All in a days work

Despite the heat today I got a lot done. Finished the last remaining section of the roof with sealer and reduced my lime trees by almost half in height. All the tree energy was going to suckers shooting straight up and not enough to the fruit. One tree had very little fruit this year and the other was slowing way down.

The Hoja Santa was not doing very well and I can only assume they don't like lots to sun. It's now on the shady side of the bed. The Albahaca which I want to call Albaca (Basil) is coming along best. The chard, peas, onions and tomatoes are really slow.

I ran out of brown rice last week so time to buy some more. Only problem is Parisani no longer has their prepackaged brand, Herradura may never carry it, even Super Hawaii had none. Yesterday the last option was Chely's and they had it in bulk in about 1/2 kilo bags. They also had "Saran Wrap" which I wasn't finding elsewhere. The plastic wrap was to cover a bowl of rising bread dough sitting for 12+ hours.

The bread dough I may get started this afternoon but I wanted Curried Fried Rice with Shrimp so I headed off to the local store to see what they had I could add. For sure the cilantro, celery, tomatoes and maybe an egg. I have broccoli and onions in the fridge. The cucumbers (pepinos) are for snacks later with lime and salt. Nahima's favorite.

Hoja Santa

Albahaca 

Rice is ready to fry

You can buy stalks of celery (Apio)

Total 22 pesos or $1.50US

Cutting Pepinos

Way back around the turn of the century when Mexico was still very new to me I spent a few weeks with friends in Mexico City. Helping cut veggies for a salad I was startled by "my kids are not going to like the way you cut the pepinos". I mean I know how to cut cucumbers for a salad but since they were already destroyed we didn't delve further into what should have been.

The salad was my idea and design but since salads here are often more like a garnish than a main dish my only thought was you don't put pepinos in a bowl with a bunch of other veggies. You slice them in strips, douse with lots of lime juice, sprinkle sea salt over the top ... and probably some Valentina hot sauce. Ever wonder how to eat Jicama ..... the very same way.

A tip on citrus squeezers/juicers or wives tale -- Those cast aluminium ones look very sturdy but it's rumored that the acid reaction will eventually make them go sour. Better to use inert plastic.

So many ways?

Peal and all ready for lime

Lime squeezer