Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

I have a good feeling about tomorrow. I think I a going to try my hand at making rolls, or, maybe, pizza. I want to see what the fermentation of yeast is like, here, at seven thousand feet above sea level.

Probably going to start out with a garlic, oregano, thyme dinner roll. Going to use olive oil, salt, and, half and half AP flour, and bread flour. I have no idea how it will turn out, but I will keep a record, just in case it is awesome.

At some point, I would like to make bolillos, tortillas, and, maybe, even pan dulces- sweet breads. It has been about two years since I made bread of any kind, so, it may take me awhile to get back in the groove. I hope not, as I have nothing but time on my hands. Hopefully that will be to my advantage. I will let you know.

While the dough is rising, and the weather is beautiful, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, protect your loved ones.

Post script: my second batch of kombucha is just about the same as what I made in the states. It is sour, with a hint of sweet. Some bottles are highly carbonated, some are not. That is fine with me. Trial and error.

I was watching a video, on the YouTube channel, “Juaja Cocina Mexicana” the other day, searching for a recipe for a hearty chicken soup. In the video, Janet, the cook, calls for a sprig of fresh thyme, or, una ramita de tomillo. It is one of many items not yet in my pantry, so, on the shopping list it went.

This morning we went to Soriana to replenish perishables, and, low, and behold, there it was- una ramita de tomillo. Actually, it was in a small bundle of aromatics, or, hierbas de olor. Well, let me show you.

I do not know about you, but I, personally, have only seen bay leaves in a jar. All of those leaves are Bay Laurel leaves. The top right is Mexican oregano, and the bottom is ….. wait for it… ramitas de tomillo, sprigs of thyme. Yay!

As I was skeptical about finding the above, last night I ordered seeds, and growing materials, plus fertilizer from Amazon.mx. It should be here in the next week, or so. It has to come from the US. Oh, well. I will be able to grow some of the herbs I am learning to use in cooking.

When it gets here, I will be sure to let you see the progress. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

Post script: the soup is very tasty, and only used a few veggies, not the bazillion I used in my last soup.

Well, night, actually. This post is probably going to be MA-50, so act accordingly.

Listen, this may be TMI for most of you, so I advise that you go read someone else’s blog post, now, because I am going to get “real” here. And, if you think this is not something you want to read, go elsewhere. It will not hurt my feelings, or yours, most likely.

I have to tell you what happened to us, the other night, sometime after we went to sleep. (During this pandemic, for me to actually “go to sleep”, usually takes hours).

There I was, finally, sleeping, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I was beyond involved in this dream I was having, (which will remain entirely in my own memory, but feel free to insert your own as we progress through it). My body was soaring through the air, however, my mind knew exactly what was happening.

To say that I had the most incredible experience of my life, does not even come close to how I felt (and I have had a lot of amazing experiences). What seemed to take, for me, only moments, (in my recollection, I was asleep for gosh sake), took a bit of time, (according to YKW).

Who was right, and who was wrong? WHO CARES???? It was comparable to an eight, or nine, on the seismic scale of quakes!! Who lives through something like that? I am happy to say that we did. We will never forget it.

I was hesitant to share this with you, but it must be put out there- it happens. Maybe it is rare, as it should be, but it happens. I hope, someday, it happens to you. It is something you will never forget.

Do I want this same type of thing to happen again? Are you daft??? Of course I do. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, protect your loved ones. (Be ready to experience, and enjoy, your own dream!! 😉

I am sure that I have told you, multiple times, how much I absolutely love living this new life, here, in the heart of México. I have waited my whole life to live here, and, here we are.

We had a meeting, the other night, to discuss certain things, happening, here, in the condominium; things that needed to be discussed between all of the owners of their condos. Did that happen? Of course not. There were four of us condo owners there, two administrators, one Security guard, Ismael, and one, from Maintenance, Jesús.

What was discussed is still up for interpretation, as I do not, at present, speak, or understand Spanish fluently,. What I did get from this meeting was thus:

1: Dogs will not longer be allowed in the condominio, once Dr. Iram is spoken to. (He has rented his condo, next to ours, to a young couple that have TWO dogs!!! WTH??? He read the letter, stating the specification of condo living to all of us at the November meeting!!!

2: Owners, without a key to the front door, or a garage door opener, will not be allowed into the condo, without first speaking to one of the administrators.

Sorry. I have to go to bed now. I just ate the filling Dr. Priscila helped me with today. How stupid can a person be?

I will reconvene later this week to update you on every little thing that has transpired. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, stay vigilant. Protect those you love.

We both went to see the dentist this morning. Do you remember her, Dr. Priscila? This is how she looked as she took care of us today.

My last metal filling fell out three, maybe four, weeks ago, and then quite a bit of my tooth broke off, after that. Lovely. Not much I dislike more than going to the dentist.

I have had bad teeth since childhood, and nothing has changed that, in my adult life, except amalgam. That is the stuff they use to fill your teeth, then put that blue light on it for a few seconds, “to cure it”. It is amazing. And, it leaves the tooth white, and stronger than the original enamel. How cool is that, I ask you?!

Well, we went to her office, as I said, after calling yesterday to see if she was back to work yet. Ivan went first, to have some adjustments to his implant posts, and then, it was my turn.

To say that I am “one of those” patients, those, that clasp their hands so tightly over their abdomen that it is like holding on for my life, and do not breathe for long moments of time, then, yes, that is me.

I can, and, do, admit it- I am the white knuckler that people laugh about. A few years back, I had a cavity that needed attention so I went to a dentist quite close to our house. To say that he traumatized me for the past ten years, is absolutely no joke. He gave me the smallest amount of local anesthetic humanly possible, let my side, to go work on someone else, came back and started drilling. I almost got sick on the spot. It was like this for about four injections, directly over the tooth, not at the nerve bundle, at the joint of the top and bottom jaw. No siree.

We played this game of start and stop for about forty five minutes, in which time, he was finally able to get the worst amalgam filling on the tooth, and sent me on my way. Thank God.

I have been dreading the dentist visits, even just for a cleaning, ever since.

Today, however, Dr. Priscila has restored my faith in the practice, and I am now, going forward, going to be much more calm in her chair than I was today.

We have follow up appointments for next Wednesday, but until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, and protect your loved ones.

I should be excited about this being the one hundredth day of quarantine, because of the CoVid19 virus, but I am not. Is anyone?

Today, you may be happy to know, we had three bottles of some awesome homemade kombucha, pineapple flavored. I have found that, for a second fermentation, which actually gives the kombucha more carbonation, and flavor, pineapple, fresh, or frozen, gives the drink the most amount of flavor thus far.

I have not had the opportunity, down here, anyway, to do much experimentation with second fermentation flavors. I added some guayaba to the pineapple, and that fermented well. Before that, I found some ginger, in the grocery store, and added a bit of that, and that did as well. As the fermentation times are so completely different than that of up North, (it took a week to ten days for first ferment, then another four to seven days for the second ferment), this is all sort of a win, lose, or draw investment right now. I think, once the world is done with this blasted virus, things will be considerably different than they are at present.

That said, this last batch of “booch” is great. It has the right amount of sweet, tart, and carbonation. I am hoping the next batches are equally good. The first fermentation only took three days, in the two gallon jug, and two more days after being decanted into sixteen ounce flip top bottles. Once I saw the carbonation already present, after such a short period, I got them into the fridge, so they did not bust open the bottles.

I have since made two, two gallon jars of the “mother”, and am waiting to finish the bottles of kombucha already made. Now that we know how good it is, it will not take us more than a few days to finish the lot.

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

Post script: Have I mentioned “The Alienist”? An absolute must watch! Netflix. You will thank me later. Well, Lynn, you will not- definitely. Everyone else, watch it.

Woohoo!!! The “house” phone just rang, (the one that anyone uses at the front door, downstairs, inside or outside, to talk with us), and, I answered it. Yes, you read that correctly. I answered it. It was a delivery man from Estafeta, a company, like FedEx, or DHL, but used, quite frequently, for international deliveries.

The gentleman, at the other end, who was outside, said he had a package for us. So I got my keys, and headed for the front door. The main door has a four dead bolt lock, plus a regular, one bolt lock, though both open using the same key, turned multiple times in the lock.

Anyway, I went downstairs, signed for the package, and walked back up stairs, just a bit lighter in my step than yesterday. You see, last night, I decided to start watching my absolute favorite show, (at the moment) “Chicago Fire”, by listening to it in Spanish, with English subtitles. You cannot imagine, in just a few, short hours, how much confidence it has given me. Somewhere, in the back of my all too feeble mind, that little bit of audible Spanish has given me the impetus to continue my self-education of the beautiful Spanish language, though, this time, jumping in with both feet, so to speak.

I was momentarily struck by just how much Spanish I already know, yet, do not give myself any credit. Dumb! So, while I am continuing on my second language journey, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, and stay vigilant. No one can do it for you.

Post script: Happy Fourth of July, though, down here, we have read that most celebrations have been cancelled. That does not make the day any less needing to be celebrated. The independence of the leading nation in the world needs to be remembered, with, or without all of the hoopla! Take the country back from ANTIFA, and all of the looters, and MakeAmericaGreatAgain.

NEVER AGAIN!!!

This evening, I got on the scale, and, am heavier than I have ever been, in my entire life.

I took a picture of the scale, and may, possibly, post it here, just to let you know what six months of incarceration has done to me. Needless to say, I/we have begun doing something about this.

We have not stopped eating, because that is just not right. What we have done, is stop eating so much. By we, I really mean me. I am so bored, the only thing I do is eat, watch stuff on my iPad Pro, drink, and sleep.

We only go outside once a week, to buy perishables, and Tequila. Down here, no alcohol is sold Friday morning through Monday morning. So, one has to plan accordingly, or one has several sleepless nights, waiting for Monday. Sad, but true.

Instead of two over-easy eggs, with four strips of bacon, four ounces of cheese, and salsa on two beautifully charred flour tortillas for breakfast, I now only have one egg, scrambled, with onion and garlic powders, and nutritional yeast instead of cheese, (it has a cheese flavor), one slice of bacon, or whatever meat is available, and one beautifully charred corn tortilla; about half the calories, fats, etc. We will see.

Plus, for lunch, instead of two, or three, quesadillas, with cheese, pulled pork, and salsa, I have a large tossed salad, with about fifty grams of cottage cheese, two cherry tomatoes, one slice of Canadian bacon, (it is what was in the fridge that needed eating), and Ranch dressing, about two tablespoons. For dinner, it is whatever comes to mind, at this point- a quesadilla, a pulled pork taco, or a scrambled egg with toast. Much better, I assure you.

Will it work overnight? Not in my lifetime. But, as I have told many of you ad nauseum, lose the weight before you are in your fifties, much less your sixties. It is so hard for me, at three weeks short of sixty five, to lose weight, or exercise, which is exactly what I told you. Learn from my mistakes.

As I continue on this journey, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, stay vigilant. The virus is not even close to being through with the world. Do not believe you are immune. You are not. No one is.

You may be interested to know that, today, I actually got quite a bit done here.

Started out the very late morning by debunking the refrigerator, washing all of the empty storage containers and some odd dishes. Next came a quick brunch, for me cause YKW went back to bed.

After having a little something to eat, I spent the next hour browning two and a half kilos of pork leg for carnitas. Mmm. Love me some carnitas.

At the same time, I did three loads of laundry, well, washed and dried three loads. They still have to be hung up, or folded and put away. My least favorite part of the job.

Oh, I also vacuumed the condo, and then mopped the floors. I get so much work done when YKW is sleeping, or at least trying to sleep. I had to vacuum quickly.

Anyway, I am finally finishing up season six of Blacklist!! Love it. And, yesterday, or the day before, who can remember details, I finished Elementary, one of my favorite renditions of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. If you have not seen it, watch a few episodes. Now I am back to trying to find another series to watch. Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted. I think I am going to try Chicago Fire. It has twenty three episodes per season, and I have access to five seasons. Should keep me occupied for awhile. Who knows?

You know, that, until I can find another series, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect those you love.

When we are not staring, blindly, into the computer, I, personally, am watching TV shows on, either, YouTube, Netflix, or Prime Video. What do I watch, you ask? Well, let me ponder this a moment.

House- all seasons, OMG!

The Expanse- all seasons.

The Good Doctor- all seasons.

The Man in the High Castle – all seasons.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars- seasons 1-4, so far.

Game of Thrones- all seasons, multiple times. 🙂

Kitchen Nightmares- every season, every episode, in the US, and the UK.

Once Upon a Time- all seasons.

Do I like to watch anything that has very little to do with reality? You tell me.

Escape. I really do not care where, or how, I escape, I just want to escape. Forever? NO. It is always, and has been, temporary- until the episode/season/series ends.

I almost forgot a very special show called “Hunters” on Prime. Wow. Watch it if you get the opportunity. Fantastic.

What are you doing with this endless summer vacation? Until this “vacation” ends, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.