It seems kind of ridiculous in a city with so much delicious food at such a low price to eat at home, but we have been trying, mostly for the sake of the kids, to do some things at home. I think it makes them feel more grounded. In this pursuit we have found that our kitchen lacks several tools that I've come to take for granted. The good part about it is trying some new foods. Brandon bought these 'tuna' which in English are called Prickly Pears. When we looked them up on the internet it warned several times that you should not buy them unless they were already stripped of their spines. Ours were stripped by a Mexican lady who seemed to be an expert, but if you try them at home, don't get poked because I guess the needles pack quite a punch. From this stage Brandon peeled them and cut them into slices. They have a lot of seeds inside but they look and taste kind of like a cucumber, but much sweeter. They reminded me of kiwi. Daisy is loca for cucumbers and it was no surprise that she liked these too, but I was floored that Rocky was into them. She is kind of hesitant when it comes to trying new things.
Brandon has been more adventurous in the kitchen than I have and he is usually the one doing the shopping and meal planning. I am having a hard time finding the motivation to make things work but he has led the way. For Sunday dinner he made fried rice that was really delicious. It took probably 3 times as long as usual because the frying pan is so small it had to be done in shifts.
He has planned an activity for tomorrow to celebrate the 4th of July. At the university where his students are studying there is also a group of Mexican students doing a program to learn English. He has been trying to find ways for them to get together so that they can practice their language skills on each other. The Mexican students invited the Americans to a potluck and so now the Americans are inviting the Mexicans to an Independence Day extravaganza. He went out and rented the movie Independence Day and bought a bunch of stuff to make chocolate chip cookies, zucchini bread, and s'mores. I had doubted that Mexicans didn't know about s'mores until this morning when I was flipping between cartoons for the girls and came across a cooking show. The woman was a serious chef and she was literally demonstrating how to make what she was calling cookie sandwiches. She was toasting the marshmallows over a candle and the audience seemed awestruck. I'm sure that all the ladies here would think it just as ridiculous that I keep looking for a recipe for how to cook beans and rice. It just seems too obvious to actually need a demonstration.
Now our adventure is about to begin because even though we think we have all the ingredients we need, we are missing some pretty serious stuff...like a sheet to actually bake the cookies on. We also have sodium bicarbonato which is either baking soda or baking powder...which could also make for some problems. I am willing to take this challenge but I can tell you, with certainty, that if I'm going to spend the day in the kitchen improvising, that I'm going to eat a dinner made by a Mexican in an authentic restaurant tonight.
Bonus: Daisy decided that she is mature enough for makeup. I'm thinking that she needs to wait a few years. I'm also thinking that if this can be done in the five minutes that it took me to wash the breakfast dishes that we need to live in a smaller apartment.
2 comments:
We used to eat prickly pears all the time when I was growing up. A few neighbors had cactus plants and we would pick the fruit when they were purple with the plastic thick gloves that you wear to wash dishes. Otherwise the prickles were horrible. But I love them. The pink fruit makes you pee pink too. It's pretty cool.
When I lived in AZ prickly pear was all over the place in the grocery stores but I never had the guts to try it. Sounds pretty good! I happen to love Daisy's makeup :) Aeryn never did that. It's so cute I might "accidentally" leave a few things within reach if I were you.
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