Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 11:11 PM
Subject: Re: The swimming pool and the landscape

Dear Regina--

David bought the meat yesterday, and he bought thin cuts instead of a roast.  The meat looks very good, though, so I am marinating the steaks in the sauce overnight.  Tomorrow, I will construct the roast by placing the carrot pieces and green pepper between the layers of meat, then I will roll them and tie them into a roast so that the cooking time will be correct.

I am noticing that in this book, the cooking times are quite long.  For the carne assada, one must really think ahead to allow for many hours for the marinating and then approximately three hours for the cooking.  It doesn't appear that you have to pay a lot of attention to the roast while it's cooking, but you do have to be home.  I noticed with the rice, for example, that there are more steps than I am used to, and the rice takes longer than what I do -- But -- the rice tastes really good, so it is worth it.

Now I understand far better why you don't cook for yourself, though -- if these dishes are typical -- you would never get to go to the beach.