Mexican night

As you can see by the pics, we all had fun at our little Mexican party last Sunday night. I made a wonderful Mexican Seafood soup that everyone loved, by the sounds of it.

Seafood Soup Basics
One litre of veggie soup broth or fish stalk.
a variety of seafood,including prawns,a white fish,trout or salmon,and whatever other seafood you have on hand...including 2 lobster tails if they are kicking around! Otherwise,at Safeway,they have a bag of mixed seafood that includes cuttle-fish,squid and mussels and shrimp...It costs about $6.00 and does the job.I also used a half bag of scallops.
Then you will need either fresh,frozen or canned tomatoes ( abouat a quart) and 2 cooking onions, and 3 stalks of celery, a green pepper, acouple of jalopenos, two potatoes, peppercorns, clilantro and lime juice and lime rind grated. The rest of the veggies can be chopped up. Olive Oil to fry the veggies in. Salt and pepper.


I used one opf Emil's trout and a one litre tetra pack of Campbell vegetable broth. I never realized that these tetra packs offered such a variety by the time you consider the brands. Safeway had them on sale at 2 for $5.00...and certain ones were lower sodium than the others.
So I boiled up the fish with the broth and a little more water and an onion all chopped up and ten peppercorns. After simmerring for twenty minutes or so, the soup is poured through a strainer. The onion and fish bones get tossed and the liquid is reserved,separate from the deboned fish meat.
In your big soup pot,fry up the onions and celery and green peppers and jalapenos, and when soft, add the tomatoes. Simmer a bit and add the remaining soup broth from your fish. bring to a light boil and add the cubed potaotes. Add your cuttlefish and mussle mixture and let simmer for ten minutes after it comes to a boil ( turn heat down). At this point, you can chop up your white fish ( cod, halibut,bass) and add it,then add your scallops and lastly add the prawns and your cooked trout or salmon pieces that you used for the initial fish broth. Add 6 sprigs of cilantro and more ground pepper and a little salt...taste it and you will see how nice the cilantro gives flavour to the broth. Don't boil it to death, just cook until the prawns are pink or heated through if they are precooked.Your soup is nearly done. Grate the peel of a lime and throw that in,as well as the juice of a lime ,or about a !/4 cup of bought lime juice. To serve the soup, remove the long cilantro sprigs, and top the soup with chopped bits of cilantro for colour, or so that each scoop of soup has a little color on top.
So try it out when it is a cold winter day. You'll enjoy the fresh flavour, and the seafood was delicious.

So back to the party..
We started off with loaded up natchos,followed by the soup, and then it was a freeforall as everyone fixed their own fahitas after I prepared the chicken and peppers and onion mixture.
In additon, I made coleslaw with cilantro,thin sliced cucumbers,and thin slices of red onion, topped with a dressing of lime juice, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt and a dash of hot sauce.

Janice and Linda brought platters of Xmas baking incuding a fruitcake made with chocolate in it, and also a pile of beautiful truffles and biscotti that Janice and Linda made together. Yum. We were like fat little piglets after each truffle was tested!
Instead of our usual Train game, we tried our hand at Texas Hold'em. That was fun as you never know which cards will turn up. Ed was up ato tricks with his shades on and a toy revolver to keep everyone honest! JAnice and Gord and then ed were the big winners. I had only two hands that were reasonabley bidable, and the rest was just a bluff into oblivion. Out of desperation, I went "All in" and that was it! I was "All in!"
It was a fun way to spend an evening...We bought our ten bucks worth of chips and that lasted us through till 10:30 when everyone called it a night.

Sometime after that, I came down with a Sinus/Cold thing. Sinutabs and miVitality are keeping it at bay, but at night my ear begins to ache...which is what is going on right now, so I'll say good night.
If anyone was waiting for a Christmas letter, most of our news can be found right here in this blog...just check the Archives.

And if I don't get back on here...two more days of work...I would like to wish all of my dear sweet friends and relatives a very Happy Christmas. It won't be the same this year without Sonia and Steve and Annette and Kaleigh and MAddie, that is for sure. I hope we can have fun via phone and pretend we are there.
In the meantime, Emil brought his mom over for a few days prior to Christams, then she will spend Xmas day at Lawrences. She is getting more frail, but seems to enjoy all the food and especially the cakes and cookie and chocolate parts of the meal!
Feliz Navidad Everyone!

Take your turkey out soon if you want it thawed for Monday,but don't let any of the meat get warm...nor should you leave it where the cat can chew away at it. I have mine in the roaster downstairs, on the freezer. Once it thaws a bit, I will put it in cold water and just keep turning it over and adding new cold water...or maybe this year, I will try brining it. You add about 1 cup of course salt to a large pot of water that will hold the turkey and cover it all....,and let it sit for 4 or 5 hours just prior to cooking . The meat is very tender and juicy when cooked this way, but the white meat often has a pink tinge that looks uncooked when it really is cooked.Also, if you check out the recipe link above and follow the instructions for roasting the turkey, you'll see that the cooking time is cut way down, but the thickest part of the white meat should still measure 170*


"The Creator"