Knitting through the holidays!

Mom and Dad were here for the weekend so we were super busy! Mom and I got her 6 year old sweater finished and it looks great...of course I FORGOT to take a picture!!! Duh! Well I'll get Mom to take a picture and send it along for you to see. Mom and Dad did their cooking classes in Oaxaca, Mexico again this year and they shared their recipes with us. We made a pecan soup, habearo pepper and orange butter, and a pumpkin seed mole that was outstanding. Here are the recipes Sopa de nuez con chile chilpotle © Restaurante El Naranjo, 2005 Serving Size: 8 4 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon vegetable oil 1 large garlic clove, crushed 1 pound roma tomatoes, quartered 1/2 pound pecans 1 ounce stale bread 7 cups milk (whole milk) 4 canned chilpotle chilies in adobo, or to taste salt, to taste freshly ground pepper, to taste 8 pecan halves Melt the butter along with the oil in a medium saucepan, fry the garlic, bread and pecans, until all golden, divide the mixture in batches and place in the blender with some of the milk, and some of the tomatoes and chilpotles, be sure that the mixture is smooth, place back the blended mixture into the saucepan, repeat the process until finished, and bring to a boil, season with salt and black pepper to taste. Let it simmer for 3 min, serve hot, and decorate each bowl with a pecan half. Orange and Habanera Butter Adapted from Restaurante El Naranjo, Oaxaca Zest of one orange One small orange Habanera with seeds removed - chopped as fine as possible. Two sticks butter, softened to room temperature. Blend ingredients by hand or with mixer. Serve with french bread..yummmy, it gets hotter each day! Pumpkin Mole (traditional Mayan recipe) 1.5 cups of dried pumpkin seeds 2 chilpotle chilies in adobo (more if you want it spicier) 1 can Glen Muir roasted tomatoes 2.5 squares of Giradelli dark chocolate 1/2 flour tortila salt to taste First roast the pumpkin seeds in a large pan. In a blender combine all the ingredients in batches until everything is the consistency of wet mud. Add all the batches back to the pan and slowly bring to a slow simmer. Cook for 15 minutes or so and salt to taste. We ate soooooo well over the weekend and I really don't want to get near a scale! Anyway, back to serious knitting this weekend after the TAS Student year-end party on Friday! TTFN