Mamut Cake

Here on the field life is a little different, we are aware our children miss out on somethings their counterparts in the U.S. have and do.  In light of this, we try to create traditions that the kids can look forward to, that make life unique and special and create memories.  For example, we did not have room to bring Christmas decorations when we came to Mexico, so we have a tradition of making decorations every year.  This year we made Peppermint ornaments, which you can see by (clicking here).  We also do Tostada Tuesdays, which you can see by (clicking here).  Another tradition is letting kids choose what kind of birthday cake they want to be made for them.  One year everyone wanted ice cream cakes, the next year everyone wanted cheesecake.  This year Josiah wanted pecan pie.

So this week Haden and I walked to the store for some carrots I needed for dinner.  He asked if he could bring a few pesos to buy a treat.  As we were walking along and he was thinking about his treat, he said he wanted a Mamut cake for his birthday.  I was a little confused, so he explains this is his favorite sweet treat at the tienda.  I tell him I have no idea what it is and need to take a look before I can promise anything.  After two tiendas we find carrots and mamut, which is what we called Moon Pies when I was growing up.  A round cookie sandwich with marshmallow filling, covered in chocolate.  When we got home I typed "Moon Pie" into the Pinterest search engine and there were actually several recipes for homemade moon pies.  Figuring out how to modify the recipe to make it the size of a cake was pretty easy.  It turned out very yummy, very sweet, but very yummy.

The kids and I had fun with the PicMonkey edits.

Mamut means Mammoth, by the way!  Before you get too impressed with my Spanish, I only know that because one of the kids told me.  This is the blog where I found the recipe for homemade Moon Pie. (Click here)

Tostada Tuesday

Almost every Tuesday, and especially since the kids started school, we have tostadas.  For the most part we have also adopted Comida.  The tradition of eating your large meal in the early afternoon.  This works out great since 1.) Sam works a lot of evenings and dinner is over and cleaned up well before he needs to leave  2.) The kids come home hungry and waiting until dinner just makes them more hungry.  We have actually had left overs eating on this schedule.  That's pretty much a miracle with two teen boys.  3.)  Dinner is over and cleaned up and you have the rest of the evening free to do other things.  We usually have a lighter meal in the evening, something easy to fix and easy to clean up...like cereal, a sandwich, or left overs.

Tostadas are perfect for this schedule, especially on Tuesdays and Thursday.  On these days the kids workout hard the last hour of school and I try to go workout also.  When we get home everybody helps get toppings out while the beans reheat and dinner is ready!  One of our friends told me tostadas are comida floja...or lazy food.  Lazy or not, it is defiantly easy.  It is really that fast when you have refried beans that you took out of the freezer in morning.  Once upon a time, I blogged my bean recipe, but that blog platform isn't even available anymore.  I'll try to repost the recipe soon.  

Toppings always include beans, cabbage, and salsa.  Other options are sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, and chilis.  Everybody makes their own, which is even better.  

What is your favorite "comida floja"?

BINGO! More Good News From the Farmer's Market

Sam and I have a great passion for Thia food. We loved it before it was trendy. We could tell you where the best place is to eat it in Wurzberg, Germany and many other cities for that matter. We don't eat out much, but the local Thai owner knows us by name. It was the first place we stopped at when we picked Sam up from the airport on his two week visit from Iraqi. Our favorite dishes are Tom Kha Gia, a coconut chicken soup, and coconut curries.

Not only do we love Thai food, we love to cook Thia food. I have been able to locate the ingredients almost everywhere we have lived. I can find kiffir lime leaves, lemon grass, fish sauce, even galagal, but it has been very hard to find cilantro root. Thia curry uses all parts of the cilantro plant; the leaves, the seeds and the roots. I have from time to time grown my own cilantro roots, but have never been able to find any to buy, until now. When I purchased my cilantro at the Bentonville Farmers Market they had left the roots intacted! Several of the venders were of oriental decent, so it must be that they knew the little treasures at the end of the cilantro plants and just cleaned them off instead of chopping them off.

That inspired me to make Thai chicken curry with eggplant. Yummy is a total understatement on this one. We even made the coconut milk from fresh coconut not cans, a big thank you to my hubby for doing the muscle work on that one. You can find almost all the ingredients for Thia curry at the little oriental market right off Hwy 71 business at 702 W Cypress St.

Thai Red Curry
1 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

12 red chillies, seeded and coursely chopped

4 shallots, coarsly chopped

2 Clove garlic -- minced

1 tbsp fresh galangal

2 lemon grass stalks, chopped

3 kiffer lime leaves chopped

4 fresh coriander roots

10 Black peppercorns

pinch of ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp shimp paste

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp vegetable oil