Mushroom Soup

I've been in a cooking mood. Peanut butter cookies, banana nut bread, bean soup and corn muffins, and today mushroom soup. Yesterday when I was in the mercado they had a box of really fresh white mushrooms and the idea just popped in my head that I'd make mushroom soup. I've never made it before and I didn't have a recipe but I figured that a pound or so of mushrooms would make a nice lunch.

This morning I went to the Fine Cooking Magazine website and looked at recipes but I didn't have all of the ingredients for any mushroom soup that they had so what the heck. Soup is soup. I thought I could figure out something. Here is my recipe, mas or menos.

3 tablespoon of butter
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large leek quartered lengthwise and sliced thin (about 2 cups)
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1.25 pounds of mushrooms, wiped clean, and sliced thin (about 6 cups of sliced mushrooms) I'd try a variety of mushrooms if I had them.
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons of fresh thyme leaves
5 cups of boxed chicken broth or homemade
4 tablespoons of crema or 1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup white wine (might be better with dry sherry if you have it on hand)
1-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

Melt butter and olive oil in stockpot over medium-high heat. Add leek and cook about 2-4 minutes until it is soft and starting to brown a bit. Stir in garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add mushrooms and thyme and 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Cook about 3-4 minutes until the mushrooms are limp.

Add the broth and bring to a boil over high heat then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Cook about 5 to 10 minutes until the mushrooms are tender. Let cool slightly then put about 1/2 to 2/3 of the soup in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer back to the stock pot. Add crema or whipping cream, wine or sherry and soy sauce. Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed. At this point I added a sprinkle of cayenne pepper just because we like a kick of heat in soup. Bring to low simmer for a minute or two to let the flavors blend. Put in bowls and sprinkle with just a few thyme leaves or maybe some chopped chives.

Shopping Translations

Last week we went to Costco.....first time since April but then we have been gone a lot. I didn't have my money exchange hat on very well because I kept looking at the prices of things I wanted to buy and thinking that it was too much to pay for the item. Actually at Costco I usually figure the money equivalent and if it isn't more than I'd pay in the US AND I really, really want it and I can't find it in San Miguel, I'll buy it. But one of the problems that throws a kink in that line of thinking is that when we are in the USA there are sales on so many items. You don't see many sales here in Mexico.

As an example, I looked at sea scallops. They were about 280 pesos for 950 grams (2 pounds). My kind of quickie math does the 1:10 thing which makes them about $14 pound. Whoa, more than I pay in Houston. Oh, but wait the peso is hovering around 1:13 which brings it down to about $12.30 a pound. That still seemed like way too much to pay for sea scallops. Then I remembered that while we were in Houston I had bought them a couple of times on sale, once for $6 pound (it was a loss leader for a new grocery store opening) and another time for $9 pound (still on sale) so about $12 a pound might not be so bad if I really, really, wanted them. I guess I didn't. I didn't buy them.

I bought some pork tenderloins, two in the cryovac wrap from Swift & Company. I didn't notice until I got them home but the label on the package says For Export Only. Now what the heck does that mean? That the pork tenderloins didn't meet FDA standards to be sold in the USA? That it is an inferior grade of meat? That label is worrisome but we have already eaten one of them and so far so good.

The picture has nothing to do with this post but I go past this two-story, one room wide house most days when I walk into town. I just liked the colors. I don't think the image would be nearly as interesting without the tiny bits of primary colors from the banners.

The Wool and Brass Fair

Yesterday I walked into the centro just to stroll around the Jardin and look at the Lana & Laton Feria. Or the Wool and Brass Fair. It is an annual event here in San Miguel but they have been setting it up in the Civic Plaza which really doesn't let the vendors show their wares to the best advantage. In the Civic Plaza the booths were smaller, darker and there wasn't much of an aisle through the wren of stalls. It really didn't invite you to "shop."

This year the booths are set up around the Jardin and it add a bit of excitement to the Jardin. There were lots of people strolling from booth to booth. Seems like I saw more people sitting in the jardin eating an ice cream cone or eating outside at the restaurants. I also think I'm seeing more gringo tourists in the streets with a guidebook or map in hand. As much as I like the town nice and quiet, I know that having the tourists return is a good thing for San Miguel.

The Revolution

Like most things in Mexico's history The Revolution of 1910 is a bit confusing. Sometimes it is confused with the War of Independence from Spain which started 100 years earlier in 1810. But the 1910 Revolution can be confusing all on its own. It started out as an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against Porfirio Diaz. There were different factions (liberal, anarchist, populist and agrarianist) that at times seemed to lead the revolution so that over time the revolution became a multi-sided civil war. Although battles continued into the 1920s, the Mexican Constitution was finalized in 1917.
Are you beginning to get the idea that pinning down a "date" to celebrate this important event in Mexican history might be a little difficult. The date has been accepted as November 20. But this year the national government caused some more confusion. They declared that from now on, the national holiday would be the third Monday in November thereby creating a long weekend.

So last Monday the banks and schools were closed. We didn't have garbage pickup but we can't be sure that was related to the holiday or just because we never know anymore if or when our garbage will be picked up. We thought it kind of strange that we didn't hear any fireworks or drums and noise from parades. We shouldn't have worried about the patriotism of our town because Friday, November 20 was the day it celebrated with a long parade of color guards, marching military and thousands of school kids with their drum and bugle corps.

Every school had some performance to display in each block of the parade....flash cards, waving banners, acrobatics, pom-pom dances, or more. Hey, let the national government declare whatever they want for a holiday but San Miguel is going to do their celebration on the "right" day.

One thing that was absent that surprised me was that we did not hear any fireworks. Not on the government declared holiday on Monday or on November 20th. I'm wondering if it had something to do with the city government being broke. If you are having trouble paying the garbage men and replacing street lights, I guess you don't have money for fireworks either.

I just wonder....next year on the 100th anniversary of the revolution, will the celebration be the third Monday of November or November 20th. Here in San Miguel, I'm putting my money on November 20th.

Hell, Purgatory and Paradise

I've seen figures like this in a number of churches in Mexico. This one I took during October in the Salud church here in San Miguel. Most of the time the ones I have seen have been similar to this one but sometimes it is a single figure immersed in flames from the waist down. Not being Catholic I didn't understand the meaning of it and so I asked Mexico Bob who is Catholic. And would you believe that he was preparing to write a blog entry about this very subject so he asked permission to use my photo. Sometimes God leads us in ways we do not understand.

Mexico Bob's explanation is complete so if you don't know what it means either, click on this link. Now I have a better understanding of hell, purgatory and paradise. And in the future anytime I encounter these figures in a church, I'll stop to say my own prayer. Thanks Bob.

Crochet, Made by Hand

I learned to crochet when I was six years old. My mother would visit a friend of hers and she had a mother or grandmother who lived with her. I just remember her as a 'very old woman' but then I was just six years old. At any rate while my mother and her friend talked I sat by the grandmother and watched her crochet. It was amazing what she could do with a needle and thread. I was so intent that one day she asked me if I wanted to learn to crochet. Of course I said yes. That day I went home with a ball of thread and a crochet needle. I knew how to do the chain stitch and I made chains and then reversed and made loops....over and over. She taught me some other stitches but I never really made a keepable object. Still I could spend a hot summer afternoon just crocheting.

It use to be, or as some would say, back in the old days, that anytime you put an object on a table you put a crochet doily under it so it didn't scratch the top. Just about every table top had some crochet piece on it. You don't see that anymore so I wonder who buys these beautiful handmade doilys that the women sell on the streets of San Miguel de Allende.

This image was made at night on the porticos around the jardin.

Living With the Family

We are home but I was just looking through the few pictures I took while we were in Houston. One night while Betsy was cooking dinner we were all in the kitchen and I was just snapping. Will, the child suspended from the cabinet tops, probably didn't have both feet on the ground at the same time the whole time his mother was cooking dinner. This child is a ball of energy. Not only can he hang like this between cabinets long enough for a long conversation but he can climb straight up the door jams. I love this although his mother and father may not be so thrilled with it now. It reminds me of finding foot prints going up the wall in the hall. It took me a while to find the culprit but it was Doug, son #3. He could walk up those walls bracing his hands on one side and his feet on the other. I was furious with him at the time. It was a new house with fresh paint on the walls. Now it is a fond memory.

What a wonderful thing.....being grandparents. You get to know some small people. You see the family traits being passed along. You get to see your children cope with raising kids. It is all pretty interesting and truly a blessing.