Happy New Year!
One of my myriad brothers-in-law is visiting. So we HAD to get off our butts and celebrate the New Year, at least a little bit.
So we made Mojitos. For anyone who doesn’t know a Mojito is a Cuban drink that has in it equal parts rum, lime juice and club soda, it also takes a little sugar and some crushed fresh spearmint. Very refreshing.
My brother-in-law is a Cuba buff and so he made the first round of drinks. But the first thing he did when he opened the bottle of rum was to spill a little on the floor. For “los Santos”, the Saints. Apparently this is a tradition in Cuba. You open a bottle of booze and you have to pour some on the floor to feed the thirsty alcoholic Saints. Of course my housekeeper had just washed that floor yesterday. And of course the dog came and licked the booze up (poor thing). But what I want to know is why would Saints want to drink booze off someone’s floor? Even if it is clean… What if we just pour them a shot? Or at least pour it in the sink so I don’t screw up my floor…
The other thing we did to celebrate was to make curry! I love curry! I think I finally perfected my Thai Panang Curry recipe. Most recipes don’t call for the addition of veggies, but I added carrots, zucchini, red bell pepper and onion. But the secret (if you don’t have Kaffir Lime leaves) is to add a lot of lime zest. The lime makes the whole thing imho. I made a vegan batch that has tofu, and another batch with chicken in it. Yum.
Today we are pondering which beach to go to. Husband wants to go somewhere that the dog can run on the beach, so we may go up to Isla Blanca. But first I need a cappuccino.
January 3rd, 2008 08:10
That reminds me of how homies would pour a little of the 40 ounce on the ground for their dead homies. 🙂
January 3rd, 2008 14:38
LOL! I’ve never heard of that tradition.
January 4th, 2008 13:41
Clearly you’re not watching enough gangster rap videos… lol!
January 4th, 2008 18:45
Ok, Thai recipe please! And where do you find firm tofu around here? I keep seeing the silken stuff and Costco has giant packages of firm, but no place seems to have just one lousy package of firm tofu! Help, I love the stuff (Jorge thinks I am nuts, but wait til he eats it without me telling him what it is, haha). Happy new year!
January 4th, 2008 19:26
Definitely not watching ganster rap vids…but I promise I’ll try to correct that.
I buy firm tofu at Costco. In my house a 3 pack of tofu last about 4 or 5 days, not more. You can freeze it, it changes the texture but it’s still ok for use as a ricotta cheese substitute, or for stir frys.
I’ll look for where I wrote down the Panang Curry recipe…it’s on a 3×5 card somewhere around here…