Homemaking

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To Market, To Market

I didn’t want to keep stocked with too many groceries this week, not certain of my cousin’s plans and also being tight budgeted because of pulmonía expenses and the whole bank fiasco.

But after two mornings of crackers and almond butter for breakfast, it was beyond time to get some tortillas! And if I was going all the way ‘downtown’, I might as well get a few things to tide me over the next few days. In other words, I needed cheese. If I have cheese, my pantry’s full. 🙂

So my first stop was the other little grocer, Felipe, I think. He stocks Chihuahua cheese, very similar to a mild white cheddar or Monterrey Jack, which melts beautifully. 24 pesos for 200g (3 pesos CHEAPER than Ley!).

Next stop was the City Deli for two potatoes and a carrot. 9 pesos. (I wish the veggie guy wasn’t so hard to catch!)

Then, the tortillería. 5 pesos.

Finally, the butcher shop for a large chicken breast. 20 pesos.

Total spent, 58 pesos (4.57CAD). I can’t buy that amount of chicken OR cheese for that price in Canada!

Now, to figure out what I’m doing with the chicken tonight (probably my usual…). It’ll be nice to have the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow!

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An Unexpected Afternoon Off

Yesterday’s work file was very easy, so I got an early start on today’s. Today’s wound up being very easy and so I decided to get an early start on tomorrow’s. Surprise, tomorrow’s was mostly music and singing, which I do not need to transcribe, so I was done with tomorrow’s work by 1:30 today! And the best part is that this client pays me for all my minutes, whether there is anything to transcribe or not. So I’m essentially getting a day and a half off, but am still getting paid for it. This doesn’t happen often and I enjoy it when it does!

I don’t know if I’ll have any more transcription this week, but I have some non-transcription projects to work on. I am coming in alarmingly short for my January budget, so I’m keen to do as much work as I can before the 31st even if these projects aren’t due until the second week in January. This is the first year since I started freelancing that I haven’t been swamped this week. I know that will likely mean a busy start to the new year, but being overloaded in January won’t make up for being underloaded in December. 🙁

With the rest of the day to fill, the obvious thing to do was head to the beach for a long walk. I really enjoy walking between 2PM and 4PM (ish) because the tide is going out and there is lots of lovely firm clean sand to walk on. I head towards the airport, away from the crowds and garbage, and can take off my sandals. My goal for today was to go some distance past the last house or until I found an intact sand dollar, whichever came first. Well, the two goals coincided and I found a beautiful, albeit cracked, sand dollar a few minutes past the last house!

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I headed back home, arriving around 2:30, and had a late lunch. Dale gave me a copy of Pacific Pearl, a free local newspaper, the other day and Contessa gave me a copy of M! Magazine (both in English), so I sat down to read through them both properly and learn about local venues and events. Thanks, gals!

That done, I debated cracking open a beer as I mulled over what I was going to have for dinner. The stores were rather bare. I’m going to Maz tomorrow with Dale to pick up stuff for social events this week and thought it would be stupid to go to City Deli to get something for dinner tonight. Then, I remembered that, really, prices between here and town are comparable, so why not pick up what I wanted and have less to carry tomorrow?

So off I went. The Lala truck had been by, so I stocked up on crema, a big tub of peach yoghurt, and Oaxca cheese. I also got a potato, two carrots, and an onion. I really like sautéed cubed veggies (including a chayote I already had in the fridge) with a little bacon, crema,  garlic, and some cheese. Very simple and reheats so well, with the flavours being more intense the next day.

I chatted with the lady who weighs and prices the veggies about work and family. As she was finishing up, I thought that bacon would be nice with my supper. I now know that you can get some convenience meats by the weight at the City Deli. They just open a big package and weigh out however much you want. I asked if they had bacon, yup, and the lady weighed me out nine pesos worth, perfect for a meal with leftovers.

Then, I moved into a new phase of linguistic exploration, discussing cooking! I said that I like cooking the potatoes with bacon, onions, crema, and garlic. She said yum and asked if I use a comal, a traditional Mexican griddle that is often made of cast iron. As best as I could, I explained that I use a pan that is like a comal, but has higher sides. Pantomime was involved, but I think she got it!

For some reason, the price sticker often falls off my bags by the time I get to the cashier and that was the case with the bacon. So I told the man that the veggie lady said it was nine pesos. He once again said that I speak lovely Spanish and that it’s such a pleasure to serve me. That’s enough ego stroking, people, my head is big enough as it is! 😀 But seriously, comments like that give me confidence to push my boundaries and chat more. I keep waiting for a negative person to tell me how horrible my Spanish is and that I should give up, but that person does not appear to live in the vicinity!

Back home, I cracked open that beer and started on this post. 🙂 It’s been so long since I’ve been been able to work ‘normal’ days that I’m struggling a tad to figure out how to fill my evenings! For tonight, I’ll be putting a movie on the iPad and continuing work on a puzzle Dale loaned me. I’ve been picking away at it for several nights while rewatching the wonderful movie Cloud Atlas. I finished it last night, so I’ll see if I can find anything on Netflix tonight that catches my eye. Otherwise, I have lots of movies on an external drive that I can rewatch.

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Quiet Isla Sunday

I didn’t get to sleep till around midnight, so when I woke up at 6:00 this morning, I rolled over, determined to get another hour. I managed another 2.25 hours! Sundays tend to be pretty quiet on Isla.

The work on the property appeared to be done, so I looked forward to my first day in a long time (since before the neighbour arrived) that I might be able to work uninterrupted.

By noon, I’d done a good morning’s worth of work and then my transcription software crashed (it’s a piece of crap, but the only app available to me). I took that as a sign that I needed to get some air and sun and fresh tortillas for lunch since it takes so long for the app to get up and running again.

Isla was humming with activity, but still much more quiet than during the week. I always love the bit of my walk where I emerge from my dusty street onto the paved Calle Principal by the butcher shop, what with the ATVs and pick up trucks whizzing by.

I greeted the people I passed, engaged in idle conversation, and before I knew it, I was at the tortillería. I got 4.5 pesos worth and for the first time, the amount wasn’t rounded up or down. I gave 5 pesos and got a little coin back that I already had in my purse. So now I know those two itty bitty centavo coins add up to a peso. I still can’t be bothered to learn them and just give them to the baggers at Ley. 🙂

The weather was glorious and warm today, feeling especially so after yesterday’s rather cool spell.

I’m so content here and loving the quiet domesticity to my routine, shopping nearly daily for food, buying tortillas from the tortillería and vegetables off a truck, and getting to know the people who sell me the wholesome food that nourishes both my body and soul.

I only have four full months left on Isla and I know they will go by too fast. I am glad to be a third of the way into my winter without having yet had a ‘yup, had enough of Mexico and ready to go home,’ moment. I find it interesting that the moments of displeasure and frustration have stemmed from encounters with expat Mexico. I’m nervous about saying more about that because I know I will offend people. I will just repeat what I’ve said in the past, we all come here for different reasons and seeking different experiences, and no reason is more valid than another, but I didn’t come here to be back home, only with better weather.

The slightly chaotic rhythm of life in suburban Mexico suits me. I find in it the same qualities that made me fall in love with my part of Canada, where the Establishment is far enough away that things can get done without bureaucracy getting in the way of common sense.

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Verdict On the Pork Chops

I bought some meat at the little Isla butcher eight days ago. The chicken was delicious, so I was eager to try the pork, which had come frozen. So I had decided to save it for a bit. This morning, I tossed it in a soy sauce/honey/garlic/lime juice marinade and let it thaw in the fridge. If you think that sounds suspiciously similar to the chicken marinade, you are correct. You just can’t go wrong with the combination of soy sauce, sweetener, an acid, and either garlic or onion!

To my surprise when I came to make dinner, I didn’t have one big super thick pork chop, but rather three big super thin chops! I much prefer thin chops to thick, so I was happy about this.

They were still a little frozen, so I tossed them into a hot pan with a lid until they separated, then I cooked them one at a time in three stages. Meanwhile, I made green beans and garlic mashed potatoes.

The pork chops were amazing! They were so moist and flavourful! I cooked them absolutely perfectly so they were tender and juicy. I will confess to gnawing on the bone a little. 🙂

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It looks like a lot of meat, but there was quite a bit of bone, so one chop was the perfect size for a meal.

I usually prefer pork over chicken, especially when it comes to leftovers, so I’m quite happy to have the other two chops sitting in the fridge for the next couple of days. The marinade will continue to infuse them and they will just get tastier!

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Salad

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This extremely simple salad would be such a big treat at Haven. I can’t get decent veggies in Assiniboia most of the year and when the lettuce and tomatoes are decent, I’m going into town so rarely that a salad can be had maybe one or two days a month. I’m always ecstatic when Caroline and Charles have enough produce to share!

Here, fresh veggies are easily accessible and super cheap so I’m making an effort to make salads more regularly. This one is super basic and really doesn’t have much in it; romaine lettuce, tomato, red onion, turkey ham, and Oaxaca cheese. I don’t buy salad dressing, so I made one with oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder. Not as good as the one I make with balsamic vinegar and honey Dijon, but still tasty!