My Cinco De Mayo Table

We didn't have a party, or even special activities, we just ate a lot (an ample amount for a small family of four) of Mexican inspired foods. This was a mostly vegetarian spread except for the token meat- a mild chorizo, and gyulai sausage. We had cheese and bean Quesadilla's, fresh avocado, stuffed peppers, and a red cabbage Pico De Gallo that was recommended to me by my friend Tehlia over at Raw Adventures of an Army Wife.  Make sure you visit her blog to get the recipe! I served mine in warm corn tortillas, with sliced avocado, crumbled mexican style cheese and lime juice (Sorry T, I did the raw thing half way). 


Everything else I just kinda winged.

When my tots were just beginning to eat real foods I discovered that simple easy quesadillas were great. They were convenient tiny packets that could be hand held that I could pack with a variety of left over foods. I could even make then ahead and slowly bake them while I did other things!  For these I took two flour tortillas, lightly oil the outsides of each put one side down on parchment paper on a cookie sheet, Sprinkled  Monterey Jack cheese and a few cooked black beans and covered with the other one. Put it into the oven and baked at 375f until melted and turned once so that it got crispy on both sides.

Then for the stuff peppers, I hollowed out four peppers, two bells (for the tots) and two poblano peppers (husband and myself).  The tots version was simple, I filled them with a mexican style rice, a recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman, frozen corn and baked at 450f. Ours was a little more involved. And oh, so yummy!

Poblano Stuff Peppers and Mexican Rice

(Rice adapted from A Mark Bittman Recipe in his book The Best recipes in the World)

• 1 large tomato, cored seeded, and cut in two
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly mashed
• half an medium onion peeled and cut in two
• 1 cup of long grain rice, rinsed and dried.
• salt and pepper
• 1/2cup water or stock
• neutral oil

To make rice, take tomato, garlic and onion and place in a food processor or blender and puree. Heat oil on a medium high heat and saute rice for a couple minutes to coat with the oil.  Add in tomato mixture, salt and half a cup of liquid. Turn down to lowest setting, cover with a lid and steam for 15 mins. Meanwhile prepare other ingredients for the peppers.

• Cilantro leaves, small bunch, lightly chopped
• 2 tbsp chipotles in adobo sauce, chopped
• 1/4 cup loosely packed mexican style crumbled cheese
• 1/3 cup black beans with out liquid
• 2-4 poblano peppers, tops, ribs and seeds removed

When rice is done cooking combine cilantro, chipotles, cheese and beans with rice in a bowl, stir to mix. Stuff peppers, and bake at 450f. For a cooking time sake we'll say for 30 mins but, really it is to heat the rice through, melt the cheese and turn the poblano peppers soft and black at the edges.

My husband confessed (probably due to the meyer lemon margarita) to me half way through the meal he had a dirty little secret... We have had other conversations that had started this way but I must admit this one did take me by surprise "I don't like poblanos". With that he took my hard worked, disassembled it,  put  the rice between a corn tortilla and threw out the pepper. WTF, husband? The tots on the other hand gleefully ate their novelty rice from the fun bowl!

photos by me.

Ritual

My husband and I use to live next to the Granville Island Public market, rarely a day would go by that we did not visit for one reason or another. For work, for play, for school for shopping it was our Island, we use to joke about not leaving the "Island". So when we moved a away a couple of years ago, we were like fish out of water and did not settle into a new home for a  good long time (7 moves in fact). 

There are so many rituals, even our mundane daily chores that we call routines are rituals.... We do them in a certain order, at the same time, with ritualistic objects (brushing our teeth comes to mind, we do it for hygiene, for beautification, we use a toothbrush and toothpaste at a ceramic basin and in front of a mirror)... So every Week (usually Wednesday) I make it a ritual to go to Granville Island and get my weekly ingredients plus all the makings for Pizza on friday nights. 


Even the way I move through the market is ritual. First I go to Terra Breads and get my weeks worth of biscotti for my ritualistic morning latte.  Then other various baked goods- one loaf of sour dough bread, and two orange shortbread cookies; the two short bread cookies are bribery- I use then to distract the twins and allow me to shop. Then to Oyama Sausage Co. for 100g finocchiona salami, various snacking cheeses (The Farmhouse's St George is a favourite) and a few gyulai, for my husband's lunch (that he never eats but I buy anyway because he asks for them week after week). Then onto Duso's to get fresh mozzarella. If I am lucky and depending on season I go to Garden Back to Eden Organic for my tomatoes and basil.


When I am done I pack my groceries into the car, drive away from my place of sanctuary and say good-bye to the "Island" for another week.


Photo by me.