National treasures

It's Friday, so time to pack another oversized suitcase. Am going back to Chicago in the morning, sadly without my new Christmas toy. It will remain in my basement, in swaddling bubble wrap, until I move back to the U. S. in the summer. 

While saying goodbye to my Hamilton Beach PrepStar™ food processor this morning, I felt that no item could better symbolize my frustration with the distance between Michigan and Mexico. Only in Mexico can I buy five bell peppers of varying colors, a jalapeño, an deceptively spicy habanero (it looks like an apricot!), a head of garlic, and bouquets of pumpkin blossoms and fresh cilantro, still clung with the dirt from which they were yanked, for under the cost of a Happy Meal. But only in Michigan do I have the tools to transform all that into a gazpacho in under 30 seconds.