Farmers Market

Dear Friends,

I'm not sure if I have been specific about the fact that most of our veggies and fruit are from the Farmers Market when possible. It is difficult to find good local fruit and veggies but the farmers market are your best bet. Some of the grocery stores are good at getting local produce but what better place than the farmers market? In Denver, the season is soon coming to a close and we'll have to go get our apples and onions from the grocery store, but if you live in Chicago there is a year round farmers market. I found this http://www.yelp.com/biz/chic-farmers-market-chicago which is just a review of the year round farmers market in Chicago. According to this it is held at the culinary school CHIC and there is brunch available. For those Chicago folks you should always take advantage of the Green City Market. I'm not sure how long it goes til, but maybe you have a weekend or two left.
For the Indy people I'm sure you know where your market is at but I found this online http://www.indycm.com/.
Of course Denver http://www.denverfarmersmarket.com/ has a fun farmers market held at Cherry Creek on Saturdays and there is one by East High School and Colfax on Sundays where we are headed now. The good thing about Denver is that you can find the most delicious street tacos at the Cherry Creek market. It's called Pinche Tacos and they are truly Mexican and total street style. They even had a vegetarian friendly taco, and that's always a plus. Back to serious local produce; this market has it all. Recently they started selling roasted chiles which is a big deal out here since green chili is the thing.. except it is made with pork. However, you can buy your own bag of roasted chiles and wait while they are roasting them and let the smell take you away to the future in which you are making a delicious salsa perhaps mixed with some avocado, or some delicious vegetarian chili. The Cherry Creek farmers market does have some produce stand and my favorite is the Palisade Peaches stand because they sell the best peaches. You can also get milk and eggs locally except the eggs are about $12 a dozen! That's a bit expensive for us. This market has become the place to have breakfast at. It used to be mostly produce and local products (like soap and lotions) but it is now mostly restaurants or bakeries featuring their best dishes. This is where Grateful Bread shows off their goodies like the chocolate croissant, almond croissant or chocolate AND almond croissant! Yum!
So take advantage of your farmers market because the time for it to close up is just around the corner.
Until next Farmers Market Season!
Enjoy

Paloma

The last post was pretty long, and I didn't want this recipe to get lost in it. It's a pretty simple recipe. A paloma is made with tequila and squirt. However, my aunt showed me a few tricks that make this delicious drink even more tasty.
You have to choose the best tequila for this drink, for you will drink it fast and you will drink many. If you choose the best tequila like Herradura or an añejo then your hangover may not be as bad.
First squeeze a whole lime in your glass. Then add a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix these three ingredients well and then add a shot (or two) of tequila, mix this well with the lime, sugar and salt. Add your ice and then a splash or two of peñafiel or soda water, and finally add the squirt or fresca. Hopefully you added salt to the rim of your glass !
Enjoy!
Don't drink and drive :)

MEXICO: A place where you will NOT go hungry

Mexico has plenty of political problems and once or twice a year its cities and states suffer from some kind of natural disaster. At this point the state where I am from Veracruz is suffering from horrible flooding, and back in July the north of Mexico (Nuevo Leon) was suffering the wrath from one of the many hurricanes that went through. However, Mexicans joined hands and efforts and helped each other out providing, food and shelter to those in need. Storms in Mexico are no joke. Gram and I witnessed some crazy, yet beautiful storms. I remember living there as a child and always hiding under the sheets, or when bad enough for me under the bed from the lightning and thunderstorm that always feels like it is happening right outside your window. This last time in Coatzacoalcos I stayed at my cousins house from where you can see the ocean. One morning the thunderstorm was pretty bad and the lighting was making the sunrise look apocalyptic all the while the crashing of the lighting sounded like it was outside my window. Yes I was under the sheets remembering what it felt like when I was 10 yrs. old. The lighting was so loud that I swore a tree in front of my room was on hit and on fire. It wasn't it was my ten year old imagination running wild.
Since Mexico likes to do things with a boom they also do this with the food. Mexico City has no schedule. There is no breakfast time or lunch time. People eat when they can, when they have a minute, or when they see food around. In Mexico you can open up a business in your garage and you do not need a business permit. So it is that in many (probably ALL) neighborhoods you can walk a block away from your house and find a mini-restaurant in someone's backyard or garage. This is where Gram and I were taken one of our first nights in Mexico City. It was midnight and we were hungry. We had drank many palomas and a taco sounded delicious just about then. My cousin Hugo said we should go pick up some "pambazos" I remember that name but I did not remember what they were. Of course we were game. We walked a block into someone's garage. They had the tiniest stove you have ever seen and this other appliance that looked like a huge wok. They were throwing what looked like tortas into this wok-looking thing and toasting them? or doing something to them and then quickly serving them or packing them for people. We ordered pambazos and quesadillas. They had a couple of tables and chairs so we sat and tasted their very spicy salsa. At this point everyone was impressed with Gram and his love for spicy food. The pambazos are very much like a torta, except maybe they are smaller and thrown into that wok with a bit of oil. I would say fried but they are not exactly fried, when you eat it it tasted more like they've been toasted. They were delicious.
The next morning as I showered I heard "TAMALES" being screamed by a woman next to my aunt's house. I couldn't run out the shower fast enough to tell them to get us some tamales. The woman had quickly passed. Gram and I didn't have time to be sad when we heard another "TAMALES" scream. I looked out the window and told the man to stop. We went out there, he had a type of a dolly with a huge pot full of tamales. He had three type of tamales. Dulce (sweet) which is pink and has raisins in it, chicken with green salsa and rajas and cheese. Rajas are poblano pepper's strips. We got six or eight tamales of all sorts. When Gram and I looked at them we could not believe our eyes. They were huge compared to the tamales we are used to getting in Chicago or Denver. They were the size of an ear of corn. Of this we have a picture.
One of my favorite things about being in Mexico City was my aunt's Cafe De Olla which means coffee from the pot. However, the pot is earthenware and so cute :) It is shaped like a woman, big hips, small waist and a big bust. My aunt uses piloncillo which some people call brown sugar except it is much sweater, cinnamon and of course coffee. The way my aunt makes it is perfect because I did not need to add sugar or cream. I drank way too many cups of her coffee and so did Gram. Not always a good idea when you're about to be in traffic for two hours. It is Mexico City after all; its synonym is traffic.
If you ever decide to visit this amazing city with 22million people make sure you visit El Arroyo. I have pictures of salsas and palomas we had at this hacienda-like restaurant. It is the biggest and most beautiful restaurants I have ever been to. This is where Gram tasted sheep and it was delicious.

Gone For Too Long

Wow! It's been forever.. our lives have been a rollercoaster and we have not been able to keep up with this blog. Rest assure that pretty soon Chef Gram will be back in the kitchen. We found a new place and we're hopefully moving at the end of the month. Chef Gram will have a bigger kitchen to work with, so I know better things are coming and we'll be sure to post them on here.
Keep checking for I will post about some of the most delicious food we both tasted in Mexico. We have pictures of some of it, but some of it we just ate way too fast before even thinking that we wanted to take a picture of it.