From "France" to Mexico....

Well, I think we spanned the global gap with our meals today:)  hahahahahhahahaha...starting with our Extreme French Toast Bread!  Look how yummy!  The sweet bread was swirled with cinnamon and studded with morsels of DARK chocolate...delicious!!!

Sunday Morning breakfast dejour!  :)   After breakfast, I got myself straight into Zumba class;) hahahahahah....

So Cinco De Mayo is Wednesday and I, being the lover of THEMES, always makes some Mexicana for that day.  Well, this year, it's apparently turned into a week long EVENT in our house, since we found a bunch of different recipes we wanted to try out this week! ;)  I technically could have a whole years worth,  just with this book alone:

And in skimming though the 365 recipes, I came across this one that sounded intriguing:

Now, ask me if EITHER of us would have tried out this stew a few years ago, I would have said you were crazy!  But we figured we LIKED all of the things going INTO the stew...so why not??  (although Scott did think it was funny that we were going to have something called a "tablecloth stainer" for dinner:)

We started by searing up 1 pound of cubed pork.  After the pork was seared, it went into the slow cooker with 2 cubed sweet potatoes....

Next, I made the sauce: starting with 1/4 cup almonds, which I toasted & threw in the blender.  Next, in the pot I added a teaspoon of oil, 3 cloves of garlic, a half an onion and 5 chopped up tomatoes and these spices...(I LOVEEEEEEEE "sweet" spices in savory dishes)...

I cooked the tomatoes for a few minutes and then transferred them to a blender, along with the almonds.  I pureed them for a few minutes until it made a smooth, rich sauce... almonds & tomatoes: who knew??? :)

We threw the sauce in the slow cooker, along with the pork & sweet potatoes and let them cook on low for 3 1/2 hours.  For the last half hour in the slow cooker, we threw in some chopped pineapple & sauteed plantains....(and some leftover black beans)

Now, never mind the fact that we waited until the FIRST really HOT day of the year to make STEW....but this was soooooooooooo delicious!  Scott LOVED it!

Oddly enough, my favorite part of this stew was the little surprise of pineapple that you got ever so often.  It made me wish I threw some more in!  The savory pork mixed with the sweet potato, plantains & pineapple in the almondy/tomato sauce was a perfect dinner!  Two (well, four) thumbs up!! :) 

Ahhhh...and in case you were curious...we did, in fact, get that extra "treat" on Saturday night.  My favorite that I could NEVER pass up: The Bent Spoon Ice Cream.  And I couldn't even narrow it down to 2 flavors, so I caved and got THREE: Ricotta, Peanut Butter & Coconut.  UGH! TO DIE FOR!  I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee THE BENT SPOON!!! :) 

Oh, well...it was QUITE a tasty weekend  but all good things must come to an end:(  And after a sunny and gorgeous weekend, we're met with a rainy Monday!  Is there anything worse???  Oh well...have a good day wherever you are!! :)