mole christmas

We decided to celebrate Christmas in Mexico by making mole from scratch, from a very traditional recipe in a big book with beautiful pictures in it. (The mole today, and the chicken itself tomorrow -- we were going to make the mole yesterday, but the gas ran out and the nut on the canister was completely bent out of shape, and couldn't be budged, so it had to wait until the gas man came by this morning.) We started out following the directions fairly precisely, except for the four kinds of chiles, of which only three are available in our part of Mexico, but after three separate purees and many arguments with the blender and food processor we ended up substituting like mad, and adding extra chocolate and a beer just for the heck of it, and black sambuca for the anise seed we couldn't find. It's bubbling away on the stove now, and will be delicious (a slow and intense heat, mixed with chocolate -- there is no bad there.) Yum! We have about twice as much as we could possibly use, so it will have to go into the freezer. Maybe we'll have it for New Year, too.

In other news, we've had a couple Ant Emergencies (the tiny ants, but in places you do not want ants at all), a bit of time at the beach and a generally relaxing time (aside from the ants and the gas). I am reading many, many books and sleeping a lot (except that Our Enemies the Roosters start up around 5 am or sometimes earlier, and that tends to be that.)

My parents -- now that they own rather than rent -- don't live on the beach, but they have a little walled garden on a triangular lot by the arroyo, and we mostly spend the day sitting on the porch and looking at the fountains.

I hope those who celebrate have a wonderful Christmas -- and the rest of you have a nice day off! Or double-time, if that's what you prefer.