whew!

it's been really really busy lately and in my head i have a whole bunch to blog about say. let's start with this photo:

these cutie patooties were in town and we have had the very best time ever. i am sad that they will be leaving tomorrow morning.
because they live in tiny timbo, arkansas, we have been hitting some yummy restaurants in town. like today...we were going to go to in and out burger, but we have jumped the gun on this in that it's still under construction. so with burgers on the brain, we ended up close by at fred's cafe and they make really really good burgers. in and out is going to have a tough time competing with fred's. 

the door itself is pretty cool, dontcha' think?

we were worried about the three of us having to share a serving of fries, but we shouldn't have. when they brought out the food, it was more than we needed and really really good.

we also tried the yes tacos truck. it was good, but not torchys good. the guy that took our order was really nice and it's parked at sinaca where one can eat their taco and watch guys do glass blowing at the same time....which is pretty cool....well....actually....it's is the opposite of cool, being that it is 100 degrees outside and the glass blowing oven is super hot and the parking lot does not have a lot of tree shade.... ummmm....so..... i would recommend doing this once it is below 100....way below 100....maybe closer to 70 or 75 degrees. then, it would be really cool.

we have also cooked dinner. saturday, my csa drop was really interesting. the 4 fruit/vegetables chosen for us were prickly pear cactus paddles (or as i call them - leaves), yucca, jimica & chayote. i also picked up some prickly pear fruit. this all had me forced to think out of the box (for me which is strange being texan and all). so, i got a recipe from homesick texan and improvised, somewhat from other recipes from misc google sites. we made grilled flank steak with chimchurri sauce, fried yucca, the rice nopales casserole and best of all, prickly pear fruit margaritas. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! i don't know why i don't make chimchurri sauce more often. it is so good with grilled beef. i know why i don't make fried yucca...because it is more time consuming. when we lived in south america, our maid would make it and it was delicious. (side note, a friend of mine who got after her colombian husband for not having enough vegetables in his diet, and he said, "i have 3 vegetables a day with my meals: rice, potatoes & yucca.) so, fried yucca was pretty much a main staple while in colombia. as daughter michelle says - it a delicious giant french fry.

fried yucca: 

prepare the yucca by peeling it and cutting it in wedges. boil it in water for about 40 - 45 minutes till fork tender, drain while making the chimchurri sauce. heat up about an inch or so of canola oil till a tiny test piece of yucca really starts to fry. drop in yucca and fry until golden brown. drain & sprinkle with salt. 

sorry about the photo on the left. it has weird food placement and yes the beef is pretty bloody, but that is the way i like it, but look how pretty the margarita is. that is the natural color of the pear cactus urhm....pear.

btw, it's pronounce yooka not yucka. who wants to eat yucka?