I am buried under the remaining hunk of a very long book that I am indexing so there won't be many posts between now and probably Tuesday. But you never know. In the meantime, here is a picture of our Rosca de Reyes.
Jim and I both found Baby Jesuses. We're not exactly sure what do make of this as there should only be one, as far as I know. You're supposed only to be able to find one if you are a person of faith. Jim found his first, then I found mine. Hmm.
Those are nopalitos on the right. Just put them there for fun. Doña Gloria, our vegetable lady, sold them to me yesterday. We've got a giant nopal in front of our house, but I've never used the hojas. What a waste! And ours aren't even the kind that have those little prickly spines.
They are very easy to cook. You can chop them and boil them for about ten minutes and then rinse if you want. They are kind of slimy like okra. Then you can fry them in oil with just onions, onions and garlic, onions, garlic, tomatoes, chiles, etc. You can put in a dab of epazote. You can eat them by themselves as a vegetable. You can put them on tortillas with beans or meat or mix them with scrambled eggs. Whatever. Here is a link to a site in English that has some creative-looking recipes.
Nopales are supposed to be very good for your health. I make no claims, but if you can't bring yourself to try something unless it is somehow healthy, here is a site for you to look at. It's actually a site of a company that is growing nopales commercially here in Mexico.
Below are a couple of pictures of the nopal plant in front of our house. The coloring is odd-- they aren't so shiny-seeming in the day, for one thing, because the sun was going down and I used the flash. I just now took them. This is such a good way to procrastinate doing the end of my index.
Here's the whole plant, maybe 7 feet tall.
Here's one of the pads sprouting fruit. The fruit is called tuna and is very popular. It makes a good agua fresca and is also eaten plain.
Here's a picture of clouds near sunset that Jim took from our balcón a few days ago. Nice, huh?