While on our way back to Tlapa, we spent a few days with friends in Oaxaca and visited a few sites. And here are a few pics from the Mixtec ruins near Mitla. See the entire photo album here.
Granola adapted from this Stovetop Granola recipe.
Ingredients
Heat oven to 400º.
Heat oil in large skillet/frying pan. Be careful not to over heat. Add oats; stir and cook till they start to brown. Set aside and spread out to cool.
In same pan, melt butter. Add in honey and sugar; stir constantly until well combined and bubbly. Add oats back into the pan and mix together with syrup. Remember to keep stirring to avoid burning. 
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At this point, clear a spot in the center of the pan; add chopped almonds and allow to toast a bit. Combine with oats. Sprinkle on coconut and cranberries. I let this cook together for a few minutes.
Spread out on cookie sheets (can fill two sheets); sprinkle cinnamon generously and place in pre-heated oven to crisp. Based on the suggestion of a reviewer (of recipe linked above), turn off the oven. The granola should crisp up nicely and you don’t have to think much about it. Remove the granola (when you remember it) and allow to cool. If you allow it to cool well, the granola comes out in chunks. If you remove it from the cookie sheets while still a bit warm it tends to crumble.
Place in airtight containers to store.
Bonus: Local almonds would make this granola even better. Alas, I didn’t harvest any from this tree seen on our our trip to Salina Cruz.
Almond tree
Not yet ripe.
Too high to get.
I served these muffins with a delicious three bean soup adapted from my friend Judy’s recipe. The ingredients have not been identical any two times I’ve made it. And there are some versions that get gobbled up and others who’s leftovers linger in the fridge un-eaten. I would say that this recipe could be a gamble, but excellent ingredients tend to yield a better soup. Profound, I know. Both recipes (with variations) below are fabulous on day one. The muffins really don’t keep (at least not in the Mexico heat we’re experiencing.)
Masa Corn Muffins
Masa Corn Muffins
The corn muffin recipe is adapted from Cornbread Muffins from Simple Daily Recipes.
Ingredients:
Pre-heat oven to 450ºF. Grease 12 muffin tin. (I’ve used muffin paper liners the last few times. If you use paper liners, be sure to let the muffins cool before attempting to eat. When muffins are still warm, the muffin WILL stick to the paper.)
Mix together dry ingredients with wire whisk.
Add wet ingredients and stir until just moistened (too much stirring will result in tough muffins). Batter will be thick and lumpy.
Use two spoons to fill each muffin paper liner about 2/3 full.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
Allow muffins to cool before serving.
(If batter seems to thick, you may want to add some water and stir more. This definitely makes the batter more manageable, BUT the result is smooth batter and tough muffins.)
Steaming hot three bean soup
Three Bean Soup
Ingredients
Preparation is simple as can be. Combine all ingredients in a pot. Heat through. Serve hot.
Here in Mexico I’ve made this with dry beans, soaked over night. Black and pinto beans are readily available, but kidney beans are not. I’ve used lentils in the place of kidney beans, but the texture is very different with lentils. It adds a somewhat unenjoyable (though no doubt nutritional) substitute.
Other substitutions have included – fresh chopped tomatoes for canned, fresh serrano or jalepeño peppers for canned
Hugh doesn’t relish corn so much, so I have left it out of most versions, hence the parenthesis above.
Ranch dressing packets are also not readily available, so here is an alternate recipe. Just use the list of herbs and spices as a guide for seasoning. Ignore the mayonnaise and sour cream, no need for that here. (And if I ever need to make ranch dressing/dip, I would use plain, unsweetened yogurt as the base. Mixed a little it’s a dip; mixed a lot it’s a dressing.)
Colorful (and delicious) toppings for "take 2" of peanut stew
Craisins and raisins,
Coconut, lime;
Cucumber, tomato,
Cilantro – divine.
My peanut stew recipe will soon be available here here.
This post was brought to you by the letter “C”.
From two sources of inspiration – West African Groundnut Stew (More-with-Less Cookbook p.172) and African Pineapple Peanut Stew – I give you my Mexican version of Peanut Stew. FYI , it serves a crowd and/or keeps well for a few days in the frig. I’ll try to follow the no-nonsense recipe style of the More-with-Less Cookbook, listing ingredients as I go – marked in bold. Be sure to see the variations listed below. I recommend serving with rice and an array of colorful toppings seen here.
Base flavors
In a large, deep pot heat oil and add ground beef. While beef is browning season with nutmeg, paprika and red pepper flakes.
Big Blue Pot
Once meet is browned add onion and garlic. I like to cook these down a bit and then add the tomato paste and water. I always like onion better if it’s allowed to break down a bit instead of cooking in liquid. Simmer until about a half hour before you are ready to serve.
With tomato paste
In a separate saucepan heat oil and peanut butter stirring constantly, then add slowly to large pot. Let simmer for at least 20 min and serve with rice. See below for variations.
Serve with rice
Take 1:
Take 2: THE BEST VERSION SO FAR!
…make a cake in a stew-pot. Isn’t that what you always wanted to know?
Vanilla Cake in ovenproof stew-pot
A friend gave me some genuine Veracruz vanilla for Christmas, and I used it today to make a simple and delicious vanilla cake with a simple syrup vanilla glaze. My inspiration came from Vanilla Overload Cake by The Caked Crusader. The recipe was in grams, so I had to adapt it from the very start. I did the best I could to adapt the recipe to measurements I could manage using this chart on allrecipes.com. Then I winged it. One big change I made from the original was to omit the buttercream frosting. The syrup/glaze was plenty of sweet.
Veracruz Vanilla
Here is my adaptation of the recipe.
Cake
Preheat oven to 325ºF (I actually used Gas Mark 3 on our oven here which holds steady at 315ºF.) Grease and flour pan. I used the only pan anywhere near the size of the spring-form pan mentioned in the original recipe. Most often used for stew or soup, it worked just fine for the cake, though it was difficult to get the whole cake out once baked. No problem, we just cut each piece out of the pot as we went along.
Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla.
Beat in eggs one at a time. Then stir in yogurt.
Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. (I sifted it twice. I think it makes a difference.) Add sifted dry ingredients to the batter by folding it in a bit at a time. The flour caused the batter to thicken up to almost a cookie dough consistency (most likely a miscalculation on one of my gram to cups conversions), but the milk smoothed the batter out well.
Add milk until batter is a smoother consistency. Then spoon into pan.
Cook for 1 hr. 15 min. until knife or cake tester comes out clean. Let cake cool in the pan for about 30 min. While cake is cooling make the syrup/glaze.
Syrup/glaze
Combine all ingredients in small saucepan, stirring constantly. Once the sugar has melted, take it off of the heat. Poke holes all over the cake with a skewer or knife blade. I used a spatula to spoon some of the glaze onto the top of the cake being careful to cover the entire cake. Allow the first bit of syrup to be absorbed and then spread the remaining glaze on the cake. Be sure to stir the syrup before applying it to the cake each time.
What remains
It was easy to store the cake. Just put a bit of clear plastic wrap over the top and then use the lid to disguise the cake from those who lurk about in search of a snack. Who would think to look here?
Thanks again to The Caked Crusader for a great idea!
These pictures were taken back in March, but today I find myself longing for an obedient little succulent for our bedroom here in Tlapa. I miss these little guys; they brought me so much cheer. One was given away as a gift and the other…well…it’s a sad tale of abandonment, so I’ll just say it is no more.
Elephant Plant, Burro's Tail in the background
Arial view of Elephant Plant
A view of Tlapa de Comonfort from the hills just to the south
Last Saturday, December 4th, we loaded up in a four wheel drive SUV, climbed the steep hill to the road and then made our way out to the hills around Tlapa. Our first stop afforded this view of the town below. These lovely white flowers where blooming on a tree here and there on trees with no leaves – just bare branches and white flowers.
So there you go, a little thing and a big view.
This is only one of a series of pictures in the Tlapa gallery.
