Miguel's Talents

With the construction on his second apartment on hold until we get a better picture of the upcoming financial scene, Miguel is home more. This gives him an opportunity to cook, and me an opportunity to enjoy his cooking.

Last week Miguel made yellow mole with chicken and vegetables. It looked red to me but he said it was yellow, and that it depended on the type of chili used as to whether it was called yellow or red or black, etc. Since I'm not an expert on mole (other than I no longer like the one made with chocolate because I once ate it when it had been in the freezer and it made me sick, sick, sick and I hold a grudge), I will accept that it was yellow mole. It was delicious the first time around, and the next morning he turned it into enchiladas mole, and then later tostadas mole. There was one final full meal from the batch before it was finished, and it is one of those dishes that just improves with age (to a point - i.e., do not freeze the leftovers).

We buy hot tortillas to go with our breakfasts, and usually end up throwing out the ones leftover after we hold onto them for a day or so thinking we'll use them for something and they go moldy. But lately Miguel has been frying them up nice and crispy and sprinkling them with salt - they taste like popcorn, are crunchy, and just delicious. We keep thinking we'll make guacamole to go with them, but we do not have good luck with avocados - they almost always rot before we use them. We need to buy the avocado the day we plan to use it, but that is almost like planning the day and so often our plans deviate from what we thought the day would be. The avocado ends up sitting on the counter another day and starts to turn black inside. Even the fridge doesn't stop the fruit from going bad, it just slows it down.

The other night Miguel stayed up late making his wonderful red sauce that we use for egg omelet and chilaquiles. He also made some delicious homefried potatoes while he was at it. I was sound asleep while he toiled over the hot stove, but I didn't feel bad, there have been plenty of times I've been toiling and he's been siesta-ing.

Yesterday Miguel made yummy fried rice to go with the leftover pollo adobo I'd prepared on Monday. I don't know what he does differently than me, but his rice is the best. I always eat too much but I can't help it - I love that rice.

This morning I'm not sure what we'll have for breakfast - maybe eggs in the red sauce, or chilaquiles, or maybe Miguel will pick up salbutes and empanadas de queso at the mercado. Whatever we eat as the hot meal will be followed by a huge plate of fresh fruit. We've been lucky lately and everything we have right now is sweet and of decent quality. Sometimes we get horrible fruit - mango all black inside, pineapple fermented into alcohol, melon cut too young with no flavor, watermelon that is more water than taste. Fruit can be deceiving - sometimes it looks nice on the outside, but you just never know what taste you will get on the inside. And sometimes it just looks horrible on the outside but inside it's sweet and juicy. It's a game of roulette, but if we don't have our fruit in the morning, it doesn't feel like a proper breakfast.

Preparing the fruit plate is my job, and so I must go now...time to start chopping.