Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

I had the opportunity to make another really flavorful meal for everyone tonight- baked salmon, with Ivan’s butter, pineapple marmalade, and mayo on top; fried white, and sweet potatoes with onion, garlic, and Parmesan cheese; and a bacon, corn, and cheese dish that had the first three things, as are in the title, with onion, jalapeño, onions, garlic, heavy cream, and two different cheeses. Yummy. Not a single plate needed to be scraped off. (Though I really do need to get over the fear I have of cooking for others. It is getting a bit ridiculous. No one has died from my cooking yet, except me- once, almost).

I am adding the above photo, but I want you to know that, even though it looks like someone threw up on the plate, each item was more delicious than the next. From top, clockwise, is the ba’corn with cheese dish, the baked salmon with the marmalade/mayo dressing, the fried sweet and white potatoes with onion, garlic, and Parmesan cheese, then the arroz verde, that Ivan taught Paty how to make.

The above photo is a bowl of some of the best chili I have ever made!!! It is from a previous post, last week, but it deserves another view. This is from Chef John at Foodwishes.com. Check it out. He has some amazing recipes that are, really, fairly easy to make. Let me know what you think.

Everyone seems to enjoy the new flavor combinations that Ivan and I come up with. As I say, frequently, if you can see to read, of are able to hear, you can watch, or listen, to videos that teach you how to make whatever dishes you want. I take my iPad into the kitchen with me and play the video, replay the video, then replay it as I am cooking. Just because your mother never cooked these dishes, or, she did not teach you to cook, so what? YouTube will teach you anything you want to learn, faster even, than learning from your parent. Trust me. I am a perfect example of what YouTube has to offer.

To my fellow, albeit former, coworkers; I hope everything works out for you, and your families, with all of the changes that are coming. As I told one of you, recently, I am so deeply imbedded in everything happening here, that I find it very difficult to even remember all of the things that were happening there, when we were finally able to leave.

Here are just a few of the photos I have of my friends, my family, at Trinity Medical Center, 7th. St. Operating Room. Blessings to you all.

We were so engrossed in all of the things we had to do just to get here, then, with everything we have had to do to be able to stay here; I am sorry that I have not, and, cannot give you any more of myself than I have. But, please, know that I am very sympathetic to everything that is about to happen.

Maybe one of you, however, has a memory of me telling you, before I retired, to be looking elsewhere for employment- that ESA was already talking about pulling out most of their patients. Remember, the Urology group, along with ESA, had added on a surgical room to their building? And, MVSC added at least one, or more, surgical rooms to their building? Dr. Borisuth will probably be moving his patients over there. Remember, too, that the Eye Laser is rented, nothing permanent. All in anticipation of the time when 7th. St. would be closing their doors.

This is, really, a move started by CMS, and the Medicare people. They no longer feel it is necessary to provide funding to patients having “office-capable procedures” done in hospital settings. This is the future people. I just hope that the offices, and out-patient facilities, are up to the standards necessary to provide, and maintain, adequate, acceptable, and safe health care.

But, instead of wondering if they are up to your standards, why not go make them so?! You are all capable of maintaining high standards in your work. Your patients lives depend on it. So, go do it! Bring your high standards to every single place that each of you goes from here. Show others what is was like, to work with people of your quality, with your ethics, your morals. Not everyone in our profession has them- so be the example that lights the way.

I have faith in all of you- that you can do this. Do not be the complainer, the person late to their shift, or the person that does not answer their phone when needed. Be the leader, be the one upon whom others can depend. You have it in you, I know you do. Make your new team proud to have you as a partner.

All said, best of luck to all of you. Please, someone, keep me informed of who goes where, what is happening up there, etc. I will keep all of you in my prayers, and pray you all find a new, and, hopefully, better place to work.

You are the family I chose. Thank you for all of the wonder years we shared. I may not be able to remember everyone’s names in the future, but I will never forget YOU!

The lightening, (pronounced reh LAM pa go) and thunder, (true EH no) here, have been outstanding this evening. And, for my part, as anyone that knows me, knows that I am a complete fanatic when it comes to L&T.

There have been many hours when I would open the app for Rainy Mood, (I highly recommend it), put on my ear buds, or, my head phones, and listen to a rain storm, complete with thunder, for hours.

I could listen to a storm while I was doing things for work, while I was cooking, or cleaning, or doing the laundry. There is something about a mild to moderate thunder storm that, I… I do not know what, but, I love listening to it.

When I was a child, I do not really remember enjoying the thunder, but I did enjoy the lightening. I remember counting, from the time I saw the lightening, until I heard the thunder, and wondered what was happening- what that was all about. Sometimes, I noticed, when it was a very short time between them, the thunder would be very loud. If there was a long time between the two, the thunder was more quiet, more distant. But why?

Now that I am older, I do not, really, care about any of that. I only want to have enough time to enjoy the light and sound show, provided, free of charge, for the short amount of time I get to enjoy it. And gosh, I do enjoy it.

Went over to the apartment the other day, and have only a couple of photos to show for it. Nothing in the kitchen, yet, as that will be the last big area to finish. But here are a few of the front door, (new handles), and the bathroom glass wall that is finished.

All in all, things are coming along very nicely. It is taking a bit longer than we had hoped, but the work that has been done is just what we were hoping for.

I believe the kitchen cabinets may be coming the end of this week, or next. However, this Friday (Nov. 1st) is Día de los Muertos, so who knows what will happen. (Sorry about the dates, but I try to keep writing posts a week to ten days ahead of them being scheduled.)

Until we know anything more, stay warm, you folks in the North. It is still in the 70’s here during the day, and 50’s at night. I have been assured it will get cooler though. (I am not holding my breath).

We were walking through Soriana yesterday, and, as I was walking up the aisle, towards the deli, what did I see, out of the corner of my eye?

SHREDDED CHEDDAR CHEESE!!! Albeit 152 pesos for the pound, ($7.95). It will not be something we buy very often. But what a treat to have found it!

The cheese that is made down here is so much less expensive, so the cheddar will have to be for special occasions- cheeseburgers, chili, and the like.

Speaking of the cheeses made here, there are a few Manchego cheeses that are outstanding. And not cost prohibitive, which is good, because we eat lots of cheese in this house.

This wheel of Artesanal cheese is about 79 pesos, or roughly $4.12. Much more affordable than the cheddar, and melts like nobodies business.

Quesadillas are a nighttime staple here. Most of these folks have breakfast, (desayuno) about 9:30 – 10:30 am., lunch (comida) about 3:30 pm., then dinner/supper (la cena) about 9:00 pm. Since 9 pm is way too late for Ivan, and me, to eat, we have our last anything to eat at the 3:30 pm. meal. Makes for a long night, but, as Ivan has terrible reflux, there is no way he could lie down, and hope to sleep. I, on the other hand, do not have reflux, and will, sometimes, sneak in a piece of sausage, or a slice of cheese to keep me from eating a pillow in the middle of the night. (Though a pillow is much less expensive than the cheese, I suppose that is something to be considered.)

I will finish with the statement that many things, such as cheddar cheese, and bacon, (why is it so hard to find good bacon?) are very difficult to find, and quite expensive when you do. Enjoy the things that you have come to take for granted, because not everywhere in the world are they accessible. Or, even, affordable.

And do not even get me started on meat!

Cheddar cheese update: 02/11/19

Again, while walking through Soriana today, we came upon a display of Parmesan cheese by the same Valley Foods, as is the cheddar. Now the cost of the one pound cheddar is 86 pesos, or $4.50 per pound, half of what is was last week. Now it is affordable, so I bought three packages and put them in the freezer. I want them to see that someone is interested in buying this product, and to keep it coming.

In two more months, it will have been two years that my feather in law, Juan, came to live with Ivan and me. It hardly seems like it has been that long- so much has happened in those two years, most of which I am happy to never have to repeat. But many good things have happened as well.

This is how my father in law, Juan, looked 5 months before he came to us. I am not to going to go into the details about his living conditions prior to his arrival at our home, but suffice it to say, he was being heavily medicated, and had been for 3 years prior to this.

This is Juan last month. I am pretty sure you do not think him to be 91 years old, but he is. I, personally, think he does not look much different than he did in his 70’s, which was the last time we saw him.

Well, he is two years, (almost), drug free, taking only B/P meds., an Aspirin, because of his pacemaker, and a statin for his high cholesterol. He eats anything, and everything, we put in front of him, walks almost everyday, reads the newspaper daily, and goes to bed about 11:00 pm. every night, after watching the evening news, or whatever sports happens to be on the tv.

The three of us will be moving to the apartment soon, and that will change his routine a little bit. However, we plan to walk, everyday, with him, around the parks, and maybe to the store and back. It should be a fairly easy transition, I hope, to the new surroundings. I will let you know.

So much of our time, when we leave the house, is to stand in one line, or another, and wait.

We go to the grocery store, and wait in the checkout line. We go to the building downtown, to get my residency, and we wait. We go to get Ivan’s drivers license, and we wait. We go to Toks, for a cup of coffee, and we wait.

From the first time we went to the government building, and we waited for 2 hours there, I decided I was never going to be bothered by having to wait again. There is no point in getting upset by it because it is the way things are here. No one is ever in a hurry. So, in defense of my fragile mental health, I just started bringing things I can do with me.

One of those things is writing another post about having to wait for my blog.

It has made all of the difference in the world in my mental state.

I am trying to watch a show from Amazon Prime on my tablet, but the internet keeps stopping. I will try again later. Until then, I will tell you another tale.

Ivan said the furniture was delivered yesterday, the new couch, and the matching chair; the loveseat has not been delivered yet. I cannot wait to see them, however. Hopefully we will go later today so I can take a photo of them for you. But here is what they looked like when we bought them.

They will need cushions, obviously, which will probably be leather. Then we will buy bright throw pillows for color. Little by little, things are coming together to make our new home a reality.

I must tell you, though, that we walked for about 2 hours, going store to store, looking for “our” furniture. (If you did not read about the furniture buy, that is ok. I am always up for a little replay). We walked down the Main Street in San Pedro Tultepéc, just outside Toluca, all of which is about an hour to the Northwest of México City.

Ivan, Enrique, and I met up with Luis, (you remember Luis, our contractor), in San Pedro, and we walked the street, (it is one, long street, about 2 km), looking on both sides, for the furniture we knew, (read hoped), was waiting for us. I will say, that it did not take us very long to find the living room furniture, in the above photo, but dining room chairs, in the photo below, took us the better part of an hour. Plus, we had to stop for some soup (sopa) and tacos. It was close to the lunch hour.

But eight of these chairs were delivered two weeks ago, after having been spruced up. Originally, when we looked at them, you can see that the spaces between the spines have no stain, or top coat. Also, the bottoms of the legs are dinged, and needed to be refinished. Well, all of that was done, to all eight of the chairs, and now, they are in the spare bedroom, waiting for the new table that Martín is making. We cannot wait to see his handy work- he is so talented. The table he is making is similar to the photo below.

The biggest difference will be that it will probably be solid oak pieces, and the legs will be oak as well. (I told Ivan that somewhere in our home there has to be some wrought iron. Somewhere, or else).

Until I can get a photo of the latest changes in the condo, that is all for this post.

Last night, and tonight, as well, (the 31st, and the 1st) there has been a steady stream of children, each one cuter than the next, ringing the doorbell, and thrusting out their bags, bins, or bowls, hoping for the inevitable Día de Muertos candies. Unfortunately, I did not get many photos of them, as I was too busy writing a couple of other posts. Here are a few that I did get.

One thing I have noticed is that, at this house anyway, and, at the major stores, Sam’s Club included, there was not a single piece of chocolate candy to be found. Not one.

I told our family here that I had never seen, or been a part of, a Halloween celebration that did not include about five pounds of chocolate candies, and all that that entails. They were amazed that it was so.

Actually, now that I am really thinking about this, there is not a lot of chocolate anywhere down here. There is the occasional chocolate frosting on a donut, or a bit of chocolate as in the hot chocolate drink, but as a rule, there really is not much chocolate to be found.

Interesting, to be sure.

Cooler weather is finally here, prompting us to go to Soriana, and buy all of the fixin’s for chili. We cannot wait.

This is about the best chili recipe we have found, and one that does not require much tweaking. The few changes we made were 1) we used Abuelita chocolate, because we like its flavor better than cocoa powder, 2) we used 1kg of ground beef, and 1/2kg of ground pork, and 3) we burned, then skinned, and deseeded the chilies poblanos. We much prefer the “flavor profile” of the burnt peppers to the poblano when it is fresh. (I have wanted to use that phrase for some time now. Here was my chance, so I took it 😉

We made a vat full of the stuff, as you can see, and cannot wait to try a bowl, with some crackers, and cheese. (I cannot, for my life, find a store down here that sells cheddar cheese. What is up with that, I ask you?!?)

You can find the full recipe, along with a corresponding video on foodwishes.com or the same address on Youtube. Enjoy! We are!

Chili update: well, you will be happy to know the chili was a success. Everyone had at least one bowl, and a few had seconds. Always a compliment to the cook when someone has a second helping. There is even enough for a small bowl tomorrow, and that should taste even better, after the flavors have had time to meld. Yay!