Good bye, Madrid, land of the Goyas..

Goya is one month tomorrow. Tomorrow I head back to Maine. In my suitcase garbanzos, Asturian beans, not-quite Asturian beans, garbanzo beans, bomba rice, and a parsley chopper,  as well as some little booklets and a few gifts.  But not, alas, Goya! The best must be left behind...

I am sure Joel is not as sad over my departure as this picture would lead you to believe...

Chris had a great story to share when he visited Sunday.  He wrote it up for MZJ family blog:

Once again I found myself at a donor appreciation event at the San Antonio Museum of Art where I was the only person without a coat and tie. That I was also one of the youngest people in the room only amplified the mumblings about my latest faux pas. Upon being introduced to Carol Lee Klose, she asked if I was related to Kay Karcher. After explaining that I was not her brother, but nephew, Carol asked if I was related to Margaret Jones. My affirmation resulted in a big smile and the unexpected comment, “Margaret was one of my favorite people. We were very close.”

Turns out that after graduating from college, Carol Lee was hired to teach remedial English at Edison High School, where, “Margaret ran the English department.” With a degree in theatre, Carol Lee continued to tell me how she was woefully unprepared for the job, “and if it hadn’t been for Margaret taking me under her wing, I would never have succeeded. She was a dear friend of whom I was very fond.” Carol Lee went on to reminisce about coming over to our house regularly to, “crawl on the floor with Kenny. Do you remember when your Mom decided Kenny needed to have his arms and legs moved?” She also asked if I was still an artist.

It was terrific to hear someone talk about Mamama again, especially someone who so clearly loved her, as we do.

Guess who this is!

My future daughter-in-law.

Ben shared this happy bit of news with me this week! I could not be happier for them--a great match IMHO!

PSS - photos from Joel

Here are a few photos from Joel -- much better than before. Sorry that I'm sending two pictures of everyone wearing the team jerseys. It's bad enough that we have even one... but they're too good not to pass on.

PS

For some reason the tail end of my last message got cut off. It's just as well, though, since the tail end was on a different and separately-worthy topic:

"Last Sunday's party was also the culmination of Pam's visit here, too. She stayed a bit longer than expected to help see us through, and it was a good thing as there was tons of prep to do. It also meant the I got to see her here, which was a treat! There are some great photos of the party, and from our whole family -- Texas, Mexico, and California represented -- gearing up in a set of tshirts that Sarah had made. But I'll let someone else post those!"

I still don't have the best pictures from the party, but here are a few that I do have, sort of randomly, and that are worth passing on.











That last one -- I don't even know who he is, but his expression seems to capture the spirit of things pretty well!

Congratulations to me!

I just thought I'd congratulate myself here for getting engaged to Clara. Last Sunday, at our whole brood party, while talking in the barn we decided that we would really like to be married. (We spent the last year introducing ourselves as husband and wife, and I guess it just felt right!). A few of this blog's readers have met Clara and know that she's dynamite. I'm very happy and think that this is one more very lucky thing that has happened in a very lucky life. The most recent picture of us that I have on my phone here is this one, in which we're marching off officiously into the sunset. Or away from. It doesn't matter: the journey is the destination.

from Pam

I had something to share and thought our sometime blog would be the perfect place. I began the day attempting to post it from twinkie's computer to no avail. Then tried it from the iPad and it looked as if that might be a go, but it would only let me type in the title, no text. While waiting for T in N Burwick I thought I would play with it and see what happened. It appeared to be willing to let me type the text, but of course I did not have the recipe with me that was the focus of the post in the first place! It's always something, isn't it? What was intended for everyone, is now going to a select few.

As most of you know, Twinkie and Wayne are hosting a little gathering in August to celebrate the fact that all of their chicks will be together under one, possibly two roofs (rooves?). Bradford designed a very clever invite that even stated it would be a whole brood party-get it?

T had the notion that a menu that involved grilled corn and pulled pork tacos could not be a bad thing. To that end we all began research and development. We tried every recipe we were offered or found on our own. Then Emily mentioned having made some recently that she thought was quite wonderful. We tried it yesterday and had to agree. She says it is called Cochinita Pibil. This is how you make it:

Create a marinade using:
1T achiote paste-we found it in liquid and powder form so I combined the two to make a paste
1/4 t cumin
12 peppercorns
5 whole allspice
4 cloves garlic
1/8 hot paprika, optional, though I included it
1/4 c orange juice
1 T salt

Pour this mixture over serving sized pieces of pork. We have tried so many of late I am not sure if ours was shoulder, tenderloin....no idea. Marinate the meat, wrapped in banana leaves, and let it sit in the fridge for 6 hours or overnight!

Here comes the fun part-lightly sear over open flame or in an iron skillet banana leaves that you have cut so that each piece can be individually wrapped. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake the meat in a covered casserole for 2-2 1/2 hours and the meat is soft, soft, soft. We were very pleased with the results. Believe me, we are in a position to judge the quality of the dish! I put our wrapped parcels in an iron skillet and covered it with foil.

We had to go to Portland to get banana leaves, good tortillas, and the achiote spices. There is a Latina bodega on Congress that turned out to have everything we needed-unlike Whole Foods and their ilk!

The menu is as follows:
Bloody Beer- modela beer with tomato juice and bloody mary spices-sounds awful but is actually very light and refreshing; guacamole, chips, and chipotle peanuts from Rick Bayless

Grilled Corn

Tacos with a salsa bar provided by Joel!

Watermelon salad

Some sort of dessert provided by Clara and her pal Bradford

My earlier attempt at this post was much better, but at least you now have our menu and can give it a go for yourselves!

Hope you are staying cool and comfy!

Kate, am I going to miss your visit all together? Please stay until I am home!

Love you all!