Posted by Lisa on May 22nd, 2006 — Posted in Activities
Tonight, book club is coming to my house, though, instead of reading a book this time, we are all bringing different chilean dishes. Some of us ordered a great chilean cookbook, Tasting Chile, while other’s are using their own chilean cookbook’s. I decided to make Chicken Braised in Wine and Cumin. Thought you might all like the recipe…
1 chicken (4lbs) cut into 6 or 8 pieces
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 medium tomatoes (14 oz), peeled and coarsely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 bay leaves
3/4 t ground cumin
1 c dry white wine
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
1. Wash the chicken pieces, and sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides
2. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the chicken pieces. Lightly brown the chicken on both sides and set the pieces aside. You may have to do this in batches.
3.Add the onion to the pot and saute until translucent. Remove any excess fat from the pot.
4. Return the chicken to the pot, along with the tomatoes, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, and cumin. Cover reduce heat to medium low and continue cooking. After 10 min, add the wine. Continue to cook covered, for about 30 min over med low heat, or until the chicken is cooke and the carrots are tender. Stir frequently.
5. When the chicken is cooked, mix in the parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste.
The other recipe I’m making is from Leonor. It’s in spanish, so you all can practice your tanslating 🙂 It’s a dessert, similar to flan (I think)
Postre Juan Manuel
1 tarro de leche condensada (1 can of condensed milk)
1 litre de leche ( 1 L of milk)
5 huevos (eggs)
1 cucharada de miacena (1 T cornstarch)
3/4 tazas de azucar granulada (3/4 c granulated sugar)
2 cucharaditas de extracto de vainilla (2 t vanilla extract)
En un bol, bata los huevos clara y yema juntas, agregue el azucar, la vainilla, la leche condensada alternado con la leche liquida. (IN bowl, whisk together eggs. Add sugar, vanilla, and alternate between adding condensed milk and regular milk)
Diuelva la maicen en un poco de leche y anadala a la preparacion (dissolve the cornstarch in a small amount of milk and add to the egg mixture)
Acarmele un molde o lanera y vierta la preparacion (Over med heat carmelize some sugar in pyrex 9×13 dish until it forms a light brown liquid, and then cover the bottom of the dish with liquid, I used about 1/2 c granulated sugar, once that’s finished and pan is covered, pour egg mixture over carmel)
Cocine a banomaria durante 30 minutos (cook at 350 for 30 min)
Deje enfriar y desmolde (cool, then put in fridge until sets)
Hopefully my translation is right, and the dessert will be delish!! Enjoy the recipes!!
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Posted by Lisa on April 29th, 2006 — Posted in Activities
On Thursday, we left for an overnight in Pisco Elqui. On our way, we stopped in Vicuna for lunch and to walk around the artesian shops. We tried to go to the bug museum but it was closed, do we decided to continue on to the domos. We got to the domos around 5 pm and checked in and arranged for a night time horseback ride to see the stars. We went to dinner at our favorite german run restaurant and then went to Ramon’s house where we started our journey. The ride was 3 and a half hours long and was phenomenal. We all had a great time looking at the night sky, chatting with Ramon, and just enjoying the solitude. We got back to the domos around 1230 am, and went to bed. Steve was able to get a picture of the view through the domos of the night sky, which I thought you would all enjoy. The next morning we got up went to an artesian village, walked around pisco elqui, saw Ruperto the drunken donkey, went to cavas del valle (a vineyard), went back to Vicuna (bug museum still closed), then went to the zoo. We then went to Rob and Joanna’s house for a scrumptious dinner of fillete, corn pudding, salad, bread, wine, and banana foster for dessert. Afterwards, we went up the recinto to a party and stayed until 2 am. We came home and crashed. It was a long and exciting 2 days!! Overall, we had a week jammed pack with activities. Jon really enjoyed himself and hopes to come back before we leave. I know it sounds like we did a ton of things, but Jon has called me the “best tour guide EVER”!!!! I can’t wait for him to come back!
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Posted by Lisa on April 29th, 2006 — Posted in Activities
I have been running Jon ragged with all of our activities, so I haven’t had any time to update. Unfortunately, Jon is leaving today (Sat), so I’m trying to do a quick update. We’ve had an amazing time hanging out and catching up and exploring the surrounding area. On Tuesday we decided to explore the town with my friend Joanna. We started off by going to La Feria- the open air market, then to downtown for a traditional chilean lunch, walked around and went to La Recova, then to an awesome bakery, then the mall, then home for a little bit. We ended the night with African Dance, which Jon seemed to enjoy. Originally he was going to drum for it but we convinced him to join in dancing. While we were at dance class Steve made us a yummy mexican casserole!!! It was the perfect ending to a great day.
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Posted by Lisa on April 25th, 2006 — Posted in Activities, Your Guest Host Steve
While Lisa and Jon are staying ever busy with their travels across the countryside, I’m stuck at home on the couch not feeling too well. Since they barely have time in the day to actually go everywhere they want, I’ve been asked to fill in and post yesterday’s activities.
The first stop was Tortorollio, a beach area to the south of La Serena. While the weather has become decidedly fall and not normal beach weather, no visit to Chile is complete without a trip (however brief) to the beach.
They then traveled to Fray Jorge (Parque Nacional Bosque De Fray Jorge) , a small dense “Valdivian cloud forest” surrounded by the desert. Moisture is provided by the dense and nearly ever-present fog, the camanchaca.
After that, they traveled inland a bit to Termas de Socos where they enjoyed a bite to eat and had a look around at the thermal pools.
Finally, they visited the Enchanted Valley, home of many petroglyphs and petrographs (as seen before).
I guess I shouldn’t have said finally because after all that they went to a birthday party of a friend and didn’t get home until around 3am. At least that is when I think they got home since the puppy and I went to sleep at 10:30pm.
Today’s fun is more around town. Trips to the market, La Recova (everyone’s favorite shopping destination) and lunch downtown. Hopefully I’ll be back to work so Lisa can tell you all about it.
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Posted by Lisa on April 24th, 2006 — Posted in Activities
On Sunday we drove into the valley where we first stopped at the dam and walked across it. Much to our surprise there was a wind harp in the corner. I had never even heard of one, though Jon had red about them but never seen one. Afterwards Steve took us to the observatory which was awesome as always. In Jon’s words “it was magnanimous”. We then went to the hosteria in Vicuna for a late lunch where we met up with some friends, then caravanned to the Mamalluca Observatory- which is a observatory for the public with 2 telescopes with 12 inch mirrors that we were able to look through and see sirius, orion nebula, open star clusters, saturn and the rings, jupiter and it’s moons, mars, small and large magellanic clouds, the southern cross and more. The tour was in english and was phenomenal. We also got to see a meteorite- vaca muerte (dead cow)- which was found in the atacama.
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Posted by Lisa on April 22nd, 2006 — Posted in Activities
Today, my friend Jon came to visit for a week. I’ve been looking forward to his visit and have tons of stuff planned. Today after coming home from the airport, we went out to lunch to Tololo Beach where JOn had his first Pisco Sour. In his words “fue deliciosa”. He also atried for the first times- locos (probably his last) and reineta (a little salty). Afterwards we walked along the beach then went to Coquimbo to Cafe del Fuerte- which is the coffee shop at the tip. Today, the rock in front of the coffee shop was full of sea lions. Usually it has just birds. We then walked around the artesian markets and the fish market. We then took the 5 pm boat ride around Coquimbo. I was thinking that we may go out to dinner and to the jazz club tonight, but I’m exhausted, so I know JOn must be as well. We’ve decided to postpone it until later. Keep checking back for daily updates! Tomorrow we’re off to the telescope!
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Posted by Lisa on April 18th, 2006 — Posted in Activities
On Thursday some friends and I went to the zoo. We weren’t expecting too much, but it was actually a ton of fun. There were monkeys, a tiger, lion cubs, llamas, emus, wart hogs, birds, goats, sheep…. The scary thing was the cages. I’m used to the united states where there are strong bars and cages surrounding the animals, but as you’ll see from the pictures, really only wire was separating us from the beasts. There is also an area in the zoo with tons of tables and grills and 2 pools to swim in with monkeys and birds all around. I can’t wait to go back and spend the day with a book, the sun, the pools, and the animals!
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Posted by Lisa on April 9th, 2006 — Posted in Activities
We got home from our Argentinean trip on Tuesday. Mary Jane and Terry only had a few days left with us. We spent the remainder of the time hanging out together. We went for drives around town, went shopping, hiking, out for drinks and in our friends hot tub. We all had a wonderful time together, and were sad to see them leave. Here are a few pics from then…
our cool new wall hanging….
Pictures from around town (sorry about the lighthouse, I can’t get it straight…)
Last time for pisco sours on the beach
IN the hot tub drinking wine enjoying the sunset
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Posted by Lisa on April 9th, 2006 — Posted in Activities
On Friday, we started our trip to Argentina. Friday we decided to spend the night in Pisco Elqui, a town n the Elqui Valley. We stayed in the Elqui Domos- which are domes that are 2 floored with the bed on the second floor and a living room on the first and the domes are made out of this white type of canvas. The windows and door are plastic and zip off- similar to a tent, and the best part is the roof zips off as well so you can actually sleep under the stars. The Milkyway Galaxy was directly overhead, and it was just amazing. The domes also come equipped with telescopes. Lucky for us, we had an astronomer with us, who gave us some impromptu lessons about the Southern sky. The domes also have decks around them so you can sit outside. During the day on Friday, we explored the area, and ended up going past the domes to this artesian village. Since it was getting late- about 530, not all the shops were open. We ate a late lunch at a wonderful german B&B, and then had wine and cheese and crackers for a late night snack. Speaking of wine, I almost forgot to mention that we stopped at a small vineyard on the way to Pisco Elqui. THe vineyard is Chile’s smallest and highest vineyard. They make about 16,000 bottles of wine a year. We really enjoyed their Moscatel, and each ended up buying a bottle. Enjoy the pics, keep reading to find out about Argentina!!!
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Posted by Lisa on April 9th, 2006 — Posted in Activities
On Thursday (March 23), we decided to go to the beach and relax in the sun and go fishing. It was looking like it would be a good day, sunny, warm, a little breezy. Not warm enough to go swimming, but not hot either. Unfortunately, at the beach, it was really windy and FREEZING, so Mary Jane and I sat in our chairs fully clothed and read, and Steve and Terry fished for a little bit. We brought Leyna along, who LOVED playing in the sand. She also loved eating the sand. We stayed for a couple of hours and relaxed getting a little sun.
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