Dartboard

Saturday morning I did a test run of a cooking class I’m going to teach in July. It’s a three-week series at Kamigoto High School and Peter and Catherine are doing the other two weeks. For my weekend (July 16th), I’m making a huge Mexican meal of Tapas and Horchata. It’s quite the production so this weekend we did a test run with the Home Ec teacher. The food turned out great so let’s hope everything goes smoothly in July when we’ve got 20+ Japanese women running around in the kitchen too!

First I made horchata (rice milk) for the first time ever and was pretty happy with the way it turned out. All that grinding, blending, straining and draining is labor intensive though! I think they’ll all be surprised to know that it came from uncooked rice though!

Next we hand rolled our tortillas from masa. Even though they use presses in Mexico now, it’ll be a good experience for Japanese people who probably only know tacos and tortillas as those stale corn things in the foreign-food isle.

Knead, knead, knead!

I told them once you have them formed into balls and placed in a circle you must hold hands and dance around them, singing to thank the Corn Gods. A very important step.

Lots of flour to keep from sticking!

And you must spin with you fingers as done traditionally! Fast fingers to keep from burning!

Peter looking great in his Great Britain apron! What a sport!

Next we made Spanish rice, ground beef seasoned with lots of chili powder and guacamole, but no pictures cause it’s not as interesting…

Then we fried the tortillas to make them into crunchy tapas. (Also my first time trying this, but it turned out!)

Put a little refried beans on top…

A little beef, lettuce, tomato, homemade guacamole, sour cream and Tabasco sauce and you’ve got tapas deliciosas!!

I can’t wait for the real thing! I have to give a little presentation on American/Mexican culture as well. It should be fun!

Love, Sierra

A dreamcatcher my mom drew for a T-shirt crest. Pretty cute, huh?

Will it be a boy or a girl?