Culebra Free Range Friday - Mangoes

So you have a mango tree. Or a lot of them. Or a friend keeps bringing you some. Or, if you are me, and you are not and should jump out of your chair right now and get on your knees in thanks,   you have good friends who have awesome mangoes and let me get all I can get for my hot sauce. In any of those cases, you know that once mango season is over, once the drowning in mangoes quits, that is it, unless you want to pay through the ying ying. Which I, personally do not. So here is what I do instead.

First, you have to have a freezer. Or know someone with a freezer and space you can use in it. When I first started making this sauce, I rented a freezer, paying basically the price of the electricity and a few extra bucks, but buying a used one was one of the better ways I've ever spent 50 bucks (thank you Terrie!). Ok, next, you need to feel comfortable working naked, because really, the best way to enjoy or work with mangoes is naked. Preferably standing in the ocean, but I know that's asking a bit much. If you aren't comfortable working naked, wear something you don't care about getting mango stains on, because little bits of it willl jump around and inevitably land on you. Plus, when you lean over to slurp up some mango? You'll get more on you. Trust me about this.

This is a big laundry sink. If you don't have one outside? You should. They are the best.
The mangoes are in a scrupulously cleaned dish pan.

What I do is score the mango twice - um, no, not in the same place - all the way around it. Then from the bottom end, peel away the skin. If the skin doesn't come off that easily, your mango is not ripe enough, unless you are saving it for some green mango recipe like chutney, in which case you'll have to cut off the skin, bless your heart. Otherwise, you can just peel away the skin and using a good knife you can comfortably have covered with sloppy mango and still control, cut the mango off in chunks or sort of scrape it off. You don't have to be fanatical, it's pretty hard to get all the meat off of a ripe mango. I just squeeze the rest of in in my hand and gather the juice that way. Don't lick your hand, though it is very tempting. Don't lick the knife either, that's just silly.

This next operation is no less messy. Take a gallon freezer bag. Wait, stop. Buy really good freezer bags. Or if you hate buying plastic stuff and use something else, make sure it has a very tight fitting closure. Ok, Open up the freezer bag, with its bottom on the sink and slug in your first spoonful. I use a big plastic or wooden spoon, never metal. Don't ask me the science (or I'll explain it in excruciating detail). After that first one, it's easier, but you'll still get mango on the bag in the wrong places. Don't worry about it, you can fix that.

It's pretty incredible how much mango a one gallon bag will hold. This isn't really very full, but it was the amount of mangoes I had and I'm not letting them go to waste before more come along. Once the bag is full, wipe off any mango on the closure strip, I just use my fingers (my sanitarily cleaned fingers. Really) . Then close it, trying to get all the air out that you can. You can't get it all out, don't worry about that. Do worry about this next part. Make sure it's REALLY closed. Then wash off the little bit of plastic above the closure and the rest of the bag. Dry it off, or let it drip dry and gently place it in the freezer. You know what I'm going to tell you next, don't you? Ok, let's just say, I've done all of the above and not made sure it was closed. Cleaning mango out of a chest style, or any other style freezer and all the stuff in it that the mango has covered, is not fun. So just do what I say. Check it and recheck it. You'll be glad you did.

Because what you get is a pretty bag of frozen mangoes! See how beautiful and brightly colored they are? Fresh, natural, local, organic FREE mangoes for whenever and whatever you want to use them for, any time of year. I usually use all of mine for my hot sauce, but I've stolen some to use as a dessert a time or two. Think mango smoothies, mango cheesecake, mango jam. 

Another nice thing is, if you have a mango tree in your neighborhood that you see is being ignored and you don't know your neighbor? Just march yourself up to the door and offer to get those mangoes they don't want. They will be very grateful, so will you, and you might make a new friend to boot. Or, as they might say in England, and Bob's your uncle!

Speaking of England, congratulations to Karen and Andy on their engagement! I don't know when the celebratory nuptials will be, so don't ask. We'll know when we know. 

Have a frugally freeing Friday. Do something in your favor.


Late addition:  Got a great tip from Debbie - Roll the top of the bag inside out, about 1/2 inch down.  Slop the stuff in all the way to the top, wash your hands, turn the top of the bag right side in, and close.   You won't get stuff on the outside that has to be cleaned up. - Thanks, Debbie!!! Brilliantly simple and smart.

Why Take a Picture?

I was out this morning, trying to get yet another photograph of that crazy gorgeous orchid just getting ready to bloom, a LOT of tries. Because of camera wonkiness, operator error, the limited ability of trying to capture real life beauty or all of the above, it just didn't work out the way I wanted it to. It never does.

And I started thinking about what I did yesterday morning, snorkeling with a group of friends, seeing a world below the world we live in, full of incredible wonder, some of it literally just a few feet from the shore.

There were turtles that seemed almost as big as the hood of a VW beetle. There were big fish, with colors both bright and subtle and small fish that were banded and mottled in colors that, if I wasn't trying to breath through this tube, would have made me gasp, even if I'd only seen just one. There were rays, two in particular, a big one and a small one, that, as one friend put it, were like a little brother tagging after a big one, finally having the inevitable dust up of big brother effectively saying, buzz off, face point to face point. Little brother backed away and swam for more friendly water. Every turn of the head brought a silent oh wow.

One friend had an underwater camera, and I wished I had one in my hands as well, but then let go of that pretty quickly. There was too much to see, with all of my eyes, with all of myself and since I couldn't capture it, or even try, I could just let go and be in what I was in, an underwater living garden.

Which- back to what I was thinking - led me to think about a time before cameras and those writers who looked at the world with relentless curiosity. I thought about how they observed and described the places and people they experienced, how rich some of that writing is, rich enough to last generation after generation, in ways that give us pictures in our minds that stretch our imaginations farther than any image might. And how photographs give us that slight chance to visually share what we can't always say. And wondering if we see less deeply, because of the ease of a snap, versus a thought.

Of course, if you look at say, Rachael Carson, you also have to look at Ansel Adams. And we have Thoreau, who, though I personally think him a bit of a fraud, was a brilliant writer and probably has influenced as many people in how they live their lives as Carson and Adams combined. Plus some. Endless lists, endless possibilities...

Well, I was just wondering.

Have a think about it Thursday. Do something tangible.

But that was yesterday, and yesterday's gone

This was yesterday.

Ensenada Honda and Dakity were rockin'

This is now.



Bye bye, y'all. Adios.

The photo quality is pretty hideous, being as I am more than a few miles away, but that wasn't the point. Not that there is anything profound to point out, just that we're back to Culebra time and that's never a bad thing. Ok, that's all.

Have a truly tranquillo Tuesday. Do something transcendent.