Our Foray Into Mexican Cooking - Jan. 21, 2008

Posted in Geography

Since we are finishing our geography lessons for North America this week, we had Mexican food for dinner tonight. Let me enlighten you on my history with Mexican food. I didn’t eat any Mexican food besides the occasional El Paso taco until I was twenty years old. My mother was an excellent cook, but burrito and enchilada were not in her cooking vocabulary. On top of that, we didn’t even have a Taco Bell in the town I grew up in, let alone a real Mexican restaurant. So, my own Mexican cooking vocabulary only consists of taco, enchilada, and nachos. But, my adventurous daughter had other plans that included some serious South of the Border recipes!

After pouring over the only Mexican cookbook I had which happened to be a Better Homes and Gardens magazine, we made our menu and shopping list and we were off. Two and a half hours later we dragged the groceries into the kitchen more ready for a nap than a new experiment in cooking. But, there were men in the house and they needed food, so we tackled the salsa first.

I should mention here that I have experimented with homemade salsas before, and haven’t made a good one yet. Today was no exception. At least we have another recipe to add to our “Never Make This Again” pile. Don’t get me wrong, it was edible, just very plain. Did that stop us? Nope, we plowed onward to the tamales!

Do you know that you are supposed to soak those cornhusks overnight before stuffing them with the masa harina mixture? I found that out about 5 minutes before starting them! The recipe has you put the husks, about a dozen at a time, with two tablespoons of water in the microwave. We don’t own a microwave. The package says to soak overnight. I didn’t have that kind of time. So, I poured boiling water over the whole mess, covered it with a towel and prayed. We giggled a bit, too. By the way, do you know how many of those husks are crammed into one of those bags from the store? We needed about thirty. There had to be about a hundred in there! Oh, and they aren’t in a big hurry to soak up the water either. After a lot of turning the husks over and over in the water and a few more giggles, we finally got enough peeled off the pile to make our potful of tamales.

The tamales were in the steamer, the stuffed peppers were in the oven, so it was time to make the flautas. Do you know that flautas are fried? I don’t fry. And, because I don’t fry, when I do fry, I don’t do it very well. Oh, and do you know that flour tortillas go from golden brown to burnt to a crisp within seconds in the fryer? Now you do.

Three hours and many sinkfuls of dishes later we exhaustedly served up, in the midst of a smoky haze, stuffed Anaheim peppers, green Chile and cheese tamales, and a plateful of flautas.

And you know what I like the best? The three hours in the kitchen with my teenage daughter! We had such a good time together! The food was mostly edible, but our time together was unforgettable.

I can’t wait until Thursday. We are exploring the foods of the islands! I figure if we cover it with enough pineapple, anything will taste good, lol!

Thank you for stopping by. I think there are still a few flautas that aren’t black.

Betty

“Grace and peace be yours in abundance.” -1Peter1:2b

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Washington DC - Sep. 25, 2006

Posted in Geography

Our Geography train has just pulled into Washington D.C. What an amazing city! I have visited D.C. many times before, but it was still fun learning about it with the kids. We learned all about the important stuff, of course, like the incredible architecture of all of the federal buildings. And, we discovered that Washington D.C. was originally 100 square miles but is now only 68 square miles. We learned that pictures of the Capital building do not do its size justice, but I’m going to leave the actual size up to you to find! We learned about war memorials, cherry blossoms and devastating fires. But, most importantly, my teenage daughter discovered a very sad and shocking truth about Washington D.C.: the Mall doesn’t actually have any stores in it! She was heartbroken.

Dinner this week was an all-American affair with grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, potato salad, and Apple Pie. Oh, and we did have Senate Bean Soup, which was pretty yummy. Here is what the U.S. Senate website has to say about their daily dose of bean soup:

“Bean soup is on the menu in the Senate's restaurant every day. There are several stories about the origin of that mandate, but none has been corroborated.  

According to one story, the Senate’s bean soup tradition began early in the 20th-century at the request of Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho.  Another story attributes the request to Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, who expressed his fondness for the soup in 1903.”

It was an interesting trip through Washington D.C. Here are the kids’ projects for the week. See you in Virginia!

Betty

Numbers 6:24

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