The best biscuits and gravy I've ever had!

Ok so my gravy I'm sure wasn't the greatest ever, but to me, after about a year of not having biscuits and gravy, it tasted pretty damn amazing.


Here in Mexico we dont have anything like bisquik. I had never found refrigerated biscuits either....until last Monday. Last Monday I actually had time to leisurely browse through all the aisles of the new Walmart here, and in the refrigerated section, hidden behind tubs of margerine, I found a lone tube of buttermilk biscuits. I freaked! The poor people in Walmart probably thought I was crazy, but I was so happy. I told my bf that I had to buy them, even though they were kind of pricey (I mean $4 for a tube of biscuits??? come on...). But I had to have them.


I know what you're thinking. Refrigerated biscuits?? Why when you could just make your own? I know, I know. I dont buy many pre-packaged things for a couple reasons. Homemade just tastes better, and also in Mexico there arent nearly as many pre-packed foods as in America. Well, none that I want to make, anyway.

However, when it comes to biscuits, I'm lazy. I dont know why, but I just dont like to make them. I'd prefer to buy tubes.


Anyways, I love biscuits and gravy, so I knew I would have to use the biscuits for that. Besides, my boyfriend had never had it, and I really wanted him to try it.



I made a quick bacon gravy with some turkey bacon that I needed to use up. The biscuits and gravy tasted wonderful! Exactly what I had been craving, and my boyfriend loved it as well.

And im awful at posting recipes on here because I never really measure anything, but I'll try to give correct measurements.

• 6 slices of bacon
• 2-3 tbsp butter
• 2-3 tbsp flour
• 1 c milk ( mixed it with half a cube of chicken buillon)
  
• salt and pepper to taste

1. cook bacon until crispy. drain on paper towels.
2. melt 2 or 3 tbsp butter in the same skillet you used for bacon.
3. whisk in 2 or 3 tbsp flour (depends on how thick you want your gravy. Remember you can always add extra milk if its too thick).
4. When flour and butter have cooked about 1 minutes, add milk and salt and pepper.
5. Crumble a few slices of the bacon into the mixture.
   
6. Simmer till it reaches desired thickness.
   

lime pomegranate bars

My FIL brought home a huge bag of pomegranates yesterday (called granadas here in Mexico) and my MIL gave me a few to take home. Since after about 1 pomegranate I'm sick of them, I browsed Tastespotting for a bread or something to put them in to use them up. I came across NoFearEntertaining's lemon pomegranate bars. In Mexico I have yet to see a yellow lemon, so I had to use key limes, but the bars still turned out amazing!

baked zucchini chips

I started another diet today, and wanted a healthy side for my chicken breast, so I made some baked zucchini chips.

they're totally easy and totally scrumptious.

• 2-3 zucchinis, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds (or thinner if you want them crispier)
  
• 3/4 c bread crumbs (you can use seasoned ones or add your own seasongs. I add salt, pepper, and cheese)
• 2 egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 450ºf
   
2. Dip zucchini slices in eggwhites and then into bread crumbs.
3. Put slices on a greased baking sheet.
4. Bake 15-20 minutes, turning over half way through.
   

layers, layers and more layers...

I have these neighbors here in Mexico. The husband is Italian and the wife is Romanian. The man, Giuseppe, is a really good suit maker (I'm sure that has a name), and travels all over the world working in factories that make men's clothes, and abotu 4 years ago, they ended up here in Pachuca. They've lived in Italy, Korea, Portugal and alot more places that I cant recall at the moment, and that makes for a really hard time understanding the man talk. He mixes Portugese, Italian, Spanish and English, and I'm lucky if I understand half of what he says. The wife speaks Spanish pretty well, so I can understand her. Anyways, they are the nicest people and they have us over to dinner alot. The lady, Mariana, is an AMAZING cook! She makes all kinds of delicious Romanian and Italian food for us.
A couple weeks ago, we had a dinner to celebrate Giuseppe's birthday and Mariana made an overwhelming amount of food. She sent us home with huge plates of left overs, and this was what I ate for breakfast the next day:



The first layer is a delicious, flaky, homemade puff pastry. The second, a layer of thick cut bacon.
For the third layer, we have shredded carrots and leek. And right in the middle, we have juicy, mouthwatering pork loin.
Man, was this good. I cant even begin to explain how good. I have yet to get the full recipe from my neighbor, but i have the basic idea of how she makes it. She just basically wraps everything in the puff pastry she makes and then bakes it till the pork loin is done. She also makes something similar with a baguette. She hollows out the baguette, wraps the pork loin in bacon, and then stuffs it into the bread and bakes it until the pork is done.

calabazas asadas/ grilled zukes and an explanation.

So i've been away awhile.
I was in training for three weeks to get a job as an english teacher at a school here in Pachuca. It was a very rigorous training as they have their own methhodology of teaching, and i barely had enough time to do anything else, especially cook. but after 3 weeks of this training, i began to realize that they were making a lot of false promises, and to make a long story short, I will not be working there. I will stick to teaching the Korean children that ive been teaching for the last 3 years.

anyways, on a brighter note, I was given more zucchinis by MIL and my FIL taught me a great new way to prepare them:

Just drizzle on some olive oil, sprinkle with S&P, throw them on a hot comal till they char, and voila! Delicious grilled zukes!

I think Ive mentioned comals before. They are basically a removable iron plate that come on stoves here in Mexico. They are used to warm tortillas, grill tomatoes for salsa, and to heat various other things.

big zucchini, baby zucchini

zukes on the comal

zukes in all their grilled goodness...

Long time no blog!!!!!

sorry about that!

ive had a lot on my plate right now. i got a new job as an english teacher at a school but my visa has expired so im trying to figure out what i need to d0 to fix that. plus ive been in training everyday for 3 weeks for the new job, but that ends soon.

So regular posting should begin again soon!!!

forgotten cookies

Yesterday, my boyfriend and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. man, these 3 years have gone by so fast. He took me to a Brasilian restaurant to celebrate. I ate so much that I never want to see meat again.

I made forgotten cookies the other day but didnt get to post them, because a friend had a baby (!) and I was with her all day.

my boyfriend and the baby

I got the recipe for forgotten cookies from my roomie when I was studying in Guadalajara. She had to make something American to take to her Spanish class, and she decided on these. They were sooo hard to make because we had no electric mixer and had to take turns mixing the egg whites by hand. And then, when we went to take the cookies of they tray the next day, we realized we hadnt greased it. We had to use a knife to get them off, and our host mom got really mad when she saw the tray because it was all scratched up. oops...

• 2 egg whites
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
   
2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until whites form stiff peaks. Fold in the vanilla and chocolate chips. Spoon onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Put the cookies into the preheated oven, shut the door and turn off the oven . Let cookies sit in the turned off oven for 5 to 6 hours or overnight.