I remember the first time I ever imagined my dream house. I was about eleven years old and we were renting a cottage at the beach, so I had lots of time to think about it. My dream house was a southwestern style home, whitewashed adobe with barrel tiles on the room, one story, all arranged around a central courtyard. That was pretty exotic for a kid lying in the sand on a beach in New Hampshire. I don't remember what all the rooms were going to look like, but I do know that the living room was going to have a white couch, with big op-art looking lemons and limes on it. Horrible, really, if you think about it, and you don't have to think too hard. But that's where my love of limes has its roots. I like lemons, but I love limes.
A few years after my summer planning my hideously decorated dream house, I was finally in junior high and old enough to be allowed to walk downtown after school. (I grew up five miles outside of town, which may as well have been five hundred miles, given the lack of busses, taxis, and sidewalks.) There was a Brigham's downtown, and there began my love of raspberry lime rickeys. No trip downtown was complete without a rickey, when they were in season, and to this day I still eagerly await the arrival of Brigham's Raspberry Lime Rickey Sherbert in the grocery store every spring. It's a shame we can't grow limes in this climate, but I get my lime fix in when I can. And, so, I present today's lime-centric menu:
I pinned this recipe for Crock Pot Mexican chicken on Pinterest four days ago, and so far 20 people repinned it and another eight people liked it. I don't know if any of those people made it (Do we ever really make all the recipes we pin on Pinterest?), but I decided to do it. Two limes are required, as they actually make up most of the liquid in which you cook the chicken. I thought we'd have the chicken in tacos, but El Esposo had a strong preference for rice. All I had was white rice (which I detest - I only have it to give to the dog when he gets diarrhea) and brown rice, which El Esposo will not eat. So, white rice it was:
It was good to delicious. My kids were with their dad, but El Esposo and I had his youngest son, and my two Guatemalans decreed that this was delicious, and cleaned their plates. I like this chicken, but I don't love it. It is going in the rotation, though, based on their feedback. I made one change to the recipe. In the recipe, you cook the chicken, then shred it and serve it with the mixture of onion, garlic, and spices on the side. When I took the chicken out of the crock pot to shred it, I thought it tasted a little bland, so I shredded it and threw it back in the crockpot for another half hour to soak up the juice and spices. That decision was approved by El Esposo. Neither of us is a fan of plain chicken with a sauce on it, I guess. We like the chicken to be marinated or to soak up the flavors. The choice is up to you, but if you like your chicken the way we do, you'll want to allow time to cook it again after shredding.
My official beverage with this meal is Diet Coke with Lime. My stepson drank Clamato, which is popular in Central American and Canada, but for some reason has not caught on in that other North American country. El Esposo had Throwback Pepsi. If you live in New England, it's hard to find Mexican Coca Cola in the grocery store. El Esposo can get it in bodegas in the city, and there's an upscale liquor store in a neighboring suburban town that carries it for some reason, though it's super expensive there, naturally. And how is Mexican Coca Cola different from the regular US version? They still get it with real sugar in it, while Americans get artificial sweetener. I don't drink regular soda because it's too sweet for me, but I can cope with the sugar version. Last year, I discovered Throwback Pepsi, sold in bottles and cans with old school Pepsi logos. It also is made with real sugar, and it can be found almost anywhere, so that keeps El Esposo happy, except when he discovers that DD has finished it.
Finally, we have our lime dessert. This was a last minute thing, as in, not planned at all. After I put the chicken in the crock pot, I decided I wanted to make a dessert, and I had angel food cake mix, so I made it. Angel food is my dad's favorite cake, so I almost always have a box of the mix around. Every now and then, when he comes over to work on some project around my house, I like to surprise him with some cake. He will eat it because he loves it, and because it's pretty low-cal as far as cake is concerned, so my mom won't get on his case about dieting. I made the glaze with limes, though it works well with almost any citrus fruit. I've used lemons and oranges as well, and people love them. For this glaze, I added zest from a lime to a cup of confectioners sugar, then squeezed one lime's juice into it - voila, done, ready to throw on top of the cake. If you like runnier glaze than I do, add more liquid. El Esposo made a big deal about only having one piece of cake - and not too big of a piece - last night at dinner, then he went off to work after dinner. I fell asleep waiting for him, and when I came downstairs this morning, he had already started the coffee and was eating another piece of cake for breakfast. At that point, I noticed that about a quarter of the cake had disappeared between the time I went to bed and the time I got up. I don't know whether he had more cake when he came home after work or whether he had it in the morning, but I'd say he likes it. Today, he went to work late and he will be coming home late. . . we will see if there is any cake left when I get up in the morning.
Finally, because limes are green and because I do actually in fact still knit, here are a couple of photos of greener parts of the sock yarn blankie. There is no set way to how the squares get laid out, though it definitely seems like I get stuck with areas that have a lot of one color in them. I'm okay with that. I think it's part of the randomness of the blanket, and a reflection of the fact that lots of people have had their say about placement of new squares, and we all have different color sensibilities.
For my part, I've enjoyed all the swapping of sock yarn minis through Ravelry, where there are several groups that host such swaps. I've been able to try all sorts of new yarns, and the nice thing is that, if I don't like a particular yarn or color, I'm only knitting a little square, so I'm not stuck slogging through a project I don't like. The blanket is queen size width and about a foot tall, so I clearly have a lot of work to do before this is done. It's not too portable at this point, though I do bring it to DD's dance class once a week because she has two classes in a row and it's worth settling in and working on the blankie. The other moms always want to see it unfolded and they say they love it. One of these days I will get a picture of the whole blanket so you can see what it looks like.
Next up: probably a post about mangos. I've got two champagne mangos sitting on the kitchen counter, and two regular mangos wrapped up in newspaper and stuffed in the kitchen cabinet where I keep potatoes. El Esposo said that in Guatemala, they would put the mangos in a hole. I told him that either of the dogs could dig him a hole, or he could dig one himself, but he declined. For now, the mystery mangos sit in the dark in their newspaper blankets, awaiting their fate. Pie.
