Pictures.

 {Fresh salad greens from the garden.   Just about the only item thriving in the garden.}

 {Warm milk, a sprinkling of nutmeg, and chunks of banana.  A favorite of a certain darling boy and his mother!}  

{Trying to smile through a mouth full.  I do believe those eyes will get him in trouble one day...} 

 {This beauty comes to graze outside our kitchen window a couple times a week. He's majestic.} 

{He delights in a nap with his head covered, but a hand always escapes when possible!}

What do you do...

....when life {or rather a generous friend} gives you apples and pears? {Especially when they seem in need of some tender love and care, as noted by their bumps and bruises?}

You make pear-apple sauce, of course!

Easy Peasy Pear-Apple Sauce

*11 cups of fruit {I had 5 cups of apple and 6 of pear}, cores removed and chopped into cubes.  Don't peal.

* A cup of sugar. 

*A couple cracked cinnamon sticks. 

* Four whole cloves

* A teaspoon each of nutmeg and vanilla extract.   

* A splash of water

Mix it all together in your crockpot.  Set on high and allow to cook until fruit is tender.  Mine took about two  hours.  Remove what spices you can, but don't fret too much.  Blend in batches and return to crockpot.  

Cook on high again with the lid ajar until desired consistency is reached.  I left mine for about an hour. 

At this point you can either store it in the fridge, can it, or freeze it.  I froze 3 pints {or six cups} and had a bit left over for the fridge.

I made a second batch using just apples. It took a bit longer for the fruit to cook, but was just as scrumptious!

Your result should be a slightly chunky, but not too much, spicy fruit sauce.   Enjoy and be sure to share with the  eager drooling babe!  

Papa's the best.

And by that I mean cool.  What could be better than a piece of string, an old wooden crate, and being pulled around the house by your dad when you are one?

From listening to his giggles and watching his delight, I think Job would testify that nothing's better! 

Because I should.

"You need to update your blog, you know,"  my loving mother mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago.
"Really?  I *have* to?" I questioned.
"Well, you don't have to, but you really should," came her wise response.   

So here I am, nine-thirty on a Sunday night, pounding out a few words in my corner of cyber space.
My lack of posts was never intentional. I just haven't known what exactly to write about.   'Cause while life is full and when my head hits the pillow every night I am exhausted, it is also pretty routine and there are just some details a girl shouldn't share with the public at large.

For example, we are expecting our second-born in November.  {That's exciting, not too routine, and worth sharing, more soon!} But...it means that for the past few months, my days have been filled with delighting in my one-year-old, wanting to think about anything but food,  and my social life has seen much better days.  So if I can't write about going to the open-air market, would rather not think about what we had for lunch, gather enough energy to make memories with my son, but can't find the brain power to share them, what have I really had to write about?  That and anytime I thought about sitting down to write, I would think, "I could be taking a nap right now."  And the nap always won.

See why blog has not happened?   Hope so.

But, by God's grace and goodness, the days are changing, we are excited, have much to do, and the energy to do it!  I'm looking forward to sharing bits and pieces of our life again.   After all, I have a budding toddler to give me plenty of material, a babe growing in my womb, and lots of other undeserved blessings to chronicle.

So I'll be here, typing away.  'Cause I should be.  Thanks mom.

{And finally, some cuteness to tide you over till I get some more pictures uploaded....}

Missing this.

The Whole Chicken.

{A post that could be subtitled, menu planning, leftovers, tight wad, hospitality, animal feed, or homemaking.  You choose.}

Warning:  There may be blood and guts involved. Read at your own risk. 

I like to buy whole chickens.  And this post is about the why and the how of it all.  Those who read recipe blogs know that this is no new idea, but because of our South of the Border status, our situation is unique and perhaps interesting looking in from the outside. 

I buy a whole chicken or several reasons, the first being because it’s a goo bit less pesos per kilo than other cuts of chicken.  Here at the butchers, I can buy by  the whole thing, but they will cut it up any way that I like.  The just weigh it first, head, feet, guts and all.  These week the chicken weighed 2 kilos {4.5 lbs-ish} and I asked for the legs and wings to be cut off and placed separately.  The head, tail, feet and innards where already taken off, so I was left with the breast, backbone and thighs still together. 

Once I arrived home, I rinsed the body and the legs and wings.  This is not a common practice to the land north of here, but here it’s a must.  Our chicken {who was still clucking this morning} comes complete with a few feathers and smudges of dirt and blood.  Not very appetizing! 

The guts and other unwanted parts, I placed on a big pot to boil with lots of rice and a little salt.  Later I added cold tortillas {as opposed to fresh} and this fed our dog for three days.   Again, I know not common place to most of my readers, but I dare say in most of the world dogs eat chicken {and other} bones.  He is huge {a Doberman} and this does a wonderful job of filling him up.  Plus what we save on dog food for those few days more than pays for the price of the whole chicken. I also give skins and things to the cat….his usual diet are the rats and lizards he catches, so I figure a bit of chicken won’t do him any harm either.

Anywho, our chicken is now clean and the unwanted parts are taken care of.  On to the good stuff:  our menu for the week! {Just the main meals that we eat around three in the afternoon.}

Monday {the day the chicken was purchased}:  Fried chicken {legs and wings} and leftover vegetable soup from Saturday’s meal. 

Tuesday: Roasted crockpot chicken {the body} with potatoes.  Complemented with refried beans. Afterwards, I shredded what was left of the chicken to use for other recipes during the rest of the week.

Wednesday: Garbanzo soup {or that’s my name for it at least.  Details and recipe further down.}  Like most soups I tend to make, this one seemed to multiply.  We were destined to be eating it for the next five days, so….

Thursday:  We invited family over.  Knowing that the garbanzo soup would not be enough in and of itself, I made tinga for tostadas with the rest of shredded chicken.  Tostadas are great for using up the little things that are laying around in the fridge.  Cold tortillas {fried to make the actual tostada} refried beans {from Tuesday}, tomatoes, the last bit of salsa, queso fresco {leftover from the Garbanzo soup} avocados, and lettuce.  We were eight in all for lunch and out of everything, there’s only about a half cup of soup and a few beans left. 

So there you have it.  Four unique meals from one chicken.  If we hadn’t of had guests over, it would have lasted for a couple other meals {I was planning on chicken salad on croissants and enfrijoladas stuffed with chicken}    for our small family, but I don’t regret the company in the least.

{A side note on menu planning. I write a simple menu in a notebook at the end of each week [for the following week] and make my shopping list from that.  Something else I recently started though, was to write out what we actually ate as the week went passes.  I’m finding that what we actually eat varies greatly from my written out menu.  Often the same ingredients are used, but because of leftovers or a dish that someone sends over or an idea from my husband, things change.  By keeping a list of what I plan to make and what I actually make, “our” recipes are expanding.  Whenever I need an idea, I just flip through the notebook, cause changes are I already have ingredients on hand for several of the meals in there.} 

Enough with all that and on to the promised recipe…..

Garbanzo Soup.

Though that’s not actually it’s name.  I never caught the name  On Sunday we went out for dinner and a lady at our table ordered this soup and loved it.  I had a taste and thought it was pretty good myself, so I decided to try my hand at recreating it at home.  Here’s  what I did…. {sorry for the lack of precision.}

~ Soak dried garbanzo beans for a day or so. 

~Places beans with fresh water in pressure cooker.  Add diced chipotles in adobado sauce {based on the level of spiciness you would like. I add used tow large ones} along with a bit of onion, fresh garlic, and chicken bullion cubes. {If I had had chicken broth I would have just cooked everything in that.} Pressure cook still you start smelling  cooked beans. 

~Meanwhile, chop up your veggies.  I used a couple carrots, one zucchini and several potatoes with the skins still on. 

~Open up the pressure cooker.  It’s okay if the beans are still a little hard.   Taste for salt content.  Add in salt and pepper to taste, chopped veggies, and I threw in a bay leave and crushed basil for kicks and giggles.  Pressure  cook for a few more minutes until everything smells good and done. 

~Open up and add in a bit of shredded chicken.  Taste broth and adjust spices as need. 

~To serve, cut up queso fresco into to chunks and place in the bottom of your bowl.  Spoon soup into bowls and turn everything around so that your cheese gets warm and begins to melt.  Place a couple avocado slices on top. Eat with fresh tortillas.  

A couple notes: 

~If using canned garbanzos, I would skip the whole pressure cooker thing and just let everything simmer on the stove until soft.

~If serving young children, don’t cook the chipotles in with the broth, but dice them up to and place in a small serving dish.  When time to eat, each person can serve themselves to their own gusto.  For Job, I just rinsed off a few beans and veggies, though looking back I would have liked to have feed it to him as a soup. 

~ I think the smokiness of chorizo would be a nice substitute for the chicken.

~While garnishing with sliced avocado adds a nice pop of color, {and it’s the way they served it at the restaurant} I would prefer to make a simple guacamole, fold it into a warm tortilla and dip it into the broth.  

And that’s all folks!  A recipe this family will be coming back to again and again!

Thankful.

Today I’m grateful for…

~slow cooking beans.

~swayed away in the rocking chair with my babe long past bedtime.

~ a new-to-me shirt.  a sweet considerate gift from my husband. 

~seeds.  lots and lots of seeds.  and the promise they bring of fresh beds of lettuce, beefy tomatoes, and the sweet smell of lavender. 

~Matthew 15.

~chocolate milk for him. peppermint tea for me.  cinnamon rolls for all three.  a cozy breakfast with my boys. 

~a baby carrier and a long walk. 

~sore muscles.

~eggs down 8 pesos. 

~prolonged sick days.  

~hymn singing and baby bathing.

~roses wilted. 

~creamed corn and bacon wrapped chicken.  yum! 

~a knowledgeable old soul. 

~tomorrow’s trash day. 

These days are just a hummin’ by and we are trying to suck every last sweet drop of ‘em!