I am going to Minneapolis!!

(Holding a package abril sent me for my birthday. Thanks sis!)

It is set, I have plans, I have tickets! I am going to Minneapolis in May!
Abril lives there, so I will be spending lots of time with her, when she’s not at school, cooking away… but we’re starting to make plans of all the things we’ll do together, like the good ol’ Bloomington times! Gera has a conference in Denver, but after that, he’ll also fly to Minneapolis and we’ll all be there together. I cant wait. Even though my trip is only 6 weeks away I have not taken out the suitcase (like last time). I am waiting for the weather in Zurich to get better, so I can take all my summer clothes out too (right now its rainy and cold).
Gera’s birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I have been experimenting with a recipe for his birthday cake, he wants “tres leches”. This 3-milk cake is a regular white cake cooked with extra eggs to make it harder, and then soaked in a mixture of 3 milks: sweetened condensed, evaporated, and whipping cream, all topped with whipped cream and fresh strawberries (or shredded chocolate). It is YUMMY!. The first try was quite good, but the cake part was a bit too hard, but I think the secret is on the milk mixture and as long as that is good it all tastes great!

happy thanksgiving!

Last night I made a mini-pseudo thanksgiving dinner from scratch! Although I cooked a chicken insetad of a turkey, everything turned out really good, and it was a first for everything except the mashed potatoes! I made bread stuffing and pumpkin pie (and not from a can!), and everything was excellent. (we suspect that it was the butter in everything that made it so sinfully delicious)
I hope everybody had a good dinner with family and friends, but remember to be thankful for your blessings everyday and not just once a year.
The clock is ticking, only 22 days until my trip!

tamales

this edition of blog brings you more cooking adventures.
Today I made corn tamales. This kind of tamales is a bit different that the traditional pork tamales (red), and they have corn, cheese and cream (and chile slices in the middle). My mom makes them when I visit (they are typical in our native state of Sonora), and they're always a favorite (with refried beans). I made a point to write down the recipe, since it is a made-up recipe, as the original/traditional has fresh white corn as the main ingredient, and i used canned. The photo is from last year's batch (my first time making them). I have only made them once since, but I totally screwed up the recipe and they were awfull, hence no tamales since then.

rosca + cooking

today i made Rosca de Reyes (king's cake). This was a test run, because a rosca is not typically eaten until January 6th. Also, you're supposed to hide a plastic baby toy and whomever gets it has to put together another party for Dia de la Candelaria, in february (12th? 2nd?.. i forget), but I was fresh out of blastic baby toys (hehe) l. The rosca turned out good, but not like a traditional rosca. This one had a bread consistency, and a rosca is more like cake. I will look for another recipe and try it again next week. I've been a lot into cooking lately. have you seen my recipe blog?

random stuff

(photo: my backyard this morning)
sorry i did not post yesterday... so much for nablopomo. At least i was not "officially" registered and failed the challenge like this other person i know (hehe).
Oh well, i guess i am runing out of things to post ( i dont have a project to show, or kids to give me material).
For today, i have a collection of random stuff...
-It snowed! yes, there was snow on the ground this morning (it had snowed last week like the forecast said, but nothing stuck).
-The suitcase is OUT, and I am filling it with stuff. Seems like we're going to have a "suitcase situation" for this trip. You see, Gera brought 1 garment bag, 1 big suitcase, 1 small carry on... the big suitcase arrived all thorn, brocken and unusable. I brought 2 big suitcases, 1 small carry on (plus cumputer bag)... When the sibllings came to visit, they arrived with a brocken suitcase (the wheels broke), and when they left, they switched bags and left the brocken one here . So if you're keeping track, that means we have 2 brocken suitcases (unusable), 2 small carry-ons, 1 big suitcase, 1 garment bag. Will that be enough? i hope so... i just know that my carry-on will be heavy with chocolates... that makes me wonder about customs... i should check on that.
-yesterday i made menudo (the soup, not the boy band). It was ok, I was actually quite disapointed with the flavor... something was not right. I guess if I try to look at it from the bright side, when i go home it will taste so much better!

The Naked Chef!

FIND PHOTOS HERE

Today I went to a cooking demo by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver! It was a fun and exciting thing to do. I watched his show on the food network, and I like his cooking style (although my favorite was Rachel Ray and those 30 min. meals).
It was held at a shopping center, on a tent outside, and the heat was almost unbearable (a couple of girls fainted), but not for me! I grew up on the desert, it is not really hot until you can fry en egg on the sidewalk!. Anyways, he didn’t stay long after for autographs, so I only got pictures. He made some salads and grilled meat, but the stove was not working properly so we had to “use our imagination” for some things (“pretend this bread is toasted…”), I think it made him uncomfortable and he was fumbling a lot for ingredients and utensils. I was meeting a friend there, and while I was waiting, I saw him just sitting there at a restaurant around the corner, so I snapped a pic (I felt like such a paparazzi!).
I think this was the highlight of the week!

Not much else is new. Abril is in Juarez, getting some tests done, so say a prayer for her acid reflux (well, not for the reflux, but for her to get better… you know what I mean). Oh! We booked a hotel for Oktoberfest! We will be going on the last day (October 7), I hope that wont be a problem. That is all for now, don’t forget to write!
Tschoos!