My friend Nere mentioned to me that she’d be spending two days this week preparing mole for her daughter’s graduation ceremony at the primary school. I asked her if I could come and watch and she agreed immediately. Take pictures? Sure! Write about it? Of course. I owe this woman an entire entry devoted to her awesomeness, but for now I’ll be keeping it to mole: the signature sauce of Mexico.
When I need to explain curry to our Mexican kitchen helpers, I usually call it a “mole de India” – an Indian mole.
[...] Read morePollo con Mole for a Celebration
What do you do when you find yourself serving meals to a German, an Englishman, a Mexican, a Canadian, an Italian, a Frenchwoman, and an Austrailian?
This is not the beginning of a bad joke.
Every week we serve to a very international crowd. People from all over the world come to the Bosque to participate in some of the ecological programs, enjoy personal retreats, and learn about permaculture. Our past visitor map is becoming more and more crowded:
View Bosque Visitors in a larger map
Feeding the diversity is no easy task. Millions of taste buds from hundreds of different culinary
[...] Read moreThe International Flavors of Cooking for Community
I love condiments.
This may be why I love Mexican food so much. Street foods – specifically, tacos – come with a buffet of condiments, including marinated vegetables, a multitude of salsas, guacamole, pico de gallo, wow. Oh, how I love condiments. Since tacos are usually wrapped in two small corn tortillas, and since I’m normally accompanied by a very hungry omnivore, I sometimes hand over the meaty portion of the taco and save myself a tortilla to fill with salsas. Yum.
A typical plate of tacos is served with salsa, cilantro and onion, and a side of vegetables.
 [...] Read moreMy Secret love of Condiments
I try really hard to make accurate approximations of the amount of food to cook for groups of varying sizes, and my goal is to always have a little bit leftover. If there’s a small amount of extra food, I can feel sure no one went hungry, and hopefully I can incorporate the leftovers into the next meal. We don’t use refrigeration, so we can’t preserve food that way.
Sometimes leftover food goes to the dogs. They are fed inexpensive (and therefore fairly low-quality) dog food, as there are 7 of them and they eat a lot. So supplementing their diet
[...] Read moreFood for Dogs
Here in rural Mexico, around 2pm everything shuts down. Shops close. When we go on our weekly supply runs, we race madly to finish all our errands before 2 o’clock – if we are off in our timing we risk having to wait around until 4 or 5pm, when the shops gradually re-open.
On a recent afternoon I walked to a small nearby village to pick up some sour cream for our dinner. The time was 3pm, but I was happy to see one of the stores open. I knocked to alert the shopkeeper I was there. Knocked again. And again.
[...] Read moreOn the importance of meals
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