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Caldo de Res (Mexican Roast), Guatemalan New Potatoes, Christmas, New Year's, Cumbias and fun.
| Posted on January 8, 2013 at 5:49 PM |
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The night after Christmas, about 2:00 am in the morning, Fito and I decided not to go when the counter broke, because of the money to pay for the plywood, but then we decided to just go and worry about the kitchen and bills later. Of course, now that I just paid bills, I am now questioning the wisdom of our decision. Although, if we waited for enough money to do things-we would never had had so many children. We would never had gone to visit family in Canada, Ohio, New York, Texas, Utah, and so on. Sometimes you just have to have faith in that things will work out, that you will find the way to make things work. Trust in your ability to have initiative (of course pay your tithing first and work, work, work). However, family is family and too many days, years, and holidays go by and we don’t spend enough time with those we love. The morning before we left, I woke up early, canned 12 jars of beans, 3 jars of turkey broth, 3 jars of turkey meat, 1 jar of salsa, and one jar of soup. What I did was to take all the leftovers in the fridge and can them, put them in the freezer, or take them out as scraps for the animals. I always clean the refrigerators before we go on a trip. I do not like to come home to moldy food in the fridge. I also did laundry, packed clothes, called neighbors and children to take care of the mail, animals, and my mom. Such an ordeal to just go somewhere. Just like last year, we had a marvelous time in Houston. I have a brother, nieces, nephews, a son, his wife, then family and 2 grand-daughters there and Fito has so many cousins, aunts, uncles and childhood friends there that we can’t even begin to count how many. We went to two different parties on New Year’s Eve and danced late all night! Cumbias from El Salvador- the best dancing ever- I like Salsa, Ranchero de Mexico, Merengue and so on, but cumbias are my favorite. I’m not a good dancer, never will be. I am clumsy normally and am not any more graceful on the dance floor. Thank goodness, the Spanish don’t care and are just excited the “gringa” is trying dance, loves to speak Spanish and eat Spanish food. We visited with many friends and family. Ate some wonderful food-And I have two new recipes to share. The second party we went to had done a potluck and it was full of great food. Years before when I was a missionary in Houston, there was a lady from Columbia who made the best new potatoes ever. For years I have tried to make them the same way, but mine have never come out the same. At this party, a lady from Guatemala made them just like I remembered. You all know that I only use recipes that require minimal effort and supervision, yet yield spectacular results. Guatemalan Roasted New Potatoes These are easy to prepare. New potatoes are tossed in extra-virgin olive oil, salt, basil, and red crushed pepper, and then roasted to perfection; moist and tender insides surrounded by a crispy, well-seasoned skin. Ingredients needed: 3 pounds new potatoes 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt 2 teaspoons Crushed Red Pepper 2 teaspoons Crushed Basil
* You can roast the potatoes at higher and lower temperatures (not under 350°F though); however you will need to adjust your cooking time. If you roast the potatoes at a lower temperature, you will need to leave them in longer. If you roast the potatoes at a higher temperature, you will need to take them out sooner. Simply use the doneness test outlined above to make sure your potatoes are fully cooked through. Then one of the deserts was incredible and I found out later my daughter-in-law, Ary, had brought that dish. It is: Strawberry Cream Danish Bundles Ingredients:
Directions:
I also spent time with my nephew, Tommy. He has the talent of drawing. Years ago I wrote a children’s book, however, I have never found an illustrator. I guess I had to wait for Tommy to grow up and become the professional person. He has the capacity and talent to do it and his style is just what I was looking for. I am so excited that this book might finally be done. It is a great book and will really be a blessing to families and children. Thus, our trip to Houston was productive and fun, full of family, friends, good music, food, and life. Worth the time and effort. Coming home we decided to drop off the children at their cousins in Dallas. David, Rebecca, and Elizabeth have been there all week. I miss them, but have accomplished double the work I usually get done. We also brought home a 23 year-old girl from family we know in Houston. She has been wanting to come and live with us for some time, but it just wasn’t the right opportunity until now. She helped me this last week to clean the whole upstairs (the 3 bedrooms of the children). We cleaned all 3 rooms: each closet, each drawer, ALL of it. When the children were younger, I would do a “de-cluttering” cleaning once about every 3 months. We have been in this house and this is only the second time I have done it. I ended up with 4 large contractor trash bags full of trash and stuff to go to give away. Most children (and people) just simply want to keep everything. They rationalize, “I will use that someday.” “I keep that, because it reminds me of my second grade teacher.” or “I keep that, because I like it.” These reasons don’t work-If you have had it for more than a year and have not used it-it is time to let go. Keep a journal or a scrapbook for memories, not drawers full of papers, small mementos, and so on that you have to clean. They take up space. They clutter your life… Let go-don’t think too much. Just let go and clean. Now when I walk upstairs-Wow! The beds are made. Floors vacuumed, clothes hanging up, drawers and counters organized and clean. They simply had too much stuff for the space. I got rid of stuff-so now there is order. A place for Everything AND Everything in it’s place. One of my favorite sayings. We also put away all of the Christmas decorations and I got rid of some of them. I guess this is my year of downsizing. I keep feeling like I have to simplify things-make my life easier, have less things to do so I can really do what I want to do-make my dreams come true. Yesterday, I made “Caldo de Res” which is a Spanish version of our roast. Caldo de Res or Mexican Roast
This is enough for 10-12 people. You can eat it with chips, tortillas, or crackers. The Spanish take tortillas at times and tear them into small pieces and put them in their soup just like we crush up crackers to put in. Yummy! Oh my goodness, the “Caldo” was good! On a cold winter day-a hot soup or chili is just what is needed. While the children are not here-jobs like the laundry and dishes are easy, however, jobs like bringing in wood or bringing in the groceries are 10 times harder. (Yea-Since I had to do them by myself). Plus my husband, Fito, is taking the outside Christmas lights down by himself little by little. I really don’t want to ask my married and older children to come and do these things for us as we get older so we need to “downsize” and do less and less each year so that Fito and I can still do it, but that it is not overwhelming. On Friday night after Fito and I had attended a meeting, we stopped by our local Wal-mart. There were a groups of girls that were just having a good time messing around. When we first saw them they were by the fresh fruits lying on their backs...barking. I meowed at them. Later, we saw them again by the pharmacy. Now they were doing cheers. We spoke with them for a while. Nice girls, just having a silly time together.  I also did Christmas Cards yesterday and mailed them to un-electronic friends. This year, it was only about 30 cards. Amazing...down from about 200 severals years ago. Our Christmas pics and info are on My Family Page. I also added Christmas pics to More Family Photos. I also put some information on my home page about resolutions. |
Enough already! (Cheese Cake Recipe)
| Posted on November 3, 2010 at 3:12 PM |
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Got up at 5:30 AM. Took Felipe to class and walked/ran. Came home, got children ready and took them to school. Came home, got ready for work. Taught class and was on the way home, but the Suburban sounded so horrible--I stopped at the mechanic. He thought it might be in the axle or transmission and said not to drive it anymore. I went home and Travis was free so he went with me to the mechanic so I could leave the car there. We came back home and it wasn't until this morning that I realized my coat was in the car! At my class, one of the ladies had brought a baked cheese cake that was incredibly luscious. And even better was the recipe is super easy! Easy Cheese Cake In a blender, put: 5 eggs 1 can of sweetened condensed milk 1 t. vanilla 1/4 of a block of cream cheese Blend together and pour into a store bought graham cracker crust. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. I worked on the computer for awhile, paid some bills (super yuk), and did some cleaning. I went to pick up the four from school, and then went to hide in my room. I took a nap! I was only able to get about 20 minutes before Fito came home and we had to leave, but I desperately needed one. A friend that does roofs had called us on Tuesday night and he was replacing a tile roof. The company told him to throw away the tile. We took our 16 foot trailer and the older children and went to get the tile. However, once there, the owner said he wanted to keep it. So now we have to wait and see what will happen. If he keeps it, they have to charge more as it is more work to take it down carefully and stack it. If they throw it away, they just throw it off the roof into a truck. Anyway, my husband then informed me that he needed to buy fajita meat as the Spanish Club was having a fund raiser tomorrow. We stopped at Rodeo Meat Market on SW 59th St. Between May and Western in OKC. It is now where I buy my meat. They have specials during the week and are cheap, clean, and do whatever I want. We then had to go to Sam's in Norman to buy paper goods, foil, etc. for the fund raiser. My children were upset and asked why we couldn't just go to a closer, more convenient store. I explained that you have to go to certain stores for certain products to get the best prices. Each store has good prices (leader prices) that lead you to the store, but then they make money by having higher prices on their other items. I just go from store to store and only buy their leader items, but I do so in such quantities so I do not waste the gas that I would use if I went each week. I just try to go to each store once a month. My knee gave out in Sam's. For about 10 minutes, I was hobbling along and not able to put any weight on it and then it corrected itself and was fine. Then we got home and company was there. Thank goodness I had the tamales. I made slushies and heated up tamales. I also had to make beans and rice for the fund raiser and do all the dishes which hadn't been done. By that time it was time for our bed time routine. Whew! |