I am a small town girl from the midwest who has moved to the Bay Area. It has been quite an adjustment but, it is all worth being able to be on this adventure with my AMAZING husband. I am not a great writer but, I started this blog to be able to keep family and friends in the loop of my family highlights and adventures.
After missing my Mexican Food Mondays here and there, I've decided to share new recipes that I use in my kitchen during the week. Usually those times where I have missed a post I did try a new recipe but I was not able to post because it was not Mexican food. It was a New Year's resolution for me to become a better cook and make a new recipe each week. The problem is I do not make a new Mexican Recipe each week so my "Mexican Food Monday" posts are just not working for my cooking schedule!
My husband and I have really been spoiled trying a lot of new tasty food varieties from all over the world and so I try to bring in some of those yummy food finds in my own kitchen...or something similar. I am not looking to make this blog into a food blog, but this "new recipe per week" has really helped me with my cooking skills. I enjoy making a nice dinner for my husband and trying new foods but I think I am a better baker than I am a cook. I really struggle with making meat not overcooked so as I work on this goal I am going to share my cooking experiences by posting one new recipe that I've tried on Mondays.
So for my first post of "My Kitchen Monday" was inspired by a soup that we had at an Indian food restaurant. As I understand Lentil Dal Soup is a common soup made in India. I never remember having lentils as a child but I decided to try making a simple lentil soup after I got married and found that I like lentils. I searched on the internet for an Indian Lentil Soup and while it may be a common soup in India I saw that many people make it differently which effects the flavor of the soup. This soup didn't taste like the one in the restaurant but is still a recipe I would repeat. You can check out this recipe here.
This post is late but I wanted to show off my husband's soccer team. Saturday the 10th his league won this season's finals!!! Everyone was very excited and proud. I love watching my husband play soccer. I never was really into sports growing up with all girls in my family, sports were really not an interest of mine. I played volleyball in middle school and l was in gymnastics and liked it but I don't really have a competitive personality. I have more of an artsy personality, playing musical instruments, art, and doing handmade crafts like knitting, crocheting and sewing. But, as I watch my husband play I see how determined and movtivated he is as he runs for a ball, he is definitely not a lazy player! He is a pretty fast runner, has a lot of endurance, and has good footwork. I'm pretty impressed, haha! We go out to the field sometimes on the weekend and I toss the balls to him to practice passing and ball taps and after he shoots the ball I throw them back to him. I can definitely see the fun in soccer and I enjoy watching the game. It is such a joy to watch him play. So, I just wanted to say "good job team!" ☺
First place
Sporting his new winners jersey
A little less organized picture but here is part of the team with their huge trophy
Six years ago when I arrived in Mexico I had no idea that I
was going to meet the man that would sweep me off my feet. We met and I felt something
that I had never felt before. He made me smile and laugh and I loved the way he looked at me. As I waved to him goodbye, I thought I would
never see that man again since there was going to be over 1,600 miles between us. As time went by, each day, I could not wait to
hear his voice or see his face. My feelings became more than just a crush and
I realized that HE was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life
with.
The next thing I know he proposed. My heart skipped a beat
and without a doubt in my mind I said “Yes!” We could not wait to say “I do” so
only three months past and we were celebrating with family and friends on our
wedding day. Our dreams had finally come true! We moved and set out on a
new adventure together.
Since that day, there has been bumps and twists in our road
but I still have not lost that feeling I felt when we first met. Now here we are, four years of marriage,
celebrating all that we have done and all that is yet to come. I still without
a doubt say “I do” to whatever life throws at us, as long as it’s with him. I truely feel blessed that God chose me to be my husband's wife and I love waking up to his sweet face each morning.
For today's Mexican Food Monday I made a traditional Mexican cake called Pastel de Tres Leches. It is made with an egg based cake where you beat the egg whites and yokes separately and then add them carefully together including flour and vanilla. The sauce is where the cake got it's name "three milks cake" because it has evaporated, sweetened condensed and whole milk ( I used skim because that is what I had available). You poke holes in the baked, cooled cake and add the sauce mixture and the cake literally sucks the milks up like a sponge. Then you let it sit for at least 2 hours. This is like the Tiramisu of Italy for Mexico.
I've only had this cake 2 times in my life. Once in college at a Spanish language department party and once after I got married at a Mexican Festival in Lincoln. The first try I really didn't like it. It just seemed like soggy cake but I had it again later and the cake seemed so moist and delicious. This cake did have a bit of a soggy texture which is normal but it still was very good and held a cake form. It wasn't too soggy but it did lack a bit of soft cake texture that I like in a cake, but usually homemade cakes are not as moist as bought boxed cakes because they usually don't have as much fat. I told my husband that Pati has never let me down and I was right. This cake did turn out well and it was yummy. I really did enjoy adding fruit to the top which was optional in the recipe. All I had was blueberries but I think some raspberries or strawberries would have made it really good also!
I was extremely pleased when my husband took a bite and said "Mmm this is really good!" because I was really worried it wasn't going to turn out that great. I didn't think my egg whites got as stiff after beating them for longer than it said in the recipe. I kept beating them with my hand mixer but no change to the texture! I decided after about 15 min of extra beating after adding the sugar that my soft peaks were just going to have to do...and this made me decide I really need a Kitchen Aide mixer!!! It really put a smile to my face because those eggs really made my arm tired haha! I would definitely make this cake again and I think my next desert to try making is flan, I bought 2 molds because I know my husband like flan so hopefully I will have a chance to make it soon...maybe for our anniversary this week???
I again used my Patis Mexican Table cookbook for the recipe but you can also find the recipe on her blog. You can find it here: http://www.patismexicantable.com/2010/02/tres_leches_cake/
The only thing I see that is a bit different is that in her cookbook it says to set the oven at 350 degrees rather than 360 as in her blog.
Here is another interview that I found on youtube. It goes through her whole story and is very interesting. It is about an hour long and the interviewer talks a little weird so be prepared.
As I mentioned before I listen to Revive Our Hearts often at work to pass the time when there isn't much to do. Their current series is on "Healing from Bitterness" with Yvonne Welch. Yvonne had been talking about the bitterness that she had during the early years in her marriage and about not forgiving was negatively affecting her emotionally, spiritually, and physically. She was talking about forgiveness and gave an example from the story of Corrie ten Boom. I was curious to know more about Corrie's story, I've always been interested in the history of WWII due to my mom's family being from Germany. I looked her up and read that this woman helped hide Jews in Holland during the Holocaust until she was thrown into a concentration camp. She then from there was released and started to travel as a missionary to tell non-believers about God and His forgiveness. Corrie also wrote a few books, one that was made into a movie called "The Hiding Place." I have never heard of her before but she had such an interesting and inspirational life and is seen as a great example of an evangelical Christian. Her preaching on forgiveness was tested first hand when she met one of the concentration camp's guard face to face at a church she was speaking at. Here is an excerpt I found from her book "The Hiding Place":
"It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavy-set man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. ... And that's when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were! Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent. ... "You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk," he was saying. "I was a guard in there." No, he did not remember me. "I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us." "But since that time," he went on, "I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, ..." his hand came out, ... "will you forgive me?" And I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and could not. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking? It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. "If you do not forgive men their trespasses," Jesus says, "neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." ... And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. "Jesus, help me!" I prayed silently. "I can lift my hand, I can do that much. You supply the feeling." And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. "I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!" For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then. " from: "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom and John and Elizabeth Sherrill, 1971
I believe that forgiveness is a big issue in a lot of our lives. Our human sinful heart has a tendency to keep record of wrongs which causes us to become bitter and resentful. God reveals to us when we have sinned and we have to get over ourselves and forgive as God has forgiven us, just as Corrie ten Boom did with this man (Matthew 6:14). Unforgiveness can corrupt our heart and the devil feeds off of that sin. I also believe that after finding the freedom after forgiving someone, it reveals our own sin that we must repent and ask for forgiveness ourselves.
One of my focuses this year has been on meekness (which will be another post for another day). Our culture has taught us to be prideful, to be the "winner", and "take care of numero uno" before thinking of others. But, our lack of meekness puts us in a habit that makes us fall farther away from living like Christ. I cannot imagine being in the situation that Corrie was in but God has really used her as an example. In this interview I found on youtube from 1974 you can see how she seems calm and gentle... meek. This forgiveness has given her peace and freedom from resentment and bitterness.
