Epic Fail!

 I like to cook new things, especially cuisines from other countries! On days I feel adventurous I pull out my favorite cooking book, Around the World in 450 Recipes, and pick out something creative. Today I was feeling the culinary vibe and also crazing one of my favorite Mexican foods- Cochinita Pibil Tacos! Even though that recipe isn't in my cookbook, it's on the side of the Achiote paste box. So took out the Achiote paste and vineagar, cooked the chicken and set to work making the best mariniated meat in Mexico! To make Cochinita, you need 1 ounce of Achiote paste to 1/2 cup of vineager and cooked shredded chicken. Notice the ratio- 1 ounce paste/1/2 cup vineagar. But it didnt seem like enough. In Mexico, the meat was so juicy and covered with the flavor, I wanted to recreate that. So, I probably poured 2 cups of vineagar into my marinade! Feeling really good, I let it sit for an hour in the refrigerator to "soak up the flavor" before Pablo came home from work for lunch. I was so excited to have tacos ready for him when he came home! 10 minutes before he walks in the door, I start warming up the meat on the stove, cutting up onions and cilantro, warming tortilla shells, and taking victory photos. I was feeling pretty good about myself!

Well, Pablo comes homes and loves the way it looks! We start building our tacos with all the fixings, when we both take a bite of chicken. We might as well had bitten into a solidified version of White Vineagar! It was pretty bad! Immediate action was taken- Washing the chicken in a strainer and cooking it over the stove over high heat in a hope that vineagar would evaporate and leave the chicken! Unfortuneatly, even with Pablo's culinary skill, the meat a la vineagar could not be saved! So, I learned today that there are recipes and cookbooks for a reason- in my next Cochinita adventure I'll be pulling out the measuring cups AND trusting the recipe!

Feliz Día de San Valentín!!

  Happy Valentines Day everybody! For Pablo and I, this was our first Valentines Day celebrated together! Last year we were in the middle of our 4 month long- distance relationship and could only send packages and call each other! So this Valentines Day was special to both of us. Pablo came home from work with a beautiful bouqet of roses and white flowers and a little note that read " Beautiful flowers for my Bonita". Then we had two decisions to make. First, where to eat? and Second, what movie to watch at the theater? Breaking the tradition of Italian for V-day, Pablo and I were crazing the fixings of an all- you-can-eat Chinese Buffet! We found a place not far and I was amazed to find that this cute place had lots and lots of seafood- my favorite! Mussels, crabs, clams, and shrimp! There was no way we were leaving that place hungry! Next we addressed our second question- Which movie out there did we want to see for our Valentines movie? There was Valentines Day (which Pablo was not a fan of really), Sherlock Homes, and Avatar. Since we couldnt decide, we let the coin toss decide for us, and Avatar it was! That movie was pretty good I have to admit! Looking back I can't believe we couldn't decide which one to watch! Avatar is a truly original movie and it felt great to be watching something so new and fresh. I want to thank my husband for a wonderful Valentines Day and I can't wait to celebrate more years with him!

Go Dog Go!

I am blessed enough to have family live only 20 minutes away from us! My aunt Koreen, her daughter Laura, my other cousin Heather and Pablo and I take turns hosting dinner for all of us on the first Sunday of the month. And I love it! Cousin Laura is in year-round soccer with school teams and club teams. Right now she is playing indoor soccer, which is a smaller field and allows the ball to bounce of the walls and still stay in play. Laura plays goalie for her team, and she is really good! I was proud to see her making impressive saves and it also reminded me that I need to get in shape! Pablo and I are both planning on playing competitive soccer this summer and I know I could use some conditioning! So I have been looking into running clubs in my area and I'm getting more excited to get back into shape and soccer season! My aunt and cousin Laura also have a high energy, loveable scottish terrier named Bentley and Heather has two cute dogs named Trooper and Lucky. Last weekend Pablo and I were able to homesit all three of them! While they took a trip to Salt Lake for the weekend, Pablo and I took on the responsibility of the most adorable pups! They were all three very cuddly dogs, so Pablo and I would sit down to watch TV together and would be instantly covered by them! On our last day together, we decided to take them for a roadtrip to the downtown Riverfront to see the ducks and walk around. What a crazy idea! Poor Bentley was so nervous in the car I started to wonder if this was a good idea? Once we got there though, the sight of huge flocks of ducks and geese immediately cured all three pups! We had them on leashes, so they couldn't chase them as freely as they wanted, but we got some good runs in! With three dog leashes and two people, it was comedic to try not to get tangled together. Thanks for letting us watch the "kids" Aunt Kokee, Laura, and Heather!! We had a blast and we'll see you next month for dinner ;)