Molcajete Fun

Thursday January 28, 2009
I have been having way too much fun cooking with my new molcajete! (Thank you Mary Beth!) I went through all the steps to get it ready, which took me several days. First step is to grind a small amount of rice to a fine powder, until the rice was no longer turns grey from the rock. After that, I seasoned it using garlic, fresh cilantro, cumin seed, and rock salt. I left this ground up mixture in the molcajete over night and then just rinsed with water the next morning. First thing we made was a nice fresh salsa, pictured below. Then Phil got in on the act and made a very delicious guacamole! The more we use the molcajete, the better things made in it will taste.

Kathy's Molcajete Salsa
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon cumin seed
Juice of one small lime
1 teaspoon rock salt
1 serrano or jalapeño chilie
1 small white onion
2 roma tomatoes
cilantro, chopped
Crush garlic in molcajete or mortar with pestal. Add cumin seed, crush. Add lime juice and rock salt, crush again. Add whole chilie (including seeds), crush well. You should now have a nice uniform liquid. Add chopped onion and tomatoes. Gently crush, not much. Add chopped cilantro and ENJOY!

Dinner plans for Saturday

The Vermilion Flycatcher male, very hard to get a picture of, they are so timid!

Tuesday January 5, 2009
Tomorrow GG arrives (before the break of dawn at 5:00 am!!) and we are already filling up our calendar with activities and dinner dates, at home and away. Today, we had Rachel here to do some cleaning for us and she will be coming back on Saturday to cook a Mexican dinner for us! Then Tuesday we have been invited for dinner at Jane and Paul's house, a couple we met while staying at the bed and breakfast before we rented this house. They are from DC but have also spent some time in Japan, which I think will be very interesting for GG to talk to them about.
In addition to eating here and there, we will be exploring the town of Ajijic, going in little shops and galleries. We are also going to be taking a day trip to Matzamitla, about a two hour drive from here on the other side of the lake and up in the mountains. It has a bit of a Swiss feel to it, a very pretty picturesque town. We will probably do a round the lake tour on the same day, which would make it an all day trip.
We will probably go on an open house tour as well, it is always fun to have a look at different Mexican style houses, some old and some new.
We will be taking lots of pictures, and of course you will be able to see them right here! Below is what I am going to make for dessert for our Saturday Night Mexican Dinner.

Chocolate Avocado Pie
2 large soft avocados
2 cups dark chocolate or carob chips
1/8 cup skim milk, possibly more needed
1 T vanilla extract
liquid sweetener, add as much as you want depending on taste
pre-made reduced fat pie crust
raspberries
1 T orange juice
Take a pre made crust and lay washed and dried raspberries along bottom of crust.

In a double broiler melt chocolate chips with milk and vanilla. Add sweetener to taste. Mix well, and take off from heat after fully melted so that it does not burn.

In a separate bowl mash up the avocado, or pulse in a food processor. Add in orange juice, Get all lumps out.

After chocolate cools a bit mix it in with mashed avocado. This mixture should be thick and creamy. Test the sweetness level.

Pour over raspberries and place in fridge to set.