Beans

The beans-and-rice experiment continues. I have to say this is fun, so far.

I made breakfast rice--parboiled in butter, sweetened with dark brown cane sugar. It turned out perfect! Much better than last night's experiment.

Beans--did the obvious thing and made chili.

Now to focus on a different bean--the cacao bean. Oaxaca is known for both coffee and chocolate. And stir-fried grasshoppers, but we won't go there right now.

Mexican chocolate is fun to make. You heat the milk on the stove and add solid tablets of rich chocolate until it looks right. To truly do it the Oaxacan way, you serve it in pottery bowls instead of mugs. Ancient Mexican civilizations believed chocolate was the food of the gods, and it's easy to see why.

I'm making some right now, and when it's done, I'm going up four stories to the roof to enjoy it with the city lights spread out at my feet.