Lorena bought tickets to a class on how to cook Chicken Pad Thai, Coconut coated shrimp with spicy mango sauce and papaya salad with cucumber. I am sure it is authentic because the instructor is from Mexico, exactly like all the Thai food chefs in America. The class sounds excellent. Everyone brings their own drinks and you can either eat the things you cook at the end of the class or you can take it home with you.
Lorena went to Carnicería Ramos with Grandma Conchita and bought 6.919 lbs. of a cut called Chuleton that Lynn says is a super-set of what gringos call ribeye. She paid a little under $38 dollars total for it which comes out to ~$5.38/lb. This is the same as what Lynn grilled up for us last Saturday night. We got a pound more this week than last week and plan to grill it all up tonight to heat up a few times over the week.
This is a little bit of a religious discussion. I always assumed that all of every kind of fruit and berry grown in the Willamette Valley in Oregon was better than its equivalent from Washington. Our experience living in Centralia demonstrated that I was clearly wrong about Washington apples which are clearly superior to those grown in Oregon. I know believe that stuff that grows on trees in Washington (with the exception of cherries–those, in my opinion are a wash) are superior to those in Oregon, but that the berries of the Willamette Valley are superior at the same category of difference as the Washington apples are superior to Oregon apples. Troy is testing that all out right now with jams we sent him as a thank you gift for my graduation events in Lincoln.
Lorena and I love the Panda Express in Granbury, Texas. It has been our experience that, while most Panda Expresses are at least “pretty good,” they are not all created equal and our experience at some of them was just not very good. We are grateful that we have one we like in our new town. We think the ones we do not enjoy might have to do with the cultures of the people who work there. The reason we like this Panda Express is that it is a fast food place that serves fairly low calorie, healthy offerings that are reasonably priced. There are two other fast food places that meet that criteria–Wendy’s (chili, salads, and baked potatoes) and Jimmy John’s (unwiches). Right now, I am at my desk all day long with little reason to leave the house. So, at least until we move, we tend to go out to eat more to get out of the house than to eat. Hopefully, that will change when we go to Mexico. This is kind of bad for my health.
The prickly pear cactus Lorena planted early this spring is starting to bloom which means we will soon have the sweet fruits from the cactus called tunas. It is amazing that not only the fruit is edible on this plant, but also the broad, oval shaped nopalitos that are effective against type II diabetes. I think I have tried the tuna fruit before, but really do not remember what they were like so I am looking forward to trying them again. As for the nopal, I really like them when they are part of a bigger salad or salsa. I am looking forward to that, too.
Lorena saw something somewhere on social media the other day and decided she needed to make butter (and buttermilk) with her KitchenAid mixer. She was highly entertained and it came out just excellent. We have been using it for the last couple of days.
Last week at HEB, we saw a kind of fruit we had never seen before called dragon fruit. A nice guy working in the department took the time to tell us when (you need to let them get a little bit soft) to eat them and how to peel them. We did not really know what to expect, but boy we were happy we tried it. Today, because it is Friday, we decided to take a special trip to Granbury to eat Kung Pao Chicken with Super Greens (only 290 calories and really good), then see if there was any dragon fruit left at HEB–it is on sale. We loaded up and even have one that is ripe enough that we are going to eat it tonight. We bought one red dragon fruit that was a good bit more expensive, but we thought we would try it anyway.
Back when we lived in Oregon, we would sometimes go to a Mexican restaurant in downtown Newberg. The restaurant was run by El Salvadorans. They served fairly good Mexican food, but they also served a side of curtido, an El Salvadoran blanched cabbage and carrot, pickled salad. It was extremely good. Lorena and I were talking about it the other day and she decided she would try to make some. Today is her first attempt, but we will not be able to try it out until tomorrow because we want it to be a little bit more vinegary by the time we eat it. AND, it is on my approved diet items list.
I am finally trying to get back on the weight/exercise/health wagon and get my program on track. To that end, Lorena cooked her first chicken shish kabobs of the season. Last week she did some bee kabobs. Shrimp makes the trifecta and I am hoping for that next week. They are a summer staple for us and are even good reheated for lunch the next day. Now, all I have to do is get back on track with my walking. The problem here in Texas is that, within a few weeks, it will be too hot to walk at lunchtime which is my ideal time to do it because it gets me away from the desk for an hour. I have a plan, though–mostly I just need to be disciplined about it.
One of our favorite things about living where we live is that we are only about 20-25 minutes from one of our very favorite restaurants of all time. Baked Bread and Pastry Co. has quite a back story, but they would be a great place to eat, even if they did not have one. The food is nothing short of spectacular. When we first got here, we were told by native Texans that Baked’s biscuits and gravy were the best they had ever eaten. We have lived in the South for over a decade, all told, and as connoisseurs and active searchers for the one true biscuits and gravy, I have to admit we were somewhat skeptical. But we were wrong to be skeptical. The thing is, if you find something that good, it is hard to try anything else, but this is one of those places where they have MANY offerings that are that good. We probably eat there two or three times per month and it is wildly worth it. It turns out that a lot of other people thing the same way about them as us. The Tripadvisor reviews are not wrong. At the time of this post, there were 13 reviews. All were all 5’s.
We went all out yesterday for Easter. When I saw “we” went all out, I mean Lorena went all out and I helped, but mostly just got in the way. We cooked a ham–Lorena made an amazing glaze from scratch, she made scalloped potatoes, asparagus, croissants, and deviled eggs. It was truly a feast. We have decided we want to do this more often. Hopefully, we will be able to do this with Kelly, Christian, Grandma Conchita, and other friends again before too long. We do feel pretty isolated now, but plans art starting to form about what to do next. Of course, we have the Mexico projects and that is a big part of it, but we also have plans to get into a smaller house on a smaller lot closer to a town. It is hard to know where to go though. Mostly, we just want to be close to the kids.
Lorena is the most amazing cook in the world. This morning we ran down to McDonald’s for an Egg McMuffin breakfast after which we ran across the parking lot to HEB to get some meat and veggies for a Shish-Kabob super AND a ham and some other items for Easter dinner. Lorena boiled some eggs that she plans to paint and enjoy for awhile before she turns them into deviled eggs. We must be getting old because all of this makes us quite happy. Still keeping the fact of Jesus death and resurrection at the forefront–nothing more important than that.
Lorena makes me a big salad (in the spirit of the Big Salad from Seinfeld) every night we eat at home. Lorena makes an olive oil and vinegar dressing for it that is fabulous. I LOVE my big salads. Two days ago, we ran out of the olive oil Lorena buys from Costco, but she found a gift package of several different oils and vinegars Kelly had purchased as a gift for someone, but forgot about so we stole it, tried it, and it changed my entire perspective on big salads! The first one we tried was absolutely fabulous so we are going through them to figure out what we like best. We LOVE them. Hope Kelly does not remember.
Grandma Conchita, Lorena, and Tío Lauro visited a restaurant owned by Conchita’s first cousin in Allende, Nuevo Leon, not to far from Lauro’s atelier. The whole family has been there before. I showed the picture to Christian and he remembered the food really well. We are going to visit there a gain on our next trip.
Lorena returned from her visit with Christian in Boston today and life is profoundly better now that she is here. It is just not as nice when she is not where she loves to be in her house. I had fallen off the wagon on my diet and exercise program, but she has me up and going again–Salmon, salad, and asparagus for dinner tonight–high protein, low calorie, filling, and extremely tasty. I am in the middle of a bunch of heavy stuff at work so having her here is a huge help. She has to go to the doctor tomorrow, but that does not get in the way of managing her house and managing me for which both the house and I are very grateful. I think I might be working all weekend this weekend because of pressing requirements at my day job. It is not a problem at all when Lorena is here to keep things under control.
Lorena and I cooked a turkey on New Year’s Day because we had one in the freezer that we bought over a year ago. We were a little worried about how it would turn out, but boy howdy, it turned out great. It was about a 15 pound turkey, smaller by a lot than the one we cooked for Thanksgiving. We are amazed at how much better the smaller turkey cooked. We have been eating on it now for a couple days and we still have not gotten it out of our heads that this might be the best we have ever done. The added benefit is the tryptophan for the excellent post-turkey nap.
We returned home yesterday from all our graduation and holiday travels after getting up at 3 AM to catch a plane from Washington (DCA) to Texas (DFW). We had Christmas dinner at Jack-in-the-Box because that was the only place we could find open on the way home. Then we sat around and did literally nothing–well, not entirely true because Lorena is incapable of leaving stuff unpacked, but for the most part all we did was sit around and recover with some comfort food thrown in (VERY cheesy mac and cheese). While I was writing this blog post, Lorena sent me an image of what we ate for Christmas dinner. It truly was spectacular. Kelly did the bulk of the cooking over Christmas and Lorena did the bulk of the shopping and organizing. It was all just amazing. We had a prime rib, bone-in roast with new potatoes, mushrooms and a superlative, Kelly-invented gravy. This morning, Lorena and I ran the last two diplomas down to Michael’s for framing after an Egg McMuffin breakfast with hash browns and a pie at McDonald’s. Of course not much of the above is on my approved diet plan, but I promised myself I would not wreck everyone else’s time during the holidays due to strict adherence to my diet. Now, I am kind of afraid to get back on the scale and get going again. Lorena bought two “L” steaks (t-bone, I think) at the Mexican grocery store in Godley, so that is my drop-dead last diet deviation with a minor exception for New Year’s Eve.
Well, I did not do as well as I wanted over the Thanksgiving holiday in terms of weight gain, but I suppose I could have done a lot worse. I was up around five pounds. I absolutely think it was worth it. The time with family was just amazing, but the food, drink, and camaraderie facilitated by cooking, eating, and cleaning up together were priceless. I am planning to do the same thing for Christmas, but maybe on a smaller scale. We are going to be with the kids for Christmas, but the kids are going to go off and do their own thing for New Year. Lorena and I have a ton of big travel coming up this winter so we decide to just stay home and cook a small turkey–principally so Lorena can make turkey enchiladas with the left overs.
I got up early this morning to get everything done in a somewhat relaxed manner before I got our 25 lb. turkey into the oven. I really enjoy the whole process a lot. I am even getting pretty good at carving the turkey. I get to do one more this year at Christmas time, but next year, I would like to start roasting some chickens. The problem is that it is almost as cheap to buy them already roasted at the grocery store as to do the roasting at home. Still, it would be fun to do some experimenting.
I got up at about six this morning to read my Bible, drink some coffee and enjoy the morning before all the bustle and noise associated with a Thanksgiving celebration for a dozen people gets started. I get to cook the turkey again this year, but it is a lot bigger one than I have ever cooked before–25 lbs. I think we (and when I say we, I mean I) probably made a mistake by getting one so big. We really did not need one that big and my gut feel is one that big might not be as tender as the 14-15 lb. turkey we usually get. Still, it is going to be fun. In addition to our own kids, Grandma Conchita, and our great Atlanta friends, Lorena’s brother, Rigo and his wife and three kids will be up for the evening, too. We have WAY too much food and there is really no way for most of them to take any of it along with them when they leave because they are either flying home or driving a long way to some place other than home. All that good food definitely is going to be a temptation. I have already put my weight-loss program on hiatus until everyone leaves.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén