Nancy in Pátzcuaro

O Possibly, but this is mezcal/tequila country, not rum (unless it's in rompope). Granted, they're both made from sugar cane, so I suppose they are roughly equivalent in the outcome of consumption. Mainly a roaring hangover and a brutal headache. Not my cuppa.

Is it just me or did she pour a whole lot more than 2 oz. of bourbon in that glass? This is made worse by the fact that I don't like bourbon, but yikes-- Drink one of those and you will be over the legal limit!

I guess the only way to get Azufrado (I misspelled it) beans is to go to the coast of Nayarit right now. We have been there at most times of the year (not summer--too hot) and have watched the progression of crops being harvested, the fields cultivated, and then replanted with the next crop. Watermelon was the last crop this spring, and the fields were being prepared for corn and probably after that for beans. Quite the agricultural region. Glad to hear that Steve found them the same way we did! And oh, what watermelons! They were everywhere alongside the roads, piled up for sale, and in trucks being hauled away.

We just returned from the coast of Nayarit, where they sell a yellow bean called Azufado. Anybody heard of it? Nice bean, cooks up creamy and tasty. The harvest had just finished and there were signs all over offering it for sale. I haven't seen it anywhere else.

It has been a while since I made this, so it took some searching. This recipe makes one cup. The recipe is from David Leite. 1/3 c. very cold whole milk 3/4 tsp. fresh lemon juice 1 small garlic clove, peeled and minced 1/8 tsp. freshly ground white pepper about 3/4 c. vegetable oil or 1/2 c. vegetable oil and 1/4 c. olive oil Kosher salt Combine all ingredients except for oil and salt in a glass 2-cup measuring cup (I used a tall plastic container to keep down the splash). Using a hand-held stick blender, buzz on high for about 30 seconds until frothy. With the motor running on high slowly pour in the oil a few drops at a time, increasing this to a fine thread, moving the blender up and down until the mixture thickens and resembles a soft mayo. You may need more or less oil. Season with salt to taste. Keeps in the fridge for about a week. Variations include adding 1 cup of loosely packed cilantro and 1-1/2 inch peeled and grated fresh ginger; omit the garlic. Or add 6 anchovy fillets along with the other ingredients; omit salt. Or add 2 tsp. of curry powder; let sit in the fridge for about an hour so the flavor blooms. Or add 1-1/2 tsp. double-concentrate tomato paste with the oil, and stir in 1 tbs. minced oil-packed sun dried tomatoes. Omit the lemon juice. It makes a very satisfactory mayo-like product without eggs. Because it uses milk it's not vegan, but I wonder how it would work with non-dairy milks. Someone (not me) should try that. I don't think coconut milk would be the right choice, flavor-wise.

Baby water fowl are uniformly adorable little floating fuzzballs. I remember walking along the Arkansas when we lived in Salida (Colorado) and coming upon a mother merganser and her 5 or 6 little ones, bobbing along on the waves. She saw me, apparently said something to the kiddos, and all of them disappeared into the willows along the shore. One moment they were straggling along, and in an instant they'd disappeared. My parents, who were golfers, used to complain about the "goose poop" on the course. They like foraging on golf courses, and the inevitable poop just happens. Better geese than deer, I say. Geese don't eat your roses.

Has anyone worked with milk mayonnaise? It was very popular a while ago, and I admit to trying it and finding it quite acceptable for what it was, which was not really mayonnaise. I came upon the recipe recently which reminded me that I used to do it and haven't for a while.

Mexican cane alcohol is cheap and harsh, made from sugar cane and often used to dilute tequila. It had been used in major brands of tequila in order to avoid using the more acceptable (and expensive) blue agave, though I suspect that now that's no longer the case.. It's the drink of choice for getting drunk as fast and as cheaply as possible and I'm sure the hangover is brutal. I wouldn't drink it. Label looks old as if had some aspirations to quality but I wouldn't trust it. It was made in Torreón, in the middle of the country. Keep it as a curiosity for the label. Any idea why someone would have given it to your dad?

Be sure to click on Mushroom Butts and Seductive Radishes. Shocking that vegetables can get up to such mischief.

Sexy carrots? You be the judge-- https://www.sadanduseless.com/funny-carrot-gallery/?fbclid=IwAR1UVZ7RcTBDdf3cy-1qHpMBRBRkVRjvgvj0jxhApkvutVhHsg7LNryugfg

There used to be a guy who walked around town selling churros--you could hear him calling "Churros! Churros!"--from blocks away. I used to hide from him because he knew me and knew I couldn't resist a good churro. I haven't seen him in a long time so I suspect he retired. The best, of course, are freshly made and warm from the oil, but any churro is better than no churros. Ten pesos, a nickel at today's exchange rate. It's a rare location in México that has adequate guard rails. Basically you're on your own, so pay attention and watch your step! Lots of ways to injure yourself, least of which are obstacles in the street or sidewalk that you may or may not notice. I've stopped wearing a hat after running into too many low roofs or signs in the right of way because the brim prevented me from seeing them. My favorite is the eyelet on the ground that used to be part of a guy-wire system. The wire is long gone but the eyelet remains for someone (usually me) to trip over. Don't ask me how many times I've fallen since we moved here 11 years ago.

You know, I thought it was a finger--looked like a thumb--but I said, "Nah."

What is that?

I'm intrigued by this "liverwurst" recipe--could you post it? I'd like to give it a try. Got all the ingredients already.

I can vouch for mujadara as a great use of lentils. Lentils, brown rice, caramelized onions, plain yogurt and chopped mint--deceptively simple but utterly delicious. Another example of how the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I'd never thought of eating it for breakfast, but it sounds like a good idea. I've come a long way from when I thought breakfast meant eggs and bacon (though I do like that) but also could mean tamales, for instance.

A great read--thanks for that! I'm sure I read it in the magazine but it was a long time ago and a lot of water has gone over the dam and under the bridge, taking that memory with it.

I love "volunteer" tomatoes, though they are sometimes not very good, taste-wise. Work pretty well for sauce or other cooked applications. If your volunteer has good taste, save the seeds and see how they do in subsequent generations. Find a tomato that's dead ripe but not mushy, scrape out the seeds (that haven't already started to sprout) and gel into a small jar of water. Shake the jar several times a day for a week or so to remove the gel (which will make seeds rot) and then spread the naked seeds on a piece of waxed paper to dry. Next year plant a seed or 2 to see if they taste the way the original one did--ideally better, depending on what the parent variety was. The problem with volunteers is that they may have come from a hybrid and thus won't be the same as the parent. But you never know--your volunteer's seeds might work out. Worth a try. I plant non-hybrid varieties because they just plain taste better, and I can save seeds from one generation to the next. Often they change subtly and sometimes improve based on my growing conditions and climate. Select only good quality fruit, not the discards. Did this volunteer come from fruit that fell off last year's plants? That could give you a clue about what to expect.

A recipe that we enjoy is salmon steaks marinated for 4-6 hours in a mixture of brown sugar and bourbon. I just mix up a loose slurry and make sure to keep turning the salmon so the marinade permeates a little before cooking. Melt butter in a skillet and brown the steaks on each side. Add a little of the marinade if you like, to finish cooking. You can also broil the salmon and cook down the marinade for a sauce with some butter. For me, medium to medium rare is the best, but that's a personal choice.

I'm glad she asked the question that I had--if you can't taste it, why use it? Very interesting indeed.

Thanks, everybody. I admit it pains me to discard so much useful herbage, but I think you're right to suggest that I do so. I'd never do that with basil, of course, but rosemary is a different beast. Do you think it would poison the compost? Maybe I can give some of it away to friends. Too bad we're not going to friends' houses these days--I could take a little bouquet of rosemary as a hostess gift! The problem is that most of our friends also have rosemary bushes because it grows so well here. Oh well--it's the gesture that counts, right? Fat Guy's story reminded me of a meal my now-husband cooked for me when we were dating. Suffice it to say that his theory that if a little is good, a lot is better, proved to be his downfall. I don't even remember what the food was, only that it tasted like the piney woods on steroids. Inedible.

I have a rosemary bush that has gotten enormous. It's healthy, vigorous, and taking over a section of the garden. It stands about 5 feet tall and at least that much around. I know I should cut it back but what should I do with the cuttings? I don't see any point in drying it since I have access to the fresh stuff, and I don't think it would work well in a vinegar, which is what I've done with excess herbs in the past. But we're talking about a very large amount and it would be nice to be able to use at least some of it. Any ideas?

I recently posted about how México is starting to enforce the restriction on those of us over 60 entering stores such as Costco, Walmart and Home Depot. We went to Costco in Morelia today and can report that, at least here, Costco is letting everyone in. Yes, we have to have our temperature taken, and we get a squirt of hand sanitizer before we enter, which is the same as it always has been. So we were able to shop normally. I have no idea if this will remain the same or whether governmental pressure will force the big-box stores here to comply. In the meantime, at least in Michoacán, we are free to shop to our heart's content.

Here in México we're hearing rumors that the government is about to enforce a rule from several months ago, that prohibits anyone over 60 from going out. Stores like Costco, Home Depot, Wal-Mart are not allowing anyone over 60 in their stores. Dunno how they can tell one's age, but that's what seems to be happening. This is a problem for people who might need to go out to shop for, you know, food. Because we have to restock after several weeks at the beach--dogfood, wine, big packs of Romaine lettuce, toilet paper--this is something we need to know about. The small abarrotes (corner stores) will always be available, but for major shopping we depend on the big-box stores. We're leaving the beach in a couple of days, so we'll test how this will impact us. Stay tuned--

Potatoes. Onions release too much juice (and tears as a result).

In the US there's Seed Savers Exchange. I first joined in the mid-80s, when it was simply a bunch of people exchanging seeds person-to-person. There was a simple printed catalog--not quite mimeographed, but close--with people describing what seeds they had and what they were looking for in exchange. Now SSE is a commercial enterprise, but they still specialize in non-hybrid, open pollinated, "heirloom" seeds. Their mandate is to rescue the varieties that have been ignored by the big seed companies. They're based in Decorah, Iowa, where they refresh their varieties by growing them out every few years to keep the supply viable. I admire that dedication to maintaining a large inventory of varieties to avoid a potential future disaster when the commercial varieties fail for some reason. Besides, where else can you find seeds for Kellogg's Breakfast or Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes? Admittedly, this is a commercial business but their philosophy is the same as all groups that call for access to viable seeds for gardeners everywhere. The big seed companies left behind the old varieties--you know, the ones that actually taste good--in favor of larger production, easier transport, and disease/insect protection. And in the process Early Girl, which used to be a good-tasting tomato, became just as tasteless as all the rest.