Cooking (and eating)

Monday we celebrated a huge milestone in KinderWorld - 100 Days in School! There's something about the number 100 that makes the kids just so excited. We celebrated by counting to 100 several ways, read books about 100 things, decorated pictures with 100 seeds, and ended the day by eating popsicles (in 100 licks or more!) It was a fun day - for once the kids were really excited about learning! If only every day could be that way...

Wednesday, when Dan Strebig came to pick his daughter Raquel up at noon, he asked what my lunch plans were. When I replied "crackers and cheese" he immediately invited me for ribs at their house. I've never been a huge BBQ fan, but there was something about the smell of the grill and the sauce that made me feel so much at home! "The other Dana" was there too, along with two guys from the Strebig's home church in Montana. It was a delicious, messy time of food and fellowship.

Wednesday night Laura invited me to go make cheese empanadas with her at a friend's house. It was a great experience all around. Laura's friend, Abelina, doesn't speak a word of English which was great since I was forced to use my (very) limited Spanish to communicate. She very patiently showed me the process (see illustrations below).

Step 1: Mixing the dough (flour, sugar, oil, and water) by hand (literally)

Step 2: Knead the mixture until in forms a smooth ball of dough.

Step 3: Grate the cheese (we used a very hard white cheese that had little oil - this helped it stay inside the crust)

Step 4: Roll the dough into very thin ovals

Step 5: Put cheese in the middle of the dough, then pinch the sides together (it looks kind of like a sealed pita pocket)

Step 6: This is the tricky one: roll the edges of the empanada so that it forms a nice scalloped design. Easier said than done! By my fourth or fifth try I was starting to get the hang of it - although I was reeeeally slow. (If you look close I'm sure you can tell which ones I rolled and which ones were done by the experts - Laura and Abelina)

Step 7: Fry each pastry so that it puffs up crispy and delicious

Step 8: Enjoy! (But be cautious - blow on it first!)

Empanadas are a very typical Bolivian pastry that are also sometimes filled with chicken and potatoes. They can be eaten at any time, including breakfast, and are super yummy - though obviously they don't exactly make it very far down the food pyramid!

Thursday through Sunday "the other Dana" and I house and dog-sat for Charles and Hannah McCall, and young couple that are part of SAM's rural ministry team. Seidy (their dog) is a beautiful Weimaraner puppy. She's great to look at. Unfortunately she's also in that awkward stage of hyperactivity/clumsiness/destruction. It was an adventure, that's for sure! A few examples of the way Seidy "livened up" our weekend:

- We let her watch a movie with us, hoping she'd settle down. Nope, instead she very innocently inched her way closer to me until she was laying across my lap! That was okay - until she started licking my ears and nibbling on my hair!

- We took her for a walk, hoping it would help calm her down. She literally dragged us down the street as she nosed through garbage and tried to drink from the filthy water puddles - then when we stopped momentarily she wrapped herself around us and then took off so that we smacked heads and saw stars!

- We invited Katie over for left-over tacos after church on Sunday (Saturday we made a Mexican feast, complete with from-scratch salsa and guacamole). While we were eating Seidy snuck up behind Katie and then pounced-attacking her hair clip and licking her ears.

Of course after every escapade she'd just look at us so innocently as if to say "Did I do something wrong?" Despite all the dog drama I managed to have a very relaxing, quiet weekend. Hopefully it will sustain me through next weekend, which will be, from what everyone has told me, "utterly exhausting."

Stay tuned for my next post: Bolivian Campomento!

(it will be later then usual, since we are off Monday and Tuesday next week for Carnival).