New Mexico

There is nothing like a vacation to feel a little better about life, except maybe a vacation with your BFF, or a vacation with your BFF who has yet to meet your newest family member. Needless to say it was a great weekend of food, walks, songs and rhymes, fall colors and some more food.

The three of us (KT, SG & Auntie A) all have a pension for good food, and NM holds a special place in our hearts for its unique flavor profile (tehehhe). There was Cafe Pasqual's, Java Joe's, pizza from the  Neighborhood Bakery, the crepes at the French bakery, the biscochitos, the HUGE Mexican market cafeteria...You can see why the walks were a necessity after all that eating.

Happy Half Birthday our sweet boy!

 check out those teeth!

flavors of fall

A few weeks ago the item of the week on our daily menu was peaches. This week?...pumpkin. As part of our pumpkin carving party I made all things pumpkin which entailed opening many a can of canned pumpkin ( yes, I did not take the time to bake and scrape a real pumpkin).  In addition to the pumpkin tamales I wrote about earlier, here's a tour of creations from la cocina bejos.

pumpkin-coconut soup

Carlo Bolo 

Pumpkin Roll-O

Mexican pumpkin "lasagna"

                                                    


        pumpkin chocolate chip scones

Yum...and now off to the gym!

Dia De Los Muertos 

 

In memory of those friends and family who have left this earth behind.

And with a heavy heart I will honor Papi, who left this earth yesterday, to my altar of ancestors. 

We held a pumpkin carving party this weekend with lots of friends - a bigger crowd than we expected for our little house, but luckily the weather held up for outdoor carving. 

Cute kiddos in costume, no knife injuries, good food (the pumpkin tamales were good but the recipe needs tweaking) and some great looking jack-o-lanterns...what more can you ask of a party?

and then there was Master Yoda...the cutest Jedi in the universe

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Nanny Kat is back

...and so to welcome her back I put her to work with what else - tamale making! This time, however, we made a seasonal (and highly experimental) recipe of pumpkin tamales with black bean and cotija cheese filling. They will make their premiere at our pumpkin carving party this weekend and I'll know better then if they are as successful as I envisioned!

IKEA

We were in Phoenix for the weekend, and Phoenix for us means big city shopping...IKEA, Trader Joes, Food City, REI, Changing Hands bookstore, and any other establishments that may catch our eye. We didn't fit them all in this time, as we find it a bit harder now with the little one. Getting in and out of the carseat and disrupting naps is just too hard on all of us.

But, to SG's chagrin, we did fit in a trip to IKEA. I try to make it as efficient and painless as possible by shopping on-line first to establish a list of things to look at and things I plan on buying so to not drag out the trip too long. God knows I could spend hours in there, while SG would rather gouge out his eyes with a spoon - and that is a direct quote.

shopping list

• baby utensils
• check out/price butcher block countertops
• fabric
• gray rug
• large flour container
• kitchen towels

Well fed (we dined at the Barrio Cafe - YUM!) we arrived a mere 1.5 hours before IKEA closed its doors for the night. Eek! will we have enough time??

A mixed bag of results for this shopping expedition. We wasted a bunch of time lingering around the kitchen design station waiting for a lady who was hogging the staff. Grumpiness peeked out of his hiding spot and off we went to babyland, with much better results. Alas, by the time we got to the rugs we all three had our grumpy pants on, and the loudspeaker kept counting down the minutes we had to get to the checkout counter before the doors closed for the night. How'd we do on our list?

• baby utensils
• check out/price butcher block countertops
• fabric
• gray rug
• large flour container
• kitchen towels 

Not too bad. The highlight?

 We now qualify for front row parking at IKEA!

The other highlight of SG's trip to Phoenix was that the GPS led us to the Trader Joe's right next door to Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe. After fighting with his satellite radio and missing Sunday NFL updates all morning, this was one of the few thing that put a smile on his face.