Frida Kahlo's Meatballs

For his birthday dinner last month, Dave requested that I make Frida's meatballs from Frida's Fiestas: Recipes and Reminiscences of Life with Frida Kahlo by Guadalupe Rivera and Marie-Pierre Colle. It's a lovely book in the tradition of Monet's Table. Does anybody remember that book? Somebody gave it to us as a wedding present in 1991 and I've been obsessed with yellow and blue kitchens ever since. Our kitchen in New England is pale straw and sky blue and the one in Mexico has a lemon yellow polished-cement floor and a cobalt tile pattern of sort-of daises on the countertops.

Anyway, we discovered the Frida cookbook in 1997 while living in Pátzcuaro, where going to the butcher to buy the pork and beef for these meatballs was a knee-buckling thrill. Shopping for meat at Guido's isn't so exciting, except for when I find myself in line with this guy. 

When I tweeted that I was making this dish, many people requested the recipe. I apologize for taking so long to post it. Here you go:

Meatballs in Chipotle Sauce

(8 servings)

1 lb. ground pork

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 eggs

1/4 cup bread crumbs

Salt and pepper

Chipotle Sauce

6 chipotle chiles, pickled or in marinade

6 medium tomatoes, roasted and peeled

1 cup chicken broth

2 garlic cloves

3 cumin seeds

1 tablespoon drived oregano

2 tablespoons lard (the butcher at Guido's looked at me like I had lost my mind when I asked if she had any)

Salt and pepper

Combine the pork, beef, ground cumin, garlic, eggs, bread crumbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Shape the mixture into medium-sized meatballs. Cook the meatballs in the Chipotle Sauce for about 25 minutes. 

To make the Chipotle Sauce, puree the chiles, tomatoes, broth, garlic, cumin seeds, and oregano. Strain. Sauté the puree in hot lard (or oil, as the case may be) and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil.

¡Buen provecho!

Twitter 101 in San Miguel de Allende: August 20

Hello! Lucky's custom letterpress Twitter icon.

I'm heading down to San Miguel de Allende to visit my mom and will offer a "Twitter 101: They Don't Call It Social Media for Nothing" how-to/why-to/what-to workshop on Thursday, August 20, 10am to noon, at our house in Colonia Guadalupe. I will cut through the Twitter hype with clarity, a rockin' tutorial handout, and excellent snacks.

US$25 or peso equivalent. To reserve a spot, please send me an email at ginahyams@gmail.com.

Three Generations of Hyams Women

San Miguel de Allende, February 2009
Photos by Judith "JJ" Anderson

Oue Funky Cheese Shack Girls Take San Miguel de Allende

Annalena and Hannah at the mercado on our recent trip to Mexico.

El Proyecto de Lavanda (The Lavender Project)

It's still brutal icy winter here in Massachusetts, but every morning shower brings a burst of Mexican sunshine via some wonderful soap that I picked up in the gift shop at San Miguel's botanical garden, El Charco del Ingenio. I'm generally not a fan of perfumed soaps, but the products made by The Lavender Project at Rancho la Colorada are heavenly. They seem to carry the smell of fresh lavender and desert air, along with the good karma of supporting a worthy cause.

From The Lavender Project website:

"In a pueblo in the central mountains of Mexico, the people can smell their independence. In a field surrounded by nopal cactus, each one looking like a collection of Mickey Mouse ears, are 2,000 fat lavender plants, which fill the country air with their famous aroma. This scent may be able to solve the problem that afflicts not just Rancho La Colorada (population 1,000), but so many pueblos across Mexico. The problem of the missing men and lost opportunities.

With almost all of the young and middle-aged men in town gone to the States looking for work (and maybe or maybe not sending money back), Rancho La Colorado feels like a women's commune. Until two years ago, these women and a few old men were supporting themselves mostly through subsistence farming. But now a U.S. non-profit called St. Anthony's Alliance is helping the pueblo become self-sufficient through lavender, with the idea that many of the townspeople can earn money through the cottage industries--soap-making, sewing sachet bags--associated with lavender. The hope is that many of the men now working in the States will eventually be able to afford to stay at home.

Now that the organic lavender plants are producing flowers, the town's co-operative has started to sell goods in the nearby tourist center of San Miguel de Allende."

--- Jeannie Ralston, author, The Unlikely Lavender Queen

Buenos Dias from San Miguel

Greetings from Cafe Etc. where there is miraculous wireless Internet connection. A quick hello. The previous post refers to my mother having had a small stroke. The good news: Her prognosis is excellent and poco a poco she's getting better each day. Her doctor and neurologist make house calls. They think she'll be walking in about a month. A physical therapist now comes daily to the house, a speech therapist a few times a week, and massage therapist a couple of times a week, along with the maid and gardener, and two caretakers to periodically spell me to shop for groceries, go to a Nia dance class, and...oh, maybe try to get some work done...la, la, la: welcome to expat life.

As difficult as all of this is, really, my mom couldn't have been luckier and we've been having a good time together. On the scale of strokes, hers isn't so bad and San Miguel has extraordinary and affordable resources available to aid her recovery. There may not be state-of-the-art medicine here, but there is world-class loving care.

More Sneak Peek Website Pages

Here are the other new page designs for my website. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Sneak Peek at My New Website

After various stops and starts, I'm super happy to report that Heather Rose is nearly done redesigning my website. The above is what she did with those Mexican wrestler postage stamps I picked up in San Miguel. This is the contact info page (double click on the image and it'll enlarge). Each page of the site has a gorgeous Rothko-like collage of Mexican walls in the background and many of the pages are discreetly seeded with magic potions. This page has some "call clients" magic soap. Love, love, love it.

Gina's Blogging Boot Camp in Mexico

Casa Sierra Negra del Sur

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be teaching a one-day Blogging Boot Camp in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico on Friday, February 20, 2009, 10am to 2pm at Casa Sierra Negra del Sur (Black Mountain South House…i.e. the fabulous Hyams-Barrett family compound).

Topics: Nuts and bolts how-to with helpful hand-outs galore, super savvy marketing tips, and oodles of creative inspiration to keep you fired up and cranking out compelling blog posts. I'll also reveal the meta and mini blog mysteries that are Facebook and Twitter.

$65 (includes snacks!)

To sign up, please send a note to ginahyams@gmail.com.

Mexican Wrestler Christmas Ornament

Happy holidays from Los Hyams-Barrett

Dos Mujeres Mexican Folk Art carries a slew of wonderful Mexican tin ornaments including this one.

Happy Day of the Dead

"There is more time than life."

-- Mexican proverb

"Day of the Dead celebrates the intimate, continuing relationship between the living and the dead. Like the celebration of a birthday, it reconfirms annually the love, goodwill, and generosity that the beloved can count on, no matter that they are dead."

-- Juanita Garciagodoy

"Day of the Dead altars give tangible form to our feelings of loyalty, affection, and longing for those who have passed away. The holiday isn't about ghosts and goblins; it's about the strength of family ties and enduring love. The Mexican mix of stoicism, wit, and reverence teaches us that death is a natural extension of life. By honoring our loved ones' spirits in living color, and sharing their legacies with our children and community, we nourish a sense of continuity. We are all much less alone."

-- Me

Candles to light the way for the spirits of our loved ones to find their way home, water to quench their thirst after the long journey, salt to represent the spice of life, and flowers to symbolize its ephemeral loveliness. Our Day of the Dead altar now stretches six feet across a window sill.

Chester, the guinea pig. A coconut mask kitty stands in for Etta-pus. We substituted mini pumpkins for marigolds.

My brother, Jan, and the blue bird of happiness he gave Annalena, along with polished stones that he tumbled himself.

My dad, Dave's dad.

Dave's brother, Pete. (The photo is his passport.)

My brother, Charlie, and grandmother, Mae.

Snapshots of Casa Sierra Negra del Sur

These cell phone snaps don't do it justice, but here's a peek at the Hyams-Barrett family compound in San Miguel...Aaaaaaaaaah.

Steps to roof terrace.

Roof garden.

Hammock on roof terrace.

Sitting area in courtyard garden.

My mom's kitchen and studio table topped with paintbrushes.

Day bed in my mom's studio.

Blurry shot of our kitchen, but I love the tile.

Our living room. Note subtle product placement on coffee table.

Living room steps made with colored cement. Our house has blue, red, green, and yellow floors.

Our bathtub of stars. The wall tile pattern was inspired by a
Mondrian painting.

Snapshots of San Miguel Parade

I post these images of the recent Fiesta de San Miguel parade for those who dismiss San Miguel de Allende as being the Disneyland of Mexico, its authenticity ruined by margarita-swilling Texans. Scratch the surface and it's clear that life goes on there as it has for centuries.

Soap of Money

I paid a visit to the magic supplies stall at Mercado de San Juan de Dios in search of a few lucky talismans to bless my new website. For years I've written with a little bottle of Mexican Wite-Out filled with "extracto original gota de suerte" (drop of luck original extract) next to my computer. Today I found three special spell-casting soaps: one for "pronto dinero" (quick cash), one for "llama cliente" (call clients), and one for "abre camino" (clear path).

Mexican Wrestler Postage Stamps

I'm in the midst of a website redesign and my designer, Heather Rose, wrote yesterday asking that I bring back a letter with my name on it and a San Miguel postmark. I don't know what she plans to do with it graphically, but trust her instincts, so made my way to the correo this morning.

I could not believe my good fortune when the only stamps in stock were these limited edition ones depicting El Santo. I'm grateful to the post office clerk who agreed to postmark the letter without actually mailing it (which could take weeks or never to reach Massachusetts) when I explained that it was for arte.

Mexican Wrestlers Are My Weakness

Today's purchase: This note card by Gusano de Luz.

I swore to Dave that I wouldn't shop on this trip given the fact that we're heading into New England winter heating bills and my economic future is hazy...but of course I had to check in on my favorite spots today...the news: we are in the midst of an enthralling Mexican wrestler moment here in San Miguel. El Santo is turning up on almost as many items as the Virgin of Guadalupe and Frida Kahlo. I even saw a puta doll wearing a painted wrestler mask. I exhibited extraordinary restraint by keeping the damage to the above note card and to three wrestler-and-glitter-embellished boxes of matches (justified because of the cord of wood that's waiting at home to be burned this winter).

Fiesta of San Miguel

Photo by Deb Hall -- see below for links to more of her fiesta photos and to information about her great folk art shop.

After a breakfast of fresh jugo de guayaba (guava juice) and huevos mexicana at Casa Crayola's sweet new cafe, my mom and I headed up to the Jardín so that I could get some pesos from the ATM machine. On the way there, we stumbled upon part of the Fiesta de San Miguel, the annual celebration honoring the city's patron saint, Archangel Saint Michael, during which, among other things, dozens of traditional community dance groups from across Mexico convene to dance through the cobblestone streets in full masked splendor, festooned with peacock feathers, fake flowers, Christmas decorations, feather dusters, satin ribbons, antlers, embroidered gowns, sequin-encrusted cloaks, animal pelts, Mardi Gras beads, and gallons and gallons of glitter. It's an unbelievably good time.

I took a bunch of photos with my cell phone, but am having trouble sending them to my e-mail, so I urge you to check out Deb Hall's marvelous account of last year's festivities -- click here and here. Deb and her husband Rick own Zocalo, a seriously awesome folk art shop located both here in San Miguel and in Patzcuaro.

Expat Shopping List

A week from today, I'm flying to San Miguel de Allende to visit my mom who lives there. She's asked me to bring down crunchy peanut butter and steel cut oats. It's funny what one misses living in a foreign country.

When we lived in Mexico and friends asked what they could bring us, I always requested Peet's coffee or California wine. Ten years later, good coffee and wine are available in San Miguel, but crunchy peanut butter and steel cut oats remain elusive or they're imported and crazy expensive at gourmet foods shops ("gourmet" should be in quotes, as these stores stock things like US$12 boxes of Hamburger Helper for desperate homesick expatriates).

I'm also going to pack some Berkshire Bark and horseradish mustard, both of which will be appreciated taste treats from el norte.

P.S. Those of you considering fleeing the country if Obama doesn't win might want to check out Expat: Women's True Tales of Life Abroad. (I contributed the opening essay.)