Bringing the Dish Back Full

A few years ago, I ran across some bananas on sale for like 2 cents USD each, and bought loads of them and made a lot of banana bread with them.  I gave ziploc bags of banana bread muffins to JP's mom, and to friends at church.  I also gave a pyrex baking dish with banana bread in it to a neighbor.  About a week later, the neighbor knocked on my door to return my dish, and it had homemade cookies in it!  I told JP later, "Guess what!  When Vivian returned my dish, she put all these cookies in it for us!"  JP looked at me strange, and said, "Of course!"  I was confused.  He explained to me that if someone gives you a non-disposable dish of food, you need to return it with food in it!  (Glad he told me that before anyone ever gave us a returnable dish of food!)  So now, when giving baked goods to friends, I kind of hesitate to give them something in a dish that I need back - I don't want to obligate them to give me something in return!  A couple months ago I gave our next-door neighbors a plate of cookies, and they returned my plate with a glass bowl of homemade caramel corn (because you can't easily put caramel corn on a plate!)  So I gave their bowl back with some brownies in it.  Then last week I gave them a plate with banana muffins on it, and the neighbor told me yesterday that she will give my plate back soon, that she hasn't had time to make anything yet.  I felt terrible, and told her she's not obligated to put anything on my plate for us, and she was confused as to why I thought she might give my plate back empty.  I hope she didn't think I don't want her baked goods, or am in a hurry to get my plate back...

If you go to dinner at someone's  home, and they ask you to bring a salad, dessert, etc. (which is common, because upon being invited you should ask what you can bring!), you leave the leftovers and your dish at the host's home, unless all the food you brought was eaten, then you can take your dish home.  The hostess may prepare and "itacate" (see post below), and send you with your dish immediately, or she may not return your dish for sometime. 
When JP and I were in the US, it was soon our turn to bring dessert to our small group.  I made a cobbler and brought a tub of ice cream.  When the group was over and we were getting ready to leave, the hostess handed me the almost empty cobbler dish and the half-eaten tub of ice cream.  JP and I insisted that she keep both things, while she said that she didn't want to have ice cream in the house because she'd have to give some to her boys, and may not remember to bring my dish back.  Then I remembered that in the US, you take whatever is left of what you brought with you!  JP felt bad that we ended up taking the food home, but we both had to tell ourselves that we did the right thing for US culture!

Living in two cultures keeps us on our toes!

The Itacate (ee-tah-KAH-tay)

The great thing that happens in Mexico when you go to a large meal at someone else's home.  The doggie bag.

If you're invited to someone's home for a meal and there are a lot of leftovers, the hostess may prepare an ITACATE for everyone to take home with them.  This generally consists of a few disposable containers full of several dishes that were served that day (and sometimes some other random thing from the hostess' fridge, or at least that's what happens to us when we go to JP's grandma's house!)

A good Mexican wife must have her stash of these in the house for preparing itacates:

Yogurt and sour cream containers, any type of disposable, yet reusable dish is great for sending guests home with salads, rice, meat dishes, desserts, or whatever was served at your home.  The guest gets another meal out of it, the hostess doesn't have loads of food clogging up her fridge, and the guest doesn't need to bring the dish back!  This is win-win in my book!  :)

A Growing City

This is (my) translation of an article about Queretaro that came from this site 
-- Explanations in italics are mine --

In light of the upcoming World Population Day on July 11, the INEGI (-- Mexican Census bureau --) revealed a few statistics about Queretaro's population.

There are around 1,974,000 people residing in Queretaro, which makes it the 22nd largest metro area in the country.  In just 50 years, Queretaro has QUINTUPLED its population, going from 286,000 people in 1950 to 1.4 million in 2000.  This year, it is estimated that the city will reach 1.97 million people. 

On the other hand, the fertility rate has gone down, going from 3.5 in 1990 to 2.3 in 2010, and it keeps going down.  It is also said that the life expectancy is the highest in the country, with the average being 78 years. 

Another effect of the changing demographic is the increase in the proportion of adults (30 to 59 years old) and senior citizens (60 years and older).  These two age groups now represent 53.1 percent of the population, all of whom are eligible for health and social services.  It is expected that these age groups continue to be the majority through 2030.  

-- In most other cities in Mexico, the younger age groups - under 30 years old - tend to be the vast majority, sometimes being as high as 75% of the population --

Finally, one other aspect that is important to mention is that the rate of marriages as gone down in our city in the last decades, going from 7.1 marriages per 1,000 people in 1993 to 4.5 marriages per 1,000 people in 2010.  The divorce rate has been increasing.