The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

It's amazing to me how two years of time can feel like both an eternity and a blink of an eye.  Two years is a relatively small slice of my life to date.  Yet, in the past two years I have watched my infant son grow into a smart and spunky pre-schooler.  I cheered Ted on when he landed his new job and transitioned to a very different work routine.  I welcomed my little girl into the world a day prior to her scheduled delivery date (we now know that was the first sign of her precocious personality).  And we packed up all of our pots, pans, wine glasses, wardrobes, mismatched hand-me down furniture, and all the other odds and ends we'd acquired in three years of marriage - and caravaned them from buzzing Boston to "The Country" (aka: Medfield, Massachusetts).  If that isn't change, I don't know what is.

At the same time, I don't feel any differently than I did in October of 2009.  In fact, I don't feel any differently than I did in October of 2004.  Sure, a bloom of silver strands has recently sprouted from my scalp.  My stomach never fully recovered from it's Rose-induced expansion.  But I still look in the mirror and see the same girl (Yes, girl.  Not Lady, and certainly not Mrs. Keysor) that I was at 26.  The same girl who frequented karaoke bars and ended the night at 3am at Hi-Fi pizza with a bucket of wings.  Not that I long to do that kind of thing anymore.  But I think I still could.  Ted and I always joke that everyone has an age at which they feel they STOPPED aging.  It's unique for each individual and the rest of the world may not agree with you.  But everyone has it.  I think we're all young at heart.

So.... two years of lots of change and no change at all, and I still haven't made it past the "E's"!

I don't fancy myself a quitter, so this week, on the two year anniversary of the day I started this nonsense, I cooked a country meal.  El Salvador was next up on the list.

I completely ambushed Ted, and I'm not going to lie... I think he was less than thrilled to hear we were having "Pupusas" with "Curtido".  Translation:  stuffed cornmeal tortillas and El Salvadorean coleslaw.

The tortilla part was easy - corn flour and water kneaded until it formed a dough.  I flattened a ball of dough and filled the center with a combination of refried beans, seasoned ground pork, and a paste consisting of jalapenos and feta and mozzarella cheeses.  Authentic pupusas are typically stuffed with queso fresco (not available at my local Shaws) and chicharonnes (fried pork ground into a paste), as well as the refried beans.  I thought my substitutions worked out pretty well.  I cooked them with a little oil until they were nicely browned on both sides and the stuffing was melted.  The pupusas were good, but not great.  Less tortilla and more stuffing would have been harder to execute but much tastier.

The curtido consisted of shredded cabbage and carrots with some green onion, jalapenos, and vinegar and water dressing.  Very simple, and the better part of the meal I thought.

All in, El Salvador scored a 2.5.