Mystery Fruit #3

Star fruit

Okay so there really isn't much mystery in this one, i is starfruit and I am sure most people have seen this one in the stores. However, it is one of my favorite, it is juicy with a hint of acid like an orange plus a slight pear flavor. it is just good!

Mystery Fruit #2

Pitaya or Dragon Fruit
This Dragon fruit had a tropical flavor kind of like papaya or melon with the typical musky undertone of most tropical fruits. I just cut the fruit in half and tried a few bites with a spoon. I did not care for it but once I did a little reading it appears that it is often made as a sorbet with straberries and I can see it being very good that way.

Mystery Fruit # 1

Cherimoya

About once a month something will pop up in the produce section of my local grocery store that I do not recognise or I have never tried before. I have been calling them mystery fruits and this one is one of the first that I tried. To tell the truth I find most of these mystery fruits to have a musty or musky taste kind of like musk melon or papaya which I am not a fan of. This fruit was not any different, it was sweet with a texture almost like the inside of a pumpkin with a slightly acidic musk like undertone.

It's Getting Chili

I have never been good at making chili and to tell the truth unless it is just "right" I don't really like chili. The other day I was watching some videos on a site like health.com or cookinglight.com for some lite meal inspiration and one of the videos was chili and it sounded good. I figured if they can make a light chili sound good I had to try it. It turned out great! Of course I did my own version but still yum yum. The only issue I now have with it is I can't find good old American chili powder here in Mexico. My mother is mailing me some but I don't expect to see it until Halloween.
2 thick slices nice smoky bacon, cut into cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
10 ounces lean beef
5 ounces ground chicken (this is what I can find at teh stores here)
minced garlic, 2 cloves
1 bottle beer
15 oz can stewed tomatoes with juice, break the tomatoes up with a spoon (or your by squeezing with your hand)
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon smoked chipotle powder
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
pepper
can black beans drained and rinsed (or what ever bean you like)


Brown bacon in a deep pot, once brown add in the onions and cover and let cook over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. add into the pot the garlic and ground meat and let it brown. Once the meat is brown add in the beer and cook until it evaporates and the meat is really cooked down, about 10 minutes. add in the rest of the ingredients except the beans, cover and cook for about 30 minutes. add the beans and cook for another 5 minutes.

Server with Cornbread

On the way to Puebla

A few weeks back we took a trip to Heroic Puebla de Zaragoza. This was one of the first cities founded by the Spanish in 1531 that was not built on top of ruins of local civilizations. When visiting this city it is apparent that it was a European planned city because the streets are square, they are not set a odd angles with strange intersections but laid out in a grid formation.

Colorful Puebla.

Puebla University, I hear it is a very good school.

Beautiful brick work

along one of the store fronts in front of the Zocalo (city center or downtown) is a bronze model of the city, this was unexpected for me.

The kids posing in front of one of the sculpture

This is a very interesting sculpture. It is a cylinder with half moons on each side and it is sculpted like leaves a trees.

The Cathedral of Puebla.

Photos of the colorful city.

The Drive from Mexico City to Pueble is one of the most beautiful drives I have ever taken. It was mountainous and green and spectacular, unfortunately or is a narrow highway without a shoulder going up or down the mountain so I was unable to get many photos of the mountains, but I managed a few of the volcano. The highway between Mexico City and Puebla bass next to volcano Popocatepetl and volcano Iztaccíhuatl and these are beautiful indeed.

Eating out in Mexico City - What I have to say about the Restaurants

I am not much for reviewing restaurants. I may say it is good and a friend may say the opposite. I think that Restaurants for the most part are ever changing, from one day to the next and from one item to the next, so I don't often write about them here on my blog. However, I have been eating out here in Mexico and some places I have enjoyed very much, but what I find when I do a search on the net for a place to eat is laking, the results tend to come up a little short so I have decided to say a little bit about the places I visit and provide a few photos too, photos never hurt.

Today I am going to tell you about a Thai place we went to in La Condesa called Mibong. I learned of this place through my Spanish tutor who happens to be a big Thai fan just like my husband.

We set out with the address in a Taxi and after the taxi drove around for a while (Condesa is full on one way streets, not easy to get around in) he dropped us right in front of the restaurant.
I had Pad Thai, it was very nice, the noodles were cooked perfectly the chili has a very Mexican flavor to it and the sauce has a nice peanut flavor to it. This is not the Pad Thai I am used to eating in Michigan but it was a great dish done well.

My Husband ordered a fried rice dish that our 5 year old daughter stole from him and ate us so I can't tell you first had how good it was but she seamed to love it, good enough for me.
We also tried a seafood soup that they offered and it was very nice. We all got to have a few bites but in the end this was the big hit for my 3 year old son and he got to eat most o it. The kitchen is small and well used but clean!
The menu has much to offer with both sides full of many appealing looking items listed.

MiBong
Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese
Campeche 396-B
ph. 5211-2078
Sun – Wed: 1 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.
Thurs – Sat: 1 p.m. – 1:30 a.m.

He is turning 4 and he is eating Batman's Head

Not a whole lot to say, just wanted to post the cake I made for my babies 4th Birthday...well I guess he is not my baby any more he is my big boy and he is into cars, robots and super heroes. and of course he wanted to eat Batman's head

A peek at what has been on the table

Loving Michigan

I know I have been MIA yet again but the kids and I are off in Michigan visiting family for the summer. We will be back in Mexico next week with a schedule again and regular blogging will take place once again. Until then Enjoy the summer, we are.

It was not Sulfur Soup at all

I enjoy asparagus very much. I like it blanched, plunged into ice water, drained and topped with course salt. I like it roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper and then covered with a few shavings of Parmesan cheese, I like it raw and even steamed with butter. But the idea of asparagus soup always turned me off, I thought that it would taste the the harshness that asparagus has from the sulfur particularly when it is over cooked. I imagined a big bowl of green sulfur soup, after all one much cook the daylights out of the asparagus to make soup out of it.

The other day I looked it the fridge to see what I could put together for dinner and I had a kilo of asparagus, some onions that are in desperate need of being used, cream and some left over Asian chicken stock which was had a light and wonderful garlic ginger taste to it. The only conclusion i could come up with was asparagus soup.

Like almost everything I make I figures I would start with caramelized onion because everything and anything will turn out wonderful with nice sweet onion. I figured I would add some richness by cooking the onions in butter.

I cleaned the asparagus and and chopped it into pieces and added it to the onions just before they browned with a little salt and pepper. I reserved some of the tips of the asparagus and blanched them for pretty photos later.

Once I sauteed the asparagus and ions for a few minutes I added the Asian chicken broth and broth, a bay leaf and a little thyme to it all and brought to a boil and cooked for about 30 minutes, until the asparagus was tender.

Once the asparagus was cooked, I removed the bay leaf and blended the soup (in batches) with my blender until smooth.

I place the soup back on the heat and when it came up to a boil I added a half cup of cream and a squeeze of lime juice. Tested for seasoning, had to add a little more salt and enjoyed.

The soup did not have a touch of sulfur taste to it at all it was rich and creamy and simply one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten.

Ginger Asparagus Soup~

1 kilo Asparagus
6 cups ginger chicken broth (you can make your own or heat up purchased broth and add 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger)
1 medium onion
3 tablespoons butter
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh thyme
1/2 cup cream
Salt & pepper
juice of 1 lime

Chicken in a Cream Wine Sauce over Fettuccine

Chicken breasts, thin. get scallopini at the store or cut it yourself.
flour
salt
pepper
oil
mixed mushrooms (portobello , oyster, and button)
good white wine
cream
1 clove minced garlic
parsley
fettuccine

clean and slice mushrooms, set aside. mix a good amount of salt and pepper in a cup of flour. Set a large pan of water to boil for pasta.

Once water is boiling add pasta.

Heat a frying pan (I use cast iron) with vegetable oil. Dredge the chicken in the flour and when oil is hot (looks like it ripples in the pan) lay the floured chicken in the oil. As you lay the chicken in the oik place the chicken in the edge of the pan closest to you and and down away from you to avoid getting burned.

Brown the chicken on both sides (being sure it is done through but not over cooked). set the cooked chicken on a plate and set aside.

Drain the oil from the pan but do not clean off all the drippings in the pan. add about a tablespoon of oil to the pan and the mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms the way you like them, personally I like them browned. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and add them to the chicken.

pour 1 cup wine in the hot pan and let it cook down while scrapping the bits up into the sauce. If sauce is looking too dry add more wine or water but you have to be sure the wine cooks a little to get the alcohol taste out. add the cream a half cup to a cut, you be the judge.

Once sauce comes up to just a boil add in the mushrooms and chicken to coat and heat up, finish with chopped parsley and serve with fettuccine.

My Lucy Doll, Your Lucy Doll

Years ago a once good friend of mine made a doll for her Daughter. Her Daughter named that doll Lucy after the doll of the show Little Bear. My Daughter, Z. always wanted to play with that doll, she was only 2 at the time and she thought that doll was the greatest thing. For Z's 3rd birthday she received her very own Lucy. Look how happy she was!
Z still to this day, she is five and a half, she sleeps with Lucy. However, my son took a liking to Lucy so for Christmas when he was two and a half he got his very own Lucy with fuzzy orange hair and he too sleeps with his Lucy every night.

After we got settled into our new place here in Mexico our new neighbor has a Daughter who is two and a half and she took a liking to Z's Lucy so I made her her very own Lucy, see below.

this is just after I stuffed the 12" doll body with polyfill and I am working on applying the face

here is Sara's Lucy with face and hair and I am getting ready to make the dress. As you can see she is a pretty little thing.