Getting Ready

Tomorrow is  Cinco de Mayo and I'm very excited.  I have my menu, and most of the ingredients.  Today is a prep day.  I will cut up and season the pork, make the flan and the tomatillo sauce and salsa.  That means tomorrow all I have to do is cook the pork and make the guacamole.  I try to go out to eat Mexican food on Cinco de Mayo, but being as we're so broke this year, I figured I'd do it myself.  We'll have plenty of leftovers.  Last night I made my version of ratatouille (without eggplant) with shrimp and white rice.  By Wednesday, I can use the rice in stuffed peppers with some of the pork and tomato sauce.  Tonight we will have Philly Cheese Steaks with shredded beef from TJ's.  I love food.

Later that same day...

Cheese steaks were super yummilicious!!! I made the salsa verde, the salsa de chile and the flan de coco y canela(with a healthy dose of 151!).  I roasted the tomatillos in the broiler for about 9 minutes and actually followed the recipe.  For the chile salsa I strayed a little bit.  First off, those chiles have been in my pantry since I tried to make mole about 4 years ago.  They were not pliable, I could not score them and devein and seed them.  I did the best I could by cracking them and shaking any loose seeds out, then soaking them in boiling water.  After,  I threw them in the food processor.   I didn't toast them, which may be sacriledge to some, but so would using up old-ass dried out chiles!  The soaking water didn't seem too bitter, so I used it, and I didn't strain it, as I wanted a somewhat chunky sauce, like the one in my favorite Mexican hole in the wall.  I possbly used ancho and pasilla chiles, as I forgot to label them and know I used three chiles in my mole.  My crazy pineapple drink is still hanging out in the bathtub, and I have the guacamole ingredients, save the avocado and tomato chopped up and ready to go.  DH even said he would try the flan!!!  I still have to cut up and season the pernil so it's ready to go tomorrow.  Did I mention I'm excited?!

It's almost Cinco de Mayo!!!

I'm very excited about eating Mexican food this week. No wonder TJ's had the guac kits on display when you first enter the store. I've decided on my favorite: carnitas. I will be braising pork butt in lard. I'm so excited!!!

I'm officially obsessed!!! I had no idea that Cinco de Mayo was this week. (I know it's funny, but it's because I wasn't thinking about it!) I bought refried beans, and blue corn chips and a guacamole kit, but wasn't even aware how soon I would need them!!! Upon further research, I've decided to put together a menu.

Blue Corn Tortilla Chips and Salsa and Guacamole (I ate half the bag, and now will have to hide them from DH)
Carnitas with Salsa Verde

and Chili Sauce
Tepache (Mexican lightly fermented pineapple drink)

Coconut Flan

Well, the tepache is sitting in the bathtub, where it can ferment and bubble and spill out all it wants if it is inclined to do so.  It should be ready by Tuesday night.  I put the piloncillo in the food processor with the grater blade and only used 16 oz, and I used the whole pineapple, including the flesh.  After sampling the dark, rich, piloncillo, all I can say is yes, it's brown sugar, but the flavor is different then your regular Domino brown sugar.  I would make the effort to find it-it's gooooood!

Another Lazy Day

I better be careful, or all my posts will have this title.  Working on finishing my Sit n' Knit gift exchange present, a felted clutch.  I love it so much, it will be hard to part with.  I keep imagining that the person who will get it will scream and jump up and down like when they call your name on the Price is Right.  I should be prepared for, "Oh, it's nice," just in case.   I had a hard time figuring out strap.  Clutch bags are inherently impractical if they have no strap.  Who wants to grab onto their purse all day/night long?  What about grocery shopping, trying to put the key in the door with all the packages.  I just couldn't do it. 

So first, I was going to do a strip of felted fabric and attach it.  That was voted off because there are no gussets on the clutch, and the correct width of fabric for the strap would look bunchy at the joins.  Then I thought about felted i-cord.  That would be too thin and the design would not be balanced.  So then, I wanted to get a chain and thread a thin strip of felted fabric through it, like a Chanel bag.  That didn't work, because there was no suitable chain at the craft store, and Home Depot would render chandelier chain, which would be too heavy.  So THEN, I went back to i-cord, which I will felt, and use a 3 strand braid, possible with some gold ribbon woven with it.  Note, that each time I changed my mind, I frogged the last idea, and started from scratch.  This better work!!!!!!!!!!