Mexican Recipes and Coconut Cream

We had a deal.

Diego would take over the cooking once he finished his PhD so that I could have more time to spend on mine. It was only fair since I did all the cooking while he was finishing up. Ever since he got back from Mexico he has been cooking AMAZING Authentic Mexican Dishes EVERY DAY! He has been collaborating with his mom on a blog of traditional Mexican recipes...they also had a deal...she would post her recipes and he would cook them and photograph them to finish off the post. The result, delicious food in my belly and a compendium of authentic traditional Mexican recipes called Comida Mexicana! You can use google translate, but some of the instructions get translated a little funny. Some of the recipes are photos of a recipe book from his Great Great Grandmother (dates back to 1850!). Since they are photos they cannot be translated by google so you will need a dictionary. Eventually we will make an English version but in the mean time...if you have any questions about a recipe, leave a comment on the blog!

The only downside to it all...is that I really enjoy cooking so I do miss it. I know it takes up a significant portion of my time and I do appreciate being served and having the extra time to work. However, sometimes I just can't resist baking. Which works out great since we both have a sweet tooth and Diego has been focusing on making savoury dishes. Enter one of my favorite pies...

Coconut Cream

Diego is not a fan of shredded coconut and the only coconut in most coconut cream pie recipes is shredded coconut... so I found (and modified) a recipe that uses coconut milk for the custard and it is divine!!!

Coconut Cream Pie (original recipe)

Custard
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of unrefined sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups of cream
1 1/2 cups of coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 9 to 10 inch pie crust - baked and cooled

Whipped cream
1 1/4 cups of chilled whipping cream
1 tbsp of icing sugar
1 tsp cornstarch (I think I might leave this out next time...)
1/2 tsp of vanilla

In a large saucepan, whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Whisk in eggs, cream and coconut milk until very smooth. If lumpy, strain before heating. Heat over medium heat, whisking continuously until custard comes to a boil and thickens. Yous should be able to see the impression of the whisk in the custard when it is done. Remove from, heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour into pre-baked pie shell and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

In a medium bowl, beat whipped cream, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla to stiff peaks and spread onto chilled pie.

If you like shredded coconut, you can add 1 1/4 cups of unsweetened coconut to the custard when you add the vanilla. You can also toast 1/4 cup of unsweetened coconut to sprinkle on top. I LOVE coconut so I added the toasted coconut to mine. Diego added coarse cane sugar to his to add a little crunch and sweetness, his tooth is sweeter than mine! The overall consensus...this pie is to DIE for. You want to close your eyes and grunt with pleasure with every bite! Ours lasted 3 days in the fridge and that was only under extreme self control... you have been warned.

Feliz Navidad!

Okay, so I am a day late but still I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!! We started the day at the beach and found a small reef about 800 m away and did some snorkeling.
The party started at 8 pm and went until 6 am! I was pooped by 2 am and my Spanish was failing so I bailed early. We had a blast at the party, 10 adults and a 3 year old. This year the celebration was at Diego's sister's place to make it easier for our nephew Santiago to get to bed after opening his presents. The thing I find the most interesting is how they decorate their houses with Christmas trees, snowmen and Santa Claus. They actually import live trees from Canada and the vast majority of Mexicans have never seen real snow!!
They do have Santa Claus and he does come in the night so Santiago had more present to open in the morning! I asked them how Santa got into the houses since they don't have chimneys and they have bars on all the windows... I don't think any of them had ever thought of that before, not even as children! One tradition that we don't have is to celebrate the arrival of the Wise Men so on Jan 6. On that night the kids put out a shoe and get a little gift. There is also a traditional cake that I describe here when I was fortunate enough to experience the celebration in 2009.

There were lots of gifts to go around and with each gift you have to hug and sing which just adds to the fun and celebratory ambiance. It took almost 3 hours for all the gifts to be opened and then it was time to eat (at 12 am!!!). As usual we had WAY to much food and we will be eating leftovers for at least another couple of days. I made Canadian style turkey dinner to go with the more traditional Mexican dishes and everyone LOVED IT! I even brought canned whole berry cranberry sauce to give them the real experience.
We also had Bacalao a la Vizcaina which is salted cod fish soaked in water to remove the salt and then cooked in a tomato sauce with onions, potatoes and olives. This is a very traditional dish for Christmas in Mexico and dates back to the Spanish conquest. There is no cod fish in Mexico but the Spanish used to fish the cod off the Canadian and American coast and brought the tradition with them. The link to the bacalao recipe is from Diego's great-great grandmother! The one we ate this year (photo below) is from his brother-in-law's family.
We had pork loin stuffed with nuts, plums and grapes with a nut and red wine sauce. Although not traditional and it doesn't look very appealing in the photo below, it was DELICIOUS! I am getting the recipe for sure. There was also a lasagna with walnuts, almonds, capers, olives and ground beef...who would have thought to put nuts in a lasagna but it was very tasty!
For dessert we had ensalada de manzana (apple salad with a cream sauce - in the yellow bowl) and hojaldra. Hojaldra is very traditional at Christmas and New Years and comes from the Yucatan peninsula. It is a layer of a pastry, one of ham, another of cheese and then topped with another layer of pastry sprinkled with coarse grain sugar. Diego's sister made it and I forgot to take a photo but for New Years, Diego's mom is going to teach me how to make it and I will pass on the information because it is delicious!

Noche Buena

Noche Buena or Christmas Eve in Mexico...we are preparing for the family gathering tonight. This will inlcude traditional food such as romeritos (dried shrimp with a type of grass and potatoes cooked in a chocolate and chili gravy),bacalao (salted cod with potatoes in a tomato and chili sauce) with the accompanying Canadian stuffed turkey. The gifts are wrapped and ready to be opened. For now we will head to the beach since the party doesn't start until 8 pm!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas filled with good food, excellent company and lots of laughter.

Amazing Yogurt and Goodbye number 5 Plastic!

So I jumped on the yogurt making band wagon like Sherrie at 22 Pleasant and Eco Yogini because we eat a lot of yogurt and unfortunately we only recycle number 1 and 2 plastic containers in Halifax. I followed Sherrie's method...but ended up getting tasty but slimy yogurt (eek!). So I did some reading and found that most recipes are not precise enough for me (you will see below some of the comments I read) and I really wanted to get to the bottom of why it was slimy! I found out that you need to heat the milk to at least 180F to denature the proteins so that is is thick and creamy and not at all slimy! Let's just say second time is a charm and it is really easy! :)

So here is what I did to get perfect delicious plain yogurt!

Ingredients:

2 L milk (I used Organic homogenized but have read that you can use any type)
250 ml of starter (I used an organic probiotic yogurt, see this post to read about the benefits of probiotic!)

Heat the 2 L of milk in a medium sized saucepan to at least 180F. I used a thermometer but Sherrie said that she let hers boil and it turned out lovely (for milk to boil it must go above 180F) but most yogurt sites do not recommend boiling probably to reduce scorching, so this is up to you. Once it reaches the right temperature, remove from heat and let it cool to between 105-108F. If you don't have a thermometer, one post said that it is the right temperature if you can leave the tip of your finger in for 10 seconds without screaming! It should be hot but not scalding. Mix in the starter. This will take some mixing to get it nicely blended. Also, the milk forms a skin on top. You have 2 options...mix it in (this will take more mixing) or take it out and blend with a little salt until it is the consistency of whipped cream and spread onto toasted bread for a traditional Mexican treat! YUM! :)

Once your starter is mixed in, place the lid on your container of choice and wrap the whole thing in a couple of towels and place in the oven (off) with the oven light on. The oven light will keep the inside of the oven warm enough for the bacteria to work its magic! I used my enameled cast iron dutch oven because it holds heat wonderfully and it worked perfectly! Leave this for at least 15 hours. I usually start mine at around 5 or 6 pm so that it is ready the next morning when I get up. And this is what you get in the morning.
To get it nice and thick you need to strain our the whey (liquid that you get on top of your yogurt). This is where you can play to get your perfect consistency.
To strain the yogurt, I used my large strainer lined with a white towel (now my yogurt towel!) placed on top of a large bowl. Pour the yogurt in and watch the whey drain into the bowl (you can see a stream of whey in the photo above). I strain mine for a couple of hours. I usually mix it up a little after about an hour to get most of the whey out...I like mine really thick! This recipe makes about 1.25L of really thick yogurt, so depending how you like it will depend on how much you actually get. You can also use they whey for baking!

Don`t forget to reserve 250 ml of your lovely yogurt as started for the next batch! I have also read (but not yet tried) that you can freeze your starter. This would be especially handy if you are not going to make batches back to back. :)

Happy yogurt making! :)

Chirstmas Eve

I cannot believe it has been another month since posting...and that it is Christmas Eve already!!! What have I been doing you ask? Well I have been busily trying to get myself organized and ready for teaching next semester so that I can relax for a couple of days and finish off the first chapter of my PhD thesis! When not working I have been busily preparing the house for our Christmas at home. We typically go to Mexico or Ontario, but this year we decided to have a Halifax Christmas. So I got some pine and cedar branches, and large pine cones for some festive decorating.
I really wanted to keep this Christmas as low impact as possible. So we used our Norfolk Pine houseplant as our tree. I finally got around to decorating our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!
Do you see the resemblance?
Our Norfolk Pine is only about 60 cm tall (with the pot!). I was afraid to put more than the felted snowman, santa and candy canes for fear that it would break in half. It is leaning sadly over just like the one above...but it is better than no tree!

To keep with the sustainable theme, I made all of my gifts. This was a labour of love and took a lot of my evenings and weekends to get them all ready for giving. I made 200 peanut butter balls, 3 dozen molasses cookies and a batch of my memere's (endearing word for grandma in french) sucre a creme (or fudge in english).
Here they are after their chocolate bath!
I couldn't resist a molasses cookie...
I also made my own honey sweetened apple sauce with the apples we picked in the fall.
I also made some cute labels for my creations...I also made an orange scented body lotion using this recipe on Healthy Living with a Twist and a revitalizing (peppermint scent) sugar body scrub using EcoYogini's recipe.
Last but not least are little aloe plants I received from a friend and decided to share in little "pots" purchased at Value Village, a second hand store.
I also wanted to make Christmas as traditional as possible...well actually a melding of 3 cultural traditions...French Canadian (my mom's side), English Canadian (my dad's side) and Mexican. What better way to do that than through food...
Here I am making tourtiere, a french Canadian meat pie...
The finished product! We will likely eat these on New Year's eve. Last night we ate Mole Poblano (chicken with a spicy chocolate gravy) with homemade corn tortillas. I made it in my new enamel cast iron dutch oven! Thanks Mom!!
Typically, mole poblano at Christmas time is eaten in a dish called Romeritos. This is a typical dish from Mexico city that has dried shrimp and a plant that is called romerito and resembles rosemary. I am not a fan of shrimp and romerito is hard to come by in Halifax, so we went with chicken.

Tomorrow, we will have turkey with all the trimmings! I have been busy but promise to keep up over the holidays!

Merry Christmas everyone! May your holidays be filled with the warmth of family and friends!

Love,
Alli

Delicious Take II

So...I just noticed that I forgot the delicious part of my previous post!!!

Yesterday was Dia de la Bandera (flag day) in Mexico. It really isn't a big deal and they don't really celebrate it but I thought I would surprise Diego with his favorite Mexican Dish Papadzules (said Pah-Pah-tsoolays). But first...the flag!

I really like the Mexican flag it has a really cool story. According to legend, the gods advised the Aztecs that the place where they should establish their city was in the place where they saw an eagle, perched on a prickly pear cactus eating a serpent. They saw this on a small island in the centre of a marshy lake that is now the zocalo (said soh-kah-loh) or the main plaza in Mexico City. So essentially Mexico City is built on a lake. They actually grew the city around the island by building rafts, they grew food, had houses and all got around in boats in canals. Xochimilco
(said soh-chi-milk-oh) is a part of Mexico City where the canals still exist and they grow decorative plants. It is the only part of the ancient Lake Xochimilco left.

Anyhow... on to the food!!! This recipe is actually quite easy (if you buy the paste and tortillas...well even from scratch it's not that bad...I have made more intensive that's for sure!!!).

These are essentially warm corn tortillas stuffed with hard-boiled eggs and topped with a pumpkin seed sauce and a tomato based sauce. This is very typical of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Ingredients (makes 16 papadzules):

4 cups of chicken broth
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 lb of papadzule paste (here I used the organic pumpkin seed butter from the superstore - make sure the butter only contains dry roasted pumpkin seeds...and maybe some oil but nothing more or it will change the flavour - you can also make it from scratch - recipe to follow)
16 corn tortillas (I made mine from scratch but they also sell some at the superstore that you can use - from scratch recipe to follow)
8 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
Pinch of salt
2 cups of tomato sauce (I will follow with this recipe - you cannot sub in with regular tomato sauce)

Bring chicken broth to a boil and season with bouillon cubes (you could sub in with veg broth, it will change the flavour a little but definitely worth a try!). Put the papadzule paste in the blender then add 1/2 of the chicken broth and blend. You want it to be a somewhat thick sauce. It will thicken as it cools, I used about 3 cups of broth and saved the rest. Do NOT heat the mixture on the stove again afterwards...the paste will begin to clump (I learned that hard way...and back to the blender it went!).

Warm up the tortillas in a pan, not the microwave or the oven. You want them to be warm and soft. Once they are warm dip them into the papadzule sauce covering the entire tortilla. Lay half of the tortilla on the plate and fill with sliced egg. You can either try to roll it like they do in Mexico or do as I did which is easier for the inexperienced like me and just fold it in half. Place 2-3 on a plate then cover with more sauce. Add a spoonful or 2 of the tomato sauce and top with a bit of egg and enjoy! They are delicious!!!

Papadzule sauce:
1 lb of thick, peeled pumpkin seeds
Salt to taste

Toast the seeds on a griddle without letting them brown. Grind by hand or with a blender, season with salt and gradually add water to form a thick paste.

Tomato sauce:
1 lb of tomatoes (I used on large can of organic whole tomatoes)
3/4 cup of onion
1 guajillo chili or large banana pepper
3 oz of oil
1 chicken bouillon cube
Salt to taste

Blend onion, tomatoes and pepper. Add oil, bouillon cube and salt and simmer uncovered on low heat stirring continually for around 30 mins or until the sauce thickens.

Tortillas:
2 cups of Maseca (this is the brand of flour you need to buy, it is a special corn flour and no typical Canadian corn flours do not work...you can only buy this in specialty stores like Pete's Frootique in Halifax, superstore has yet to sell it...although with more demand...) ;)

Put the 2 cups of maseca in to a bowl. Add water until the dough is like cookie dough. The break off egg sized balls. Place on a flat surface line with wax paper. Take your heaviest book and line the cover with wax paper. Place the book on top of the ball and apply even pressure until it is flat and round. You don't want it thicker than 1 cm. Alternatively you can use a tortilla press...but most people don't have one of those handy here in Canada. Peel off the top layer of wax paper, then place the tortilla paper side up into your hand and gently peel off the paper. You should ahve a nice round tortilla in your hand. Place it on a hot griddle (hot like for panckaes so the water makes a bead when you drip it on) and cook them for about 15 seconds. Touch it gently with your fingers, when it is ready to flip it will move around on the griddle like it is floating on air. Cook the other side for maybe 30 second then flip it again. Check for any raw parts as you are doing this. Once it is cooked, it should be soft and not brown anywhere but a nice very pale yellow, almost white colour still, it may or may not fill up with air. It took me a while to perfect the technique and seeing someone do it really helps. If there is interest, let me know and I will make a video. This is definitely the most complicated part of the whole recipe! The store bought ones are easier but once you have tasted the real fresh ones you can never go back...so it is up to you... ;)

That's it for tonight!
A little bit of history and international cuisine all in one!!!

Comforting Image(s)

This is the last day of Comfort week and I want to say THANKS to Sherrieg for organizing it! I have met so many wonderful people, got to learn about them and share my comforts, thoughts and feelings!

As the last installment of comfort week we have to select an image that brings us comfort and as with most things I cannot decide...

So here are two images I find very comforting:

This is a view of the surface of the ocean, taken while laying on the bottom. This was at one of my study sites along the coast of Nova Scotia in 2007. It reminds me of the peace and serenity I feel while I am under the surface.

The other is delicious Mexican Tacos!!!

These are called rajas con crema or sliced poblano chilis and onions, fried until tender then doused in cream...on a handmade corn tortilla! mmmmm...I can just imagine the comfort of a full belly and the flavour explosion of real Mexican food. : )

I am running off to a party! Have a good Friday evening!!! : )

Home Again and Work Mountain!

Well we made it home in the wee hours of Monday morning after 13 hours of traveling. Exhausted but happy to be home. We also arrived to a huge pile of snow! Lucky for us it happened during the day Monday so no need to shovel! Thank goodness because coming from weather that is on average 25 degrees to the freezing cold we have been having this week (-30 with the wind chill!!!) has not been kind to us. Luckily, we have avoided getting sick...knock on wood! Both Diego and I arrived to a mountain of work and have been really busy trying to climb that mountain...I am far from the peak but wanted to share some of the lovely things I brought back from Mexico for my kitchen!!!

Just before leaving I bought a set of cazuelas (kas-wela), an olla (o-ya) and 4 mugs to go with the olla. Cazuelas are clay cookware (orginally from Spain) that are used on the stove top (with or without the lid) or in the oven. The one pictured above with my cute tiny but VERY spicy chile plant is the smallest of the set of 5. Some of the typical things cooked in the casuelas are frijoles (beans), Mexican rice and mole but you can cook anything you can imagine in them!


The olla is a clay pot typically used for cafe de olla (Mexican spiced coffee) or Chocolate Mexicano (Mexican hot chocolate). I absolutely LOVE cafe de olla...this is what we had this morning! The coffee is made with piloncillo, which is essentially a block of unrefined cane sugar, and canela, which is cinammon but the kind used is different than the one we find in Canada. We did not bring back any piloncillo or canela, so we made due with brown sugar and cinammon sticks. I followed this recipe but used the olla instead of a sauce pan. I have yet to make the chocolate Mexicano, but will let you know how it turns out when I do!!

To make the pots, especially the unglazed parts, stronger you need to cure them. It is an interesting process that has been used since the middle ages. You need to soak the dish in water for at least 12 hours. Then you wipe them dry and rub the unglazed parts with a cut garlic clove! Then you fill the pot with water and 1/2 cup of vinegar and let it boil off until there is only 1/2 cup left. Let it cool completely, then wash it and it is ready to use. Supposedly, it seasons the pot, kills bacteria, and hardens the unglazed parts. I did this for all my new pots. However, if you are to cook strong fish or meat in them there is an extra process to prevent the clay from absorbing the flavours. Since, I am not a fan of fish and stong meat (eg: lamb or sheep) I skipped this step but could always do it in the future if my tastes change.

Here are the mugs...not need to cure these, they are completely glazed. I have two of each design. I also picked up these lovely napkins in Campeche to add to my growing collection! I think I have at least 15 now. I would really like to have a nice stack so I no longer have to use paper napkins!

Unfortunately, Diego's grandmother recently passed away but as part of our inheritance we received a molcajete and tejolote. It is the Mexican version of a mortar and pestle (respectively) made of basalt stone. It is a pre-Hispanic tool that was used by the Aztecs and Mayans. It can be used to grind spices, make salsas and guacamole. Salsas and guacamole prepared in molcajetes have a distinctive texture and a subtle difference in flavor from those prepared in blenders. Pictured above is my very first molcajete salsa! I used fresh tomato, a fresh chile from my plant, fresh local garlic, one leaf of my large leaf oregano plant and some salt and pepper. It was very tasty but the peel was hard to grind so the salsa had largish chunks. Next time I will roast and peel the tomato first to give it a richer flavour and make it easier to grind up.

My code to process my data has just finished running...with an error : (
Gotta run and troubleshoot!

Happy Weekend!

Akumal y la Rosca de los Reyes

After New Year's we decided to spend my parent's last days in Mexico on the beach so we rented a condo in Akumal, the place of the turtles. It is a beautiful place with small buildings with condos and huge houses, all for rent, much quieter than the Zona Hotelera in Cancun or even Diego's parent's house in Cancun town.

We were right on the beach on not far was the barrier reef. The snorkeling was enjoyable but not as good as Xcalak. It was a pretty eco-friendly place. It actually had recycling and they were using a wetland lagoon for sewage treatment rather than having a hug treatment plant. The beach was guarded during turtle nesting season and all the lights were red so they don't affect the new born turtles. Newborns follow the moon to the ocean so if you have lots of lights around they will move towards the light and they may never reach the ocean! It is too bad that it was not nesting season when we were there, I would have loved to see one coming out of the ocean to lay eggs or see the little ones dig themselves out and drag themselves to the sea. Diego and I spent most of our time in the water and of course eating delicious food! We stayed 4 days, returned yesterday for my parents to pack and to go to the traditional party for the Rosca de Reyes at Diego's cousin Diana's House.

January 6th is when the 3 Kings arrived to give baby Jesus his gifts. In Mexico they celebrate this by leaving their shoe out the night before so that the Kings bring them a small present. The in the evening the prepare hot chocolate from REAL chocolate and milk...none of this powder crap we get in Canada...and a bread call Rosca de Reyes. The bread is like a coffee cake and has dried fruits on top (looks like licorice in the photo) and sections with a creamy sugar coating (white sections). Inside the bread they hide a bunch of small plastic babies that represent Jesus. The first person to get a baby has to have a party at their house on Feb 2...the day they all tear down their nativities...and evey person after that that gets a baby has to bring some traditional food like tamales to the party. Of course Diego and I both got a baby so we will have to send our supplies via mail...or maybe the Kings will be generous and give us a plane ticket so we can attend the party (wishful thinking!).


Now we have 4 more days to relax and enjoy the heat before we head back to the Canadian cold!
Have a good week!

Happy New Year!!!

We have been having a great time! We arrived on the 30th from a trip to Celestun, this tiny town in the Yucatan State known for it's huge aggregations of flamingos! We went on a boat tour to see them, the guide said there was about 10 thousand! It was quite impressive...they sound like geese and look so clumsy with their long necks and legs!

We spent the day the 31st...actually Marina spent the day cooking...she wouldn't let us help...for the New Year's eve party that we had with Diego's family. One of he traditions here is to eat 1 grape for each of the last 12 seconds of the year. Each grape represents a month in the New Year and with each one that you eat you make a wish for each month. Then we all cheer to the New Year and those who want to travel in the New Year walk around the block with a suitcase...then we ate a huge meal!! What a night...we had a great time! There were fireworks and music at many of the houses until 5 am!!!

I hope you all had a great time ringing in the New Year! Warmest wishes and all the best to all in 2009!

Merry Christmas!!!

We have had an extremely busy but relaxing week away from the city!! We went to this amazing place called Xcalak (said shkalak, x in Mayan sounds sh). It is a pretty isolated little fishing village with a few small eco-hotels on a marine park, mangroves and lagoon!! This is the hotel we stayed in, it is called Sin Duda Villas...the owners were amazing...we really loved staying there. All solar powered and as minimal impact as possible.

The snorkeling right in front of the hotel was great! We saw a moray eel among other amazing fishes and invertebrates.

There was seagrass everywhere and it looked to be in great shape! The corals were in better shape than anywhere else I have been snorkelling near Cancun. Although, like all corals in the Carribean, they are in pretty rough shape.


We also did some diving on an atoll 1.5 hours boat ride from the coast of Mexico. It is reputed to be the best diving on the entire MesoAmerican Barrier reef (2nd largest reef in the World). It is a marine park and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most of the atoll is protected and they say by 2010 there will no fishing whatsoever on all of the atoll!! YAY!! Since it is protected and offshore, the corals were better and we also saw some large carnivorous fish (Jacks and Snappers), which are quite rare nowadays from overfishing. We also saw some AMAZING sponges, nurse sharks, a moray eel, courting trunkfish and lots of other really cool fish and corals!!! Some of them were as large as me!! Overall it was a great experience, and Diego and I really wanted to see it before it disappears. Here is a video Diego put together of our 3 dives out there so you can see it for yourself!

On our way to Xcalak, we stopped in this restaurant called El faisan y el venado (the pheasant and the deer) and had some traditional food from the southern region of the Yucatan. There was even a lovely mayan lady making real corn tortillas...from scratch not from prepared flour!!!

We are all getting ready for the big party tonight...lots of food, drink and presents!! It will be a blast!! Merry Christmas to everyone!! I hope you all have a wonderful celebration of family, friends and food!!

At Home in Mexico!

We arrived in Cancun on Friday. We are spending the Christmas Holidays with Diego's family here in Mexico and my parents are also joining us!!! They arrive on Tuesday so we have been busy planning what we're going to do for the next few weeks! Not to mention celebrating with family we have not seen in almost 2 years!!!

We have also been thoroughly enjoying the food!!! I love Mexican food...tacos, huarrachas, cochinita pibil, tortas...YUM!!

Here is a photo of what we ate at 3 this morning on our way home from a party at Diego's cousin's place.

This is a huarracha, it has 2 corn tortillas on the bottom, a layer of a typical white cheese (melted) that is much more flavourful than mozzarella but has a similar consistency, a thin layer of cream and then 2 types of meat on top. The meat on the bottom is called arrachera or flank steak cut into small pieces and cooked with some spices and the meat on the top (which is almos gone...) is called pastor. It is pork, they cook it by coating the pork steaks in a spice (which is not spicy) called achiote (it is red, hence the orangy look to the meat) then they pile the steaks high on a vertical rotisserie and cook them for the whole afternoon with a pineapple and onion on the top of the rotisserie dripping juices to the meat below... mmmmm...I will take a photo of the rotisserie next time...

To the side is a typical salsa here in Cancun. It is made with avocado, onions, garlic and habanero peppers...watch out for this one...it is not for the faint of heart, it is VERY spicy! They also, always have milder salsas around because unlike what we are told...not all Mexicans like things really spicy!

It was obviously delicious! : )

I am off to enjoy the sun and company! Happy Sunday!

Caramel Pear Cake and Great Finds at Value Village!

It has been a busy week. Non-stop activities all weekend...and every week night so far!

I made this delicious caramel pear cake for a Dia de los Muertos party on Sunday. Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican tradition that happens on Nov 1 and 2, where family and friends gather together to celebrate those they have lost. We went over to a friend's house who had made a small alter of their fireplace where we placed photos of those we wanted to remember. We also lit a candle for each of those in the photos. We then cooked up some delicious beef and chicken enchiladas, drank tequila and listened to Mexican folk tunes. We also placed a plate of food on the alter so that the spirits of those we are remembering can eat the soul of the food, thus communing with them. Although the caramel pear cake is not Mexican, it was gobbled up and not even a crumb was left! It was delicious!! However, I do think the recipe makes too much caramel which made it a little soggy in the centre where it pooled. I made 1/2 of the amount called for and it was still a lot! I am wondering if they meant 1/4 cup rather than 1/4lb of butter! I will make it this way next time and keep you posted!


On Monday, I went to Value Village (a thirft store) with my friend Arpita to hunt for some brown pants and light sweaters for the fall. Like all thrift stores, you end up with a cart load of stuff to try on, most of which doesn't fit or looks better on the hanger! However, both of us made out like bandits! I found what I was looking for...a gorgeous pair of chocolaty brown cords (Jacob) that fit like a glove for 6.99! I also picked up some wooley capri pants, a knitted green shawl, burnt orange cord skirt, a beige sweater with a large warm neck, some great jeans, a red sweater, a beige fitted corduroy blazer and a cute burt orange wool 20's style hat that I absolutely love!


All of this for $60! I love shopping at Thrift stores, you never know the goodies you will find and you are doing the environmentally friendly thing by increasing the life of clothing that has already made its impact on the environment rather than buying new and increasing our footprint!

I am working from home today and my break is over!! Bye for now!