Adventures in Cooking

I'm thinking this blog may be split between me learning how to cook and keep house with a Mexican husband and adventures in teaching elementary school! Either way it's going to be exciting for you all I'm sure! Any Spanish phrases are here because we do speak Spanish in our house. Makes life more fun that way.

My husband came to me yesterday after seeing black beans in the pantry and asks "Porque nunca haces frijoles" For my non-Spanish speakers on here that means why don't you ever make beans? Well, honey, I haven't been able to figure out what I want to do with them is all. He says (and I'll keep this in English for you) well you should make them tomorrow with hierba buena (mint). All I can think is "you want me to make black beans and put mint in them? Are you insane?" So after some internet searching, pondering and frantic questioning to my friends on I2US, I realize this is an ok thing to do if not something liked by everyone. So I rinse my beans and cook them with mint I picked from the backyard. Surprisingly, it was amazing. They tasted really good! And for those of you worried about the after effects of beans, put the mint in them! It really works!

Well, I decided to be ambitious and not only make beans (because who wants to eat just black beans) but to reheat the tinga from the night before, make rice the Mexican way and fresh salsa. All of this, after I taught Spanish class until almost 5. Who's a good wife? Yep that's right me!

Salsa did not quite turn out quite the way I planned. I like spicy foods really I do. I mean my husband is Mexican after all and loves eating spicy foods. He bought some serrano chiles the other day when we bought a huge box of Roma tomatoes. I had to ask him about using them salsa since we usually use jalapeños. He says just to use the same amount I normally use. Now, he's been making a raw salsa the last few days with the serranos, tomatoes and lime just cut up and I've tried it. Yep it's spicy! I figure I'll be fine to make the salsa. Put 3 tomatoes and 5 yes 5 serranos in the pot and cover them with water. They boil and get soft. I put them in the blender with the salt and garlic. As I lift the top off the blender once it's mixed, I take a whiff and I think I almost burned my face off. I start choking and coughing. Yep that's pretty spicy. The hubby loves it of course. I enjoy it on top of the beans and rice. A few small spoonfuls on top. While he eats it straight with tortilla chips. On the plus side, I read recently that capsaicin does increase your metabolism. I figure I'm good to go for a few days.

So our dinner was a success! And I'm slowly realizing I can't stay up until 1am since school does start on Monday. I haven't stayed up with late all summer and now the week before school starts I can't sleep. I go to bed with my husband around 10:30 and I wait and wait and wait for awhile. He falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. I end up downstairs on the computer, reading or watching tv until I'm finally ready to drift off.

Join me tomorrow as I discuss Outrageous Kid Parties and my favorite books. Unless of course something else comes up in my life. In which case, you'll end up reading something else equally exciting! Please feel free to leave comments!