2do Domingo de Adviento

2nd Sunday of Advent

Pre-Posada

I will post about the real posadas whan they get near (Dec.16), these are the previous celebrations.

Some of us teachers decided to get together and have a small pre-posada. You see, once the real posadas start, we will probably have little time to get together and celebrate our friendship as the end of the year nears. We had it a Margarita's house. The menu was tostadas with Chicken Tinga and Cochinita Pibil.

-Chicken Tinga (couldn't find a tinga link, so put a Mexican cuisine link) is cooked, pulled chicken, lots of sliced, sauteed white onions, and a tomato sauce made with chipotle chile (dried, smoked jalapeño chile-has a very rich, smoky taste). This dish is from central Mexico.

-Cochinita Pibil is cooked, pulled pork, cooked in a sauce made with an acid orange juice, and condimented with achiote (annato). This dish is from the Mexican Southeast (Yucatán Peninsula-Merida, Can-Cun area).
It is served with chopped purple onions and habanero chile (very, VERY hot) in vinegar with a bit of oregano.
Both can be eaten with tortilla or tostadas.

-Desert- a Nuttela braid with almonds and nuts-mmmm.

Afterwards a bit of Karaoke with Banda songs (I mean, we're in Mexico, right?).
We had a nice time, here are the pics...

Margarita has an inner patio with her birds and
some plants. And of course, a statue of
La Virgen de Guadalupe.

You can see the tostadas and the meats.
Some refried beans at the back. No Mexican
food is complete without beans.

This is the Cochinita Pibil. It was in the afternoon,
and nice, warm sunshine was streaming in.

And this is the Tinga. You can see the onion slices.

Here is the purple onion and habanero chile.
Margarita dices it really nices and small.
They are cured in "sugar cane" vinegar.



Nuttela braid. Our friend, Mari Pili, makes them.

And of course, some Tequila. This brand is called "Quita Penas".
Roughly tranlates to "To take away your sufferings".

Ready to eat.

Montserrat and Lili.

Genny

Fooling aroud with the Karaoke...
Claudia, Lolis, and Claudia's mom.

And me... I had started feeling bad in the morning.
By this time I was pretty sick- a head cold,
sore throat, puffy eyes, and cough.
But I enjoyed being there with my friends.

Pretty soon the real "partying" starts. Will try to post all the posadas I can, and on the 12th, the celebration of La Virgen de Guadalupe.
And I will probably post the Giveaway on the 12th also, so don't forget to vist.....
Adios......

Retiro Adviento.

Advent mini-retreat.
As I've written before, I work at a Catholic school, and I've also mentioned that 90% of the festivities here in Mexico have to do with religion.
So yesterday afternoon was the teacher's Advent mini retreat and I wanted to share some photos with you. The retreat was downtown at some very pretty grounds. Until I got there, I hadn't really felt very "Christmasy", that is until I saw these beautiful Poinsettias. The awesome redness of these plants really got to me. These flowers (though they really are not flowers) represent Christmas in Mexico.
So these are a few photos I took at the grounds where the retreat was celebrated.

The afternoon was cloudy, but still, the plant's
color stood out.

A bit closer.....

Here are the blant in both it's variations, white and red.

I like the way this pot looks next to the plants.

Inside the chapel, there is this beautiful sculpture.
It was made by one of my fellow teacher's sister.
She is a famous sculpture here in Mexico.

Close up of the white ponsettias.

This is what today looked like from my school.
There is a cold front that had the northern
state of Chihuahua get covered with snow.
We only had some unusual cold temperature for us
with lots of wind and rain.
Now how's that for a real "Christmasy" felling?

The retreat was great, with lots of reflection. I liked it.

And since it's December 1st, I'll give you some more "Christmasy" feelings.
A while ago I found this great Christmas blog called "Gingerbread Snowflakes". It's author, Pam and I have become blogger friends, and she has linked her blog to mine during the season. I am really grateful to her for doing me this honor. She will be linking to my posts about Chrismas traditions and celebrations in Mexico. Go over to her place so you can see the wonderful things she makes and blogs about related to this wonderful season. I really hope you enjoy this adventure. And to celebreate this friendship, I will be having a giveaway. Just keep popping in, beacuse I will soon announce the gifts (Mexican stuff, of course).

So happy 1st of December, and may we all have a great Christmas.
Hasta pronto......

1er Domingo de Adviento

First Sunday of Advent

Have a great beginning of Christmas Season!

Tianguis de Chácharas.

Tianguis means something like an open market or flea market. There are thousands if not millions of these markets all over Mexico, being Mexico City the one with the most amount of Tianguis. Even though Wikipedia proclaims another Tianguis as the biggest, the really biggest one is the San Felipe de Jesús Tianguis. It is more than a kilometer long. There are eight rows the whole kilometer long. This Tianguis is put up and taken down every Sunday. That day the two way avenue is closed.

What is sold in a Tianguis? Well it depends. There are fresh fuit and vegetables Tianguis, electronics, used clothes, new clothes, toys, and "chácharas" Tianguis which just about sells anything used.

In my town we have a few Tianguis (none as big as those in Mexico City), and we have a Sunday "chacháras tianguis". Last Sunday I went there to look for a sewing machine technician to fix my machine (all went well, three days later I had a great sewing machine).

Anyway, I took photos of some of the stuff sold there.

The guy who fixed sewing machines had a lot of
old fashioned machine's spare parts.
Like this engraved cover.

Here is another one. People still have lots of very
old sewing machines that still work
and are used.

Check out this old, hand cranked machine.
I don't know if this one could be fixed.

But this one is in perfect working condition,
The price? $1,500 pesos.
Something like $120. dollars.
Nice....

We saw this live snake being sold.

Lots of tools...

A chinese parasol, motorbike helmets, coffee maker,
tennis rackets, heater, you name it!!

Books, encyclopedias....

Need a spare stroller tire??




Bright crocs, old rusted chains.......

Honey....

Small cheesecakes.....

And cold tepache.
It is a slightly fermented drink made from the
pineapple rind. It is very refreshing.

For the kids, a bubbles vendor.

As we were leaving, I saw this birdcage. I thought
about my mother-in-law who has birds.
And the cassette player, pretty old!

Then I saw this record player.
We had one very much like this when we were kids.
Older still!!

Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Dar Gracias.

To be thankful.....no Thanksgiving Day here, but every day I thank God for:

-My husband
-My sons
-My Mom
-All of my family
-My husband's family
-So many friends in so many places!
-Good health
-A roof over my head
-A job
-The freedom to be who I am

Hope you enjoyed this special holiday.
Angie

Agarradera.

Spanish word for potholder. Literally it means "grabber". It took me so long to make these. You see my machine was not working so I had it fixed. But for some reason, it still doesn't work well. I decided to use it anyway, and made these strip potholder from a tutorial I found over at Char's incredible blog (at last, Char!!).
Mine aren't as pretty as Char's, but I realloy enjoyed making them. The tutorial calls for an appliqué, but I like the way they look just like this.I think they would make nice gifts. Thanks for the tutorial, Char. I'll probably be making more as soon as scraps pile up!!






One of these will probably end up in Hungary. Which do you like, Sofi?
Have a great week!