Home for the Holiday or a Mexican Christmas in California

Farmer Jeff and I have gone to our respective childhood homes for the holidays and have found ourselves smack dab in the middle of wonderful, rich traditions...of Mexico.

While visiting Jeff's family in the Central Valley of California, we were treated to a great performance by Ballet Folklorico Mexicano de Carlos Moreno with Mariachi Colima. It was so much fun! They did the dance from Veracruz in which the couple ties a big bow from the man's red sash, lots of stomping, hooting and hollering in a Norteno style of cowboy music and then some wonderful Indian dances. The mariachi group was fun with its blaring trumpets and the deep throated guitarron. We just don't get to hear live mariachi bands. We can, however, hear them at our favorite taqueria on the jukebox!

After an all to brief time in "the Valley", we flew down to San Diego and drove directly to Point Loma Seafood for lunch. A big lunch! I had an oyster Po'boy and red clam chowder while Farmer Jeff had white clam chowder and a fried squid sandwich. We waited long enough to be hungry again for dinner...thankfully. We had a very good reason to pray for hunger. HOMEMADE TAMALES!!!

For those of you unfamiliar with Mexican Christmas traditions, it is customary to make tamales at Christmas. Not just pork, chicken or beef tamales, but this is when you see the sweet tamales with raisins, pineapple, prunes, or apples. The sweet ones are an acquired taste. Last night's tamales were "red sauce" chicken. The masa was PERFECT!!! So soft, but not too soft and had the flavor of both chicken AND the rich red chile sauce. They were big, so I could only comfortably eat one...but Farmer Jeff and the other men in the house managed two apiece.

We took a drive to the beach community of Ocean Beach. There we had Poma "torpedo" sandwiches with salami, mortadella, provolone and then lettuce, tomato, peperoncini and dressing of olive oil and red vinegar. YUM!!!

After eating that we walked up and down Newport Avenue, poking our heads into the antique stores. While walking we couldn't help but notice the unmistakable smell of corn tortillas cooking. Maybe not specifically tortillas, but certainly warm, Mexican corn-based foods. I am not exaggerating when I say that we walked 8 blocks and this smell was present everywhere we walked!

And now? We are getting ready to go and have dinner at our FAVORITE Mexican Seafood restaurant, Mariscos Mazatlan. It is worth the drive to Chula Vista! Farmer Jeff is reading the menu to me...Shrimp with garlic, Shrimp wrapped in bacon and grilled, Shrimp cooked in a Molcajete served with cactus....Thanks to brother Chris who turned us on to it!!!

Tomorrow we will visit our other favorite Mexican place, El Indio. I know that I will order 2 taquitos with guacamole and cheese, along with a small all shredded meat burrito! YEE HAW!!! Muchisimas Gracias, Mexico!!!

Christmas 2007

This holiday season has found us traveling all over the state of CA. I flew to San Diego to be with my whole family (Dec. 16-19), then hopped in the car on Dec. 21 and off we went to Monterey/Carmel for the night. We went to visit with a couple sets of friends, have dinner at Joe Rombi's La Mia Cucina (excellent!), took a whirlwind tour of the Monterey Bay Aquarium (I had to see the otters!) and then drove over to the central valley town of Newman to see Farmer Jeff's papa, wife and sister-in-law. We were there from Dec. 22 until today and then drove back here to have dinner with Jeff's mama, brother and Aunt K. It has been a fun time and we are so happy now to be back with our babies.

There have been some very special highlights. I would have to say that being able to see all of our family members is at the top of the list. Quite wonderful.

I received some lovely, thoughtful and unexpected gifts. From my dear husband, one of the gifts he gave me was a watch with the Virgin of Guadalupe on the face. I have an unexplainable connection to her and am deeply touched by this gift. We received art work, towels, items for the kitchen and they were all with motifs of chickens, farm animals or just really pretty things.

The unexpected gift was from Bridget, the Great Chicken Mother. She knew that I was disappointed the Modesto Poultry Auction was not held yesterday and seeing that she needed to make room for her incoming white Faverolles, she GAVE me TWO of her beautiful Salmon Faverolles hens. It was so great to hear them talking to us as we drove them home today.
(She is pictured here with her favorite Faverolles Rooster). The new girls, not yet named, are safely protected from the elements and the other chickens. I promise to give an update.

Now for a moment of Gratitude: I am grateful for all of the wonderful people in my life. God bless each and every one of you. Everyone in our world can teach us something and allow us to practice unconditional love. May I forever keep my heart, mind and soul open to new people, opportunities and experiences.

Merry Christmas!

Chicken Mama Dreamin'

I love my dreams. They are so entertaining. Entertaining and strange, weird, creative and fun. My brother, Chris, is envious of my dreams. When we were living at home, upon waking we would stumble into the dining room and share our dreams. My mother was notorious for flying in her dreams. For this I was envious.

Another reason, I think, for my vivid and wild dreams, was the stories my mother would read to me at bed time. Not only did she read from two fabulous children's books that were filled with all of the classic fairy tales, she also read from a collection of Myths and Legends collected from around the world. I can't look at a goat without wondering if it really is an enchanted boy that drank water from a goat hoof print or if a moth trapped in the house could be a princess hiding from an evil witch. *This is actually a picture of the book my mom read from!


Last night I had one of my classic fragmented dreams. I dreamed that Jeff and I were hosting my friends daughters in San Diego and had decided to treat them to a ride on a boat. We were out in the boat and then the big surprise appeared! We had hired Navy Seals to do a demonstration for the girls. Just as the Seals dove into the water, the girls squealed and ran for their history textbooks.


They kept saying, these guys go back to the Greek period. I didn't have a clue what they were talking about until I saw their textbook. On the cover was a piece of Greek pottery with Navy Seals on it!

I end this posting with a challenge to all of the brilliant inventors out there. PLEASE create a system that will enable me to watch my dreams again in the morning! They are too good to only see once!