After Holiday Break

I think this is what everyone needs. At least I do. I’m not complaining, as I had an absolutely fantastic Christmas and New Year’s celebration with my family. We all met at our home in Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico. We laughed and cooked and ate and laughed some more. And ate. And visited with friends. And ate. Oh my, I just realized that I can probably save a lot of time by not eating at all this month!

However, having said that, I wanted to tell you about a Peruvian restaurant I discovered. My youngest son and I were the last of our group left in Albuquerque, and we decided to try somewhere new for lunch. We picked “Pollito con Papas” on Gibson Boulevard.  Here’s what we ordered: fried yuca, grilled chicken thighs with fries, and grilled chicken thigh with stuffed potato. The yuca was fried to perfection, the chicken was lightly spiced and delicious and the potato was stuffed with a tasty chopped chicken filling. It was all very good. The presentation was simple and basic. Each dish was accompanied by “aji” sauce, which was a fresh tasting thin dipping sauce with a slight bite. My attempts to find something similar online have been unsuccessful, except to learn that it varies dramatically from table to table. Many versions contain tomatoes, but this clearly did not. The menu was limited and straight forward. They serve chicken and potatoes in several variations. I had my first taste of Inca Cola – a bright yellow soda pop which I could not bring myself to try in Peru. It is far too sweet for my liking. The only dessert on the menu is flan, which we felt obligated to try. It was a little more dense than I was expecting, but it was yummy. The fries and yuca are not the most healthy eating choices for after Christmas, but I thought I’d wait till I got back to Calgary for “real world” eating to take effect.

Now that I’m back home, I’m definitely trying to make better food choices. It has been so cold that I chose to hibernate for two days, but today I was able to visit the grocery store and stock up on lots of vegetables. My activities since arriving home have been somewhat limited as I’ve had a cat almost glued to my lap. It’s nice to know I’ve been missed! I’m working on some quilt bindings. Kush was content to sleep beside me for a little while but then decided she should help by weighting down my project. She’d hate to see it slip off the sewing table!