Monthly Archives: May 2010
As most of you might have noticed, posting has been slow for the past few weeks. The reason has been a combination of many things. First the big heat wave that passed through central Mexico left us with not much energy to do anything productive and it was compounded by power failures and communication problems. We also have been working hard preparing a bunch of new features that we wanted to launch earlier this month, but due to various delays and infrastructure problems we will launch them when things quiet down a bit around here, probably in late June.
Though this site is hosted on a commercial host, we also maintain our own servers here for our other businesses, and for some clients. We spend the part of last week updating out Windows server, and now the next task is to do the same to the Linux one. I also need to add storage to our file server, so this sounds like it will keep me busy for a while judging the fun I had last week with the Windows server.
We also have been intensively looking for a new place for the school as right now it is an ordeal for us to travel to the place we give the cooking and wine courses as it is on the opposite side of town from where we live. On a good day with no traffic it takes us close to 3 hours to get there from here, so it is a tad tiring to give the courses. Also it is far north on the other side of town and most people in the more central areas of the city do not want to travel so far. We have been looking for a commercial space to rent, or ideally for a large out with enough space for us, the Boyz, and for the school and of course at a price we can afford. IT seems very difficult to find something that matches all of our criteria.
I think that this slowness of posting might last a few more weeks as I would love to find a proper place for the school and settle that once and for all, and also I need to do a lot of work both for the new things we want to launch here, and also on assorted other projects around the office. I will try to post something occasionally when I have a few free minutes, and we are taking picture and preparing new material for the site all the time. In the meantime keep cooking and enjoying good food and good wine and we will resume our regular posting schedule soon.
Lucito
The hot weather is back with us again today and after we had lunch we went back to the offices and after a few hours it was too hot to work. I went to give the dogs their supper and when I was coming back inside Normita wanted to go get a bit of fresh air. I joined her and we kept company to the boyz while they literally wolfed down their big bowl of food. I don’t know where they get the energy to eat so quickly on a hot day like this.
We walked around the yard a bit and then decided to harvest the peaches from the small tree next to the kitchen entrance. We had been saying we would do it since last week, but never got around to it. The neighborhood’s birds came down on that tree last week in day and feasted on the peaches and destroyed over 80% of the crop by eating half of most of the fruits and letting the other half rot. Normita went for a bad and a small stepladder and I went up in the tree and tried to salvage most of the peaches that were ripe and not half eaten by the birds.
Bacchus and Uriel, the boyz, were around us and catching whatever peaches they could grab that were falling from the tree. They eat them in one bite crushing the stone. It is awe inspiring to see them do it. I hope that tomorrow that tomorrow they do not wake up with a store stomach, but from past experience they have eaten much worse without any problems. They seem to have cast iron stomachs.
Here is a picture of the peaches that awaits in the sink the first one who will have the courage to go wash them:
The peaches waiting to be washed in the sink
We will keep the ripest ones to eat and tomorrow or Friday we will probably prepare some “compote de pêches” with the rest. We will use that as a dessert over ice cream and I think that I did see that we had a frozen Cornish hen the other day and we might roast it covered with the peaches next weekend if we have some time.
Lucito
Yesterday when I posted the Daily Express I mentioned that I came in so quick that I did not even think of take a picture of the finished hamburger. Today I could correct my mistake as we thawed 2 of the frozen patties and made hamburgers again with some grilled potatoes. Normita had her’s Mexican Style with avocados, ketchup, mustard, tomatoes, onions, pickles, Oaxaca cheese, and a nice big chipotle.
Here is Normita's burger with a nice juicy chipotle on the side
I am a lot more simpler in my taste and I simply put some ketchup and some pickles over the Oaxaca cheese and it was enough for me today.
Luc's burger in its simple splendor
Lucito
We have been very silent since the middle of last week as we had lots of meetings in town last Thursday and Friday and we had a very successful wine course on Saturday. Sunday we totally collapsed from the back and forth driving between here and the center of Mexico City we had business. With a drive of between 2-3 hours each way we were exhausted from the ordeal. Sunday we totally collapsed and I prepared some hamburgers with some nice ground beef we had bought on the way back from the course Saturday night. It was as complicated as I could manage in the condition I was.
I like my hamburgers nice and juicy and well flavored. Depending of my mood I used different ingredients and on Sunday it was a combination of ground beef, rum, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, dried onions, some chipotle-based seasoning, and some sesame oil. The recipe is easy you first put the meat in a bowl, put the ingredients on top, and then with your hand you make a big mess like my Chinese cooking teacher used to say.
The ingredients for my hamburgers
The hamburger ingredients ready to mix
The Mess - The Mess
Once the mess is made I like to hand-form thick patties and it made a lot more than Normita and I could eat in one sitting. I individually wrapped the patties and froze them so that we can enjoy some nice burgers in the coming weeks with even less effort than I did Sunday.
Individually wrapping the hamburger patties we did not use
The patties we ate and the ones we froze
I went outside to cook the hamburgers on the barbecue, and of course the barbecue was barely hot when it started raining. When I finished cooking them I ran inside and we had a great meal, but with all the excitement I only remember to take a picture of the final product when only crumbs remained. Too bad… It will be for next time…
Lucito
Debido al gran éxito del último curso de “Introducción al Vino†el sábado pasado y la falta de lugar para acomodar a todos lo que querÃan participar, abrimos una nueva fecha para el curso, el próximo sábado 22 de mayo. TodavÃa tenemos algunos lugares disponibles. Tenemos una promoción especial si te registras con un amigo, tendrás un 10% redescuento. Todos los detalles están AQUÃ, o llámanos a 1736 9016 o 04455 3191 2732 en el área metropolitana de la ciudad de México.
Durante el curso aprenderás todas las cosas básicas que necesitas desmitificar del maravilloso mundo del vino. Al final de la parte teórica del curso hacemos una degustación formal de 7 vinos diferentes. Todo el material del curso está incluido en un CD, incluyendo una copia de nuestro software profesional de degustación de vino.
El costo del Curso es de $1,350.00 M.N. ($1,250.00 M.N. si te registras con un amigo) y requerimos un depósito de $350.00 para reservar tu lugar. Reserva ahora ya sólo quedan muy pocos lugares.
Aquà un poco de lo que te espera:
Lucito
Due to the great success of last Saturday’s “Introduction to Wine” course and the lack of space to accommodate everybody who wished to participate, we opened a new date for the course this coming Saturday May 22. We still have a few available places left for it. We have a special promotion if you register with a friend, you get 10% off. All the details are HERE, or call us at 1736 9016 or 044 55 3191 2732 in the Mexico City metropolitan area.
During the course you will learn all the basic things you need to demystify the wonderful world of wine. At the end of the theoretical part of the course we do a formal tasting of 7 different wines. All the course’s material is included on a CD, including a free copy of our professional wine tasting software.
The course’s price is MN$1350 (MN$1215 if you register with a friend) and we require a MN$350 deposit to reserve your spot. Reserve now as there are only a few spaces left.
Here is a little bit of what is in store for you:
Lucito
Today when I went to prepare the meal I found some unexpected ingredients for the marinade in the back of the refrigerator. A while back Normita had bought a bottle of Torito and we only had a few little sips and it has sat unused in there. Torito is an alcoholic drink typical of Veracruz, a state in the east of the country on the Golf of Mexico coast. It is a cream of peanuts, and I quickly thought of doing something like a cross between Thai and Mexican food. Torito is very sweet so I needed to cut that to make it palatable with the fish. I also found some tamarind pulp and some fresh limes so I made a mixture of Torito with tamarind pulp and lime juice. It lacked salt and chile to balance the flavor so I added some soy sauce and some chile paste until I got a satisfactory mixture. I then put my 2 pieces of fish filet in the marinade and refrigerated for 15-20 minutes while I finished preparing the rest of the meal.
Two nice pieces of dorado filet (mahi-mahi)
The main ingredients of the marinade
I had found some large potatoes while searching for ingredients for the marinade and decided to grill them with the fish. I sliced them, and then sprinkled some salt, pepper, oregano, and olive oil on them. I like to grill them on high heat until slightly burned. They get a great flavor like that.
The potaoes ready to be grilled
We had some frozen vegetables as a second side dish, simply heated in the microwave with a bit of butter, salt, pepper, and herbes de provence on top. I grilled the fish directly on the barbecue with the potatoes and the meal turned out surprisingly tasty. I served a little bit of the reserved marinade on the fish as a light tangy sauce.
The plated dorado
Lucito
TodavÃa tenemos algunos lugares disponibles para el curso de este sábado de “Una Introducción al Vinoâ€. Tenemos una promoción especial, si te registras con un amigo recibirás un 10% de descuento. Los detalles están aquÃ.
Durante el curso aprenderán las cosas básicas que necesitan para desmitificar el maravilloso mundo del vino. Al final de la parte teórica del curso, hacemos una degustación formal de 7 vinos diferentes. Todo el material del curso está incluido en un CD, incluyendo una copia gratis de nuestro software profesional de cata.
El costo del curso es de $1,350.00 ($1315 si te registras con un amigo) y requerimos un depósito de $350.00 para reservar su lugar. Reserve ahora porque hay solamente algunos lugares disponibles.
Aquà un pequeño extracto del curso:
Lucito
We still have a few available places left for this Saturday’s “Introduction to Wine” course. We have a special promotion if you register with a friend, you get 10% off. All the details are HERE, or call us at 1736 9016 in the Mexico City metropolitan area.
During the course you will learn all the basic things you need to demystify the wonderful world of wine. At the end of the theoretical part of the course we do a formal tasting of 7 different wines. All the course’s material is included on a CD, including a free copy of our professional wine tasting software.
The course’s price is MN$1350 (MN$1215 if you register with a friend) and we require a MN$350 deposit to reserve your spot. Reserve now as there are only a few spaces left.
Here is a little bit of what is in store for you:
Lucito
The heat has yet to letup here in Mexico City and the entire region is plagued by high heat and high levels of pollution. We had planned to go out today, but neither Normita nor I have the energy to face up with the heat down the hill. I guess that it will be for another day. I thawed a nice piece of dorado or mahi-mahi today. It is sitting in the refrigerator waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Since the is minimal wind today I might do something on the barbecue. I will definitely marinate it first, in what I still have no idea as I have looked into what we have left yet. I think we have some nice large potatoes, so I guess I will grill some nice slices of potato first, and since I do not think we have anything fresh in the refrigerator I will have to used some frozen vegetables as a side dish.
I will decide the details of the meal in a short while, but first I have to go take a shower. Bacchus just passed by my office’s window and from the long smell he took and the excited way he looked at me I guess that I smell like one of the pack and he wants me to go bark at the squirrels in the trees with him. I think I will pass on the occasion and go wash off the strange smell, so that I can be taken for a human again…
Later I’ll post the details on how I prepared the dorado.
Lucito