Mexican Menu back at work!

I've been gone for a while. Let me explain.

I teach at a community college here in Oregon. Every Spring as the academic school year comes to an end, I find myself buried in work. It is all I can do to drag myself into my classes each day and do a good job of teaching. There are meetings, tons of paperwork to complete, grades to record, and letters of recommendation to write.

This year I had the added responsibility of planning the college's first community trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I had help with the planning, but was also going to accompany the first group of 11 students to the program we'd come up with that included Spanish classes and homestays. So, the end of this school year was a bit more chaotic than others. Mexican Menu 240 ground to a halt in late May while I put all of my efforts into tamping down the end of the school year and revving up the study abroad program.

Silly me...I thought that once I was in Argentina I'd be able to find Mexican-like ingredients and would be able to fix some interesting dishes for the natives. I thought I'd be able to write an interesting addition to my blog about cooking Mexican while in Argentina, a country that generally does not like spicy food. And, it's a country where tortillas are almost impossible to find.

Well, I made mole and rice for some friends of mine out in the suburbs (Adrogué) of Buenos Aires. It was a challenge with only one kind of dried peppers and highly sophisticated kitchen equipment that I didn't know how to use. (My friend, Teresita, is a professional cook) It was also the day of an important soccer match during the World Cup, so everyone had Maradona on their minds rather than Mexican food.

The mole turned out well, and I was able to serve it with a little guacamole beforehand. My very gracious hosts (and now friends), Teresita and Raul, raved about how much they love spicy food, and both ate generous portions.

The next and final attempt I made at cooking Mexican was fixing guacamole over and over for my friend, Alicia, in Buenos Aires. We have a routine: she buys a bag of Doritos and some wine for both of us, and I make the guacamole. We eat the whole bag (and it's really not that big in Argentina) of Doritos and the guacamole and call it our dinner. Argentines eat dinner very late in the evening (between 9-10:30) so the bowl of guacamole and the tortilla chips never seem like they're going to be enough for Alicia and me when we finally get around to eating it after several glasses of wine. It's been a fun routine of ours for the past two years.

There is nothing else that I could remotely stretch into something called Mexican that I ate while in Argentina. I ate the usual diet of meat, chicken, fish, pasta and pizza over and over. I had occasional salads, some grilled vegetables, and 2-4 Asian meals while I was there, but Mexican is not to be found, or at least not easily. Sad because I think they might like some of the varied dishes from Mexico if they had a chance to try them.

So, now we're home and I'm ready to resume the cooking, photographing, and writing about Mexican food. Summer presents some interesting challenges as many well-known and popular Mexican dishes are cooked. Others, like ceviche and certain salads, have already been featured. It looks like we'll be doing other salads, some grilled meats, and simple taco and/or tostada dishes until the temperatures drop here in Oregon.

I look forward to doing the final 90 recipes to complete the 240 that I originally proposed, although the whole plan has been altered. My original intent was to eat Mexican food 6 nights a week for a period of approximately 9 months and see if it was possible to live on foods that are generally spicy, feature tortillas, and are usually accompanied by rice, beans and / or bread (bolillos). By the way, last year I never did get sick of eating Mexican night after night, and rather enjoyed some of the doors that were opening as we tried new things, bought new cookbooks, and found new recipes from family and friends. So, here we go again!

The picture at the top is of me, Javier and Alicia in her living room.