Today is Charlie's (my friend and designer extraordinaire for A Food Year) birthday and I meant to make homemade crackers and cheese in honor of it (call it an inside joke, I suppose), but since I do not have the internet I cannot find good cracker recipes. I don't even know a bad cracker recipe, since I've never made crackers before. Happy birthday anyway, Charlie.

Shannon and I found the laundromat today. It's right next to a place that only serves baked potatoes. I love this town. While a load was washing, she was telling me about this dish that her roommate used to make for them during college. I was skeptical at first, because kiwi and ground beef did not sound appealing at all, but she talked me into it because I couldn't come up with something better than we hadn't eaten already this year. She called long distance for the recipe and we went to pick up supplies.

I'm typically very against commercially prepared salad dressing, but Shannon insisted that this was a crucial ingredient and since my previous attempt at making "Italian dressing" was horrible, I figured I'd just go with it. From looking at the ingredients list, Catalina dressing is basically tomato paste, vinegar, oil, onion and sugar. A vinaigrette crossed with ketchup, basically, which is what it tasted like to me.

I put avocado on top of my Catalina Salad, which I thought was good. The whole thing was surprisingly good. However, the salad was actually supposed to be more of a dip and eaten with tortilla chips. When Shannon told me it was supposed to be eaten with tortillas, I thought she meant soft tortillas and I wanted to layer them into the dish. I guess this just goes to show that I never went to college because I can't even get my junk food ingredients right. Wait a second, I did go to college, and I offered to help tutor girls if they'd try my lamb and goat cheese sandwiches. Anyhow, my failure in this department leads us to make nachos for the next few days of September.

I just keep craving these spicy, full-bodied flavors lately, like Mexican dishes. So, I made Chicken Fajitas with homemade Picante sauce. And, of course, more black beans – mashed this time. What I was really trying to go for is chicken flavored like I remember the Chicken Chimichangas tasting like, but since the internet is not up and running I couldn't check the exact recipe and had to improvise. There is a place down the street advertising two for three dollar burritos and Shannon and I were suckered into trying it. Worst, smallest burritos I've ever had. I think they forgot to put the filling in them or something. To my advantage, this made my fajitas taste much better in comparison. I didn't quite achieve the flavor I Was trying for, but it was close. Part of that might be the fact that these were fajitas and not chimichangas, of course.

The Mashed Black Beans were a little dry because I didn't add any fat to them. I knew this would happen, but I didn't care. I just love beans! They weren't as saliva-sucking dry as the Black Bean Patties, but they were close. Of course, if this doesn't sound appetizing, you could just go the Refried Bean route and add in fat until smooth, creamy and even more delicious.

We are much closer to the Caribbean side of Mexico here and a trip is becoming tempting. Just as soon as we actually land jobs and have money and can afford to refurnish our basic necessities we might have to take another stab at the Mayan Riviera. Yucatan cuisine, here I come!

Fennel is my second project of things to come around to. Ever since I discovered that fennel seeds and pork are a match made in heaven (see the Fennel Pork recipe), I've been curious as to other ways to use fennel that are actually edible. One of the markets we went to yesterday had a bunch of whole fresh fish on ice, so I thought I'd pick up some to make fennel stuffed fish. Unfortunately, we got there right as the fish market was closing and had to buy packaged fillets. Instead, I made Fennel Sole, steamed in a foil packet. I'm thinking that a whole fish steamed with fennel in the cavity would have been a lot better, but the fennel tops did add a nice touch to the fish.

Since I wasn't sure what to do with the rest of the fennel, I just sliced it up and made Braised Fennel. This was more or less like licorice flavored cooked celery and really didn't do much for me at all. It sure looks pretty though. I made a Risotto with fish stock to accompany it, which Shannon despised me for, but I thought it was nice with the fish at least.

When I made the Lentil Soup for Shannon, I asked her if it was something that she could eat variations of on a daily basis. Since dried beans are so cheap, filling and nutritious, I figured we could live off of them in one form or another for the first month here without much problem. Since she agreed, this was my second attempt at a bean soup to test that. The Mexican Black Bean Soup was less than a dollar to make and filled us up for dinner with leftovers for lunch.

I made a Cumin Pork Meatball that was similar to the Albondigas I had made before, without realizing that albondigas were actually supposed to be a component of soup. Well, they are most certainly delicious in soup. The leftovers from this soup don't look so pleasant, but with a splash of lime juice to top off the flavor, it definitely tastes better than it looks. It's sort of like a spicy chili. Shannon loved it and I could eat it for weeks, so that's really all I could hope for. The only drawback from tonight's dinner is that my camera seems to be focusing on the top of pictures now, leaving the foreground blurry. I don't know if that is my doing or what, but it's really annoying.

One thing we were amazed by when we first visited here, and again now that we're actually living here, is the price of produce. Things that would cost a fortune back in Grande Prairie, or were completely inaccessible, are affordable here. For example, I picked up some saffron today. I got a gram for .50, whereas a few threads would be about back home. Of course, I haven't a clue what to do with it, but I decided to make Saffron Rice. It wasn't until after the rice was cooked that I realized that the saffron actually had to come in contact with the heat in order to release its yellowness and flavor. So, those few patches of yellow pictured is what the rice should look like. The rice was good, but I remember saffron having a distinctive taste and I didn't really get any of that. Thankfully I still have a lot of it left and can try it out again in the future.

I've really come to rely on the internet for inspiration and am unsure of what to do without it. It's much harder to come up with unique recipes that might actually be edible without some sort of reference. It's also more difficult to make things without being able to verify whether I've made them or not. I can't wait until the computer gets here and the internet is up and running. I made Green Chicken, which is sort of like the Thai Basil Chicken with Noodles I made earlier in the year, but I couldn't put my finger on it at the time. It's fully apparent that I've come full circle on cilantro, since I'll add it to pretty much anything now. This was good, but nothing special really. Since I was starving, chicken and rice really hit the spot and was a nice, cheap meal while we're still trying to stock the fridge and cupboards.