Farewell to arms

Day 2 of our Mexico adventure brings us to our third family. Jesus welcomes us on our path. Well, not exactly us. Technically, Jesus faces the Tijuana Costco. His outstretched arms welcome value priced plasma tv's and aisles of mayonnaise as far as the eye can see. But that's pretty close to what I imagine heaven would be.

Our travels today take us to the hill country outside of Tijuana proper. Gorgeous views, unpaved roads, overweight car. Freak winds and rain.

Our task today- pouring the concrete roof. 10 tons worth of concrete.

And once again, there's a view of my ass.

Roof poured. Biceps sore. Seeking shelter from the driving wind and rain with a bit of nosh our familia kindly prepared for us. Then back across the border to our own complacency.

Project layaway

There is only one habanero pepper in this year's pitiful harvest. Mucho Pitiful. My thumb is not so green this year. But it's the first year tromboncino squash and basil were fruitful. So I count my blessings and save my cursing and ill thoughts for Dick Cheney and Proposition 8.

Because a clean and fluffy Preston is such a rare occasion, I will document each occurrence. This time, Preston models a fierce new safety orange dog collar for that early 2000's state penitentiary look. Heidi Klum and PetSmart would approve. Work it for your bitches Preston!

My poor planning requires that I make some curried cous cous to tide me over because ratpatootie will take over 4 hours to make. Hunger and ratpatootie don't go together well. Why do I attempt time consuming recipes late at night? I wonder how the French do it?

Ratpatootie ala Pixar is delicious, but painstakingly slow to make without interns and sous chefs. Costco needs to sell interns and sous chefs.

Moon, my ass

It's the Autumn Moon Festival time of the year now. But I celebrate with rigatoni and meat ragu rather than Chinese food and moon cake. I should probably learn to cook Chinese food at some point in my life, but I've always despised moon cake. Moon cake. Ick. I was not even tempted to buy moon cake at Costco this year- and I'm normally a sucker for anything Costco. Moon cake. Ick.

August moon in September. Chinese mythology says there is a bunny that lives on the moon. Western mythology says the moon is made of cheese. I say, mmmm... braised rabbit with cheese souffle.

Preston is totally uninterested in the August moon. He might like Costco moon cakes though. And he definitely loves cheese and bunnies.

Prep school

This year's entire loquat harvest was consumed within an hour of picking. Very juicy and fresh. But all gone. No more delicious loquats until next year.

I'm practicing my Top Chef skills by cutting roasted beets into centimeter cubes. The ugly ones went into my stomach. At some point in my life I'd like to go to cooking school and learn these things for real instead of watching TV and making things up as I go along.

Searing a roast for stracoto with porcini mushrooms. A little care in the beginning yields a lot of delicious later.

Extracting flavor from the peeled shrimp shells. The broth may wind up in a sauce, mayhaps. Or the beginnings of a bisque, perhaps. Maybe a poaching liquid of some sort, possibly. But certainly, I'm getting my money's worth from this handful of shrimps. I'm skipping composting the spent shells after I'm done. For they be super stinky for long time.

Shrimps will marinate overnight in a chimichurri.

And for even more Top Chef fun, I will be breaking down two Costco chickens tonight.

Chicken building blocks sorted and organized for dishes yet to be imagined.

I may have gone overboard with the food prep and pyrex containers.

Shoeless

New Costco shoes for the car. This is a dangerous situation since I am forced to shop inside during the time my car is held hostage. But I can limit the time I can do damage by sitting down for a $1.62 Costco hotdog and soda meal before I go inside.

Roast olive oil and lemon chicken. With fingerling potatoes. The lemon tree just keeps going and going this year. The chicken could use some new shoes too.

Dumping loads

Rick surveys this afternoon's handiwork. Them concrete buckets are heavy. And I had a hand in carrying every bucket. I was thoughtful enough to also bring a Costco sized bottle of Advil for everyone to share.

Don't let the picture fool you. I single-handedly pushed the cement mixer uphill with my manly man strength and buns of steel. The others are only there for moral support. (Note that my purple and orange wardrobe matches both the mixer and the Posada where we're staying.)

Real life Peeps!

Packing the rear

It's time for the twice annual Tijuana volunteer house building trip. Costco has colonized my refrigerator with Sunday breakfast for 30. Fitting all this into the back of the car may prove to be a challenge. My Tetris skills are a bit rusty these days.

The Posada at La Gloria Mexico sports an orange and purple color scheme this year. I'm glad I brought my matching hat.

Shut out

The best part of being unaffiliated is that I get the bisexual ballot that lets me vote in whichever party strikes my fancy at the moment. Well, nearly any party for this primary. The Republican party wasn't so accommodating with the flippity floppity ballots this time. Maybe next time.



Not really as shocking and insulting as it first appears. This gesture really loses it's impact and meaning when there are six fingers in a hand.



Costco sells kimchee! Kim-cheap!



The zoom on the camera died. Me ole trusty camera is no longer so trusty. There's some very strange financial convergence where I'm going to need to replace my camera, laptop, phone, and tires all around the same time. I think I'm going to need a lot more gold rapping kitties.



When evil squirrels start preying upon the fruit, that's when I know they're ripe. But I have to act fast before the satanic squirrels devour all the fruit.

CMYK my ass

I managed to use up all the toner less than 5 hours after the new printer showed up on my doorstep. Phooey! They don't ever tell you that the "starter toner kit" isn't the same as the full capacity ones. And a set of the toner cartridges cost more than what I paid for the printer. Damn ye greedy corporations! If I didn't have a conscience, I would abuse Costco's return policy and get a new printer whenever I run out of toner.

International leftovers

A different take on surf and turf. I needed more space in the freezer, so I'm trying to eat through a giant Costco bag of frozen seafood ravioli to make more room. I would have liked to make a lemon butter sauce for it, but last night's bolognese will have to do. I thought the assorted land animals in the sauce would clash with the assorted sea creatures in the ravioli, but somehow it all worked together.



More recycled food. Leftover white meat chicken from the last roast chicken night. The last of a can of chipotle in adobo. More leftover roasted poblanos from who knows when. And half a packet of cream cheese sitting in the back of the cheese box. Kind of a Mexican meeting Spanish Tapas filling kind of thing.



And the chicken filling gets wrapped by some of the leftover wheat pizza dough for a kind of Mexican Italian Spanish Chinese char-siu bun type thing. The poppy seeds on top make it somewhat Jewish bagel like.



And Ta-Da! International chicken buns.



Extra veggies from my rapatootie adventures get added to MK's thanksgiving roasted veggies dish along with some breadcrumbs and apple pie cheese to make a veggie casserole thing.



And the stem of a purple cauliflower gets sliced and tossed with some sesame oil, soy sauce, and furikake seasoning for a quick little appetizer. I would have liked to squoosh some yuzu on it, but the yuzu tree refuses to flower and bear fruit.