Trip to Zihua...Part 3

For the last 2 nights, we headed to Troncones, a small town north of Zihuatanejo. Troncones is known for good surfing, but we weren't going to be doing any of that!

We stayed at Hacienda Eden. The owners are actually IU grads and have been in Troncones for 14 years. Our room was a bungalow. No ac, but none was really needed. There were many screens and a ceiling fan, there was a nice breeze from the ocean. Our room also had a open air shower (not totally open air since it was covered with a screen), it was pretty cool!

All the hotels in Troncones are right on the beach and they can be accessed by a long dirt road. Our hotel was actually 2 miles from the village. We walked into town one morning and it was a long hot walk. We took a taxi back :)

We were less than a mile from a even smaller village, Majahua. Jim from the hotel had recommended a restaurant there, so we decided to check it out for dinner. It was a little hard to find, we had to walk down a "alley" to the beach where it sat. It was worth finding. Ryan had been wanting a pescado entero the whole trip, and he found one here. We both had red snapper a la diabla and it was amazing! We had fun just sitting at our table and watching the fishermen. There was a little boy with his dad, imitating what he was doing. It was too cute. We liked the food so much, that we had dinner here the next night. This time I had seafood tacos and Ryan had shrimp in garlic sauce. Once again it was a great meal. I think this restaurant was exactly what we were looking for the whole trip. Amazing seafood, great low key location and cheap!

As we were leaving Majahua the last evening, we had a couple kids (ages 3 or 4) come up to us and gave us hugs. They were so sweet and made me miss my boys even more.

We also experienced a small earthquake! It was in the middle of the night. At first I thought Ryan was just moving around in bed, but then I heard a coconut fall off a tree outside. It was a small one.

The beautiful sunset

A bunch of roosters in town

The looong dirt road and the phone we called the boys on

Majahua

Lazing around on the beach

The porch of our bungalow

Fishermen launching a boat in Majahua

Trip to Zihua...Part 2

Our hotel was in a great location and we were able to walk almost anywhere. There are many great restaurants in Zihua and we were able to try many of them. We ate seafood at least once a day.

We decided to do one "fancy" dinner. I had heard about a small hotel, that offers a set 5 course meal. It looked like the hotel was pretty close to our place, but we decided to take a cab since there is at least one steep uphill climb. We found a cab and told him where we needed to go. He acted like he knew where the place was, but we soon found out he didn't know where it was. We kept driving around, and he would occasionally stop to ask someone to see if they knew where it was. We had a nice drive of the area in the meantime! He finally found it and we were off to our fancy meal.

We stepped into the place and were blown away! It was situated at the top of a hill and had an amazing view of the bay. It was like nowhere we had ever been before. Our meal consisted of a salmon roll with mahi mahi tartar; greens with shrimp, beets, oranges, and blackberry vinaigrette; corn bisque with oregano cream; grilled tuna with a curry sauce and wild rice; and a molten Mexican butterscotch cake with vanilla ice cream. The chef came to our table during each course and told us about the food. It was all great and a good value.

Enjoying my coconut margarita

Wednesday we took a cooking class with the owner of a local restaurant. We all went to the market and had something we needed to purchase for the class. We went back to the restaurant and threw our peppers and tomatoes on the grill to roast for salsa. We also made beans with choizo, and sauteed some cactus. She showed us how to make corn masa by hand for corn tortillas. It was all yummy and I really liked the cactus!

Fresh fish at the market

Ryan working the grill

The chicken guy at the market

One of the area streets

Trip to Zihua...Part 1

We are home safe and healthy and we had a wonderful time in Mexico.

We arrived last Saturday after a long (uneventful) day of traveling. We had spent 5 hours in the car (dropping the kids off) and another 6 in airports/on a plane. Around 7:30pm Zihua time we had finally arrived! Our hotel, Brisas Del Mar, was as wonderful as we had heard. Our room was roomy and had a large balcony with lounge chaises and a hammock. The hotel is built into the hillside, like many of the properties in the area.

The hotel was right on Madera beach, one of the 4 beaches in Zihuatanejo. It was many flights of stairs down to the beach, but worth it! On Sundays, many of the local residents come out to play on this beach, as evidenced by the soccer game below. The game went on throughout the day.

We spent our first couple days lounging around on our balcony, by the pool and on the beach. We played a lot of SkipBo, Phase 10 and read a lot. We even got massages on the beach. Who needs music, when you can listen to the sounds of the ocean.

Hiking up the steps from the beach to our room

The pool area

Locals playing a game of soccer

Each day we had a different towel creation on our bed

The grounds were beautiful

Looking out from our balcony

Another view from the balcony

Wordless Wednesday

Recipes for the week

I tried making whole wheat pancakes for the first time and we were all pleasantly surprised! They did not taste "wheaty" or heavy. The boys gobbled them up. Try them!

I had picked up some clearanced ground chicken recently and these chicken burgers were great. Ryan grilled them and we had them on homemade wheat burger buns with cheese, lettuce, avocado, and chipotle mustard. I served them with oven baked fries and some roasted green beans.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs

1. Stir honey& oil together in a bowl.
2. Add milk& eggs& beat well.
3. Mix dry ingredients into the liquids until flour is moistened.

Poifect Cluck Cluck Burgers

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
• 1 small onion, grated
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 lb ground chicken

1. Beat egg.
2. Mix in cheese breadcrumbs, onion, water, mustard, salt and garlic.
3. Mix in the chicken and shape into 4 patties, 3/4" thick.
4. Pan fry or barbecue over medium heat for 12-14 minutes, turning once or until no longer pink inside.

Zesty Oven Baked Fries

• 2 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into thin strips *I left the peels on*
  
• 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. Heat oven to 450°.
2. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
3. Combine all dry ingredients and combine with potatoes, tossing to coat.
4. Drizzle with oil, tossing again to coat.
5. Arrange potatoes in a single layer on baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Spring has sprung

We all enjoyed the spring weather this weekend. Hudson has been fighting off a cough, so we've had to do breathing treatments. I checked out Wall-E from the library and we've been watching it in the 10 minute increments that it takes to do his treatment. What a great movie! I think I need to watch the whole thing through. Hudson and Brooks really like robots, so they are getting a kick out of the movie.

Nothing else too exciting going on. Ryan and I are getting excited about our vacation to Zihua next week and the boys are looking forward to going to Memaw and Pawpaw's house.

Wordless Wednesday

Recipes for the week

Here are some recipes that I'd like to share this week. The Ranch Pork Chops are a favorite for everyone. I usually use assorted chops, but you could use whatever. I think it would be good with chicken breast too. I served this with Garlic Green Beans and Roasted Potatoes.

We had Barbecue Chicken Pizza for dinner last night. I tried a new pizza dough recipe and it was really good. I'm still going to use our standby pizza dough recipe for when we make do-it-yourself pizza, but this was a good thick yeasty crust. I made the pizza on a big cookie sheet instead of the stone.

I made homemade bagels again this weekend and made the cream cheese spread to go along with them for a easy breakfast Sunday morning before church.

Ranch Pork Chops

2 lbs pork chops
1/2 cup Ranch salad dressing
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp Italian seasoning
Parmesan cheese

1. Trim the fat from the pork chops.
2. Mix the flour and Italian seasoning together and place in a shallow bowl.
3. Place the ranch dressing in another shallow bowl.
4. Dredge the pork chops in the flour/seasoning mix and then into the ranch.
5. Place the pork chops in a baking dish. I use my glass 13x9.
6. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on the tops of the chops.
7. Bake at 375 for 35 minutes, or until done.

Easy Peezy Pizza Dough

1 cup water plus another 2 tablespoons
2 TB olive oil
2 TB sugar
1 tsp salt
3 cups flour
2 tsp yeast

1. Place the ingredients in your bread machine and run the dough cycle.
2. If you are making a thicker pizza crust, I would suggest precooking just the crust at 425 for 10 minutes, then adding your toppings and baking until done.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

2 chicken breasts, diced
1 small onion, sliced thin
Olive Oil
Mozzarella cheese
Barbecue

1. Marinate the chicken breast in a half cup barbeque sauce for at least 2 hours.
2. After marinating, saute the chicken breast in a skillet with some olive oil until cooked through.
3. To caramelize the onion: heat some olive oil in a skillet. Saute the onion in it and then cover the pan. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring halfway through.
4. To make the pizza: Spread barbeque sauce on your pizza crust.
Place chicken and onions on top and then sprinkle with cheese.

Honey Pecan Cream Cheese

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2 TB honey
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1. Mix all ingredients together.