Rancho la Puerta de los Caballitos

Found this post from May in my draft folder! The trip was amazing. The Ranch was out of this world...a million different exercise classes each day, fantastic food...I wish I had kept up with the blogging while we were there because now the memory is fuzzy. :(

5/19/12
Our 1st day in Mexico!
Woah its different from the states.
Everything is dusty.
The store fronts are small & most seem run down, but my aunt assures me, inside you find fantastic foods and crafts.
We get our visas, and stop by her home: "Ranchito de Mi Cabllios".
A beautiful wooden gate is slid aside to display a pebbled driveway which leads to a modest home.
This place is really about the horses. Along the drive way is a custom made fence with various apparatus for horses; areas to tie them to, rest their saddles, custom-made gates to walk through to pasture. There's even a specific bathing area for the horses tucked behind a small tack house.
As you pull up to the house you notice the dogs, 4 of them; Gabe, Sam, P and BC, and a cat, momma. They all run & jump & play together. BC & P have to be tied up; BC is a puppy & eats everything & P kills chickens...so funny, she is one of the oldest members of this pack and can still catch & kill a chicken!
Momma is the leader of this pack & let's everyone know it. She does not play around with the dogs. She suns herself on a patio chair or on the car, but don't be fooled she's watching you & if you get too close or do something she doesn't like, she will definitely let you know!
So we meet all the animals & head inside to find our room & leave our bags.
Inside the house is all tile, keeps it nice & cool, there is large open, living room & kitchen area & off to your left is a hallway which leads back to two bedrooms and a bathroom. There are ceiling fans in each room to help circulate the cool air.
We drop our bags & head out for lunch. We stop at M and feast on Biera (a beef stew), Po (a pork stew with hominey), a beef torta & a taco.
They give you a condiment platter when you sit of chopped raw white onion, hot sauce, cilantro, Spanish oregano, chili flakes, & .
Everything was delicious! The Biera was deep in flavor, but had a very light broth. The sweet flavors of the cinnamon & nutmeg mixed with the meatyness of the beef & mild spicyness of the peppers creates this fantastically complex dance on your tastebuds. The poslito was salty with pork & hearty with hominey.

Devil's Den

Looks can be decieving...
Poor service & poor seasoning in this quiet bar make for an unpleasant experience.

Long island weekend!

Didn't realize how much I missed it until I came back...

Working from home lunch :)

Pulled pork taquerittas! (I think I just made up that word) :)

TGFSC - The Weekend

Another forgotten about post...I think one of my 2013 resolutions needs to include blogging better...
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Oh My Goodness!
The end is in sight, finally!
Its not that its hard, its just that its annoying to have to total everything up.

Saturday was cold and overcast, but we had brunch plans. Instead of going out we invited a friend over for brunch and she offered to bring the pancake mix!
She showed up with pancake mix, strawberries, bananas & oranges...awesome!
All we had to do was provide and egg, some oil and some milk.

Our Saturday Menu:
Breakfast: WW pancakes with strawberries, bananas, and oranges
Lunch: chicken sandwich...yadda, yadda
Dinner: Chicken

Our Sunday Menu:
Breakfast: Cereal w/milk ($.75)
Lunch: Chicken sandwich...
Dinner: Chicken, rice, cabbage

I'm so glad this is over, not because it was difficult, but because its exhausting to count cents on every meal. I imagine that its easier when all you have you can eat. While I was sad that we were not able to eat out with our friends, I struggle with, whether or not, if you need food stamps, if you should be granted that luxury on the backs of others...

I still think about this and how much my meals cost and it is still a deterrent to eating out. But I feel extremely blessed that I have that option.

TGFSC - Day 5

Just to further enforce the fact that I'm a poor excuse for a blogger, I found this in my drafts folder, having never been published from APRIL! whoops!
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Day 5! Woo!!
So it's Friday and again I didn't plan ahead, so I was starving and cranky at one point.

Today was abnormal, I volunteered at an event at Citizens Bank Park. They promised breakfast, but only provided 1/2 a Dunkin Donuts bagel for each person and coffee; I don't drink coffee. I knew the event wasn't going to last all day, and thought I'd be home by 1pm to eat lunch, but 1pm turned to 2pm and I was a cranky witch.

I rush out of the event...gotta meet the lock guy at the new house at 2...N left her phone at work, so I'm waiting (starving) in the new, empty, house with Bella and some guy who is trying to explain the different locks to me.

N was a life saver and came back with a $1.25 chicken sandwich. Happy girl! :) She also talked to the lock guy so I didn't have to.

Our Menu for Friday:
Breakfast: Cottage Cheese ($.50)
Lunch: chicken sandwich, ww bread, lettuce, tomato ($1.25)
Dinner:
We were invited to a BBQ and all we had to bring was a side dish!
So a $1.99 box of tabouli did the trick!
I added in a $.25 tomato, bringing our grand total for the day to: $3.99

WooHoo!

Molly Malloy's does brunch?!

The cinnamon french toast was great!