Trying to find the Jalapeno Margarita of My Dreams!

Several years ago in a restaurant in Old Town San Diego, I had a Jalapeno Margarita and fell in love!

In love with the sweet spiciness of the drink and the way it felt so sweet on the tongue while it was in your mouth but after you swallowed left the signature tingling of a fresh jalapeno. I loved the color of it and the way they rimmed the glass with lime then a jalapeno then salt so your lips were burning the whole time you drank it. Yum!!!

I know that seems crazy, but trust me, it's delicious!

So I decided today to try to make a margarita that I found on a website called Hispanic Kitchen. I love this website! They have the most delicious recipes and they are tried and true. If you are looking for a great place to find recipes for fabulous Hispanic foods then head over there and check out their website. Or if you are on Facebook you can find them there under Hispanic Kitchen.

So anyway, I've been wanting to try their "Some Like It Hot Cocktail".  Here's a photo of the drink from their website.

Photo Credit - Hispanic Kitchen 

Doesn't that look refreshing? The recipe cause me a little concern though, here is the recipe from their website:

The Jalapeno-Infused Agave Nectar threw me for a loop! Where does one find that? Luckily, I have the world at my finger tips and I googled and found that you create that by buying agave nectar, sort of a honey made from the agave plant and then infusing it with jalapenos.

So I diced up three jalapenos and steeped them in 10 ounces of simmering water...see! I used the whole jalapeno, membrane and seeds since that is where all the heat is and I wanted that heat!!! Oh...and a tip here, if you decide to make this, turn the vent on over your stove because as these are simmering they release something that makes you cough like crazy!

I found a bottle of Agave Nectar Friday night when my sister and I went out for Sister Night. Quick wrap up of that was we went to Denny's for their Nachos. If you have not had Denny's Nachos I suggest you go right away because they are delicious! Who would have thunk it right?

Here's the bottle I used, it was an amber agave. I was worried that wouldn't give the drink the right color, but you'll see...it worked just fine. This smells like molasses but tastes like honey, very weird, but I liked it!

So I pour the jalapeno water into the Agave Nectar in a plastic container and it was still a very dark brown color but just beautiful. So that my friends is how you infuse Jalapeno into Agave Nectar! Who knew! I dipped my finger into this...it's hot! And not just temperature hot...it's spicy hot!!!

Several months ago I had a friend that gave me two bottles of Tequila, so I made the first drinks using the Tres Generaciones tequila. Tres Generaciones means Three Generations and it's a very good tequila. Here's a picture of the first one I tried.

With the first drink I muddled the raspberries alone, then added the other ingredients to them in the shaker with some ice. It was very good but I felt it could have used a little more sweetness.

So with the 2nd drink, I used two more raspberries and I put them in the shaker with all the other ingredients except the ice and then muddled the tequila, raspberries, lime and jalapeno-infused agave nectar all together, then added ice and shook. I also rimmed the glass with a bit of lime, a bit of jalapeno and a bit of salt...made all the difference in the world, it was delicious!

I also used the other tequila which I definitely liked better, someday I shall have to take a shot of each and see which is better alone. This one is Xicote Tequila, I couldn't find a website for them.

Earlier in the day I placed some chicken breasts atop some chopped onion and red and green bell peppers and added some fajita seasoning and that should be ready any minute. I've had that delicious smell filling my house all afternoon and now I'm mellow and ready for some chicken fajitas and maybe a beer to go with them and then to relax the rest of the evening to prepare for this next week and then a 3-day weekend next week!!! Life is good! How was your Sunday?

   

Happy Birthday to my precious Son!

On August 19, 1985 I had one of the roughest days of my life. I had this little human being trying to exit my body butt first! My son James tried to come into the world folded up like a little taco with one leg on either side of his ears!

I remember the doctor feeling around down there and telling me, “Oh it’s going to be any minute, I feel her little head”. Back in those days we didn't just automatically find out if it was going to be a boy or a girl, so I had no clue.

An hour later the same doctor was telling me the same thing, to just hang in there the baby’s head is in position.

Another hour later, same thing…

After several hours of this the doctor finally realized that the baby was in some distress according to the fetal monitor strapped to my tummy and she ordered an X-ray to be done right away. You can't imagine how painful it was to go through contractions with a little human struggling to get out of you and you have to hold still for an X-ray? But I did it, with hardly any thought for myself, my baby was in distress and that was all I cared about.

After the doctor reviewed the X-ray she came into the room where I was still in painful labor with my mom on one side and my husband on the other. She explained that the little stinker was trying to make her entrance into this world butt first! She said the only thing we could do at this point was a C-section.

My husband was very much against my being put under; he felt that I wouldn't wake up again so he asked her for another option. Dr. Admiral, I will never forget her name, Dr. Admiral told my husband that he did have one other option, “We can just sit here and do nothing and you can watch your wife and your baby die!”

I told him, “Shut up and let her do what she has to do, I trust her!” And they wheeled me off into surgery.

At that time they didn't allow spouses to come into the surgery room, I was alone, but I didn't feel alone because I had someone else with me, that same little human being that was trying to split me in two was with me and I've never been alone since!

All I can remember is they strapped down my arms and they strapped down my legs and I just wanted to curl into a little ball from the pain but I couldn't…I was strapped down, then the blessed Anesthesiologist put me under and I felt nothing after that.

I woke up while I was being wheeled down the hall to the recovery room, the vision of my husband hovering over me and exclaiming, “Alice, it’s a boy, a beautiful little boy with blue eyes!” I just said, “That’s nice, leave me alone now.”

Afterwards I was in so much pain that the last thing in the world I wanted was to get up out of bed and take care of this baby, but the nurse brought him to me and told me I had to take care of him. I told her, “no thank you, take him away, I’m not going to get up, I hurt!” She said, “Oh honey…you’ll get up” and she walked out and left him there in his crib by my bed.

She knew what a mother’s love was. She knew that I would not let my baby cry. She knew I would get my ass out of bed come hell or high water to take care of my baby…she knew! And I did, and I fell in love with that sweet little boy, my son.

My Son - my come into the world butt first...son!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

 

On The Road Again! Historic Tehachapi! And Brains on the Tunnel!

This week we did Sister Night early, on Tuesday. We had a good reason and we did something a little different.

My sister Lisa happened to have a doctors appointment in Bakersfield. Since she was already in town it made sense to meet up for dinner. I happened to have a rental car courtesy of General Motors since they were fixing some recalls on my car. We figured, we're already both in Bakersfield and we have a rental car, why not head to the beach for dinner?

The reason we didn't go to the beach is that it's a couple hours away, so we thought we would head the opposite way and that's how we ended up in the beautiful historic City of Tehachapi.

I've been through Tehachapi dozens of times as that's the way we usually head when we visit Arizona or on the way to Las Vegas, but I had never actually stopped and visited. Glad that we did because we really had a good time and it's a beautiful little community.

Tehachapi is 35 miles East South East of Bakersfield. The drive up is beautiful. You barely get out of Bakersfield before you start climbing and pretty soon you are surrounded by beautiful rolling hills. The only sad thing was how dried out the hills were. I normally have always headed that way in the spring or autumn and was used to see rolling green hills, so this was quite a change. But even with the hills dry and yellow, it didn't take away from the natural beauty!

Lisa tried to capture some of the beauty as we drove along as you can see in this collage. The photo on the top right shows the rolling hills somewhat but it is hard to capture the depth of the mountains, especially in a moving car.

Lisa also took photos of one of the mountain tunnels which is part of the Historic Tehachapi Loop. Per Wikipedia, The Tehachapi Loop is a 0.73-mile (1.17 km) long 'spiral', or helix, on the Union Pacific Railroad line through Tehachapi Pass, of the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, south-central California. The line connects Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley to Mojave in the Mojave Desert. Seeing a daily average of almost 40 trains, the line is one of the busiest single-track mainlines in the world.

The reason I put a close up of the tunnel in the picture is because many years ago, when my son Jim was about 5 years old or so, we traveled to Arizona for a funeral. My brother Fred was driving and my son Jim was driving Fred crazy with questions and just generally chatting away without really saying anything. So Fred pointed out the dark spot at the top of the bridge and asked Jim if he knew what that was and why it was there? Jim had no clue. Fred told him that back in the day hobo's and bank robbers would ride on the top of the trains and that sometimes it was nighttime and they didn't realize the tunnel was coming up and the hobo's and bank robbers would clobber their heads on the top of the tunnels and that mark was the dried blood and brains left from their heads busting against the concrete!

I know the story is gory and scary and totally made up, but it got Jim to staring out the window and trying to see the bloody spot on the remaining tunnels. That kept him entertained for a couple of miles. Hey! When you're travelling with a boy as active and curious as my son was, you do what you have to do to keep him entertained!

Lisa and I finally got into Tehachapi and we spent a good half hour just driving around up and down their main street and turning into side streets when we would see something interesting. Tehachapi was about 10 degrees cooler than Bakersfield. It was 81 degrees and there was a nice breeze and the air....Oh my Goodness...the air was so clean and fresh compared to Bakersfield air! We loved it.

Most of the stores on the main street were closed, and we've made plans to return on a Saturday to walk around and take our mom to a cute little Mexican restaurant we went to. But we may just go to another cute little restaurant called The Apple Shed. Tehachapi is known for their Apple Festival and I have always wanted to go.

After a nice dinner we headed home and we felt like we'd had a weekend getaway. Sometimes just a change of scenery helps!