifies another year of wonder, learning, exploring, learning, living!

We have found our Shangri la. There is no other place in this world we want to be. We are so at peace here, next to the beautiful parks, in the fresh air, the beautiful sunshine, the amazing people!

It is like nothing we have experienced before, except when coming here on vacation. But it is more than that; it is a new life experience! We are happy to embrace the lifestyle, the culture, the experience. This is why we are here.

Soon, in the next year, we are wanting to start traveling; within México, and, around the world. Until we do, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

I do not understand what is wrong with me. I wonder if I am losing what little mind I have left?!

So far, in just these two days past, I have misplaced a large, red, handheld fan from Japan, a gift, and, my small leather coin purse, full of coins!

Of course, I have not gone down to the cars, to check them; that is too much work. When Ivan goes out tomorrow, to get the new tires for the Mercedes, he will check the cars. Much easier that way. Of course, I will have to, at some point, go down, and check them myself. Either of us could be looking for an object that we cannot find, only to have the other one comment that it is in the other ones hand!!!

Such is life, eh? Until I find the dang things, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: I am going to try my hand at some sort of bread, or, rolls using some of the sourdough for leavening. I will let you know, good, or, bad, how things work out.

Can I write, just briefly, about the joys of constipation?

I have started making our own flour tortillas, and, let me just say- WOW. They have stopped me up like a plug in the sink. TMI- I know, but that is why you love me.

Now, we are finally outside, on our way to the grocery store, and, with all of the bumpy streets, my intestinal status is changing. Rapidly. If we do not get there, and, fairly quickly, well, I am not sure how to finish that thought.

Whew! Everything is fine. As an adult, I was able to control myself, therefore, all is well. We are on our way to drop off some groceries at Juan’s house, then, to Telcel, to check on our phone bill, and lastly, to Soriana, on a reconnaissance mission.

I have been trying to import King Arthur AP flour, but am unable. Now, I will have to start using whatever the best flour is here, locally. Should be interesting.

Until I can find all of the things I need to bake organically, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: after we dropped off the groceries at Juan’s, we stopped to chat for awhile, and, yes, business taken care of.

We did it. We cut up the thirty day dry aged beef primal of sirloin, and this is how it went. (This post will be mainly photos).

What an adventure. We started this on the twenty eighth of July, finishing today, the twenty seventh of August. Took up a bit of real estate in the fridge, but well worth the time, the space, and the expense.

I cannot recall how much we paid for the primal cut, but we gained two hundred fifty to three hundred dollars worth of steaks. They are going to be so tender, and delicious, we cannot wait.

The trimmings will be vacuum sealed and placed in the freezer. When we have enough room in the freezer to make some more ground beef, we will incorporate pieces of the trimmings as we grind the meat, which will impart deep, beefy flavor into the ground meat. Cannot wait!!

We are not going to eat the steaks until Saturday night, because we are going over to Juan’s house tomorrow night to have NY strips with them. Sacrifices.

I will let you know how they tasted, be assured. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

We just did another round of replenishing our staples; mostly for the birthday party tomorrow.

As we were driving down the streets, I was able to smell, in different places, the aroma of frying and/or grilling onions; something we have not smelled since last year. One of my favorite odors.

Now, we are sitting at a sidewalk table at the Copacabana, just down the street from Sam’s Club. We had lunch here, and are relaxing while our to-go burritos, for the family, are being made. Actually, here they called burros because they are so large.

I have to say there is nothing quite like the feeling of being on vacation every day instead of once a year. We are enjoying every day as it comes.

Here is what we saw at the Copa. (Feel free to break into song. Barry Manilow will thank you).

We each had one taco of brains, cheeks, tongue, jowls, and, steak. Brains, (sesos), not our favorite here. They were too soft. A little crispy would have been better. We both agreed.

It is overcast at the moment, and about sixty eight degrees. The perfect day to ride around town, seeing what is rejuvenating and what has closed, permanently.

Until we get done delivering our bounty, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

OMG!!! I went out to the kitchen, just a while ago, to finish putting away the remains of our supper, when I caught this out of the corner of my eye. I could not believe it. Wait until you see it. You will not believe it either.

I could not believe it. I have been dumping, and feeding, repeat, twice a day, for about sevenish days, with little, or nothing to show for it. All of a sudden, when I looked at the measuring cup, I could not longer see through the glass. I have always been able to see through the glass. What was happening? Could it be taking off, finally? YES! It did. It is. You know what I mean.

I am going to relax, go back to the bedroom, start typing this post so you folks can see what happens when you group your living fungal colonies within drifting distance of one another.

In the past, I was taught to keep different cultures at least five feet from each other, so they do not cross contaminate. Yesterday, however, I got to thinking that if the bacteria and yeast are all floating around in the atmosphere, what possible difference could it make how close together they sat on the countertop?! Let the experiment begin.

You can see for yourselves, from the above photos, it makes only a positive difference. I was getting nowhere with them across the room from each other; now we have sourdough, and, kombucha. Success in my estimation.

While I am now, more patiently, awaiting a loaf of crusty, crunchy crusted, open crumbed, soft interior artisanal sourdough bread, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

PS: happy birthday, honey.

Tomorrow is my husbands birthday. Happy birthday, honey.

In celebration, (we have been planning this since my birthday), we are going to have dry aged sirloin steaks for dinner. What are dry aged steaks, you ask? Let me show you.

Disclaimer: this is not for the faint of heart. Some photos may be unpleasant. Viewer discretion is advised.

Ok. You have been told about the photos I am going to post. Let me start by telling you what happens during the dry aging process, and, why we have waited thirty days to eat a steak.

We bought a primal cut of sirloin late last month, after having procured dry aging bags online, probably from Amazon, (where else?). Be assured, you need to get the bags first.

What is a primal cut? Google it, then you will not forget. I can only do so much 😉

Ok. Continuing on- we got the bags, got the meat, used the vacuum sealer to partially seal the end, then, had to use a baggy clip for the rest of the seal. (Oft times one needs improvise). Plenty of videos to watch on how to dry age meat. I like Sous Vide Everything. The guy’s name is Guga, and, he loves steak.

Normally, when one purchases a primal cut, it is taken home, cut into individual steaks, grilled, and, consumed; all within a relatively short amount of time. We, however, brought it home, put it in a wicking bag, sealed it, and, put in the refrigerator, on a cooling rack, to be left there for thirty days.

Here is what we have at day twenty eight. Ready?

When we take it out of the bag day after next, Ivan will trim off, but save, all of the outside of the primal. All of the fat, all of the meat, down about one quarter, to possibly, one half inch; whatever is needed to debride the dried exterior. (Save the cuttings, so when you make your own ground beef, or sausage, you can add some of the savings for better flavor. It does not taste good in this application).

What will be left is still a significant piece of beef that he will cut into one and one half to two inch steaks. We should be able to get at least five, if not six steaks out of this. If you ever get to go out to a nice restaurant again, check the price of a dry aged sirloin steak. An eight ounce steak can easily cost you forty five, or fifty dollars. Doing this ourselves saved us more than half of that cost.

The taste? In a word, amazing. It is completely different than a fresh steak, more nutty, more depth. I know how that sounds, and, many will say why? We say why not? It took a month, but it was worth every day.

We waited, and were rewarded with beautiful steaks. I will be sure to take photos of them throughout the process, all the way to the grill.

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

Quite the productive day, today. I have gotten so much done, actually, yesterday, and, today. Here goes.

When I opened the bottle of kombucha, not much happened, at first. The mango, and blueberries all floated up into the neck of the bottle, with a small amount of fizz. Wow! Just what I was hoping. Just as it should be on day three.

I say floated, when, what I really mean is that they were jammed up into the neck with quite a force behind them. That “small amount of fizz”, was just the beginning of what was building up behind it, as well.

Fortunately, I looked into the middle of the bottle and saw how fast things were moving. I got the swing cap back on the bottle top just shortly after the geyser started to erupt.

I reached the sink, with just a slight spray to the face, inverted the bottle, (that sent everything that could move to the other end of the bottle, temporarily), grabbed a large glass out of the dish drainer, (another excellent reason not to rush to put your dishes away ;), opened the bottle into the glass, and, let it pour. Effervescence everywhere. Bliss.

Unfortunately, I could not take a photo while all of that was happening, and, in truth, it took less than a minute from open to pour. You cannot see any of the carbonization in the glass as the mango bits are floating all around. Trust me, though, they are there. My kombucha lives!!! Score.

I nestled the sourdough starter right up tight, with the kombucha, in hopes that they will help each other during their struggles to remain alive in this oxygen-depleted environment. It is the only thing I can think of to do for them both. If anyone has any ideas about fermentation at almost eight thousand feet above sea level, I am anxious to know what it is. It is absolutely nothing like doing this from whence we came. That sort of worked all by itself. Not so here.

Until I can get these cultures happy, and healthy, you do that for each other, will you? Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones. Until next time.

I had a couple of hours, whilst I was supposedly sleeping, to contemplate how I should rearrange the kitchen. This afternoon, I did just that. Here are the results.

I cannot tell you how many times I have forgotten a certain something in the produce tier, only to find it decomposing on the rack, in the back, of course. Yuck! So, now that I brought it over, in front of my eyes, I should have a bit better control over the beast.

In the new fermentation station, in the back, you will see the eleven bottles of newly bottled kombucha! They are just starting their second fermentation, all of them with mango, and blueberries. Hopefully they will taste better than the first batch I made.

In the little jar that is covered, is my second, actually my third attempt at a sourdough starter. Sometimes I find it full of bubbles, then, the next time, nothing. What the heck? I am not giving up. I will do this until we have a loaf of sourdough bread if it takes me another year to get it to live!

In the bowl, to the left, is the SCOBY (the “mother” that feeds on the tea, and sugar she is fed, thus producing kombucha in return), that developed in the second two gallon container. It turned to a sour vinegar, because someone was too lazy to deal with it, so I dumped it out this afternoon. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Until I better understand the fermentation cycle down here, I am limiting myself to only one two gallon container. The other container now contains drinking water. Convenient. Yay!

I ordered a new wok that will be here by Friday, in theory, so we will start doing some Asian style cooking. Unfortunately, however, we still have a freezer full of European meats- Bratwurst, for example. We have three packages of four brats, several packages of Italian sausages, British bangers, plus, thick cut bacon. I am sure they will be taken care of when we get back to that part of the world, on our food journey around the world.

Too funny! Even for me. Until we get back, so to speak, I know you know what to do. In case you are new here, however, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: wait until you see what I have planned for the pantry!

How sad!?

We drove by a whole street of small restaurants that have closed, and, not only do those people have to bear the grief of losing their livelihoods, but, as of just the past few weeks, the exteriors are covered in graffiti!

Not colorful, attractive graffitis, just ugly, black words, spray painted on their places of business. How sad.

Graffiti is springing up everywhere. What a shame. More, and, more on the outside of houses, as well. It is ugly, and, a bit depressing, too. Yes, it has always been here, everywhere, really. It just seems to be more of it now.

I hope things will turn around after the new year, and, in that hope stay healthy, stay happy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.