Sara, Fancy and Tall

TGIF: My Mexican (Un)Birthday..

Well, get ready to judge me, because after I tell you this big ol' secret, you will think us ILP teachers are all awful people. Are you ready? Sit down.

Today was my birthday. Actually, let me rephrase that. Today was my fake birthday that me and my friends all made up so that we could have a party and eat cake, for no reason at all.

Yes, thats right. We told everyone it was my birthday. We told everyone I turned 20, even though I already did back in July on my REAL birthday. We bought a cake. We invited all of our friends. We told all of our students it was my actual birthday. We are awful, and we know it, ok?

But besides the fact that we are all a bunch of frauds, we had a TON of fun. And its only going to get better, because we made up a fake birthday for everyone in our group, except Courtney, because it is actually her real birthday while we are here.

So my Mexican/Fake (Un)Birthday was fabulous!

I started my day out with a long run, and then Zumba class. Afterwards I had a little morning break and then we met up for our weekly culture class, with one of our BFF's Irma. She is an amazing lady, with beautiful kids, and a super nice home. Irma, is always stylish, tons of fun and energy and she speaks really great spanish, so we can understand her.

For our adventure with Irma today, we went to el mercado, or the market, to shop for some groceries, try lots of new things, and stare at all the choices of fresh, raw and handmade food. There were whole dead animals just hanging in the market...it was pretty nasty to walk past, let alone eat next to. The food was also verrry cheap, which was awesome, and there were SOO many fruits and veggies, we loved it!!

After the market, we headed over to Irma's house, our culture teacher. She is amazing and way cool. She always has the cutest outfits, and frequently wears leopard pants with her boots. She has two little kids and loves to cook she said.

First we sliced up some jicama and cucumbers and sprinkled them with chile and lime. Lime makes everything taste awesome, and the chile was super yummy here. We will have to get ourselves some at the store soon, so we can put in on everything like natives.

Basically we took over her kitchen, and we all had our own little job to help make our lunch for today. We had no idea how much food we were actually making...it was WAY more than expected.

This was actually really interesting. We grilled the poblano peppers on the stove until nice and crispy hot, then out them in a plastic bag, sealed tight, and let them sweat, so we could get the skin of easily. We used the poblano peppers for the soup. Yum!!

Jamaica, a flower, is popular as a drink. We took dried petals and boiled them in water to make jamaica water, which is very common. It was SUPER delicious, and I would totally make it again. It was a really good summer drink, not to much flavor, but not boring like water. Its also known to help cure stomach problems, and is the color of cranberry juice.

This wasn't even the half of the ingredients that went into our lunch. But you can see the jamaica in the bag up top, the corn for the soup, the mandarins for dessert, the tortillas for our chalupas, the jimaca and cucumbers, and lastly, those purple/blue oval tortillas? They are calles azul tortillas, which are thick like pitas, and have black beans between the tortilla layers...these are extra yummy!

Once we completed our big cooking adventure, we got to eat it all too! First we had some soup, which was a chicken broth with zucchini, corn, poblano peppers and chayote, another kind of squash. We made sure to write that recipe down, because I will be making it for everyone I know at home. It was my favorite.! After the soup, we enjoyed these chalupas, both with cheese, one with beans, the other with pork and salsa verde, which we also learned to make. We boiled down several ingredients, including tomatoes, peppers, garlic, etc, and then put them in a blender for instant green salsa. Soo Good!!

Clearly we enjoyed ALL of our food, and we even made grilled nopal. Its big flat cactus leaves and we put lime and salt on them. They are a little slimy, but good and way low in calories.

Also, since today was my "birthday", Irma taught us how to make a so simple mexican cheesecake. We blended lechera, cream cheese and two eggs together, put it in a graham cracker crust, baked it for twenty minutes, and spread mora (berries) on top. Success!! That was one awesome birthday cake. Did I mention that Lechera goes good on and in everything?!?!

It was even cuter because Irma sang to me all by herself, the typical Mexican Birthday song. She is really a sweet sweet lady.

Anyways, we barely made it back in time for school, and when I got there, I found this! Ohh my my,..now everyone knows its my birthday. Shoot. Our friends at the school are so cute though..isn't this so nice?? Carol was really proud of her bulletin board creation. haha.
After four long hours of school, I really wanted a nap, but instead we had a party!!!! We were too stuffed from lunch to go out to eat, so we just skipped it, and went to my house for cake and games and dancing. We invited some of our school friends, and church friends.

They all sang to me in spanish, and this was no typical birthday song. It was much longer and I am pretty sure they harmonized.

The cake was SUPER fantastic. Ashley snuck out during teaching to go buy a tres leches cake, because we have been dying for one, and obviously Birthdays are perfect occasions. It was tres leches with chocolate and nuez. This means, it had three milks, regular, evaporated and sweetened condensed milk, with chocolate and pecan. Yum!!! This picture doesn't even do it justice. The cakes here look way awesome. We ate the whole entire cake between us all. We played some silly games, and practiced our salsa dancing and just laughed like crazy. Thank goodness for Mexican UnBirthdays and Cake.!

-Sara Jacqueline