Cross-posted with Garlicster.
OK, so this recipe has no garlic, but is delicious anyway, and has lots of onion. It is also vegan.
I wanted to make an “ensalda de alubias” like the one I had a long time ago in an Argentinian restaurant called La Taba in Mexico City.

I was looking for alubias, the white beans that is used in Spain to make fabada, apparently they are called fabes in English, but I couldn’t find them anywhere. Even at St. Lawrence Market, where there is a guy who has every bean and rice imaginable, when I asked for fabes they wanted to give me fava beans, which are not the same. And when I looked up fabes on the internet it always took me to a generic beans page, so I tried to look for substitutes. I ended up buying baby lima beans. They were good enough.

I soaked 1.5 cups of dry baby lima beans overnight in the fridge.
Then I cooked them in the pressure cooker for 10 minutes with the heart of one celery, 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil, half an onion, 2 cloves of garlic slightly crushed and 3 bay leaves. I let the pressure cooker cool naturally and then I opened it.

Meanwhile I chopped about 3/4 red onion and covered it with the juice of 2 lemons and about 1 teaspoon of sea salt. I did this to marinade the onion and make it less strong for eating.

When the beans were cooked, I removed the celery, the garlic, the bay leaves and the onion and drained the beans keeping about 1/4 cup of the cooking water. I let the beans totally cool (or you can rinse them in cold water as well, but they are delicate and may peel if you do that, I recommend just letting them cool down). I then added the cooking water and beans to the lemon+onion concoction. I then used 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil and (here’s the secret ingredient) 1 teaspoon powdered dry oregano. Mix everything and add salt and pepper to taste.

The salad was delicious!

The funeral of a Canadian officer 2

Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto

This morning, while on my way to the subway, King St. was blocked for a few minutes, they were having a funeral for a Canadian officer that died a few days ago (not in the war, though, it was an older Colonel).

I stopped to pay my respects to the procession and saw how the coffin was carried into St James Cathedral. The bells were going dong, dong, dong in a sombre mood.

One of the horses (the one to the right) was not behaving as he should, he was neighing and moving and the man that was on him was trying to control him. After the coffin got in, the soldiers on the street marched to the adjacent park and broke ranks, and so did the other 3 horses. The horse that was not behaving kept standing on two legs and circling around, he was going quite hard and suddenly he hit the small yellow “no parking” sign with his front right leg (pictured on the far left, almost in the lower corner). He hit it so hard that he doubled in pain, crouched to the floor with both legs and made a face of pain that was unbelievable, all the watchers and standbyers went “oh”, and the horse’s face was unbelievable. Two or 3 officers came to see him and try to calm him but he was just on the floor in pain. I thought he had broken his leg, after all I had heard a “clunk”.

After about 2 minutes he stood up and was walked out of there. He was still pretty upset, but I guess the pain beat him. He did walk out himself and it didn’t seem funny or limpy, so I guess his leg wasn’t broken.

But I was so disturbed by the whole thing and I’m still shuddering and thinking about it. Now I wonder… is there something wrong with me when I see a dead man’s funeral and a grieving family, but get disturbed about the horse (OK, I am not that bad, I did feel bad for the family and stood there and was respectful of the whole thing… but you know what I mean)?
What do my 3 readers think?

If you click on the photo you can see the notes showing the horse and the sign that he hit.

Yesterday we went to Kari’s house for a barbecue and good times with lots of friends. It was a fun big party and in the evening, we all walked to Exhibition Place (just south of the PrincessPrinces’ Gate) to see the fireworks that they show in Ontario Place. I still think it is kind of weird that in Toronto in order to “see the fireworks” you have to pay an entrance ticket for Ontario Place. I put the quotations because you can see them from where we were, and you can also get a peak from Harbourfront. I still think it shouldn’t be “private” but that’s just my opinion.

Here’s the only picture I took all day, we’re ready for the fireworks and wearing our Canada Day outfits, of course.

Today I’m making huitlacoche tacos for dinner. The recipe is similar to the one I did for huitlacoche enchiladas a while ago, except the tortillas are not going to be fried, we will just eat it as tacos. I’ll take pictures for everyone to enjoy.