November 26, 2014 Breakfast - Shrimp omelet Dinner – Shrimp Salad filled avocados

five shrimp let to peel

making the shrimp omelet

fish and shrimp stock

shrimp omelet 

 a nice gate in he neighborhood

the neighborhood tacos al pastor stand

We are settling in and trying to relax today.  We have nothing more planned than to sit on the veranda and watch the ocean, although we made plans to go to Yalapa tomorrow for a lobster dinner on the beach for our Thanksgiving Dinner and we signed up for a Mexican cooking course on Friday, so activity will pick up soon. 

This morning I shelled the 30 or so shrimp we bought yesterday we started a fish stock with the shrimp shells and the bones and head from the red snapper we bought yesterday for a fish soup.  We then made a shrimp omelet with about 10 shrimp, some sliced onion, tomato, cilantro, some shredded Manchego cheese and garnished it with slices of avocado.  We drank the fresh squeezed orange juice that we also bought yesterday for breakfast.  After breakfast we made mojitos to mix with the last of the orange juice, which made an interesting drink and took them to the veranda that stands about fifteen feet above the beach and lay in deck chairs and read and dozed off all morning and well past noon.

Finally around 2:30 we became hungry again and decided to make shrimp salad stuffed avocados, one of our favorite salads.  We walked to the center to our favorite grocery market.  When we arrived there was a lady sitting beside a large pickup truck filled with the largest limes I have ever seen.  A sign advertised them for 10 pesos per kilo, which seemed like a good price.  I said we would take 1 kilo and she said she had a 2 kilo bag if I wanted it and that the bigger limes were juicier.  I said yes and we bought 4.4 lbs. of huge limes for about $1.50 (the exchange rate is $1.00 =13 pesos).  As I said yesterday, the ingredients that are locally grown are fabulously fresh, ripe and large.

We walked into the grocery store and asked about lettuce and the lady went to a cooler and brought out two types of romaine lettuce, one type was a single large head in a plastic sleeve just like in the states and the other was a bag with several hearts of romaine in a single bag, just like in the states. 

We chose the single head since we only needed if for one or two salads.  Suzette also selected several avocados and a red bell pepper.  The total was 64 pesos.

We walked back to No. 11 Palmar to the condo and Suzette started a pan heating with butter and olive oil, while I chopped up about ¼ onion and about ¼ of the bell pepper and 1Tbsp. of fresh cilantro.

I pulled the limp outer leaves off the lettuce and then six firm inner leaves.  Suzette cleaned the six inner leaves in purified water and laid three of them on each plate.

Suzette then sautéed the pepper, cilantro and onion with about 10 shrimp for a few minutes until cooked, while I made a mayonnaise dressing with about ½ cup of mayo, ¼ cucumber finely diced and 1 tsp. of green chili sauce.  I also sliced two avocados into halves and laid two halves on each plate.  

When the shrimp were cooked we mixed the shrimp mixture with the mayo mixture and ladled half onto each of the plates with the two avocados.

We decided to drink the rest of our Côtes de Provence rosé with our salads and took them out to a small table on the veranda and ate our salads as we watched the ocean and the human activity in the water and on the beach.

selfie on beach at Sayulita

When we finished our salads it was around 4:30 and we decided to walk to town and investigate the shops and watch the sunset from town and see if we could meet up with Nazario and Lise? at Bungalow Auzinko and see if we could work up an appetite for dinner.

When we arrived at Auzinko at around 6:00 Lise? was in the office and we began to talk.  She said Nazario was surfing and would return soon.  We talked about our kids and politics mostly.  Their son, Kali, is a surfer and will take over the business and has become a certified surfing teacher.  At around 7:00 Nazario arrived as fit as always from his surfing and we talked a bit longer.  I suggested that we get together for dinner on Saturday or Sunday night. 

We walked down Marlin to Don Pedro’s and then through the side street back to Delfines and back to the main street but rather than turning left onto the main street we walked up the passage between the two main upper streets to the Le Gourmet Bakery and Deli where we saw the owner sitting doing paperwork.  I asked to buy a chocolate mousse and he packed one up in a clear plastic container.  It cost 40 pesos (about $3.00) for about 2/3 cup of mousse.

Suzette suggested that we buy a bottle of brandy to drink with the mousse and we stopped at a liquor store just down the block from the French bakery and bought a 50 Cl. Bottle of Presidente Brandy for 68 pesos.

When we arrived home, we were still not hungry enough to eat a dinner.  Suzette did some yoga while I made tea and sliced two slices of the good onion bread and spread peach preserves on them and then sprinkled Manchego cheese on the preserves and toasted the bread until the cheese melted.  I poured each of us glasses of brandy and I ate the toast and then some chocolate mousse with my tea.  

The chocolate mousse was terrific, dark rich creamy and topped with a dollop of fresh whipped cream topped with about a dozen small dark chocolate truffles.  I could only eat about four or five small spoonfuls before I became satiated, so there is more than half left for another meal.

Bon Appétit 

Bon Appétit