TORTILLAS

Some of our Mexican friends have told us that the best tortillas are the hand-made ones.  I was skeptical--same ingredients, just made by hand instead of by a machine.  But it didn't matter because we had never come across a tortillería that sold hand-made ones.  That has now changed.  This is what we found a couple blocks from our house--in a direction we generally don't walk:

The machine-made tortillas are 12 pesos.  The white, yellow or blue hand-made ones (cooked on a comal) are 17 pesos.  So we bought half a kilo of the yellow ones.

 

Here's a shot of the woman making them:

They were sooooo much better than the machine ones--tender and delicate with a more subtle corn flavor.  We're hooked!

The machine ones.

  We bought some totopos too:

Can't wait to go back for more.

THE GREAT VODKA DRINK OFF: PART 1

El sr J and I started with 4 tastings from our current stock:

#1  (from left) Zubrowka.  Polish.  The "original bison grass vodka," a stalk of which is included in the bottle.  $276 MXN

  #2 Wyborowa.  Polish.  Rye.  $127 MXN

  #3 Stolichnaya. Latvia.  Wheat and rye.  Don't know price.  Probably around 250 MXN.  The small bottle came free with a long-gone liter bottle.

  #4 Oso Negro.  Mexico.  Doesn't say what it's made of.  Hopefully not bears.  I'm embarrassed to  

        say we also had this one on hand. We used it to make slivovitz, which we can't seem to find here.

El sr J's preferences were:  2, 1, 3, 4.  He must have been Polish in a previous life.

Mine were: 4, 1, 2, 3

So we both like Wyborowa best!  And it's really cheap!  However, there are many brands left to try.  We should live so long.

TORONJAS

PLATANOS

Yes, we have some bananas:

SOLAR

Our new solar collector:

The water tank (tinaco) had to be raised above the collector, which is why it is now perched on a metal platform.  Bonus:  more pressure in the gravity-flow water supply in the house.  There are 15 tubes to catch the rays--plenty for a family of 2 as well as for our guests.  In the (unlikely) event of consecutive overcast days, we can divert the water from the collector to our stand-by gas hot water heater to ensure plenty of hot water.  The savings on our gas bill should be about 80%.   Cost?  About 10,000 pesos.  Typical monthly gas bill?  About 350 pesos.  Payback time?  About 3 years.  And a small step toward less fracking. 

EL JARDIN, PART I

My brother-in-law, Pete, wanted to see how the garden looks now.  First, the left side, looking out from the pergola:

That's an avocado tree in the center.  It's the only one we planted--we have 2 more volunteers.  To the left is a white poinsettia our neighbors gave us in a pot.  Poinsettias grow into trees here.  Underneath is mint ground cover.  Red coleus in front.

Some filler

We're discussing which bananas to cut down.

Volunteer avocado

Purple stuff

Our first fig died, so we planted another.

Another avocado!

Plum

Seeds started in double stacked egg crates.  Wish me luck.  Sprouted hollyhocks, cucumbers, prudens purple tomatoes.  Yet-to-sprout slim jim eggplant, radicchio, cayenne peppers.

CACTUS BABIES

The semi-desert in Mexico where we live is home to thousands of types of cacti.  Having inhabited less arid locales all my life, I was not initially fond of cacti.  But after visiting cactus propagation farms and seeing such a huge variety of types, I'm now a fan of the cactus.  Our cacti are busy propagating themselves at the moment.  No seeds for them!  They've found other ways to multiply.

This one (not the big middle one but the ones surrounding it) throws its babies around when we're not looking.

This one keeps its babies closer.

This one sprouts rabbit ears.

A growth on the top.

Growths out the sides.

This is the same plant as above.  It goes up and down.

Tumor-like growths all over the trunk.

Can you see the new growth at the base?  Pulling the weeds from around the bottom is a delicate operation I haven't perfected yet.

Presumably you can twist off the babies, put them in dirt and get a new plant.  I haven't tried it yet.

And the pièce de resistance:  a bright yellow flowering top.  I can't wait to see what happens next.

The expert at the cactus farm said to water them once every six months and never to fertilize, which would replicate conditions in their natural habitat.  We have friends with huge cacti on their patio growing over the top of the roof.  They'll need a crane to remove them.  They water once a week and use Miracle Grow once a month.  I guess it depends on what size cacti you want.

HACE MUCHO SOL. . .

so we ordered a sun screen for the pergola.  Two people showed up for the installation:  the woman, Reyna Rosano, who owns the store where we bought it, and the man who would do all the work while she supervised.

There was a long piece of material with one man and one ladder.  I wondered how that would work (el sr J was at the gym).  Silly me.  A rope served as the other man as the real man went back and forth on the single ladder.

He put it in backwards the first time.

His toolboxes were a disorganized mess.  It took him a long time to find what he wanted.

He also needed a lot of time to pause and think what he was going to do next.

Did you know you could keep scissors in your ladder?

He was almost done when he thought he discovered that the hooks to hold the arms were the wrong kind.  Reyna started to call the factory in León.  I looked at the hooks, held them up to the wooden supports, and showed how they might work.  Reyna blew me a kiss and hung up the phone.  At that point I lost all confidence in the guy and started praying for el sr J to return from the gym.

He did, and everyone else seemed to be satisfied with the end result.  The screen goes up and down and can be angled out at the bottom (with the arms attached to the hooks) to let more air in.  It not only blocks the sun from the patio so we can eat comfortably there, but also in the kitchen, an added benefit I hadn't foreseen.

I was rattled.  Reyna was delighted.

PASTRAMI

A nice piece of pecho from market:

5 days in brine in the fridge:

3 hours in the oven:

sliced:

A pastrami sandwich for two:

OREJA DE BURRO

Don't know what it is in English, but it sure is a weird looking plant:

It puts out more babies than one of Reagan's imaginary welfare queens:

Babies down the leaves. . .

Babies in the flowers.  Anybody want one?