An Appetizer

We do a very similar thing in the states using “pepper jelly.”  I love the smoky taste of chipotle peppers – which are really smoked jalapeños! – and apricot jam combo.

1 small can of mexican chipotle chile peppers

1 small jar of apricot jam

1 8 oz bar of cream cheese

crackers

Blend a cup of jam in the blender with ½ of a chipotle chile pepper from the can and a lot of the chipotle sauce from the can.  Pour over the cream cheese on a medium plate.  Serve with crackers.  Everyone who I’ve seen try this, loves it.  You can make it as spicy as you want – just add more chili peppers.  Save any leftover chipotle peppers and sauce in the freezer for the next recipe… one of our favorites!

Language blooper: “Ojo,” “ajo,” and “hoja,”  try saying those three fast!  (remembering that the “h” is silent in Spanish)  “Ojo” is eye, “ajo” is garlic and “hoja” is leaf.  Just imagine all the trouble we used to get into eating eyes and adding leaves to our food!

Horchata de Avena

This delicious drink is very popular in Mexican restaurants.  It is traditionally made with rice, but the only way my friend makes it is with oats, avena.  I am an oat-lover so this suits me just fine ☺

1 can of evaporated milk

½ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ + ⅓ C sugar

enough cold water to fill a ½ gallon pitcher

½ – 1 C ground oats (grind them in the blender.  They grind better if you do more at a time.)

a pinch of salt – my addition

Stir and serve immediately.

Ivonne makes a gallon of Horchata using the same amount of evaporated milk and doubling everything else but it isn’t quite as creamy.  This drink needs to be stirred before serving each glass.  The oats will be slimy by the next day – it is best served and drunk the first day or left unstirred after that.

Language blooper: I have a tendency to confuse the words “mollete” and “mollote.”  “Mollete” is a type of food (recipe to follow), “mollote” is a mexican word for mosquito!  Let’s not be eating mosquitos or be bitten by hunks of bread and beans!!!

Introductions

To start out, my name is Maria Van Wormer.  My husband and I are missionaries in Chihuahua, Mexico with our five children.  John is a pilot and I am a homemaker, piano teacher and music leader for the mission ladies’ meetings.

Just before arriving here, five years ago, to learn Spanish we lived a whirlwind!  Three weeks before classes began was the first we heard of the option to learn Spanish here in Chihuahua.  Within those three weeks we were living in a new country, studying a new language, making new friends and eating new food!

To make a wonderful story short, the lady who took care of our three girls while we were in Spanish study has become one of my closest friends during these five years we have lived in Mexico.  She hates English (unlike most of the Mexicans we run into who want to practice their English with you) and so our children were forced to learn Spanish from day one (praise the Lord).  She loves cooking and from her I have learned almost all I know about Mexican food and cooking.  This blog is very lovingly dedicated to my dear friend Ivonne.  I could have called it “Maria’s Mexican Recipes,” but they aren’t mine.  They are just being translated across the language and cultural barriers to your cookbook.  I hope you enjoy making some new things in the kitchen!!!

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