Chiles Rellenos and The Color of the Spirit

Yesterday, Wednesday, was the day when all my weekend plans came to fruition!!  Well, two of them anyway.  I had my cooking lesson with my Uber driver's wife, and I got a job with an artist!!!!

First, the chiles rellenos.  I had never had these (unless you count stuffed bell peppers, which I don't, and you'll see why) and didn't know what to expect from the cooking lesson.  Her name is Vero and she kept saying that she's not really a cook, not as much as her older sisters.  But she worked deftly and with complete confidence, which tells me that this is a woman who regularly cooks homemade food for her family, which is what I'm looking to learn.  Plus she was fun to talk to :) 

Recipe for chiles rellenos, from memory, to be edited when she sends me her written up version:

Ingredients:

The chiles themseves:
chiles poblanos--however many you want to stuff and eat.  pick ones that are straight and smallish (they have less tough skin)
queso pamela--a specific kind of cheese you can find her, but I've never used.  Its kind of soft and sold in a block
toothpicks--not for eating
eggs, separated--the number of them seems to depend on how many chiles you are battering.  we used four eggs for four chiles
flour--just a little bit is needed

Char the skin of the chiles on an open flame, taking care not to let them burn.  when the whole of the skin is bubbled and blackened, put them in a bag (the plastic one that you bought them in works fine) and tie it up and wait for fifteen minutes until they cool off and the skin loosens.
Use your hands to rub off the skin and then break open the pepper in one long slit (don't make other holes or the cheese will melt out when cooking).  Use gloves to pull out the seeds and inside stuff (or alternatively, run them under cold water while you do it and wash your hands after).  Let them dry.
Stuff chiles with slices of pamela cheese and pin closed with a toothpick.

Make batter by beating the egg whites into a thick froth and adding the yolks back in to make a nice yellow froth.  Heat a frying pan with enough oil to fry stuff in.  Like, a quarter inch deep layer on the pan.  Dust the stuffed chiles with flour (it will help the batter stick).  Dip them into the frothy egg batter one at a time, as you have space to fry them, and lay them in the hot oil.  Use a spoon to ladle hot oil over the battered part of the chile around the stem, where it will never lay directly in the oil.  You don't want that part to be uncooked.  Flip the chile until all sides are browned nicely, then remove to a towel-lined plate to blot off extra oil.  Repeat with all chiles.

If you have extra cheese, slice that up, and batter and fry that!  And don't forget to fry all the extra batter into a fluffy omlet!

...and the leftover batter omlet!

The tomato sauce:
Plum tomatoes--those are the kind she likes best for this, and we used maybe five
onion--only a small chunk is needed, plus another tiny bit chopped
garlic--one clove
chicken broth--she brought some chicken pieces that are usually not eaten (a neck and part of a ribcage, plus two wings) and boiled them up with a small chunk of onion and a clove of garlic to make her own instant chicken broth!
chicken bullion--maybe half a cube

Chop tomatoes roughly and add them plus the onion and the garlic to a blender with maybe a cup of water.  Blend thoroughly.  Like, longer than you think.  The result is a frothy pink/red liquid-y liquid.

Fry some onion in some oil in a deep sided frying pan until they go a bit translucent.  Then add the tomato liquid (careful of the oil splattering).  Add some chicken broth and bullion.  She just ladled a bunch in, so I have no idea about amounts... it'll make a nice deep tomato bath.  Lay the fried up stuffed chiles in the liquid and simmer for a while.  Until they are done, basically, which probably just means heated through.

Quick and easy homemade chicken broth!

White rice with veggies:
white rice
chicken broth--see above
chicken bullion--a cube
garlic--a clove, chopped
a handful or two of fresh peas
one medium carrot, chopped into pea-sized pieces
one cob's worth of fresh corn
(I loved how she used fresh veggies for this; it wouldn't have occurred to me for some reason)

Rinse the rice and let it dry a bit.  Put oil in a big enough pot and add the rice.  Stirring constantly, fry the rice until is evenly golden colored, adding the chopped garlic about half way through.  Then add the chicken broth (she eyeballed the amount, but I'd say going with the tried and true 1:2 rice:liquid ratio is a good bet), chicken bullion, and the veggies.  Cover and simmer until it's done!

DELICIOUS!!!

Second, I got a job!  For reals, an artist named Karima Muyaes is having me help her catalog and organize all her works of art to prep them for her book, The Color of the Spirit!  I'm super excited as she seems very nice and wants to be able to rely on me to keep her in line with her goal of finishing the book by the end of this year.  And then, BONUS, her daughters are super creative and not far from my age and one of them makes historical costumes and is an actress and the other loves the same classic books I love, and I think we will be friends!! 

I went to their home yesterday to discuss everything and as I was leaving they said to think of them as my Mexican family <3 <3 <3 

Basically, yesterday felt like the antithesis of the week before, when I was so low and lost.  I am so grateful for the bits of my mother that are in me and enable me to talk up Uber drivers and shop owners/artists.  I've started finding my way!

The 180-Degree Miracle Weekend

This weekend was the best weekend ever.  No joke.

It started off with a TON of sleep--Joel and I both slept for almost 11 hours!--and I set off by myself nice and early in the morning to attend a Textile Festival in a part of town I had never been to before.  I took the subway to the end of Line 7, and eventually figured out how to catch an unnumbered bus  (with the help of a friendly university student) to my destination.  This was the first miracle ^^  I had just been talking the night before about how I want to figure out the weird bus system here!  Tahdah!

And then, so many awesome things started happening.

1. I saw some embroidery work done over fabric pleated very tiny and tight, which looked just like the kind of embroidery I've been trying to do on the neck and cuffs of a 16th century linen shirt that has been in the works for something like three years!  I talked to the two ladies sitting there and one gave me her contact information so that we could share information--she has been trying to learn more about the origin of this type of embroidery work and she wants to know all about it's use in early modern Europe!  She thinks the Spaniards brought the technique and it has been adapted by local seamstresses who embroider local and native motifs into it!  I want help figuring out how to design my embroidery, too.  Win-win!!

2. I found a lady with samples of various naturally-occurring shades of cotton!  I'd heard about this phenomenon, but I'd never seen it before!!  So I bought a few tufts ranging from white to a burnt umber orange color.  In case I ever teach my fashion history class again..  Also, I posted pictures on a fb group and asked if we know of any European use of colored cotton in the 16th or 17th centuries.

3. I bought the most gorgeous woven wool rug!!!  I saw it and it was like the colors saturated my soul and sunk into my bones and I just had to have it.  :)  Happily, it folds up nice and small and wasn't too heavy to carry around.

4. (and this is where it starts getting GOOD) I wandered into a saturday bazaar next door, which was kind of a fancy boutique artisan's market.  One shop in particular caught my eye: there were masks, corazones, painted ceramics, and votive pieces all over the walls.  I decided to buy a corazon and ended up talking to the shop owner and her daughter, telling them that I am new in town, but will be here for two years, and that I'm looking for something to do, and that my background is in museums, particularly collections management..  At that point the shop keeper started paying really close attention.  Turns out she is an artist and is writing a book and needs help cataloging her (and her father's) folk art collection! 
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like, could there BE a better thing for me to hear at that very moment?!?!?? 
We are in touch now and will be getting together sometime this week to discuss the possibility :D

5. I found this painter who paints these sweet little still lives (in spanish they are literally called "dead nature") and I will one day buy one of them.

6. I was walking along, about to leave the area, when I saw a street cart vendor making cheeseburgers and I suddenly felt faint with hunger and HAD to stop and buy one.  And it was THE BEST cheeseburger I have EVER eaten, hands down.  He toasted the outside of the buns while putting mayo, ketchup, mustard and chopped tomato on the inside of one half, and he grilled the thinnest, broadest hamburger patty I have ever seen.  You know how meat shrinks when it cooks?  Well, this was such a broad patty, and so thin, that it shrank to JUST the size of the bun.  And the slice of american cheese melted on top.. And then he put it all together and it cost 25 pesos (or about 1$) and I was in HEAVEN.  So many capitalized words in here because there is no other sufficient way to describe it.  :)  I think maybe the small amount of meat made the ratios just right?  or the tomato was just ripe?  or the buns just warm enough?  I don't know, but it was like magic, it was so good.  I sat and savored it.  Some food you will never forget...

7. Then I called an Uber to go home since I didn't want to take the time for public transit and it was hot and I had to carry the rug...  It was rather expensive (like 7$ instead of 2$), but it ended up being well worth it!  The driver struck up a conversation with me that kind of ranged all over!  We talked about national forests, religion, charity work, family values...  He told me that he and his wife and two kids had just moved back to Mexico City after 10 months in Guadalajara because his job there was too demanding and didn't leave him with any time for his family and kids!  So the money wasn't worth it and he quit.  Now he is driving Uber until he finds another job.  And we talked about how kids need to spend quality, loving time with their family, and how that is the best indicator of their future success.  And suddenly an idea popped into my head:  if they are a little down and out now, with him just driving Uber, maybe...maybe his wife would be interested in teaching me Mexican cooking!  And before I could talk myself out of asking a perfect stranger for cooking lessons, I did it!  And she texted me yesterday saying she would be happy to!!  And we are going to discuss details this afternoon!  I don't even know where they live >< or how much to pay or how many weeks to do it, but I am excited!!

8. After talking out all my excitement to Joel when I got home, we took a nap.  The plan was to go to the temple in the evening, so at 5 we checked the internet to find out when the sessions were scheduled.  Turns out 6pm was the last one!!  So we ran out of the house, called an Uber, and made it to the temple by 5:52pm.  Somehow, miraculously, someone important was also running late, so they were holding the session, and we made it in!!  And standing in the celestial room afterwards, I got the warm, full feeling that I am happy to be in Mexico.  That it will be good to be here, that I will be grateful to be here. 

And that, my friends, is how I ended the day, with a complete about-face from my melancholy of the week.  Mexico looks bright and friendly and exciting now, a place where anything is possible if I just open my heart to look for it and open my mouth to ask for it. 





oh, and p.s. here is miracle #9: I did ALL of that in SPANISH!

This Post Is For Grant

Hi Grant!  Your mom said you like finding things on maps, so I've got a couple pictures of a place near where I live in Mexico!  It's called Lincoln Park, in Polanco, Mexico City.  Can you find it?  Let me know if you need more clues!

The park is named after this guy!  Do you recognize him?
He was a president of the United States and he did some really important things. 

This is another American hero that has a statue in the park. 
His name was Martin Luther King Jr.  Do you know why he is a hero?

A view of the park.  Lots of people walk their dogs here,
but we just have cats, and our cats don't like going on walks..

There is a HUGE really fun-looking playground here too! 
I need to find some kids to be friends with so they can bring me here to play. :)

Can you find this park on a map?  Then you will also be able to see my neighborhood!  :)  Good luck!

Mexican Mother's Day

Last Thursday was Mexican Mother's Day (always on the 10th, no matter what day it falls on) and Joel got the day off!  We spent the afternoon wandering around the old city downtown, and I kept spotting old churches and dragging Joel into them until he put his foot down and said No More Churches but by that time we were ready to go home.

I made a personalized google map that you can see our route and look at pictures if you click on the places we went!  Let me know how it looks ^^  It was enough of an annoyance to make it so I may not every make another one...


https://drive.google.com/open?id=18igNhU2iX6qtKNpR7tOnPY-78yFnrO6U&usp=sharing

joel beats this guy every time

very crooked church damaged by earthquake

my favorite art of the day--skeleton eating watermelon

at the house of tile!  blue and white is not just from delft, turns out!

these were tasty and sweet

i just like this view.
 that orange dome of the Museum of Belles Artes was lovely, but the art inside was dull

A Message From The Inside

I came in to the embassy today, intending to complete two simple tasks:
1. inform my supervisor that I am ready to take on cases.
2. have IT help me locate and access my .pst file of all my stuff that I made in Chengdu last year.

and drop off two items:
1. CLO "library" books that I'm done with.
2. Thank you muffins to Paulina who helped us call about internet two weeks ago.

I completed all of the above things!  But suddenly, I am swept up in Everything Else:
1. IT couldn't help me with .pst, so I had to send an email to Chengdu.
2. I was told that my security clearance had been sent here, but when I checked, it wasn't, so had to log in to another computer to forward the email that was my proof, but that computer wouldn't let me on and then the next computer I tried wouldn't let me on, so now, 40 minutes of trying later, I have a document full of screenshots to take to IT to get them to fix THAT.
3. I forgot that I need to make an appointment with the med unit so they can inform us of the dangers of Zika.
4. Joel hadn't handed in our GSO inventory, so I got it from him (since I'm here) and will bring it where it needs to go.
5. I ran into one of the CLO ladies and asked her about a social sponsor position, and she told me to ask the other CLO lady, so I've got to go there.

...I think that is all.
One wonders if I am going to be able to get home before lunch!
Sigh.  This seems to always happen.  And honestly, I think I thrive on *needing* to do things, but also honestly, the embassy just seems to SUCK ME IN whenever I spend any amount of time here...

Today is the first day that I am determined to NOT stay until Joel goes home.  Because I need a nap.




P.S. I heard that there is a horse race track here in Mexico City and it is posh!  I really want to go, but I super want to go in My Fair Lady race track gear.  Black and White gown, giant parasol, enormous hat..  Just the thought brings a sparkle to my eyes!  ^^

The Bath

I decided to take a bath tonight.
I climbed into the dry tub and scrubbed it down with baking soda.
I started filling it up with nice hot water. 
And it kept draining out because THERE IS NO PLUG :( :( :( :(

I howled to Joel in despair.
He came in and assessed the situation.
Naked wife in dry tub.
And then he handed me the plunger! 
(Note: new plunger, never before used.)

With the plunger held down, in sealed position, water filled up the tub.
With the weight of the water, I didn't need to hold the plunger in place anymore and VOILA! 
Full tub, hot water, happy me.
Long soak.

Marco Cat came and inspected the situation several times.  He sniffed all around, stared at my belly rising and falling with my breath, drank some water, dipped his paw in and licked it dry.  He was very interested.  And at the end, just before I was ready to get out, Magellan Cat came and looked at me with a serious, horrified stare, as if to say, "what did they DO to you?  why are you in WATER?"

So silly!  Such a lovely bath.

The Duck Cookbook

I'm not sure why I brought it home.  I saw it in the take-one-leave-one library, and I thought, I've never cooked a duck before!  I should maybe learn.  And then I paged through the book and saw that the recipes were very french and very high end.  And the author said that duck is very hard to cook!  I reasoned, if I ever want to cook duck, I should have a book that tells me how to do it. 

And so that is why I now have a duck cookbook.  I don't want it.  I have the internet instead!  I think I'll bring it back.  Like the book Measure for Measure.  I was like, I should read this!  Shakespeare is funny!  And then I started reading it and remembered that I don't need to do homework anymore.  So I brought it back.  Like American Gods.  It's super crass; the kind of crass I don't want replaying in my head as I'm trying to fall asleep nights.  So I think I'll bring it back

The hard part and the best part about being an adult is that you don't *need* to do anything you don't want to do.

Like today.  I did three of the four things on my list and the fourth thing is sewing something, which I ostensibly like doing, so it isn't really a TO DO, but since it isn't a TO DO, I have ended up not doing it.  Instead I have given myself a headache by scrolling almost uncontrollably through my facebook feed.  Sigh.  Being an adult--an adult with no job and only four small things (well, three) on her to do list--is a little hard.  And a little boring, it turns out. 

Oh!  but my cat escaped today!  I had just gotten home, talking on the phone with my brother as I walked through the compound to my door.  I unlocked my door and there was one cat waiting for me inside.  Suddenly it registered that I was hearing a cat yowling out in the courtyard, and, also suddenly, that yowl sounded very familiar...  A quick inspection of the house and sure enough, the screen in one of the windows had been pushed out.  Thankfully, Marco was just one floor up, standing on the windowsill that maybe he thought was ours?, yowling his little heart out. 

So that was exciting.
The end.

I Just Want My Own Stuff

I washed our welcome kit bedspread today because it has cat hair all over it.

I had to stuff it into the washing machine and I'm not even convinced it was fully washed.  Then I had to stuff it in the dryer.  Turns out it is not 100% cotton.  You know how I know?  Because the dryer melted it.  In several small patches.

I hate not being in charge of my own stuff.  Now I have to be like, "Oh GSO, terribly sorry, but I melted your [[[CRAPPY]]] bedspread."  Just like I swelled up the cheapo kitchen counter top when I used the dish drainer that they provided, which didn't have a water tray.  (Now, one of the kitchen drawers can't open because the swollen counter top is blocking it.) 

In real life, if you don't have a water tray under your dish drainer, it is because you know that your counter can handle being wet and has a lip so the water won't spill all over the floor.  In real life, I don't buy plastic bedspreads.  The info that you know, that you plan for, that you understand when you put your own house together is entirely missing in temp housing with a stupid welcome kit that doesn't even provide decently sharp knives.

And I'm grumpy because I'm tired but also overly rested and bored from a two nap day.  I needed them at the time, but I fear I will wake up at 3am again.  

Monday Has Been Pretty Busy

I bought a dust mop today and swept up almost a kitten's worth of cat fur ><

And I've been cooking up a storm, what with the bake sale tomorrow and putting together a casserole for a girl I know who is having a baby ANY MINUTE now :)  Oh, but now I feel silly, making food for someone I barely know..  I hope she doesn't think I'm weird.

I'm pretty proud of this casserole, actually.  I bought chicken breast on the bone, which seems relatively common here, and so I had to cut the four breasts off of the two chicken rib cages.  Then I figured I could make the chicken broth I needed for the casserole directly out of the bones!  It worked out just right!  Hopefully it tastes as good as I think it will.



Side note:
This candy is NOT good.

There is an old man who sells candy and cigarettes on the steps of Joel's office building and I always want to buy stuff from him, but I will not buy these ones again.  Gross.

The Smell In My House Right Now...

...is divine. 

I bought a couple little loaves of fresh bread when we first got here, but we didn't get around to eating them all, so I took the dried up loaf I had left over and I'm making Pappa Al Pomodoro, a bread soup I learned back when I was studying in Florence, like, 12 years ago.  Basically you break up the hard bread and put it in a soup pot.  Add peeled and stewed canned tomatoes, chopped garlic, a bullion cube, plenty of olive oil, fresh basil, and water to cover the bread chunks.  Then cook it over a low heat, stirring frequently, until the bread has dissolved and the garlic is "cooked", as my cooking teacher said.  I had forgotten what amazingness is fresh basil, and my whole apartment smells like comfort right now. <3 <3 <3

In other news, I made some friends today!  The neighbors we are borrowing internet from are super nice, and while the American guy works all day, his wife, a woman from Thailand is around to hang out with.  I knocked on her door today, to ask if she wanted to go to the store with me and show me the bakery they were raving about last night.  She had a Thai friend visiting who was just about to walk home, so we all walked out together.  On the way, they got a call from another Thai friend who invited us all over to her house for homemade Thai food for lunch!  YES PLEASE!  There was green papaya salad (with a complex spicy sauce made in a mortar with pestle) and an onion omelet with rice.  They were all so sweet to include me!

I was the youngest one here.  By three years.  Can You Believe That?!?!?  These ladies look so good!  Beautiful.
The girl with the long hair in the middle did the cooking.  Turns out she's an EFM too!

Afterwards Poy (my neighbor) showed me this bakery called Esperanza, or Hope.  As in, Hope that you don't get fat.  Because this place was full to bursting with beautiful cakes, pastries and breads!  Even giant American-style cookies.  *Heaven*  I'm not super into super sweet stuff at the moment, but I bought a concha and a cream-filled stick thing.  They are pretty yum :)

Miscellaneous Info:

Books that I have read since the flight:
Good Omens (Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett)
Warbreaker (Brandon Sanderson)
Make Trouble (Cecil Richard)
Dragon Weather (Lawrence Watt-Evans)
The Court of the Stone Children (Eleanor Cameron)
Books in progress:
A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine LÉngle)
Team of Rivals (Doris Kearns Goodwin)
American Gods (Neil Gaiman)

I fixed my dryer (which was taking all day to dry clothes) by finally finding the lint trap and emptying it of what seemed like a year of lint.  Because I'm just that good.  Slash, it was Poy's idea ^^

Also, while I was having amazing Thai food, I completely forgot that I had signed up to feed the missionaries for lunch ><  Oh I felt awful!!!  I'm going to have to bring them a treat on Sunday to make up for it... Not a great first impression. 

Oh but I am also going to be taking piano lessons.  Because it appears that no one at church plays the piano and I can read music so its like I'm half-way there!  :D  And Nan, one of the Thai ladies, knows a piano teacher and she put me in contact with him already!  Life-changing moments all day.

That's all!  Now I can't wait til my hardworking husband comes home and I can take care of him (and feed him yummy treats).  He's been thrown into the deep end with this new position and he's stressed out, but I know that he is doing such a good job! 

Tahtah.