The 3 Magi and what they brought us

A mexican "nacimiento" in the kiosk in San Miguel de Allende

Oh dear readers, please let me apologize. This post should have been up on Friday. But life got in the way, and I was so tired that I did not have the time to prepare it properly for you. Luckily the weekend is here. As you probably know, last Friday, January 6, many countries celebrated the last holiday associated with Christmas, Epiphany. Or, the day when the three wise men from the East came to honor baby Jesus. It is a day that is always full of magic, children expect it with butterflies in their stomach. Head over to Zarawitta's post for a moment to get a glimpse of how this day is celebrated in Mexico. It is all about balloons, and looking at the sky, searching for the three stars that indicate that the three kings were approaching. (Such stars are actually  the tail of Ursa Mayor, the bear constellation).

Ursa Mayor in Kahului, Hawaii (from here)

And it is about waiting and hoping that early in the morning there would be some presents laying by your shoe. The Gospel of Matthew 2:1–12 is the only one that describes the visit of the Magi. It is interesting to note that unlike the popular tradition that states that Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar were of European, Asian, and African origin respectively, the earliest translations of the gospel probably indicate that they actually came from the Persian empire, nowadays Iran: 

The word magi is the plural of Latin magus, borrowed from Greek  μάγος magos,as used in the original Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew. Greek magos itself is derived from Old Persian maguŝ from the Avestan magâunô, i.e. the religious caste into which Zoroaster was born, (see Yasna 33.7: "ýâ sruyê parê magâunô " = so I can be heard beyond Magi). The term refers to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. As part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars, and gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. Their religious practices and use of astrology caused derivatives of the term Magi to be applied to the occult in general and led to the English term magic. (1)

 Anyway, as I grew up and understood more about the actual meaning of this holiday it became one of my favorites. Because epiphany, from the ancient Greek, means revelation or vision of God (2). And the main message is that Jesus  came to the World for all mankind. That no matter what your beliefs are, He is still there for you, no matter who you are or where you come from. And that is a feeling I always had. If you set yourself to analyse religions, and philosophies you will reach the conclusion that we have more in common than what we think. That is why I have never understood wars in His name, on His behalf.

This year I the three kings left us 2 bars of dark chocolate, some butter in the fridge and a book that I have been wanting to read (coincidentally on the same day that I finished the book I was busy with). What happened to the chocolate and the butter, I will let you know tomorrow. 

(1) from here and (2) from here 

Fruit cake (and patience)

 The first day of the year, I made a cake. I know people have all kinds of rituals to start the year, like putting travel bags outside or wearing underwear of a certain color, to attract luck. So I don't know what and if baking a cake on the first day of the year means anything at all, but perhaps I should learn to be patient. This cake has to stay 1 hour and a bit more in the oven. So. Long.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for your support and advice and specially Marcela and Zarawitta for your ideas. The doctor appointment went well, basically I only have spots of endometriosis in the bladder and behind the uterus and everything else is fine. So she used and algorithm and calculated that 25 % of people in our "statistic group" are able to conceive within 1 year. So now we wait. We will just enjoy the moment, focus on being us, really taking the moment as a present (such a cliche) and hope for the best. Anyway, here goes the family recipe for the classic Christmas fruit cake, that this year  I didn't manage to make in time for the 25th, but we ate it anyway so no worries.
You will need
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate
1/2 teaspoon of grounded muscat nuts
2 tablespoons soluble coffee
1 1/2 cup mixed dried or crystallized fruit, chopped (we used figs and dates, you can use dried apricots, apples, prunes be creative here)
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup raisins
2 eggs
100 g butter, melted.
1 can (397 g) condensed milk
1 cup apple puree
1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
And here's what you should do:
Preheat the oven to 180 C. Sift 1 cup of flour with the sodium bicarbonate, coffee and muscat nuts. In a separate bowl sift the other cup of flour over the chopped dried fruit, nuts and raisins.

 Beat the eggs and add the melted butter and condensed milk. Then the flour and flour and fruits mix, apple puree and honey.

 When the dough is homogenous, pour in a greased and floured mould and bake for 1 hour. (Actually we had to wait for 1 hour and a half, at 1 hour ours was still not ready, so as usual, until a knife comes out clean). Let cool, unmould and pour the syrup* over it.

 For the syrup*:
3/4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 branch of cinammon
1 clove
1/4 cup Brandy.

In a small pan boil the water with the sugar, cinammon and clove for about 5 minutes. Then add the Brandy, wait until the alcohol evaporates (or not), sift and cool.
Traditionally this cake is to be prepared 1 month in advance, covered in aluminum foil and injected with syrup every week. Enjoy.

Anxiety ball

 Do you ever have days that you feel restless, stressed, nervous for no apparent reason? It is one of those days and I can't quite put my finger on what's making me feel this way. Sure, we have an appointment with the doctor in 2 hours, but I thought I was quite relaxed for that. What I know is that I want to punch things. I just told the boy that maybe a boxing pear wouldn't be such a bad idea. Pillows won't do the trick. I am not angry or anything, I just... feel this build up of emotions boiling inside me and it drives me crazy. Just a bit. I just had some tea and fruit cake (recipe coming soon) that I made (late for Christmas)on the first day of the year because I woke up in baking mood.

 You know how they say that the period between Thanksgiving and the Holidays is engagement season? Well turns out it's true. We are already planning little sis' wedding for real soon, but now my brother and his lovely girlfriend are engaged and I am so so happy. New sister yay !  And because we are in nonsense random rambling mode today, why don't I show you the little boots I found for my sister while we're at it? Aren't they cute?

 She found them online on a dutch website, and send me to get them. I couldn't do otherwise. I hope you have a great day, maybe a calm one at that, because this is not the best feeling.

Hello New year.

Time goes so fast. I can clearly remember the beginning of 2011. We watched the fireworks from the car, driving through the highway, and it was quite a sight, color sparks  from all over the place. A year went by and here we are again. A New Year. New dreams, new projects, new resolutions. Quite a human thing, the need to mark ends and beginnings. To stop for a second, gather and think about what has come and what is yet to come. Early this year we moved to our own little home, that we are building little by little. We  The boy finally finished painting our last room: light sunny yellow, and though we still need curtains, and a lamp, little house is basically ready and it does feel like our place already. The move was harder for him, since this was when he moved out of the home he grew up in for the first time. For me, well I've changed apartments about 7 times in the last 12 years and I've been living away from my parents' home for as long, but still. This is going to be our home, the home for our newly founded baby family, and it is, well, ours. This year we went on on a road trip along the Pacific Coast of Mexico for our Honeymoon, then to Italy in the summer, and to Brussels and Antwerp recently. I got a new job in September, and made an adjustement of plans. I started this blogging thing, that is oh so dear to me. Thanks to you, readers, and to the friendships and community and crazy happiness that comes from meeting people all over the world with whom you can share and learn so much. Just yesterday, the chinese lamps we used at our wedding went away to a new owner, a girl I found through APW. Her, her husband-to-be, the boy and I had tea and a chat together in our living room and it was nice, and surreal, when you think about it.
As for this New Year, well we have some plans:
-The boy and I  will set a studying schedule and focus on our spanish and dutch learning for real. As in every week, more than once.
-We will try to run together. I've had the prettiest running shoes for so long, and I must have used them a grand total of 4 times. It will take a lot of effort and crying (on my part) because I am so not the sporty or the self-disciplined kind. At least not when it comes to doing stuff that I don't enjoy.
-I will try to learn photography, I am determined to get a spot at the next "L'atelier"
- And keep the focus on the little drops of happiness hidden in everyday life.
- Of course also travel, travel, travel. We want to discover so many new places together.
- Finally here is our wish for unexpected surprises (but no, this time we didn't win the lottery).
I hope you had crazy fun celebrating yesterday and that this New year will be full of hope, dreams come true, projects, love and joy.
Oh and by the way, the picture above is an Oliebollen stand in Leidseplein in Amsterdam, right by the skating rink. Oliebollen are the traditional dutch treat for New Years Eve. They are somewhat similar to a donut,  basically  fried balls of dough, with raisins and powder sugar.

My mom's spinach and ricotta lasagne

You know how there is always a dish that reminds you of the Holidays? That actually tastes like Christmas? Well, in our case it's this one. Mum has been doing it for years and has us looking forward to it all year long. So now, you will be able to make it too. It is actually quite simple, healthy and just plain delicious.

You will need:
2 kg. fresh spinach
Salt, Pepper, Ground muscat nuts
Dehydrated, sun dried tomatoes
0.5 - 0.75  kg Ricotta (depends on the texture you want to reach, and on the end volume of your spinach after cooking and draining. Roughly, the spinach-ricotta ratio should be 1:1)
Parmesan cheese (grated)
Lasagne (obviously)
2 tablespoons flour
750 mL milk
1 onion or shallot
A bit of olive oil + a bit of butter
Pine Nuts or Walnuts if you would like to add to the flavour.

Here's what you should do
Preheat oven to 180°C to 200°C.
Cut the spinach in pieces and cook it in a bit of boiling water or au-bain-marie. When it is cooked, strain it. You really want to take all the water out. Add cold water, and strain it again. Then mix the spinach with the ricotta cheese and add salt and pepper to your taste. Then add the sundried tomatoes, cut in small pieces, and the pine or walnuts if you will be using them.
Cook or moisten the lasagne according to the instructions. We used fresh lasagne so we didn't have to do anything.
For the bechamel, warm up a little olive oil (about a tablespoon) and add the butter. Let the onion, cut in half-circles simmer in the butter until it becomes transparent, but it shouldn't turn brown. Add the flour and let it brown a bit, to a golden-ish color. Then add the milk and season with salt, pepper and muscat nut. Mix until it thickens (it takes a short while).
Now you are ready to assemble your lasagne. Butter an oven dish and start with bechamel. Follow with lasagne then spinach, parmesan cheese and bechamel again. When you reach the top you should finish with bechamel and cheese.
Put it in the oven for about 20 min, until the cheese melts and the top is slightly golden.
Prepare to enjoy and impress your guests. Simple, easy and scrumptious.

What is your family's classic Christmas dish?

Mole poblano

Source

These days I am going to be delighting you (I hope) with the recipes I cooked for the Holiday season. I thought the best way to start was by introducing something that even when it is arguably the most popular dish in Mexico (I have sources), and is quite well known around the world, it is still, well, weird to the non initiated.

Source

 The word mole comes from the nahuatl mulli or molle, which simply means sauce or concoction. I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that there are at least as many different "moles" as states in Mexico. This particular mole is a perfect example of the process of mestizaje* that took place in Mexico during the colonial period. Eventhough mole certainly has its roots in precolumbian times, the sauce as we know it today has european and african ingredients (so we could say that we are the ones who started with "fusion" cuisine). Its origins are not clear, but the legend says that the nuns in a convent in Puebla were trying to impress some archbishop who was visiting for dinner, and they came up with this sauce by mixing pretty much every ingredient they had in hand. This sauce is served most commonly over chicken, though sometimes also over pork, beef, turkey or served as "enchiladas". Its ingredients include several types of chili (serrano, ancho, mulato, pasilla, chipotle), spices such as clove, cinammon, pepper and sometimes anise, toasted bread, almonds, garlic, peanuts, tomato, sugar and chocolate. And be sure that I am missing some.

 When you make it from scratch be ready to spend one day at home preparing it. You have to individually roast and squash each ingredient and then put it all together in a paste. Nowadays it is possible to buy this paste freshly made at markets, or even packed in glass jars or boxes.

 When you use the latter, the preparation is simplified a lot, since it is making the paste that requires time and effort. The only thing you would have to do is "dissolve" the paste in about a liter of chicken broth, then add purée of cooked, peeled tomatoes, chocolate, cinnamon, and keep mixing until you reach the desired thick consistency.

 Traditionally it is cooked on pans made out of clay, cazuelas. So I used my beloved cast-iron ceramic enameled pot, which was the most similar thing I had in hand. Also, as pretty as the cazuelas are, they have been associated with lead toxicity, so don't cook in them, specially everyday, when you can avoid it.

Source

 Here you can find a traditional recipe. And here you can read more about the origins of mole and the different kinds that we enjoy in our country. If you missed it, at the end of  this post I tell you all about where you can get mole paste in Holland, Spain or from a shop that ships all over. Just for the record, last Friday when I made it I had 2 converts, people who actually tried it before and hated it and now found it delicious :) So I am rather proud.

*the word mestizaje, can be rather simplistically defined as racial and/or cultural mixing of Amerindians with Europeans (1), though you can imagine that the process was a lot more complex than that and has deep consequences even today.