June 21, 2005
Spicy
This evening, we took advantage of the longest day of the year and took a long ride. We picked up a couple things at Binny's in Des Plaines (not for consuming until later... we practice safe cycling), and wound up at Farmer's Pride, which is a produce stand/Mexican grocery near my place.
Thanks to a tip from Liz, we found the premade fajitas at the deli counter. These are pre-cut meat and vegetables sitting in a marinade, and you buy it by the pound (about $2.99/lb. to be more specific). We also picked up some of their homemade pico de gallo, tortillas, beans, and cheese. At home, Lisa just threw the fajita mix in the wok for a few minutes and it cooked up beautifully.
The color in the photo above is slightly off, but the food was great.
My contributions to the meal were (a) lugging all this stuff in the bags on my bike; and (b) making caipirinhas with the cachaça we bought.
A lot of bars don't make real caipirinhas-- they use vodka instead of cachaça, and bottled lime juice instead of real smashed limes, which just ain't right. Here's my caipirinha recipe:
2 limes, sliced in quarters
2 tablespoons of sugar
2½ oz cachaça
crushed ice
Squeeze the limes into the glass. Add the sugar and with a wooden spoon, mash the sugar into the lime wedges (pulp side). Add the cachaça, stir, then add the crushed ice. Stir well and enjoy. You don't have to be scientific here-- feel free to play with the amounts until you hit a mixture that works for you.
So there you have it-- a Mexican dinner with a Brazilian side.
Posted by jtl at June 21, 2005 10:44 PM