Rainy Day Treats

Whimsical Cutlery Chandelier Entrance
at Diego's, a Chilean restaurant
Drove up to Grass Valley for my quarterly SCIO (new age therapy stuff) appointment. Afterwards I met for lunch with an old friend, Pinky, whom I haven't seen in ages. It was seven years or so ago that she lived in Grass Valley, then moved to Humbolt County. But guess what? Pinky's back!

Pinky chose our lunch meet venue, Diego's, a Chilean restaurant, also in Grass Valley. I've never been to a Chilean restaurant, and we had tons to chat about, so knew I was in for a double treat. The sky was pouring down rain when we got there; practically had to swim across the street to get the restaurant.

This is the first thing you see at Diegos - entrance
brickwork complete with forks and knives
Here's Pinky Zalkin, keeping dry at Diego's &
showing off one of the restaurant's cute teapot candle
While it stormed outside, we delighted over the restaurant decore and cool cups and things at our table. We took our own sweet time to order lunch - over a plate of starters; calamari and dips. I decided on Pork Loin, which was sort of chicken fried and accompanied by BBQ veggies and mashed/grilled sweet potato. Loads of food - I would come away with enough leftovers for lunch the next day. Pinky had a similar spread of sides for her grilled rainbow trout.

I'm so happy Pinky is back in town. We haven't seen each other in ages, but it didn't feel that way. Pinky is one of Fran Zalkin's sisters, so you can imagine we had loads to talk over. There were melencholy bits but then the last hour - we were at Diego's for ages - we discussed our mutual hungering for adding a dog to our homes. Pinky is more or less looking to adopt a small, cuddly adult dog. For myself, I refuse to get a dog until I retire and have the time to train a new puppy.

By the time we left Diegos the restaurant was empty. Truth be told, I was so exuberant in our conversation, I found myself hoping the other patrons hadn't left to escape the loud mouthed lady - 'moi' - in the booth!

Caramel for Madame's coffee? Gracias!
Ensie,adorable 2" biscuits with fresh herbed
butter were replaced as they disappeared
Hum... tamales, Chilean food... That's been two 'Friends 'n Food' posts in a row. Hum... my trousers feel sort of snug. Oh well! Not too snug for dessert!

Oooo... Key Lime Pie... *drool*

Chili Today, Hot Tamales

Far too much good stuff going on. Last week I went to a tamale party at Rick & Mommy Nancy's. Years ago they used to host annual New Years tamale stuffing parties and they decided to revive the tradition.

Tamale making is a long process so the more tamale affectionados to help out, the better. This was my first tamale making gig but as I am a great fan of eating them I figured it is about time I participate. What with boiling chicken until the meat falls off the bone, shredding the meat and mixing the cornmeal massa, and assembling the ingredients like origami, then steaming the finished tamales, making tamales - a hundred or so - can easily fill up most of a day.

On the cool side, at least to me, tamale recipes seems the sort of cooking you don't really need a recipe for. When it came time to add spices to the shredded chicken, we got artistic. A little chopped jalapeno here, some garlic there, not to mention varying teaspoons, dollops & dashes of cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, cilantro, and anything else that seemed tasty.

The massa - cornmeal with good old fashioned artery hardening lard, salt and such was prepared the previous day. So after soaking corn husks in water, we were ready to go.


Paste the prepared massa onto a husk the black bits are raisins - yummy
Then add a dollop of shredded chicken. spiced & mixed
with hot peppers & every Mexican spice found under the sun;
Fold the husk, then turn the thing 180 degrees & roll
Finished wrap - all full of goodness & tied off with a bow
Final step - the tamales have a hot tub party,
(they are steamed actually) then they are ready to eat

That's it! Yum.... The best thing about Tamale parties is everyone goes home with tamales! You can reheat them by steaming, or freeze them for future use. Tamales as 'leftovers' are heaven.

And now a word to the wise, or to those with eyes bigger than their stomachs & thick skulls like me. You see, once upon a bit, decades ago Rick and Nancy gave me a dozen tamales from one of their tamale parties. I ate some - yum... then I ate some more... yumm.... then I ate yet another and suddenly - I thought I was gonnna die! Tamales can be quite petite, and they go down easily. However, after you eat them, the cornmeal absorbs all your stomach liquid and blows up like a puffer fish. OUCH! So be careful eating your tamales - or else!

Eggstra, Eggstra, Read All About It!

Madame Ami - Today I am a Hen!
Back in September I got four day-old baby chicks. When the fuzzy darlings were about a month old, it pleased me to give one as a pet to my friends, the Terrys. They named the new, and their third baby chick, 'Ami'.

Last night, as I lay in bed, almost ready to switch off the light, the Terrys called me. They were all excited, clucking and crowing because Ami, laid her first egg! It was doubly amazing because the Terrys also have two Rhodies (Rhode Island Red) pullets that are 2 weeks or so older than the Faverolles (French) chicks I have. So none of us were expecting any eggs out of any feathered behind until February at the earliest.

The first ever egg out of any hen are practice eggs. Most first eggs, like Ami's are smaller than they will be as the hen's innerds mature. Some eggs, amazingly come with no shell, just a membrane. Those eggs are rather 'jelly' eggs. I've heard that jelly eggs can really freak out the hen owners don't expect them. As first eggs go, Ami did very well to produce such as sizable egg, and one of such a lovely, rosy brown color. Good girl Ami!

The Terry's called me about the cool egg after I was already snug in bed. I got right up and tip-toed out to the chicken house to see if my girls laid anything of note, but nope, not yet. But I will keep my eyes open and my egg boxes open and ready until I get that first beautiful, egg.

The 'egg-of-color' in the center is Ami's pride