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

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

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

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

The tomato salad main ingredients. Tomatos, basil, apple, and olives.

I have been doing those kinds of salads for over 25 years and I love the basic combination of tomatoes, basil, and olives. I normally prefer something like a Kalamata olives, but the only thing I found was a small bag of Spanish olive filled with peppers. They are overly salty so I rinsed them a few times in water to tame the saltiness. Assembling a salad like that is very easy, as you just make layers of ingredients starting with the thinly sliced tomatoes. Thus went it the tomatoes followed by cubed apples, sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, shredded Oaxaca cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, the fresh basil, ground coarse salt, a fresh grind of black pepper, some balsamic vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil.

The first layer of the salad

You the build the salad layer by layer until you have no more tomatoes. The process is simple. The salad that it yields is very tasty and I like to return it to the refrigerator for a while so the flavors gets well blended and that it gets very cold. I like fresh tomatoes to be very cold. I remember in another life when I was young and handsome, that often during the hottest part of summer when I was working on afternoon shifts from 2pm to 7pm. Before I left for work I would prepare a similar salad to that one with Kalamata olives and feta cheese to keep with the Greek olives, and I would put it in the refrigerator and eat it when I returned home after work. By that time it was ice cold like I like it and the flavors were blended to perfection.

The assembled tomato salad before I put it in the refrigerator

Once the salad was ready I put it in the refrigerator, did the dishes, and I then hit the showers. We sat down and relaxed a bit in front of an electric fan as it is still like a furnace in here. We had this cold refreshing and tasty salad and all of the problems of this stressful weeks we just went through just disappeared.

The plated tomato salad ready to eat

When we sat down to eat Normita reminded me that I had forgotten to put some walnuts in the salad, so I added a handful of them in each of our plates over the salad. It made a nice addition to the salad.

Lucito

Our neighbor’s husband came to join us a bit later and I prepare a pot of coffee and we enjoyed that with the bread while chatting. It was a relaxing late afternoon. early evening and changed our minds from our regular concerns.

A nice slice of banana bread and strong coffee

Lucito

The plated chicken salad perfect fare for a hot day

Lucito

When we arrived home I noticed that the roasted chicken was “Ranchero” flavored. Since Ranchero roughly means farmer or ranch owner, I was hoping the the flavor was not sweat and dust, or worse sweat and manure… Luckily it was neither and it tasted to me like any supermarket roasted chicken I ever ate.

Our Ranchero-flavored chicken. Just a plain roasted chicken.

The opened plastic tub makes the chicken a tad more appetizing

Half of the chicken cut in small pieces

My mini-sandwiches ready to eat

Lucito

The marinating zucchinis waiting to be grilled.

Prior to that I had prepared some nice baked potatoes and maintained them hot in a low oven while I prepare the rest. About 15 minutes before cooking, I took the steaks out and simply salted them and put some Montreal-style steak seasoning on them. Strangely enough I was raised in Montreal and when I was young you never saw that stuff in the supermarkets. Now I live in Mexico and you can see that stuff all over the place. Go figure… I prefer a simple dry seasoning to my steaks and never use things like oil either on the meat or on the grill. I cook the steaks at very high temperature with the barbecue lid closed, and that has worked for me for over 30 years, so I stick with what works.

The nice New York steaks with a sprinkling of Montreal-style steak seasoning pressed into them.

I grilled the steak to around medium-cooked for Normita as she likes her meat dead, and to blue for me as I like my meat with a nice crust outside and with the inside at body temperature. If it does not go moo when I stick my fork in, it is perfect for me. We enjoyed the meat as it was extremely juicy and very tasty. Next time we go to town to do some shopping we will definitely buy another side of New York.

Normita's plate ready for her to eat.

Lucito

We started with the chalupas that we fried on both sides in a pan with a few tablespoons of oil. Once nice and crisp we buttered them directly in the pan with the beans, then added a bit of salsa and some shredded bits of Oaxaca cheese. You keep cooking them until the cheese melts and you end up with a savory Mexican breakfast pizza. We enjoyed them with a nice strong cup of coffee and we shared a huge grapefruit afterward. Too bad they are all gone…

I started eating and found them so good that I rushed to the office to get the camera to record the event before they were all gone…

Our nice Mexica breakfast pizzas - Chalupas

Lucito