The beginning of a Mexicana Fiesta.

It's been awhile since I've updated the blog, mostly due to lack
of camera, because my father always takes the family camera to
take photographs of more grass, and more trees, and more machinery.
Exciting hey?
Tonight is the first night of our Mexicana cuisine week, where we'll be
eating Mexican food for dinner every night.
We all love Mexican food, a love that grew stronger when we stayed there
and got to taste the real stuff. We feel very fortunate to have sampled
international cuisine so we can bring it back to our kitchen to try
and replicate it others. Food is one of the best ways to experience
a country. It's almost like the food represents the feel of the country,
with Mexican you have the eclectic range of bright colours, mixed with
deep, intense flavours, and anyone who has experienced Mexico would
have to agree the culture and energy is very similar.

For the first night, we decided to have chili and cornbread, a favourite
of ours from California. It's not quintessential Mexican, but it still embodies
the Mexican flavour, while being a little more Westernized. Nevertheless,
it is an amazing dish, that is so rich and filling.

This is a simple version, with kidney and butter beans, chick peas, corn,
sweet potato, onion, garlic and chili. I used the usual seasonings, cumin,
cinnamon, paprika, oregano, salt and chili powder, but instead of red wine
vinegar, balsamic which added a little kick to it. I used a nice red chili I found at
the supermarket, it wasn't too intense, but added a lot of flavour to the mix. I asked
the fruit and veg boy especially, which one of the two chili's on offer is hotter, and
he recommended the green. It's lucky I bought both, because the green turned out to be just
a little capsicum.
Mum was in charge of the cornbread, mixing the polenta base with freshly
ground spelt flour, and honey instead of sugar. She mixed in real corn, straight off
the cob, it turned out beautifully.
See, chili is one of those dishes that looks a little like vomit, especially when you
mix sour cream in with it as we did. But it is so filling, and warming, and just beautiful.

For lunch the other day, I made a nice little eggs on toast combo, but with garlic grazed
over the toast, and avocado on top of it. I haven't eaten avocado in awhile, due to it being so
hard to find organic ones, but god, it was divine. I love making my own guacamole with it too,
it's such a versatile fruit. I decided to mix it up a bit by having potato and beetroot crinkle cut
chips. As you can see, a few of them turned a bit charcoal-ey, but the majority were so good.

I just used a crinkle cutter Zane found in the art room boxes awhile ago, and cut the
potato and beetroot really thin, to rival Smith's. Bit of olive oil and salt works a treat..

Mum and I had a good joke over the lunch she prepared for my father while
he was out working on our farm. We called it 'rustic'. A cappuccino in a jar..
and a nice little sandwich. Rye bread, with a poached egg, avocado, tomato,
rocket and balsamic vinegar. Pretty impressive, it definitely shoots off
competition like 'Mighty Angus' and all those try-hard fast food health
ticked bullshit.

My lunch was more simple, sourdough toast with a fried egg, garlic which you cannot
see and potato chips. I do love my carbs and starch!