Milagros as Wedding Cake Charms Monday, Dec 7 2009

Here is a two layer cake with charms attached to ribbons

About 20 years ago or so, I had a college roommate who hailed from Abbeville, Louisiana.  She went to LSU for her “MRS” and eventually got it (him?).  When I went to her wedding reception, the first thing I learned was that she had made and decorated the entire three or four-tiered wedding cake herself (It was a red velvet – her colors for the wedding were antique white and red).  That was impressive enough – but she also introduced me to a Southern tradition I had never heard of before: the wedding cake charm pull.

Mignon Faget charm set

At one website I visited while researching this post, it is claimed that this tradition came from the French Creole settlers to Louisiana.  It is definitely more popular in the South.  In fact, the New Orleans jeweler, Mignon Faget, has a set of beautiful charms in sterling silver.  The Mignon Faget Cake Charm Set ($395) includes a Set of eight symbols:  Marriage (rings), Eternal Beauty (nautilus shell), Luck (red bean), Red Hot Romance (chili pepper), Prosperity (fleur de lis), Opportunity (moon profile), Stability (Corinthian column), True Love (heart).  Mignon Faget is an institution in New Orleans.

The most common explanation of the Wedding Cake Charm Pull is found under Victorian wedding traditions.  Ribbon pulling is a wedding tradition that can be dated back to the Victorian era when the bride would ask her baker to hide special wedding charms in a designated layer of the wedding cake. This was symbolic of the bride’s wishes of good fortune for each of her bridesmaids. Each charm is attached to a ribbon, and the ribbons are draped outward from the cake so that each bridesmaid can pull a ribbon and discover the charm that will reveal her fortune.

Each charm symbolized a different fortune. For example: an anchor symbolized adventure, the wedding ring indicated the next to marry, the four-leaf clover was an omen of good luck, etc.  Other common symbols were the coin (prosperity), a camera (fame and fortune), and the thimble (spinsterhood!).  Most people leave the thimble out…

Here are some websites that sell Wedding Cake Charms, and also provide the meanings behind each charm:

• Wedding Cake Charms.com
• Beverly Clark Wedding Charms – this designer has a competing set of charms at $35.00.
• Jewelry by Rhonda.com – four different menus of charms… including German and Christian themed charms.
• My Charmed Life – suggests cake charm pulls for all sorts of occasions…  What about a tractor cake pull?

It is true that this is a good idea for other occasions.  There is a set for baby showers, graduation parties, birthday parties – my favorite was one for a little girl’s tea party.  Going with the Latino theme, it only follows that quinceaneras are next.

When I got married, I thought I would like to do something like a cake charm pull, too.  I wasn’t going to do it for the wedding itself, but thought about it for the bridesmaids’ luncheon.  It was at a Mexican restaurant called La Paz in Vinings (Georgia), where I was living at the time.  The luncheon was pretty small and intimate.  The guests were my mother, my future mother -in-law, an old friend of the family, my two bridesmaids (my sister and my best friend), and my little niece, who was going to be the flower girl.

I ordered this small, but really over-the-top chocolate cake from a great little bakery that used to be in Buckhead.  I think it was called Sweet Stuff and it may now be in Roswell.  The baker decorated the cakes with all sorts of tinsel and ribbon and it was very festive.  I tied the charms to these beautiful silk ribbon – exactly like this, but in several different color combinations. I arranged them under the cake board so they didn’t get all messy.

Isn't this pretty?

I was originally looking for milagros to use for my charms – La Paz at the time had a Mexican import store on the lower level.  I didn’t like their selection of milagros (or maybe I lacked imagination at the time) so I went with gold-toned charms instead.  But one day, I will come through with a milagro cake event.

Milagros (also known as an ex-voto or dijes) are religious folk charms that are traditionally used for healing purposes and as votive offerings in Mexico, the southern United States, other areas of Latin America, as well as parts of the Iberian peninsula. They are frequently attached onto altars, shrines, and sacred objects found in places of worship, and they are often purchased in churches, cathedrals or from street vendors.

Milagros come in a variety of shapes and dimensions and are fabricated from many different materials, depending on local customs. For example, they might be nearly flat or fully three-dimensional ; and they can be constructed from gold, silver, tin, lead, wood, bone, or wax. In Spanish, the word milagro literally means miracle or surprise.

From Teresa Villegas' Loteria installation

While I was doing my research, I decided to try searching under the terms “dijes” and “ex voto”. If you look up “dijes” on Google, you will just get standard charm bracelet charms, however.  An ex-voto can be a milagro,  an ornate heart, a painting, or some other representation of thanks or petition. It’s complicated.  For our purposes now, we are talking about the little metal charms.

Use your imagination – of course, there are lots of hearts – that’s easy.  All you have to do is provide the meaning.  There are little houses (stability), people kneeling in prayer (your prayers will be answered), horses (travel), a hen (good mother), angel or cherub (true love), a man or couple dancing…  There are also modern things like airplanes, trains, and telephones.

There are a couple of good books that can flesh out some of the symbolism for you.  I have two of those books.  I really love Milagros: A Book of Miracles by Helen Thompson.  The artwork is by Paddy Bruce and includes a lot of stamped tin accents.  It’s a fun book to read, and discusses the spiritual implications and applications of milagros.  Here is an excerpt from the book I found online.  You can also preview the book on Amazon.

The other book I have is a more academic work.  It is called Milagros: Votive Offerings from the Americas and is written by Martha Egan.  The outside is decorated by a lovely pattern of milagros – I once purchased an unmounted rubber stamp with that pattern.  But I digress…  I found another book called Vow:  The Way of the Milagro by Kay Leigh Hagan.  It manages to be somewhere in between the other two in idea, but with much fewer words.

Here are some other Milagro Resources:

• The Collector’s Guide – a good resource with history and use of milagros.
• Zanzibar Tribal Arts – this site sells milagros and has some meanings.
• World Folk Art.org – great selection of unusual milagros – some pricey.
• Sacred Art Images – good milagro category explanations.
• Stranded.com – bead site.  The milagros meaning chart was salvaged from Fausto’s Gallery website, which seems to be closed now.
• Saints and Martyrs.com – great selection – they say that their milagros are made from sterling silver and they are priced accordingly.
• Tesoros.com – a good selection, including milagros on plaques from Peru (they are still small, but might make a nice change of pace.

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Aguas Frescas: Horchata, Part 1 Saturday, Sep 12 2009

I was doing some research into aguas frescas, after receiving a drink recipe from Chow.com that incorporated horchata. After doing probably too much research, I felt like I needed to make two entries: one on horchata one on the other aguas frescas.

Even though I had visited Mexico before, and had even been served a hibiscus flower punch at a friend’s party, my first experience with “making” aguas frescas was while teaching Exploratory Spanish several years ago.

I came up with this idea of having my students sample Mexican sweets and candies as cultural enrichment.  I went to the Buford Highway Farmers Market and was amazed at the variety.  Along with sweet breads, cookies, cajeta and sticky chili tamarind treats, I thought I would serve some aguas frescas.  Instead of making them from scratch, I found some convenient Klass dried drink mix packets and decided to use those.

When I prepared the powdered horchata drink for my first group of students, I asked one of my Mexican students to taste it and tell me what she thought.  She took a sip and made a face.  Then, she said, “I think you are supposed to add sugar to it.” DUH! But even after adding sugar, I realized that the horchata powder would quickly sink to the bottom.  If you shook it up and took a sip, you got a mouthful of grit.

I think I tried a liquid concentrate after that, but after having tasted horchata at my local taqueria, I realized that mixes would always be a poor substitute.  There’s supposedly a bottled version made by Rose’s Horchata that is the real thing – if I find it, I may try it.  Also, I just read that the people who make Rice Dream have added a horchata flavor. I’m all about the quick fix.

But, today I received in my Chow mail a recipe for a drink called “Squirrel Horchata”.  Briefly, I wondered about the powdered squirrel, but I quickly found that it was a cocktail made with horchata, dark rum, and Frangelico liqueur (a hazelnut liqueur). From there I quickly found some other agua fresca based drinks and cocktails.  But, today, we will only talk about horchata.

Horchata or orxata is the name for several kinds of traditional beverages, made of ground almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley or tigernuts (chufas). Horchata, the Spanish way, using chufa is very different from Mexican horchata. Chufa, also called tigernuts can be ordered online. I remembered Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods trying it in Spain, and he did not like it at all.  Here is a video of his experience drinking Spanish Horchata.

Here is an article that features Salvadoran horchata, made with calabash, or morro, seeds.  It also talks about other horchatas.

First of all, here is a basic recipe for horchata (from the Food Network):

* 1 cup long grain white rice
* 2 cups skinless almonds
* 1-inch piece cinnamon bark
* 8 cups water
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
* Ice cubes

Directions

Wash and drain the rice. Using a spice grinder (an electric coffee grinder works well too), grind the rice until fine; combine with the almonds and cinnamon bark. Add 3 1/2 cups water and let sit overnight, covered. Blend rice mixture until smooth using a blender. Add 2 1/2 cups of water and continue blending. Add sugar and vanilla extract. Strain horchata into a bowl first using a metal strainer and then a double layer of cheesecloth; finish with up to an additional 2 cups of water until it achieves a milky consistency. Enjoy over ice.

There are all sorts of variations.  Here are some of the recipes I have found:

-From Imbibe magazine, this horchata adds lime zest.
-From MexGrocer.com, a variety of agua fresca recipes includes a horchata made with skim milk.
-Almond Horchata – no rice, just almonds.
-From Ingrid Hoffman, this one adds almond extract.
-Brown Jasmine Rice Horchata – someone’s trying to make it healthy!
-Indian Horchata with brown basmati rice and cardamom pods.
-Horchata de Lima (Peru).
-Horchata with Chocolate and Pumpkin Seeds from Saveur magazine
-Horchata Rosa- the “rosa” refers to food coloring, not the crushed roses I was hoping to find.
-White and Wild Rice Horchata from Garrett’s Table. “To make it, simply substitute 1/4 c. white rice for wild rice in the original recipe.”
-From the L.A.Times, horchata with toasted pecans and cantaloupe.
-Barley Horchata – hmmmm.  AKA Horchata de Cebada (Barley).
-Horchata de Avena (oatmeal) – at the bottom of the page. A picture of it is at the top.
-Horchata de Venezuela – made with sesame seeds.

For a few minutes, I decided to do a search on Bubble Tea (boba tea) made with horchata.  Why not?  This boba tea recipe calls for rice milk anyway, why not substitute that with horchata?  There is also a chocolate version.

Basic Bubble Tea:
1 cup brewed black or green tea or espresso
7 to 8 ice cubes
1 cup rice milk or almond milk
sugar to taste
1/2 cup tapioca pearls

Instructions: Pour everything into a Martini shaker and shake for a few seconds. Pour into a large glass. Use this as a base and add anything you want to it such as nondairy cream, ground almond, or fruit juice.

You can make a chocolate almond variation by omitting the tapioca pearls and adding 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons ground almonds.

Horchata Chai sounds good, too!

-Variations on horchata at this website include “plain”, chocolate, and strawberry.
-Strawberry Horchata from the California Strawberry Commission.
-Peach Horchata from the Food Network.
-This recipe uses cartons of organic vanilla rice milk and organic almond milk.
-Cantaloupe Horchata uses the seeds of the melon instead of rice and almonds.
-Coconut Horchata – really just fresh coconut, milk and sugar.
-Yerba Mate and Horchata – okay… I was actually looking for green tea and horchata.

While searching, I also found horchata used in various dessert recipes:
-Horchata Cupcakes
-Frozen Horchata dessert
-Horchata ice cream
-Horchata ice cream With Canela and Pecans
-Horchata Pudding
-Cinnamon Horchata Cookies – second recipe down
-Tonka Bean and Cinnamon Horchata Sherbet

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Peruvian Yellow Beans, Part 2 Monday, Sep 7 2009

I think this is my 3rd time cooking these beans.  I have found out a little bit about them, too.  Even though they are called peruanos, or Peruvian yellow beans, they are actually grown in Mexico and are also called Mayo Coba beans.

This time, I bought Verde Valle Brand beans, and pretty much stuck to the directions on the back of the bag.  It was pretty basic: 1 Cup beans + 9 Cups water = 4. But of course, being me, I cooked the whole bag (2 lbs.).  I soaked them overnight (the package suggested I keep them in the fridge.  When my husband came down to the kitchen, he said that the beans had soaked up all of the water, and he added a little more to cover them.

I had a lot of beef stock left over from making beef tongue the day before, which I reserved in a big bowl in the fridge.  I drained the beans and put them in my largest pot, then poured the stock on top of it.  I had bought some mild Mexican chorizo to use instead of the ham and turkey sausage I usually use, but I was a little surprised when it turned out that the “links” were plastic, and you had to squeeze the sausage out like toothpaste. So, it ended up looking like (very red) ground beef.  I added it to the pot with some sauteed onion and yellow bell pepper, then added a little more of my favorite new seasoning, Don Julio ground pepper and cumin.  I also added turmeric and garlic.

I brought the pot to a boil, then turned it down to simmer for 90 minutes. That was about right.  I siphoned off some of the stock – I like my beans thick.  I also added 2 Tablespoons of harina de masa to thicken it and took out a cup of beans and liquid and pureed it in the blender and added it back to the beans.  I just had some and they are great – maybe they need a little salt.  But they sure are yellow!

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Mexican Green and Yellow Stew Monday, Sep 7 2009

This morning (okay, noon) I got up and worked on more food.  My original plan was to add the beef tongue to the stew below, but decided it might be better to keep them separate and mix them in a burrito or over rice.

Mexican Green and Yellow Stew

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 small poblano pepper, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
6 nopal paddles, cleaned, de-spined and diced
2 medium yellow tomatoes, chopped
1 11 oz. can San Marcos Tomatillos, chopped
1/3 – 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 7 oz. can San Marcos Green Mexican Salsa
1 cube Dorot chopped garlic
1/2 cup Goya Recaito
juice of 1 lime
1 cup Trader Joe’s Roasted Corn
2 Tablespoons Maseca Harina de Masa
Don Julio Pepper and Cumin powder*, to taste
Cholula Chile and Lime Seasoning, to taste
Salt, to taste

1. Sautee onion, peppers and celery in a large pan or Dutch Oven.
2. Add other chopped vegetables and ingredients as they become ready: nopales, tomatoes, tomatillos, and cilantro and simmer until softer.
3. Add the can of Mexican salsa to the pan, along with the recaito, garlic, and lime and stir into the mixture.
4. Add other spices: Pepper and Cumin Powder, Chile and Lime Seasoning, and Salt to taste.
5. I add the Trader Joe’s Roasted Corn (which is frozen) last, because I don’t want it to lose its shape and “roasted” look.
5. I added the Masa Harina as a thickener.  It really added body to the mix.

I am eating this right now with brown rice and it is delicious – it may be a little tart for some, but I think that the addition of meat (tongue, for example) will balance that out.  I think that it would also be good in a soup, and I will try that later.

*I tried to find a link to the Don Julio products, but gave up.  I found this and some achiote powder in the Honduran section of my Mexican grocery.

Oh, I also found a recipe for Nopal Cactus Paddle Cake while searching – gotta try that!

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Tongue in Slow Cooker, Part 1 Sunday, Sep 6 2009

I know that I have spoken of beef tongue in the past.  Today, I thought I would try and record measurements and ingredients for my recipe.  Today was just the beef tongue braising day.  Tomorrow, I will add more ingredients to make a stew.

Tongue in Slow Cooker, Part 1

Place the following in 6 quart slow cooker:

1 beef tongue, 3 1/2 lbs.
4 cups Progresso beef broth, 4 cups
1 white onion, coarsely chopped
3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
8 – 10 baby carrots, chopped in half
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Then, in 2 cups of water, dissolve and mix the following, then pour into the slow cooker over the tongue (tongue should be completely covered with liquid, so add water if needed):

3 – 4 Tablespoons Goya recaito
1 cube Dorot chopped garlic
1 cube Dorot chopped cilantro
1 Knorr mini seasoning cube parsley
1 Maggi Seasoning Cube, Cumin-flavored

You may put the mixture in the microwave 30 – 45 seconds to speed the dissolving of the cubes, but it doesn’t have to all be dissolved to pour over the tongue.

And, of course you may use fresh parsley, garlic, and cumin if you like.  I do have to tell those that are sensitive that the Knorr and Maggi cubes have MSG in them.

Top with a bit of extra virgin olive oil poured into the slow cooker.

Cook on High for 1 hour, then change to low for 7-8 hours or until fork tender.

Here is a link to a good-looking beef tongue recipe for taco filling.

While looking for Maggi Cumin cubes, I came across CocinandoConNestle.com.  Anyone interested in Peruvian Chicken Stir Fry?  I know I am!  As for a definitive link, Maggi doesn’t have one.  I have seen them in the Latino food section of Super WalMart and at the Buford Highway Farmers Market.

I always keep three trays of Dorot frozen garlic, basil, and cilantro in my freezer.  I wish that Trader Joe’s would expand into the other products, such as chopped ginger, dill, and parsley.  There is even a Tex Mex mix.  I just read here that they are available at Ingle’s.  I will have to see it to believe it.

One other little tip – I have bought jars of the Goya Recaito and Sofrito sauces, and one of them went bad in my fridge.  One thing I think I could have done was to top it off with oil or water.  This time, I bought some small cubical containers and divided the jars among them and froze them.  I added a bit of water to the jar to make it easier to pour.  One jar filled about four little containers.  I am going to see if I can pop them out and put them in plastic bags so I can re-use my containers.

I have also strained out all of the veggies from my beef/tongue stock and am going to preserve that as well.  It smells delicious.

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Slow Cooker Turkey Curry Sunday, Aug 23 2009

Well, Friday afternoon, instead of battling traffic, I decided to go straight to the movie theater after school.  I was trying to wait to see Julia and Julie with my husband, but when I saw that there was going to be a thunderstorm in addition to Friday afternoon traffic, I tossed that notion and went to see it by myself.

I liked it fine, and even appreciated it from the Julie point of view.  Being a blogger myself, I could identify with the excitement of having someone actually respond to your writing… and the disappointment to find that it was only your mother writing in your guestbook.  Ha!

When I got home, I jokingly threatened to choose a cookbook and work my way through it in a year.  I told my husband I would maybe do the Cake Doctor’s first book.  Of course, my husband in gluten-intolerant, so that would leave me eating all the cakes…  That won’t do.

Anyway, as much as I admire Julia Child and the other chefs that approach cooking as a science (Alton Brown comes to mind), I have a hard time sticking to a recipe.  Just ask my mother…  I usually end up changing something, or substituting an ingredient.  Baking is different – I do try to stick to the directions there, even when the results are not as I would have hoped.

But for me, there’s nothing quite as much fun as throwing a bunch of things into a pot, adding spices or sauces, and seeing what happens.  I am a big collector of pre-packaged herb blends and sauces that I find at the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market – I am fascinated by moles from Mexico, curries from Thailand, Malaysia, India and the Philippines, stir fry sauces from Asia and Morocco.  Fun!

Today, I am experimenting with Trader Joe’s Red Curry Sauce (the Yellow Curry was fantastic – I think I used it with tuna filets).  Last night, I picked up two turkey thighs with skin and bone for $4.00 (about a pound).  Around noon, I looked through the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry to see what I could throw together.  Here goes…

Turkey Curry in a Crock Pot

2 turkey thighs (about 1 lb) with skin and bone
3 smallish potatoes (gold finns?), chopped
2 onions (Vidalia), chopped
baby carrots (about a cup), larger pieces chopped
1 red delicious apple, chopped
prunes, dried pitted
1 jar Trader Joe’s red curry sauce
2 tsp. Thai red curry paste
1 can petit diced tomatoes
2 roasted red peppers from a jar
2 cubes Dorot frozen cilantro
some flaked coconut
2/3 cup green peas, frozen

In the bottom of the slow cooker, I put in the onions, potatoes, carrots, and apple.  I scattered about 10-12 small dried prunes on that.

I washed the turkey thighs and put those on top of the vegetables.  Then, I poured the bottle of curry sauce on top of the thighs.  I added a little more water and the cilantro cubes and red curry paste and shook it up to get the dregs mixed in and poured that on top of the turkey.

I spread a can of petit diced tomatoes around the edges of the curry sauce, to fill in the space where the sauce was not covering the thighs, then added chopped jarred red bell peppers and coconut (just because I had it) to the mix.

On top, I put the green peas.  I turned the slow cooker to High for 6 hours.

I just found some more coconut milk in the freezer, and may add that later.

Now, I want to make beans and greens soup.  I just need some canned white beans…  I’ll let you know how the curry turns out!

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Now, About Chilaquiles Saturday, Jul 25 2009

I love chilaquiles – but luckily for me, I don’t get a chance to eat them that often.  I don’t make them myself, because I am afraid of frying things… sort of.  I don’t order them from restaurants any more. They are good, but they are always made with meat (usually chicken) and I just don’t think that’s necessary.

The first time I remember having chilaquiles was at the Mansion Iturbe in Patzcuaro, Mexico.  It was part of my breakfast, and accompanied by fried eggs and refried beans.  Awesome – two summers ago, when we went back to Patzcuaro, that was the first thing I was looking forward to.

That, and sopa tarasca – but that’s another entry.

Here are a couple of links to recipes for chilaquiles:

• This one goes both ways… red or green salsa.
• Here is a recipe from the Loteria Grill
• Here’s another from AllRecipes.com
• Look – Seafood Chilaquiles!
• Turkey Chilaquiles
• Chilaquiles with Chorizo (Farmer John’s recipe)
• Rick Bayless’ recipe with the inevitable chipotle chiles
• Here’s his Chilaquiles for a Crowd – more of a casserole
• Black Bean and Chicken Chilaquiles from Cooking Light
• Black Bean Chilaquiles from Moosewood Restaurant
• Here’s a Fairfield Farms/Moosewood Frozen Entree version

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I wish I could buy this house! Friday, Jul 24 2009

I was doing a little research on chilaquiles when I came upon a blog by a guy named Todd – he has a lovely picture of his breakfast chilaquiles.  He lives in Patzcuaro, Mexico – where I think I would love to have a house one day (boy, I hope my husband and I agree when the time comes… hee hee).  I am too tired to synthesize all of my chilaquile info, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

In the meantime – you’ve got to see the pictures this guy has taken of Michoacan – they are inspiring.  The name of his blog is Life in El Corazon.

Also, he has this gorgeous house for sale – it’s just outside of Patzcuaro and it’s called Corazon de Durazno (Heart of the Peach).  It must be a sign – moving from a place filled with Peachtree Streets to a Peach HOUSE?  I wish!

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Today seems to be all about Puebla! Wednesday, Jul 22 2009

Women making China Poblana costumes

Today, all of my internet activity seems to pull me toward Puebla.  I last visited there two years ago with my husband and my mother.  We actually stayed in Atlixco, with our friends the Maurers.  Ever since I was a teenager and first visited the Maurers with my family, I have considered living there.  I even sent my transcripts to the University of the Americas, which is situated in Puebla.

Today, while searching on a bit of information about the Mexican population in Jackson County, North Carolina, I came upon this article called Bridging Spanish language barriers in Southern schools.  In the article, they focus on people settling in North Carolina from San Pablito, which is the part of the state of Puebla that produces amate paintings and paper.

Then, an article on Chowhound mentioned the new popularity of the cemita poblana – a type of sandwich from Puebla.  Here is the description from Wikipedia:

A cemita, also known as a cemita poblana, is a Mexican sandwich and street food that originated in the city of Puebla.^[1]

It is distinguished from a torta by the fluffy sesame-seeded egg roll that it is served on. Additionally, the ingredients usually are restricted to sliced avocado, meat, white cheese, onions and red sauce (salsa roja).^[2] Recently it has appeared on the streets of New York, Los Angeles, and other cities with Mexican food vendors.

Now that I remember, I think it was this kind of sandwich that my husband ate in Puebla on the day before we returned to the U.S.  He had a case of food poisoning or dysentery so bad he though I might have to call a doctor to our hotel room in Mexico City.  I think it was the lettuce, tomato or cilantro on the sandwich.

Anyway, I digress.  From there, I read a fascinating article by a foodie traveling through Puebla – she called it “the Lyon of Mexico”.  The article is in the New York Times – here is the link.

I wonder if they can be found in Atlanta?

Here is another recipe for Chile-Marinated Pork Sandwiches on Cemita Rolls.  Here is a whole article called A Meal in a Sandwich from MexConnect.  Okay, time to go to bed before I get hungry again!

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We’re at the Yurt! Dinner in Sylva… Monday, Jul 20 2009

We took it pretty easy coming up to North Carolina – left at around noon and got here at 3:40, after stopping for lunch on the way.  When we got to the business office of Sun Dog Places, Caleb, the manager, had us follow him to the pavilion on Bear Creek Lake.

He showed us how the yurt was set up and showed us around the pavilion, which is this huge outdoor living room with a fireplace on one end and a dining area on the other end.  On the buffet is a satellite television, and there is a fully stocked kitchen and two big bathrooms with all of the amenities.

Our yurt is the smaller one, and it has everything you would need – but you have to walk up a path to go to the bathroom.  We took the dog down to the lake, where there is a small peninsula out from our place – the water was clear and the place is crawling with ANTS!  I don’t know what the deal is – I have never seen so many ants in one place!

After we got settled in, we went in to Sylva, about a 3o minute drives, to get groceries.  We decided to eat out tonight and cook for the rest of the time or eat sandwiches.  We went to this little place called Guadalupe’s – it had high end fusion food with home made cheeses, etc.  I ordered the goat burger, which was great.  My husband had a little more difficult time because everything seemed to have gluten in it – the goat burgers had oatmeal.  Talk about putting the “oat” in goat!

Time for bed.  There’s A/C in the yurt, but I don’t think we will need that at night.  More later!

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