Help me!!! I’m a cute puppy without a name. My mom likes Pepita- spanish for nugget, and my dad likes Leyna, old german for little angel, which sounds the same as the spanish Leña which means firewood. I think they need more ideas…
Steve and I got a sweet little puppy today. She’s a german shepherd puppy, 9 weeks old. She doesn’t have a name yet, her name was Paloma, which is dove in spanish. Unfortunately, my friend Joanna is on vacation right now, so I don’t have a camera, but I took a few pictures with Steve’s video camera. Not a great pictures, but once Steve comes home, we’ll take some more. She is so cute, and has a great personality, and is sleeping next to me as a type. So, here she is, more pictures to come!!!
I have decided that once a week, I’m going to try to make a chilean dish for dinner. Last night, was my first attempt. On Friday, on our way home from Chapilca, we stopped in the town of Vicuna for lunch. Vicuna is a neat little town in the valley Elqui, that has a beautiful square, and some nice artisan shops around the square. It also has an interesting bug museum, I am told. At the restaurant, one of the women ordered Pastel de Choclo, which is corn and meat pie, a traditional chilean dish served at most restaurants. It looked and smelled amazing, and I decided that I should make it for Steve. It was easy to make, and tasted very good. It’s a little sweet (because of the confectioner sugar sprinkled on top), but all the tastes blend together well. In Chile, when you order this dish, they give you a side of sugar to sprinkle over the pastel as it is eaten.
Pastel de Choclo
6 large ears corn, grate the kernels
4 fresh basil leaves chopped
1 t salt
1/2 – 1 cup milk
3 large onions chopped
3 T oil
1 lb ground beef
salt and pepper to taste
1t ground cumin
4 hard boiled eggs, sliced
1 c. black olives
1 c. raisins
12 pieces chicken, browned in hot oil with salt, pepper and cumin. I used a package of chicken breasts, I think around a pound and a half and cubed and browned them
2 T confectioner sugar
1. Preheat oven to 400
2. In a med. pot, heat the grated corn, chopped basil, salt, and butter. Add the milk little by little stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Cook over low heat for 5 min. Leave to side, while preparing meat mixture
3. Fry onions in oil until transparent, add ground beef, brown meat, season with salt, pepper, and cumin.
4. Brown chicken in oil and season with salt, pepper and cumin
5. To prepare pie use over proof dish that you can take to table ( I used a 9×13 dish) spread bottom of dish with beef and onions, then place sliced egg, olives and raisins (I omitted olives). Put the chicken on top (I think traditionally, Chileans use chicken on the bone, brown it, and pull the meat off).
6. Cover with corn mixture. Sprinkle with confectioner sugar.
7. Bake at 400 for 30-35 min, until crust is golden brown.
8. Eat and enjoy!!!!
Tuesday, was a lazy day here in La Serena. It was a holiday here in Chile, All Saints Day, so Steve didn’t have to go in to work. We made the best of our lazy day and slept in and then went to La Feria, which is the open air market downtown. It’s a short walk, and they sell the most amazing things there, from seaweed, clothes, nuts, fruits, veggies and plants. It’s all very cheap, so we just bring our change. I got a ton of fresh walnuts for 500 pesos, which is around a dollar. I’m on a walnut craze currently, and love putting them in my salads.
Let’s see, what else do I have to share? On Sunday, before Steve came down the mountain, I went to the beach with my friend Stella, who graduated with Steve form IU. It was nice to finally get to see her. I was in the States when she got here, and then she was in the States, and we were never able to get in touch. I’m happy to say we finally did, went to the beach, went for a walk, hung out with some of the other gringos, and went out to lunch. I didn’t bring the camera though. Upcoming events include a trip on Friday to Chipilca to buy some homemade yarn, and to watch a dying presentation. My weaving project is coming along, slowly though. Hopefully I will finish it soon and figure out what to do with it!
So, on Oct 31, I experienced my first chilean despedida de soltera, otherwise known as a bachelorette party. My friend Jaime is getting married at the end of November to Marcel (who works with Steve). Here’s a picture of Jaime, who is also known as, the african dance teacher…
It was a fun and very crazy night, I didn’t get home until around 430, but you don’t want to hear all about that, I’m sure you want to see a picture. However, I wouldn’t want any of you getting in trouble at work, so I censored anything that might be deemed as inappropriate, when I say might be, I mean it was…
On Saturday, we had a halloween party here on the top of the recinto for the kids. We had a handful of games, music and fun. It was the perfect day. It was sunny and warm in the upper 60’s to low 70’s with a nice breeze. Steve unfortunately was up on the mountain, so I went with friends and worked at it. One of my most favorite costumes was Dara, Knut and their daughter, who came dressed as some of the characters from the best kids book ever, Where The Wild Things Are. On a side note, if my sister was ever to get a tattoo, she would get one of Max, or so she used to say. Other favorites, were me of course, and my friend Joanna, dressed in a size 3-5 year old turtle costume. After the party we had trick or treating. It was my first Chilean Halloween, and it was a success!!! We also had a bake sale, and my fudge and blueberry muffins were a hit!
Today is my dad’s birthday. We should all take a minute and wish him a happy birthday, and thank him for creating such a beautiful, wonderful, awesome daughter!!!! Happy birthday dad!! I hope you have a wonderful day, and that you get a big piece of angel food cake with chocolate frosting. YUMMY!!! Love you!!!!
Yesterday Steve and I along with our friends Joanna and Rob, went on search of the flowering desert. In my head I pictured fields of flowers in the middle of the desert. We didn’t find that, but we had a fun time trying. We drove up north for a few hours at first following the coast, and then headed inland. After a while, we took this dirt road back out to the sea, through a Chilean National Park. The only misfortune we had on our 10 hour drive, was that a rock got kicked up into our windshield and cracked it. Oh well, easy to fix. Anyways, more about our drive. On the way up I saw Chilean road kill, mainly cows. I thought it was pretty funny and wanted to take a picture, but it was deemed too gruesome. The desert was beautiful. It had splashes of green with some occasional flowers- mainly yellow, purple, periwinkle and white flowers. While we were driving through the park we saw at least 12 dust devils, which I had never seen before. I had the bright idea that I should stand in one and get a picture, but I think Steve thought I was crazy, and we decided that I would probably get too dirty, maybe next time 🙂 (that would have been a great picture though). After driving through the national park we ended up in this small little fishing village, where I found a cool sea urchin shell- purple with purple spikes, nestled in the rocks on the beach. We then drove south along the coast and ended up back home. We had a wonderful time, and Steve and I are thinking about going up north again in the next couple of weeks in search for my fields of flowers.
Today, four of us went out to lunch in Caleta Los Hornos. Some of you may recall a previous posting on this quaint fishing village which is about a half hour drive north of La Serena. It boasts a wonderful restaurant that sits on the water with outdoor seating offering a beautiful view, from roosters, goats, boats and water. The village is nestled on a rocky cove, and has the most blue pristine water I’ve seen, well at-least here in Chile. Unfortunately, unlike the caribbean, the beach is pure rocks. Not nice to lay on, but fun to walk along. As with most of Chile, the roads are unkept dirt roads. Thankfully we were in Joanna’s high clearance SUV, because the roads are filled with ruts and rocks. On the way back to La Serena, there was a small house on the side of the road, that had the below skins drying on the line. The owners had goats, donkeys, dogs and chickens running around their yard. As you can imagine, a very stinky yard!!!
Yesterday, Joanna and I went out to lunch to the neighboring town of Caleta San Pedro. Apparently, it’s a town that has mostly restaurants run by women. Basically, there’s a town square with a long building running the length of the square. This building has multiple small window restaurants with in it. We both got empanadas, mine was with scallops and Joanna’s was with shrimp. The weird thing was that the scallops had a orange leg type thing coming off of them. Very weird. Apparently in the US we cut them off before selling. ONe of my Aussie friends said that it’s the best part. To be honest after seeing the orange I got kinda grossed out and pulled them out and just ate the cheese. I wasn’t sure what the orange part was. I imagined it being some type of foot or leg that pops out of the shell to help it move. Any ideas anyone what it really is. I should’ve taken a picture! After lunch we drove around a little bit and went to the beach. The beach here was nice. It had dunes and good waves. You were able to really hear the ocean here. We found this little shrine in the dunes. You see these shrines all over Chile where people have died. Apparently someone had drowned. The nice thing is that family or community members keep the shrines decorated. THere is always fresh flowers at the shrines I see. Someone told me that the shrines are for the persons spirit walking the earth. Steve did say that if I was to die, he would make me the best and biggest shrine ever. Now that’s true love!!
