birthday dinner!

It’s a beautiful sunny morning here today. I slept so well last night that I’m still ready to sleep some more! I had a big day yesterday. It was my birthday and I was surprised to get a ton of birthday wishes from FaceBook and Care2. I can honestly say that was the most Happy Birthdays I've ever had.

For my birthday and Notah and Kerra took me to dinner! Before Kerra left in the morning she said to be thinking of where I wanted to have my birthday treat. I had some good choices. My first one was Sopa's, a local mexican restaurant, but do you know how high in carbs a Mexican mean is!!! Instead I chose a Chinese buffet. It wasn’t pinyon roasted ribs, but it was good. They had a big variety of dishes offered. And I had a bit of everything it seemed. Not really but I went to the cold serves first and had some peel and eat shrimp and some fantastic crab salad.

On the other side of the service table I found-are you ready for this—baby octopus! They were grilled and presented on a platter! Mercy. Keva had assured me over and over that they were good. Hmmm. I already had a plate full of salad and shrimp and some puffy things that I thought were mashed potato-like things and a little pastry shell full of cream cheese. So I bravely put one single baby octopus on top of the crab salad.

Seth carried that plate to the table for me and I went ahead to get some orange pork and chicken with broccoli. They also had a vegetable dish with bok choy, celery, and peanuts in it and an offering of fried zucchini squash cubes.

The regular Chinese dishes were great. I think I tasted everything before I got to that little bitty octopus. I didn’t want to wait till last to taste it just in case it was so horrible that I needed some other good things to drive the taste-memory away. But it took a bit to get up my nerve.

Keva said to just eat the whole thing, but it looked like a pretty big mouthful to me. I ended up cutting off four legs and eating them. And, surprise for me, they were good! Seth was sitting across from me begging for the head which was just as well, because I just don’t think I could have brought myself to eat that ‘head.’ The legs I did like. They had the texture and tasted like the bit of cartilage on end on a chicken breast. Probably the ‘head’ would have tasted the same.

It was definitely a psychological issue with me that I didn't want to eat it and if I ever have baby octopus presented to me again, I’m going to pull up my big girl pants and try it! As it was, Seth only wanted to examine the ‘head’ not to eat it. But it gave me a good opportunity to be 'generous' and avoid eating something that I really couldn't quite make myself put in my mouth.

“Baby” octopus are not really babies I found out today. I suspected it last night but online I just discovered they are actually a very small adult species. And they are cute. I kind of felt guilty eating them. I wanted to take them home to Rachael’s fish tank and keep them. Well, except for the fact that they were dead. And fried…

There are several species of octopus that are edible and they are enjoyed in a number of different dishes from Greece to Korea and Japan. In looking at the website I found four listed as most commonly used for gastronomic purposes. From the website I think we were eating Madako or the 'true octopus.' There are pages and pages of recipes on the internet for preparing them. Although this one was good and only the head was a little off-putting for me, I would probably have them again if I find them in an oriental restaurant. As far as preparing them at home... I don't think so.

And oh yeah, before I go. Those little puffy things I thought were like mashed potatoes--they weren't. They were actually like a macaroon made with coconut and something else. I left it there on my plate. Nasty! The pastry shell filled with cream cheese? That fooled me too. It was really a pastry shell full of vanilla/banana flavored whipped pudding. Mmmm. Carbs to die for! I ate it anyway. that was the only high carb thing I had.

gingerbread houses

I got a Pix message from Kerra the other day. Some background is needed before I tell the story.

When Seth and Keva were old enough for both to have some manual dexterity (Kindergarten for Seth) Kerra began a Christmas tradition of building a gingerbread house. She made the gingerbread, of course and assembled the house. Then the kids did the decoration.

The first time was at my house. Keva was pretty much able to apply her own decorations, but Seth and I collaborated on our two sides. He put the candies on and I helped with the fine details. Kerra has continued the tradition as the kids get older and the houses more elaborate. I used to have copies of the houses from each year on my phone, but I’ve replaced the phone at least once and I may have erased the one from last year even.

This year’s house I will keep for posterity. They built this fabulous hogan! I love it. Right now I only have one photo, but if more come I’ll come back and past them in this post. Traditional hogans have no windows and only a smoke hole in the top, so there wasn't a lot of room for embellishment. Theirs had a few flowers or scrolls or something and I don't know what the circles are on the sides. Still, grandmas aren't the most critical audiences in the world and I think it is great.

This absolutely has to be the FIRST gingerbread hogan in history!

navajo tacos

A long time ago we began a tradition in our house. Instead of the traditional turkey, ham or goose (we had that when I was a child) for Christmas dinner, we began to have Mexican food-- tacos, enchiladas, tamale pie, sopapillas, tortilla soup not to mention a pile of tortillas. We made it all from scratch except the corn tortillas. I never learned to make those so we resort to the plastic bag packages.

I remember one of my son's friends and his girlfriend joined us one year. The girl stood watching me as I made tortillas. She asked in amazement, “Can you make those? I thought you had to buy them.” And the enchiladas were even more amazing. “Don’t you ever get them in a can?”

Yesterday, Rachael and I made a modified version of our old meal. We had Navajo tacos, enchiladas and roasted green chilis. The enchiladas were simple enough and anyone who has ever had Mexican food knows what they are. The Navajo tacos were a major production but soooo worth it .

The first time I ever ate Navajo tacos they were made by a navajo cook in a little restaurant over toward Fort Defiance. A Navajo taco is built on a piece of Navajo fry bread instead of the usual tortilla. And you don’t wrap the innards in the bread the way taco bell does. You lay the big slice of frybread flat on the plate and heap everything else on top. The very first one set the standard for Navajo tacos as far as I was concerned. It used slivered mutton and pinto beans fried together with onions, and chopped green chilis with a light tomato sauce. A generous couple spoonfuls of this was heaped on a plate sized piece of frybread. On top of that was a layer of shredded cheese and then lettuce and then chopped tomatoes! A big dollop of sour cream finished it off with salsa around the center. Navajo tacos arent really as manageable as a plain old taco. You eat them with a knife and fork if you don't want a mess. Mmmm.

In consideration of anglo tastes, most Navajo tacos you get around dineh country have switched to hamburger. And our Navajo tacos, because we can’t get decent mutton in Ohio, have beef too. We use a nice roast sliced into thin strips.

Yesterday when Rachael went to get the roast from the freezer to begin slicing it, there was NO beef! Either it had not ever come home from the grocery store or she just plain hadn’t gotten it. The essence of Navajo cooking is practicality. Navajo women have fed their families from what ever was available for hundreds of years. We had a nice pork roast so our Navojo tacos were made of pork and pinto beans, two steps removed from the good old mutton. Pretty good, but I still like mutton better.

I saved my carbs again. So I was able to eat the taco and the enchiladas. My glucose reading this morning was only 108. Yay!

(Good grief! Looks like this has become a food blog! Well, at least it isn't boring food.)