Plane Tickets in My Dish

Ever since I was a wee country lass, I've dreamed of traveling-- big, impractical dreams spawned in part, no doubt, by the National Geographic subscription that my Uncle Ray used to give our family for Christmas. Before I could pore over the magazines, Mom would edit the photos of any naked natives with permanent marker, creating exotic people of all shades of browns and tans and blacks who lived in desert places, humid jungles, and tropical islands, but who, strangely, chose to wear identically modest black bathing suits that smelled suspiciously of ink.

We laugh over this, but I'm certain that looking at those pictures of people living in joy and sorrow all over the world fed the wanderlust that still sits inside me. I had grand plans, perfectly set out in my romantic, little, old-maidenly head, of traveling to these places and people in the summer months before returning to the land and people that I knew and loved for the rest of the year. Well, instead, I married my best friend, and, through our joining, God blessed us with children-- little ones who swallow our hearts to leave them larger than they were before. This is very good. For all its small struggles and frustrations, I would have life no other way and am grateful that God set a path in front of me, one far better and more worthy than any I could have created.

This beautiful life, however, doesn't stop me from planning trips around the world when John and I are in our eighties, from poring over the wonder of creation and humanity in the stack of National Geographic magazines that my real-life, globetrotting friend Margaret so kindly mails me after she reads them, or from making dishes that were born in places I'll probably never set either of my feet.

So, after a lengthy introduction to what could have been a simple statement, head on over to buildabelly. I posted 20-odd recipes yesterday, and the first two are from our neighbor to the south. Mexico! (That should be jubilantly shouted with a Mexican accent.) After making chicken mole almost two months ago in response to a New Man's request, I post the recipe, along with a most delicious Mexican dish that one's heart should only process, at most, every few months.