Nancy in Pátzcuaro

Found them! Good old King Arthur--https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/golden-raisin-biscuit-cookies-recipe Now, of course, in lieu of buying them I'll have to make them myself.

Reading this topic, I was reminded of an old fave of mine. I think they were called raisin bars or wafers or something like that. Thin, with raisin puree (?) between two thin layers of cookie. I haven't had one in decades but now I want one.

When we bought our house 13 years ago, I was delighted to find 2 tall cabinets (95cm x 32cm) with removable glass shelves on either side of the stove. The shelves are 2 jars deep, which makes it easy to find what I need. (Would someone please give a medal to the person who realized that square jars are better than round ones!) Baking items and larger jars for things like caraway seeds are stored in one cabinet and savory herbs, etc., are in the other. The doors keep out light, but probably it is a little warmer than desirable because of the location near the stove. The only problem was that whoever drilled the holes for the pegs that hold the shelves drilled them just a teensy bit too big. So once I decided on the spacing, we glued them in place. I buy much of my herbs and spices from Penzeys, of course, but locally there's a bulk store in nearby Morelia that has an impressive amount of herbs/spices. Unfortunately they only sell them in 100gr. amounts. So the overflow goes into the freezer. I'm still working my way through the thyme--just hope it doesn't get lost in the freezer. I grow my own basil so that's one I don't have to buy.

Long ago I bought a Kamerstein digital scale (n Costco, I think) on a whim and then discovered just how useful it is. Takes a standard 9-volt battery, is compact (fits in a drawer), has all the right functions, measures to 0.1 grams (pounds, ounces, kilograms and grams), and is of course indispensable when baking. I also use it for a lot of other purposes, such as when a recipe calls for 8 oz. of pasta, but the bag/box contains 16 oz. I never imagined, in those old days making cookies, that I would be annoyed when the recipe is in volume measurements instead of weight. How long will it take before the people who write and publish these recipes finally consider using both volume and weight measurements? More and more do, I admit, but it's not universal.

You would think that all tacos are the same. Well, turns out there are mediocre tacos out there. Kudos to these guys for making a great taco, and how nice it was for them to be recognized. We all have our favorite taquerias. My personal favorite is tacos al pastor (pork).

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. I am grateful that my procedure went smoothly and that I was able to leave the hospital on schedule. Now it remains to me to do the work of rehab, including doing something for my back so that I can resume my normal life. If that's the only thing I have to do to fully recover, I will feel doubly blessed.

Just returned from a cardiac ablation in Guadalajara at a quite nice hospital. Nursing and support staff were excellent--the food less so. The best was the dinner on the night I was admitted before I had to fast for the surgery. 3 nice meatballs with lots of vegetables in a tasty broth. In Mexico they're called "albondigas," and they're my husband's favorite meal. Some sort of unidentifiable juice, the requisite jello, some fresh fruit and a cookie. The rest of the meals went downhill, and pretty rapidly, after that. The low point was 2 halved zucchinis filled with unseasoned ground meat and then topped with melted cheese. I took a couple of bites and couldn't eat the rest. Red rice (which I dislike) and jello (of course) and chopped apple, with horchata to drink. Not sure why white rice is so often served since it tends to stop you up. And the bed killed my back. I'm still recovering from that horrid mattress. And then there was the interminable delay to check out. Our insurance evidently went through the bill with tweezers to pluck out the most minor expense. I was really glad to get home, though it was a 4-hour drive.

I was just about to start a topic called "Where's Smithy?" I'm sorry your spouse ended up in the hospital but I'm happy he's on the mend. Having just had a couple of nights in a hospital, and will have another one coming up, I can vouch for the quality (or lack of same) of hospital food. Calling it boring and tasteless is generous. I don't know how they expect people to get better when they are confronted with such terrible food. (Many years ago my mom was in a Seventh Day Adventist hospital in Boulder, CO, and complained that there was no meat on the menu. I've subsequently heard that their food was highly regarded as being delicious. Vegetarian, of course.) Will you have to delay your usual time of return? Hope it's not too long and that the weather in your neck of the woods is pleasant, and warm enough! It sure has been a weird winter, weather-wise. In any case, safe travels whenever you pack up and head north.

Crosby Stills Nash and Young on the Pandora station. Sometimes Creedence. Or Lila Downs for an education in the great Mexican women singers. Chavela Vargas, anyone?

Our local chile, chile peron, is reliably hot but probably not available in your area. It's yellow, sometimes bright red, with black seeds. Those of us in the know make sure to exclude the central veins, which is the hottest part. Another name is chile manzana, apple chile, because that's kinda what it looks like--round and squat. It's popular among thrill seekers to drink mezcal from a hollowed chile peron (seeds and central vein removed) for a real kick. Often it's something that one does only once, unwilling to repeat the experience. For the most part we use serranos because they're reliably hot, but we use chiles peron for guacamole. I've never found poblanos to be mild and/or tasteless. I use them routinely for chiles rellenos or other applications like a poblano-cheese-egg breakfast dish I often make.

Eat shaggy mane mushrooms quickly--they "autodigest" which means they almost immediately begin to turn black and drippy. Hence the name "inky cap." The ones Luizhou posted look very fresh indeed. But I still don't care for them because they make my throat itch and close up, plus they're not the tastiest mushroom in the forest. IMO.

I forgot to mention that otherwise perfectly edible wild mushrooms may cause allergic reactions. A good friend (and excellent cook) can't eat chanterelles because his throat closes up, which is undesirable for a number of reasons. I can't eat any of the the inky caps for the same reason. Fortunately I don't really care for them, but it would be a real downer if I couldn't eat chanterelles. By the way, alcohol and the entire inky cap familly (coprinus, I believe, but I haven't looked it up) do not play well together. So no wine with dinner if you're eating any of them.

I've always heard (from mycologists) that no mushroom gathered in the wild should be eaten raw. Even the most benign wild mushroom like boletus edulis (porcini) must be cooked. I once sent a very critical note to a cooking magazine (many years ago) about a recipe that left the porcinis raw in a recipe. I didn't expect a response, but was surprised to receive one, acknowledging the error. So putting raw or barely cooked morels in the sushi was a big mistake, one that caused serious consequences.

Interestingly (at least to me), in Spanish the word for "nail" and "clove" are the same--clavo. In this case context is everything.

Could the streaks be the result of a virus - like this? No, because the brown streaks in my potatoes were long and thin, about thread-sized. In the center the flesh is slightly discolored but there aren't any large blobs like in your photo. By the way, it's really hard to photograph this problem because the streaks are so thin and the center is only slightly darker than the rest of the flesh. FWIW, I'm leaning toward either poor growing conditions (too much water, as was suggested) or improper storage treatment. I do know that keeping potatoes in the fridge will change the starch/sugar balance.

The only potatoes we can easily buy are white potatoes. A few vendors in the mercado sell what seem to be a variant of russets. The white potatoes make mashed potatoes gummy and gluey (but they are good for boiling), so we search out the russets. . My problem is that when I buy white potatoes I sometimes discover that the entire potato has small brown streaks just under the skin into the middle of the potato. I suppose these are edible but I find them creepy and unattractive, so I'm not willing to try to cook them. Other potatoes bought at the same time do not have this problem. So the question is--what causes this? Is it improper handling at some point in the supply chain, or do they come out of the ground like that? And how can I tell good from bad in the store? All you gardeners out there, do you have a similar problem? I've never seen this in any other variety. Thanks--

And by the way, if I never read the words "ooey-gooey cheese" again it would be just fine by me. Perhaps I'm reading the wrong food websites.

"This is also good with Oriental-flavor ramen." No.

Oh, good grief! I've forwarded this ridiculous story to our friends who have a ranch in New Mexico where they raise organic grass-fed beef. I don't eat a lot of beef but when I do I eat theirs, which reminds me what really good beef tastes like. Do cattle actually like to eat macadamia nuts? And who shells all those nuts? We have a tree, and getting that hard shell off the inner nut isn't trivial. First you have to take off the green outer shell (like a small coconut), then crack that very hard brown shell without smashing the nut itself. That's why macadamias are so expensive.

I'm a big fan of the AeroPress. Makes a very good cup for one. Easy to clean up, unlike the french press. You just pop out the pressed puck of grounds--very tidy, no loose grounds to deal with. Also very portable and pretty much unbreakable, being that there's no glass involved. Decent coffee helps, of course.

Here in Patzcuaro there's always a huge parade on the 5th, the night before Dia del Reyes. Each king has his own float, which is elaborately decorated. The parade begins at the Basilica, processes around Plaza Grande, returns to the Basilica, and then there are elaborate fireworks. (It's not a real celebration without fireworks in Mexico.) The parade is always well attended, and the crowds "vote" for their favorite King based on the float's decorations. The Rosca del Reyes cake usually has more than one baby Jesus, and because no one wants to host a tamales party on Feb. 2 most people learn to conceal the little plastic figure in their cheeks. The figure originally was ceramic, of course. The stores have been full of boxes of the cakes. I don't expect our neighbors to take down their Christmas lights any time soon. It's a pretty big deal in Mexico because families come south to celebrate with their families and bring mountains of presents. One family next door came from California, because their grandmother, Dona Prisi, is now 101 and becoming increasingly frail. We went to her 100th birthday party for the entire block last year on January 1. She was in a wheelchair then and I hear she's bedridden now. We expect to see the black ribbon over the door one of these days (people hang a black bow over the door to indicate a death). I used to see her outside her little house, pulling weeds or sitting in the sun.

I also wouldn't top a determinate variety, even if it gets leggy. These set a limited number of flowers in order to ripen more or less all at once, and if you cut off a portion of the plant you will have less fruit as a consequence. But I wouldn't hesitate to prune an indeterminate plant if it gets too tall.

You can also cut off a sucker--6 inches or so--and root it in water. This creates a new plant, basically a clone of the original, that will produce fruit once it matures. It's a way to reinvigorate a leggy plant if you have the time and weather to do so. Once the sucker has a good root system, plant it in a pot with good soil and put it in a shady space to harden off as usual.

Do you have trouble with white fly? I had horrible infestations when I had a greenhouse. I recommend those yellow sticky traps, but they only hold down the bugs rather than totally eliminating them. Which works well enough, I guess.

Looks a little like what we see here as "Argentine chorizo," which is pale and without red color and spicy seasonings. A little like German wurst, which I guess makes sense given the number of Germans in Argentina. One of our best friends and his immediate family fled Nazi German and ended up in Argentina. He spoke fluent Argentinian Spanish, which is unlike most other forms of the language.