Tuesday 3/1 -- Competent Cookery

After a leisurely breakfast, we set out to acquire the necessary ingredients for our planned LUNCH ... to be served at 4P.  We'll start with a jicama/orange/cucumber salad, followed by an appetizer of angelhair pasta in a gently-spiced tomato sauce with Parmesan and Mexican zucchini.  The main meal will be poached chicken in a green mole, similar to the sauce we made and enjoyed at El Arrayan.

The critical component was the angelhair, which we hoped to find rolled into the traditional little "nests."  This is not a standard inventory item, but Linda found it in the first store she tried.  A good omen, we felt.

Off to the local supermarket, which we have also patronized in PV.  We were able to complete almost all of our list, including two whole chickens, and decided to get Linda and me back to the kitchen while Martha and Claudette went out again for the remaining few items and to complete some other errands.

We had a number of adventures cooking in a new kitchen (both new to us AND recently remodeled!), the direst of which was a dearth of pans large enough to hold the double-recipe quantities we were making.  In the end it all worked out; we had the salad plated on the table when the additional guests arrived, and served up the pasta next.  The chicken came out last, flanked by the black beans we'd made in PV (well-laced with onion, garlic, and some adobo sauce from the last of the chiles-en-adobo can) and startlingly fresh tortillas.  The cooks basked in the utter silence around the table as everyone tucked into a pretty good meal (if we DO say so ourselves!).

With all that on the menu, we had not made dessert.  But Linda presented an assortment of chocolate bars from her travel stash, and they were well-received ... ESPECIALLY by 2-year-old Hilda, who needed some major clean-up after her success in melting several chunks in her hands.

Veronica had contributed majorly to our efforts by keeping up with dishwashing as the evening progressed, so we all were able to enjoy a calm finale as the family returned home and we all repaired to our beds.  A lovely time!