Posted by Lisa on December 5th, 2005 — Posted in Uncategorized
On Sunday, Steve and I made yummy empanadas for lunch. Instead of the normal pino filling, Steve and I made pizza ones, and then deep fried them. They were wonderful. I thought I would give you a traditional empanada recipe, these are baked, hence de horno…
4 c. all purpose flour
1T. baking powder
salt
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 c. warm milk
1c. shortening, melted
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the beaten eggs, the milk and the melted lard. Mix; divide into 20 pieces. Roll each piece into a circle (so it’s flat). Put a spoonful of the cold stuffing on half the circle and fold over. Wet the edge with milk, fold over again. Bake in hot oven at 400 until brown and cooked.
*We can just buy empanada wrappers at the store, but I may try making them from scratch, sounds easy enough.
Pino Filling
2T. oil
1 t. paprika
4 onions finely sliced
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t. cumin
1/2 t. oregano
salt
1 lb ground meat
3 hard boiled eggs sliced
20 black olives
40 large raisins
Heat the oil with paprika. Fry the onions until soft. Add the chili powder, oregano, cumin and salt. Add the beef and mix with onions. Cook until tender. Let sit overnight in fridge.
Fill the empanadas and add slices of egg, raisins and olives, divided between the 20 empanadas.
If you like them shiny, paint with a glaze made of 1 egg beaten with 2 T. milk before putting them in the oven.
In traditional Chilean homes empanadas are eaten every Sunday after mass with a glass of red wine. You can fill with whatever you like. It’s fun to experiment!!
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Posted by Lisa on December 5th, 2005 — Posted in Misc
This weekend, Steve and I put up our xmas decorations. The house looks wonderful. It basically feels like xmas, except it’s in the 70s-80s. I can’t complain though, I love it. Steve and I ended up hosting a mexican themed birthday party on Saturday. We had about 15 people, and had a great time. It ended in a poker game, that, of course, I went out first, but Steve made it to 2nd place. He won 8,000 pesos. Which is around $15.
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Posted by Lisa on December 4th, 2005 — Posted in Misc
(I meant to post this before midnight, oops)
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Posted by Lisa on December 2nd, 2005 — Posted in Misc
Today, Steve came back from Arizona with lots of presents for us!! Most importantly, a new camera. Now I can start updating the blog more often. We even got some early xmas presents from his parents. Leyna’s favorite thing by far, is a ball type contraption. We brought her to the park and she chased it for an hour. Tomorrow night we’re going over to a friends house for a mexican party, and a night of poker. Wish me luck, maybe i’ll win!!
On to other matters…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAY JAY!!!! (Soon to be a mommy!!!!)
and
Happy Anniversary Jan and Al!!!!
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Posted by Lisa on November 27th, 2005 — Posted in Activities
Okay, so I went to Chapilca forever ago, but I realized I forgot to share it with you guys. As you may remember, I have started weaving. I went to a class that was taught by a woman from Chapilca, who made her own yarn. She invited us to come and watch her dye yarn. Chapilca is a town that is centered around weaving. They raise the sheep, then shear them, and then hand spin the wool into yarn, wash it in a big tub, then dye it with natural ingredients. On this day, she used two different types of leaves to dye the yarn yellow and green. To make red yarn, the use the blood of some type of cactus beetle. We met her family, and learned about their different roles in the weaving process. Her grandmother doesn’t get around as well as she use to, so she mainly spins the yarn. The loom they use to make their goods is mammoth. We plan on going back sometime soon. The woven products are beautiful.
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Posted by Lisa on November 26th, 2005 — Posted in Activities
Steve and I had some friends over for Thanksgiving. Steve made his awesome Alton Brown turkey for us and some great mashed potatoes, and I made carrot casserole, sweet potato casserole, stuffing and 2 pies ( 1 with homemade crust, my first time!) a zapillo (which is a type of pumpkin) and an apple. Del brought asparagus and broccoli ,and Stella and Jenny brought appetizers.I think I drove Steve crazy with my worrying about the food. It’s just that it’s hard trying to use recipes from the states here in Chile, since you can’t find a lot of the ingredients in the supermarkets or what is here is completely different. For instance, the sweet potatoes here have a purple skin, are irregularly shaped, and the inside is kind of off white in color. In the end though, everything turned out perfect and we all had a blast. The funny thing was the we were the only americans, Stella is from Greece, Del and her family are from Australia, as is Jenny and her family. Apparently in Australia turkey costs around $80, so they never get to eat it. We also had great Chilean wine of course. Missed all of you!!!!
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Posted by Lisa on November 26th, 2005 — Posted in Uncategorized
Things are going well with Leyna. We brought her to the vet this week, and she has gained 2 kg- my little gordita!!! Other than that, we’re just dealing with the normal puppy things- biting, housebreaking, and obedience. Having a puppy really lets me know, that I’m not ready for a baby yet because, 1. I have gotten really, really mad at her when she was biting and scratching and making me bleed, and yes, little horns popped out of my head, and a vein was pulsating (can’t do that with a baby), and 2. we brought her to the park today and were running around, and I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to put her on a swing. So I held her and we started swinging, and she got squirmy, and oops, I dropped her. Now she squeaks when you try to pick her up, like she’s afraid of falling. Thankfully, we’ve been picking her up all night, and she’s now getting better, no worries. But I really couldn’t drop a baby on the ground. So all in all, I am perfectly content with my little puppy and will leave the child raising to all my friends.
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Posted by Lisa on November 26th, 2005 — Posted in Travel
Despite Steve’s busy schedule, he finally relented to my months of nagging (“I want to go see the penguins”), and we went to the Humboldt Penguin Reserve today. We went with some friends and had a wonderful time. Our guide, Jorge, picked us up at the recinto at 8 am, and we drove for 2 hours to the reserve. On the way we drove through the desert and Jorge taught us how to survive for 2 months in the desert. We ate some cactus- bland but bitter, and learned to squuze water from plants. Once we got to the park, we boarded a small fishing boat, it held about 14 of us, and made our way to the islands. At the first island we saw sea lions, beautiful birds, and yes, PENGUINS!!!!! They were so cute and little. At the second island, we were able to disembark, and hike around the island for an hour. We then headed back to land to the town of Choros, for a lunch of fresh fish, and a shellfish salad. Choros is a producer of aciete de olivia, which I bought at a little roadside stand. At the stand, there was a cute kitten watching over the goods. I even was able to converse with the woman selling the olive oil, which is a good feeling.
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Posted by Lisa on November 14th, 2005 — Posted in Misc
I know many of you have been wondering about my “Consuela” situation. I’m happy to report that Lorena’s first day of work was today. For those of you that don’t know what I’m babbling about, Steve and I now have a cleaning lady who come twice a week, for 5 hours at a time. She does a wonderful job. Though I do have to admit, we had to go shopping to buy cleaning supplies this morning. I feel kinda odd having a cleaning lady and all since I’m not working, but hey, you know the saying when in Rome…
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Posted by Lisa on November 14th, 2005 — Posted in Uncategorized
Our weekend started off with a wine tasting party on Friday co-hosted by yours truly. We had it at my friend Del’s casa and we enjoyed many good chilean wines. Leyna even came at the end of the party to meet everyone, On Saturday we hung out around the house and cleaned and unpacked some boxes. On Sunday we took Leyna to the beach for the first time. It was fun, though I wish the weather had been better. Poor puppy got car sick as well, but I think she had fun running around the beach. Steve helped me make this little movie to share with you starring Leyna. It’s titled, Leyna’s First Day at the Beach (duh…)
Click Here to Download the Cutest Movie Ever!
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