This was only half of them. TC had fun breaking these apart and picking out the seeds...
Another interesting fruit I received was one from Cathy's yard...
This is known as a "Peruvian Pear" (sometimes called "Peruvian apple cactus") , which comes from a type of large cactus (more info here).
Cathy was kind enough to give us two of them to sample, along with the advertisement from a Mexican supermarket in Pasadena that she visited recently.
This is what the Peruvian pear looks like cut up, whitish, juicy and with black seeds. The seeds are not hard like the other cactus pear TC and I bought last month at Otay Farms. They are edible and "grainy"; not unpleasant at all. They were about the size of sesame seeds. The flesh was really sweet and juicy. It's hard to describe the taste, but the texture is like watermelon. We really enjoyed this unique fruit.
Another really generous food gift were these homemade muffins that Cathy and her husband made.
In fact, she shared that her husband grated the carrots and toasted the coconut and walnuts himself! These muffins were so moist and we liked how it wasn't too sweet. I've never had carrot muffins with coconut in them before which I think is a really great addition. There was also pineapple in the batter which explains the fragrant smell. Bert appreciated having these with his coffee. Our neighbor and her daughters also enjoyed samples of these baked delights.
Another food gift I received was from my hair stylist. Earlier last month, she returned from a short trip from PuertoVallarta. She brought back a ziploc bag of "Pipian" powder. This was ground up pumpkin seeds.
She told me all I needed to do was add water (she estimated about a cup; I ended up using more) to the powder and add a couple of chicken breasts.
As you can see, the powder is dark green. Prior to adding the powder, I sauteed one half of an onion in olive oil and lightly browned the chicken breasts.
When I added the water, the powder instantly "expanded", if you can call it that. The smell of ground nuts permeated the kitchen. The sauce thickened immediately.
I added another half cup of water to thin the sauce. This was my first time cooking with this ingredient, which is used for green mole. I ended up taking out the chicken breast to cube them so they could cook faster. After cooking over medium heat and feeling confident that the chicken was cooked, I added the sauce back to the chicken.
It smelled so good but I dont' know if I did it right. I tasted the sauce and it was very "green" tasting. This will be our meal for the next few days. We'll have it with brown rice or wrap it in a tortilla.
Earlier today, I went out for coffee with a former student (Class of 2007). Her older sister (also a former student) recently came back from a trip to Vietnam (their parent's homeland) and brought me back some green tea.
Anyone have any good tips on how to use this?
I think the leaves are loose.
I will somehow figure out how to use this without a proper tea pot.
Below, a few random food photos such as this pan dulce from church...
After mass, different groups from the parish sell either donuts or pan dulce for a small donation. This concha was covered with a buttery coco sugar paste. Not as moist as I would have liked and Bert felt like he needed coffee to go with it. Note to selves - eating this can be messing in the car!
Bert picked up a couple of ice cream flavors from Fresh & Easy - Blueberry (my request) and a new holiday flavor, Peppermint Bark.
What we liked about the peppermint bark ice cream were the bits of chunky chocolate within.
The color also wasn't artificially red or green. I had a small taste of each while we were watching TV last night. "Pawn Stars" versus "Too Cute". Pawn Stars won!
And here is my latest cheese crush from Trader Joe's, the Chocolate Cheddar Cheese!
Enjoyed here with some leftover Medjool dates (also from Trader Joe's) and apple slices.
I love the texture of the dark chocolate cheese curls within the cheese. Around the same time last year my hairstylist gave me some of this cheese to sample. I remember liking it very much and then trying to find it at Trader Joe's later that week. All gone! I was so disappointed. I thought perhaps it was a seasonal item or something. When I went last week, I was excited to see that they had it so I bought two (one for us and one to share with the neighbors). The cheddar is white cheddar, not the sharp orange kind. It's an interesting combination and it really goes well with sweet fruits. Glad I was able to try it again before they sold out.
I'm still thinking about those Chilindrina pan dulces and wondering when I will be in that area again!
4 comments:
Oh those pears look so interesting. The inside looks a lot like dragonfruit. I just learned this weekend that the dragonfruit plant also is catcus like. Wonder if all catcus type fruit look like that then. I still need to get the chocolate cheese. Plan on getting some this weekend!
Hi Kirbie, they do look like dragonfruit, which does come from a cactus as well (a different kind). Not all cactus fruit look the same though. The dragon fruit looks quite spectacular.
There are dragonfruit plants at the Zoo- they look like super Christmas Cactus with long branches and the plant is low, not really standing upright like 'regular cactus' depicted in cartoons. There also was pineapple in the carrot cake batter. You have fun friends who give you neat stuff.
Hi cathy, one of my friends has that cactus. they do look quite cool when the bear fruit.
it's nice to get homemade gifts (food or otherwise) as well as fruits/veg grown from a garden. that beats a store bought gift any day.
all that fruit in the carrot cake batter really made it moist and delicious.
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