Saturday Cooking: Fruit Leathers!

Sometimes my life here is really exciting; today was not one of those times.  That is unless you find fruit leathers really exciting (like I do) then, well, this just might blow you away.  I have found myself spending quite a bit more time in the kitchen, particularly on Saturday afternoons, experimenting and trying new things.  Today's venture stemmed from thinking about good homemade, healthy snacks to take on an upcoming kayaking trip in May; any all day/multi day outdoor adventure require snacks, unless you want cranky travelers.  Also, I made dried apple slices a while back and they turned out pretty good, so I figured why not try some fruit leathers.  While most kids (like David) hated when parents tried to trick you into thinking these were a suitable replacement snack, I was the one who preferred these over the Fruit-By-The-Foot and Fruit Roll-Ups, and still do, but they are just so darn expensive.  Luckily, as it turns out, they are pretty easy and cheap to make!  I looked up directions on several different places, but ultimately I kind of just went with it; I still really hate following recipes step-by-step and I'm not sure why. 

1. Cut and clean the fruit you want to use (I used strawberries), cutting away any spots that you wouldn't normally want to eat.

2. Add to large saucepan with enough water to cover the bottom.  I don't think the amount of water is important; you want enough to stew the fruit, but the more you have the longer it will likely take your final product to dry.

3. Add the juice from one small lemon (I think this helps bring out the flavors) and sugar to taste.  I only added a sprinkle to mine because as the leather dries the natural sugar from the fruit will become more concentrated, so be careful not to add too much.

4. Cook the fruit until it is very soft and mushy.

 

5. Then add the fruit to a blender and puree

This made about 2 cookie sheets of fruit leathers.

6. OK here's the tricky part.  Line a cookie sheet with plastic wrap and brush with olive oil.  This step about made me lose my mind.  I had at least 3 attempts with plastic wrap before it was thrown across the kitchen because the plastic was sticking only to itself and NOT where I wanted it.  One time I managed to carefully lie it on the pan I messed it up when I tried to brush it.  This led me to use parchment paper.  I brushed the pan first with oil and then put the paper on top, the oil helps the paper to stick down.  Then I brushed the paper with a little bit more oil to avoid the fruit sticking to it.  Genius.  I filled one pan with about half of the puree and evened it out with a spatula.  Then I considered that the fruit might still get really stuck to the paper and I would be either A. eating a lot of parchment paper or B. ruin an entire afternoon's attempt at fruit leather.  This led me to the plastic once again for the second time.  This time I was smarter than the plastic wrap.  I again brushed the pan with oil so the plastic wrap had no choice but to stick.  Gotcha!  I then had myself a little experiment testing which worked better: parchment paper or plastic wrap, at which point I considered writing this post entire in the format of a lab report (nerd alert), but decided to save the public from complete and utter boredom.  You can thank me later.  Oops.  Sorry about the excessively long step 6!

Don't worry, each tray had equal time on the top and bottom rack
in order to ensure only 1 independent variable.

7.  These bad boys go into the oven at about 140 F or 60 C to dry out.  It helps to keep the oven door propped open a bit to get the air circulating around the trays. 

8.  Wait an excessively long time for fruit to dry.  On the bright side, all this made the apartment smell absolutely delightful, but that just made me want them to finish sooner.  In the end it took about 4 hours.  Some unevenly thin parts were a little too dry and I would want them a little thicker next time, so timing will vary.

9.  Discover that parchment paper and plastic wrap work equally well and decide you will definitely use only parchment paper next time.

10.  Enjoy homemade fruit leathers!

10.  Try other fruits.


Verdict: Success!

These will definitely be making an appearance on future outdoor adventure trips as a super yummy and healthy snack hopefully with some other tasty flavors.

Luck o' the Irish

Although I haven't yet felt very homesick during my time down here in Colombia, this time of year seems to be bringing it on.  In Chicago, the weather is just starting to warm up and it makes you want to enjoy the time out side again: reading a book on the patio, grabbing a cold beer after work with the roommates and even running or biking along the Lakefront.  And there is no better feeling than that first afternoon you realize you no longer need a coat.  Blissful.  While I do not miss winter I am really missing spring.  Sure, Cali is pretty much eternal summer, offering plenty of time outside and poolside, and I get the springtime rain twice a year, but its not even close to being the same.  The other thing that always makes this time of year so great is St. Patrick's Day; I may only be 1/8 Irish (I think), but everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's day, and luckily I still got to celebrate this year.  There may not have been a parade or dying the river green, but we made the best of it.

With a little persuasion from Sam, Kelsi and Kristin decided to have some people over to celebrate Saturday night.  I had been hoping someone would have a get together as all of my Pinning gave me some great St. Patrick's Day themed foods and recipes to try.  After spending the morning and afternoon baking and putting some things together, the girls headed to San Fernando to work on some crafty St. Patrick's Day shirts.  "Bésame, soy Iralandésa" was a favorite amongst the group.  I learned that my T-shirt making skills are not what they used to be, but I managed.  With my rainbow cupcake in hand it was time for the photo op.  Of course all I could think of was Muffins!, an oldie but a goodie. 



These cupcakes were more about looks than taste if you ask me; I didn't love the taste and texture, but everyone seemed to enjoy them.  I adapted the recipe from Our Best Bites:



I might have overfilled some...



1 white cake mix

2 eggs

1 C low fat vanilla yogurt

1/2 C milk

1/3 C sugar free applesauce



Pot o' gold

 

They looked pretty darn cool inside.

So they may not have been my favorite tasting, but they were at least healthier than usual and looked pretty awesome.  I was on the hunt for a better for you frosting too.  Most recipes usually call for butter and 5-6 cups of powdered sugar.  Delicious?  Usually.  Healthy?  Not even close.  So when I found this recipe on the same site, I decided to give it a try.  I'll admit, I was a bit very skeptical as I started to cook up milk and flour mush, but in the end it turned out pretty good.  Still a decent amount of butter, but far less sugar.  I would like to try this again, but with a fit of flavoring of some sort, I think it could really use a little something more. 

 

I also threw together rainbow fruit plates.  Yummy!

Kristin and Kelsi made grasshopper drink which were fabulous.  It was like drinking a Thin Mint cookie.  Mmmmmmm.  There was guacamole, Spanish tortilla with green eggs and a Oreo peanut butter green ice cream cake from Sam.  We had quite the spread.  When the boys finally decided to show up, we watched some college basketball, took some more pictures and then when on the hunt for a bar with Guinness.  The bar we were counting on, Talbert's (which I always thought was Talbot's) turned out to be closed.  Bourbon Street which was across the way had Guinness, but was also packed with people.  And students.  And that's just awkward for everyone.  We tried Hooters, but it was a no go, so we finally settled on the Beer Lounge, which didn't have Guinness (like their menu says), but they did have Murphy's Irish Red which I tried for the first time.  Didn't love it. 

The night was more tranquilo than most St. Patrick's days I have had, but I was perfectly OK with it.  It was nice to have a relaxing night where we could enjoy some crafts and food and the company of friends without the massive crowds that I normally deal with during such celebrations. 

 

Pinterest, I Think I Love You

I know a lot of people have a lot of complaints about this new social media, but I don't care.  I have tried so many new things in the last few weeks and I have loved every minute of it.  Here are some things I have made from recipes I found on Pinterest:

Sugar Free Homemade Apple Sauce

http://whippedtheblog.com/2009/10/25/applesauce-simple-homemade-sugar-free/

I made this one mostly for baking, but its a great snack too.  Its nice to keep a store of it in the fridge so when I need it as an oil replacement I don't have to make a new batch every time.

Easy Mac & Cheese

http://www.macaroniandcheesecake.com/2011/09/revolutionary-mac-cheese.html

Not to be confused with "Easy Mac", gross.  I came home from work and saw this recipe pop up, realized I had everything I needed and immediately made my way to the kitchen to whip it up for dinner.  The trick is cooking your noodles in milk.  You don't have to drain it and the milk serves as the base for the cheese sauce.  Genius.  This does require serious pot baby sitting and the milk will boil over if you aren't careful.  And if you don't learn our lesson the first time it will boil over 2-3 more times.  Oops. 

I used Monterrey Jack cheese because it was what he had already.  After cooking the noodles, I put it in a pan and topped it with some freshly sliced tomatoes and baked it for about 10-15 minutes.  While the blog suggests it as a side dish, I enjoy Mac & Cheese all on its own, and I definitely don't think this made 4 servings, so next time I'll be making more.  Also, its great leftover. 

Spicy Crab Stuffed Cucumbers

http://domesticfits.blog.com/2011/07/07/cucumber-cups-stuffed-with-spicy-crab/

I made this when we had people over for David's birthday.  I wasn't in love, but everyone seemed to really enjoy them.  While Colombia has a wide variety of canned fish (squid, salmon, oysters, cuttlefish among others) crab isn't one of them.  I used frozen crab sticks.  I think I would have enjoyed them more.  Still call this one a success though.

Quinoa Pizza Bites

http://www.soveryblessed.com/2012/02/quinoa-pizza-bites.html

I didn't use any onions, but did throw in a couple dashes of onion powder.  No fresh basil either.  I made some with pepperoni and some with mushroom, both delicious.  I didn't have mini muffin pans so I used regular sized ones; they fell apart a bit more, so I would highly recommend the mini pans if you have them.

And last, but certainly not least...

Personal Sized Baked Oatmeal

http://www.sugarfreemom.com/recipes/personal-sized-baked-oatmeal-with-individual-toppings-gluten-free-diabetic-friendly/

These are a new favorite in our apartment.  I have made them 3 or 4 times now and David even offered to make them this weekend because he wanted them so bad!  This is also the original reason I made that homemade applesauce.  I've probably made the most edits to this recipe, so here's what I used:

 

2 eggs

2 cups sugar free applesauce

5 cups rolled oats

1 over ripened banana, mashed

2 cups milk

1 tsp honey

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

You know that 1 or 2 bananas that always gets left uneaten at the end of the week and starts to turn gross and brown?  Instead of throwing it out, put it in the freezer.  These bananas are great for baking and if you have enough you can make some yummy banana bread too.  I used less milk because mine just seemed a bit too moist.  As for the flaxseed in the original recipe?  Yeah right, like I'm going to go on the hunt for that here.  I just left it out and it seems to work just fine.  I also learned my lesson the first two times with the cupcake liners: NOT worth it.  It's a waste of liners and they stick to the oatmeal; we've eaten a lot of paper with our oatmeal. 

I usually make a 3-4 different varieties with each batch.  Some include: banana and peanut butter for David, banana topped with a bit of brown sugar, apple cinnamon, strawberry and chocolate chip.  We keep them in the fridge and can grab 1 or 2 for a breakfast on the way to school, or a small snack when we need something to tie us over.  If you like oatmeal, you HAVE to try these.  Huge success.

One Hot Dog Please, Hold the Butter

That's what I'll be sure to say next time I attempt to eat a hot dog in Colombia, not that its likely I will.

It was Friday night during Game Night that David and I realized we hadn't eaten and wanted something quick and cloys by, thus, the hot dog place.  Apparently hot dogs fit in OK with my "eat healthier"  goal.  False.  As the man was making my hot dog, I saw him squeeze something onto it, but figured he had already made the move and that it wasn't likely I would be able to explain to him I didn't want what he had just put on there, so I thought I'd chance it.  And that's when I discovered that Colombians put butter on their hot dogs.  Maybe not all Colombians, but this hot dog only eatery thought it was important enough that they put only that on for me and left the rest to me.  Needless to say, it was less than appetizing.  However unpleasant a surprise this might have been, at least it will make me think twice before ordering a hot dog anywhere but Chicago. 

Cupcakes!

For Christmas, my mom got me the best little $3 gift a wannabe baker could ask for: a cupcake de-middler!  Yes, I'm sure there is a more official/proper name, but I like mine.  I am always looking for reasons to bake and what better reason than this little gadget to take on a couple of filled cupcake recipes.  I knew immediately I wanted to make apple pie cupcakes, as those are my favorite from this little gem of a cupcake shop we frequented in Chicago called Molly's; if you happen to find yourself in Chicago near Fullerton & Clark, give one a try.  Unfortunately, they don't always have said favorite cupcake, as they claim it is seasonal.  I thought I could make these and then it might be a nice little treat to take with me when I visited David and his family in Iowa at the end of our break.  Then I remembered his sister is vegan, and we are always taking/sending things there that aren't vegan.  How rude of us.  So then I decided to take on a little vegan baking challenge.  I figured there was a could chance this could go horribly wrong, so I better try another recipe too, non-vegan.  I was going to go with my other favorite, chocolate raspberry, until I found a recipe for Irish Car Bomb cupcakes and I was sold.  The vegan recipe took a little piecing together as my "vegan apple pie cupcake recipe" Google search turned up few usable results.  I adapted recipes from several sites and searches that can be found by clicking on the heading of each cupcake component.  So here's what it took:

 

 

Cinnamon Cupcake

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Apple Filling

• 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
• Honey Crisp apples (about 4 medium), peeled, cored, and finely diced
• 1 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon water

Caramel Buttercream Frosting

• 2 cups vegetable shortening baking sticks
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• Caramel syrup
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 6 tbsp vegetable shortening baking sticks
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt

You might notice that the frosting links to an apple pie recipe, the same one in fact that I made for Thanksgiving at school.  My mom and I used that recipe for the caramel because the vegan caramel buttercream recipe we tried first gave a insanely complicated caramel recipe that resulted in a kitchen and living room full of smoke and having to take down the smoke detector.  We couldn't actually get the detector to turn off, which lead to my mom probably losing partial hearing in one ear and eventually I think we ended up putting it outside until the smoke had cleared.  I thought maybe the caramel might still taste OK.  It didn't.  Won't make that mistake again.  Once these were all put together, they were in fact quite scrumptious if I do say so myself.  My dad couldn't tell any difference (until I told him they were vegan and had soy milk in them, he was not happy about being "tricked").  I even topped them off with a little slice of apple.  Delish.

The Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes (click to view recipe) were slightly less complicated, except for deciding whether or not it was worth it to buy a whole bottle of Jameson and Baileys for 24 little cupcakes (it wasn't).  So they weren't technically car bombs, but close enough.  I bought the Baileys as I decided it was essential for the frosting and I also ended up substituting it in the ganache for the 2 tsp of Irish whiskey it called for.  Considering what eventually happened to the cupcakes (I may or may not share this later) and said extra Guinness and Baileys, I'm glad I didn't spend the extra $20 on whiskey too.  These were topped off with just a sprinkle of chocolate baking powder, and were by far the heaviest cupcake I've ever felt, making it all the more delicious. 

I can't wait to take on another yummy cupcake recipe soon and share them with friends down here.  I even brought back some yellow, red and blue cupcake holders!

Giving Thanks in Colombia

As you might assume, Colombia doesn't usually celebrate Thanksgiving, and for obvious reasons (no Pilgrims, duh).  However, because my school is a bilingual school AND there is a large population of American teachers at our school, I actually got to celebrate it twice this year.  This almost made up for the fact that I was missing my first Thanksgiving with my family.  Ever.  I made the trip home every year in college for the family party and food and never had a serious enough significant other to render missing dinner with my own family (we got lucky last year that David's family had Thanks-o-ween so we could both go to both celebrations).  Oh and work shwork.  Thus giving me, I think, the title of the only cousin/granddaughter to never miss a turkey dinner.  Until now.  Sad.  But like I said I had TWO celebrations here with friends and what I can call my Colombian family. 

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, Mike and Mandi hosted 70+ people for Friendsgiving.  They made three turkeys, and the rest of the dinner was left up to the guests.  Of course I immediately signed up to bring dessert, the same Sour Cream Apple Pie I made for my family last year, but this time I had to make it with homemade pie crust.  However, as the dinner approached, it looked like there was going to be a lot of desserts and not so many sides, so I offered to bring something else and Mike requested stuffing.  I promised nothing, having never even thought about making stuffing before, but set on my way to track down my Aunt Lori's stuffing recipe.  Growing up, I was never a fan of stuffing, until I tried this stuff, it's awesome.  And upon getting the not-so-recipe-recipe (which is great because its pretty clear I never follow recipes anyway) I discovered the key to delicious was butter, and lots of it.  Mmmmm.  I did end up cutting down, especially because I was making a double batch.  And of course nothing ever goes smoothly, like when I realized the GIANT aluminum pan I bought for said double batch was not going to fit in our tiny oven.  No problem.  Stuffing loaves it is!  They turned out preeeettty tasty.  Thanks Lori for the yummy recipe!  I also made homemade spiced apple cider from scratch: 'lotta apples, little cider.  But also pretty good.

Homemade crust is a lot easier than I thought

Mmmmm Apple Pie

Too big.

Crispy Stuffing Loaves!

On Tuesday that week, our school hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for the whole faculty and staff.  It was nice to see so many people come together from so many different backgrounds to celebrate and enjoy time together.  I am extremely grateful for the wonderful community at my school, which has made this transition amazingly easy.  For this dinner each section was in charge of something different; David had vegetables in high school and middle school had desserts.  I thought about making the Sour Cream Apple Pie again, but then decided to try something a little more traditional, and so I stumbled upon this video and recipe for caramel apple pie:

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-favorite-apple-pie-recipe-getting.html

also with homemade crust.  Other than having to make to batches of caramel because the first hardened too soon and having a crust that stuck to the pan a bit, it seemed this was a hit. 

Flour coated apples for filling (caramel added late)

Lattice crust with a little CB pride.

Toasty and warm in the oven.

Although I couldn't be with my family in the States for Thanksgiving, I have to say all of this and the friends down here were quite the place fillers and I think in the future these celebrations with friends and my family away from home will be something I miss too.

My Culinary Challenge

When Kelsi and I discovered that we had the same awesome birthday of November 11th, she invited me to take part of her 80s themed 11-11-11 party for a joint birthday celebration.  After showing up to the Halloween party with Oreo eyeballs and chorizo monster toes, Kelsi and Kristin immediately said I was in charge of making 80s food, a request I happily accepted.  As the date approached, I spent more time than I'd like to admit looking for some good 80s themed food, which is slightly more difficult than Halloween food.  Luckily, I found a totally rad recipe for a Rubik's cube cake, what can be more 80s than that?!  So I decided that that would be my challenge, to somehow make this cake, successfully.

The thing with reading other people recipes is that they make it seem so simple: "Here's how to make a Rubik's cube cake in 6 simple steps!"  False.  More like "here's how to spend 8 hours making a cake that should not be attempted by novices."  I just wish there would have been a warning on the recipe caution:  the stress incurred while attempting this cake will take years off your life in addition to the hours spent on a CAKE.  I mean, I probably would have tried to make it anyway, I just like a little honesty from people. 

As you probably have already read, cooking in Colombia is not the same as it is in the US, baking even less so.  Some things are hard to come by; for example, I knew I couldn't even attempt this beast unless I had the ever so elusive Colombian food coloring.  Luckily, I found it in Exito during my very normal weekend along with powdered sugar, to which the check out guy respond "azucar? en serio?" clearly he had never seen or used powdered sugar and was perplexed by its texture.  With my marshmallows, powdered sugar and food coloring in hand, I set out to practice making fondant that would be used for the colored squares.  I didn't want to make a whole batch so I cut it down, but did some serious estimating, with some serious estimation errors and spent two hours adding more and more sugar to the gooey mess I had all over my hands and counter.  Finally I had gotten the right consistency, and knew if I actually followed the directions when it came time for the real deal, I'd succeed with much less stress.  I also made a practice batch of Dona Torta vanilla cake which calls for 1.5 sticks of margarine and 4 eggs, a little different than Ms. Betty Crocker.  Turns out the cake is delicious, but may or may not also take years off your life. 

Thursday evening came around and I knew it was time to get serious.  The recipe called for two boxes of cake, so I figured I'd make one chocolate and one vanilla so people could have a choice.  I made the chocolate and then got started on my fondant, which did go a little more smoothly, but still took longer than I would have liked with the coloring and having to add sugar little by little to get rid of the stickiness.  Chocolate cakes done and fondant made in about 3 hours on Thursday night, I figured I could easily come home Friday at 3, make my chocolate ganache, roll and cut fondant and make another batch of cakes with time to spare...false.  For someone who claims to be a "math person", I clearly didn't think this one out: the recipe calls for two boxes of cake divided into three pans, but Thursday night I make two 8 x 8 inch chocolate cakes and was planning to make two more vanilla Friday, which would leave me with veeeerrrry short cakes.  Whoops.  So instead I came home Friday and had to make two more boxes of cake (thank GOD I bought an extra!) and split it into two pans to get some height on it.  As I was putting one of the pans into the oven, a little bug managed to fly into the batter and get stuck so I quickly pulled the pan out to get the little guys out, but not before burning my arm on the oven.  Now, this has happened to me before, the burn, not the bug, only I was making cupcakes at my mom's and the burn made me drop the whole pan of cake batter onto our non-self cleaning oven.  Oops.  I still hear that story, sorry mom!  Luckily that DIDN'T happen this time, I probably would have cried. 

Ouch

 While the cakes were cooking, I got out my semi-sweet melting chocolate, heavy cream and butter to make the chocolate ganache, by far the easiest part of the whole thing.  Then I set out to roll and cut my fondant into squares.  Even though I took the fondant out of the fridge as soon as I got home, it was still pretty rock solid, so I got a great arm workout trying to roll out my fondant with an empty wine bottle (thanks for the idea Kelsi!)  It didn't help that I could never get the 7-8 squares I needed in the first roll, so I would have to re-ball and roll two or three times.  Took forever.  I also at some point had to shape and put a crumb coat on the chocolate cakes.  After all that was done I had to do the same with the vanilla cakes.  At this point I am semi-delirious from now working on the cakes for 3+ hours while realizing I am about to run out of the one can of vanilla frosting I bought.  Shit.  In a panic, I frantically search online for homemade white icing recipe, throw together some of the extra powdered sugar and butter and then in a brief moment of sanity I said to myself: "this is NOT worth it."  I realized people would not be critiquing this cake the way I might, the chocolate ganache would coat the cake just fine, plus I had fondant to put on too.  So I left the weird concoction in the bowl and went back to my cake.  I took a break in there somewhere to shower and Madonna-ize myself before coating and cooling the cake. 

I thought about taking the cake and finishing it at Kelsi and Kristin's, but I couldn't think of how to get all the pieces safely and neatly over there, so I finished it at home, all except the fondant squares.  The cube survived a taxi ride to San Fernando where it was ready to get its fondant.  Turns out I am also bad at measuring, and the squares were too big, so I had to cut them down again.  By this point, I said forget it to trying to make it look all nice and fancy and just put squares anywhere and everywhere.  Finally, by 9:30 Kelsi and I had our Rubik's cube birthday cake.  Everyone seemed to be pretty impressed and it turns out it tasted pretty darn good too, thank goodness.  I wish I would have gone with the "in progress" look, but I was too chicken and my cake shaping skills are not the best, so my cakes were a little instable.  Maybe next time.  HAH yeah right, there will NOT be a next time for this cake.  OK maybe there will be.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Totally yours,

More Attempts at Cooking

I realize I have done a very poor job of following up on my "Cooking in Colombia" theme, but to be honest, I haven't done much really, nothing to special at least.  But here goes my shot at a quick post on what I've been cooking.

Remember those arepas I made?  I was originally practicing them for an actual recipe form the book for Chicken and Chorizo Arepas with Chimichurri.  The filling of the arepas included shredded chicken, avocados, parsley, onions, garlic and a mayonnaise-Dijon mustard creamy sauce topped with slices of chorizo.  To dice the onions I went to my handy dandy Magic Bullet, and ended up with minced onions.  Oops.  Also used it to shred my chicken because I refuse to do so by hand.  Once again I underestimated it and ended up with chicken a little finer than I would have liked, but I wouldn't say it did much to change the taste.  I also decided to take my chorizo out of the casing and cook it ground rather than in slices.  This is what it is supposed to look like:

What it actually looked like:

Not the prettiest, but in all honesty it was darn tasty.  Kind of like a chorizo and avocado chicken salad.  I would definitely make this again, and maybe follow their recipe a little better, if for no other reason than to make it LOOK better. 

Verdict:  Success

More recently I tried to make fish tacos.  My roommates and I used to frequent a bar called Gaslight near our apartment in Lincoln Park for their $2.50 fish tacos and chimichurri fries on Wednesday's, and of course to visit Tessa.  I knew these could in no way live up to my expectations, but went for it anyway and threw in chimichurri fries for the heck of it.  Or maybe because they are one of my favorite foods.  Just maybe.

I decided against the beer batter, but in hindsight, it may have improved them.  I used talapia for the fish and marinated it in lime, garlic and other spices.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find cayenne pepper at the store, which also may have mad a big difference.  The cream sauce was equal parts mayonnaise, plain yogurt and ketchup all of which are readily available here, although I'm fairly certain that "natural" flavored yogurt in Colombia might actually mean vanilla.

I cooked some potato wedges in a pan with some oil and seasonings and then tossed them n a simple chimichurri sauce made from oil, parsley, garlic, oregano and a splash of vinegar.    Pretty easy.  After cutting up some cabbage, the tacos were ready to go!  And they weren't great.  Tasted pretty blah.  I would try it again when I had all the ingredients and maybe try a more flavorful fish or shrimp.  The fries however were delicious. 

Cookbook photo

My photo

 Verdict: Fry success, taco fail

Just last night I tried my hand at lasagna that David has been asking me to make.  After consulting with my mom, I set out for the grocery store, found what I needed including ricotta cheese and no need to boil lasagna noodles!  Score.  I can't tell you exactly what went into it, because very much like my mother, I rarely follow a recipe or keep track of what goes in.  Sure I glanced at a few online recipes for suggestions, but other than that I just threw together some seasonings with diced tomatoes and pasta sauce and mixed cheeses with other spices and spinach for the filling.  An hour in the oven and we had some VERY good lasagna.  Very proud of myself for this one.  No pictures, sorry.

Verdict:  Success

For ladies book club last week I wanted to take something quick and easy that preferably had a fall feeling to it, and apparently I found the prefect recipe:
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/apple-pie-party-dip-688358/. 
So easy and everyone loved it; I'll definitely be keeping this one for future use.

Verdict:  Success

I think that's all I have now, except for my messy attempt at homemade fondant, but more on that after I attempt to make the coolest birthday cake ever.  Until next time. 

Binationals in Pereira

Every year, the schools in Colombia that are part of SACS get together for Binationals, a several day sports tournament hosted by a different school each year.  The high school, middle school and teachers all have different locations at different time of the year.  As I mentioned at the end of my Panaca post that I went straight from Quimbaya to Pereira with three other 7th grade teachers for Binationals.  As you can imagine, three days filled with activities with 7th graders followed by more traveling and a weekend of sports is exhausting.  Good thing this was all followed by Semana de Receso. 

Anyway, after the buses taking everyone back to Cali dropped us off closer to town, we wandered our way around asking how and where to catch a bus to Pereira.  And by "we" I mean Christian, one of the PE teachers.  Thank goodness for him because the collective Spanish of Durkee, Scott and I probably wouldn't have gotten us far.  We found a helpful little old man who informed us we could just wait at this corner for a bus to come and he would flag it down for us.  Sounds great.  We grabbed something to drink and waited with all of our bags outside a little tienda for the bus to come, with no specific arrival time.  After about 15 minutes, the man informed us that we in fact had to go somewhere else to catch the bus.  I didn't actually catch what he said, but we had to get up and do more wandering so that's what I inferred.  We wandered for about another 10 minutes until we found a bus place, where they told us we had to go to a different corner to catch the bus to Pereira.  Five more minutes of wandering and we found the bus, ready to leave.  Luckily it was the first stop so we all got seats after paying our whopping $5000 pesos (close to $3 USD) for our 1.5-2 hour bus ride.  As is the case with most Colombian buses, the driver stopped anywhere and everywhere to pick up anyone and everyone along the way, which is why our trip was a little longer.  It got pretty crowded and hot, but luckily I had grabbed a seat next to the window and exhaustion from Panaca allowed me to sleep the majority of the time.  Even when an elderly gentlemen was jabbing his elbow into my side for about 30 minutes.  Thank you sir. 

When we got to the bus terminal in Pereira we caught a cab to our hotel and Christian got us all checked in.  Then we went out to the centro to grab a bite to eat, at which point we realized that Christian, bags still in hand, wasn't actually staying at the hotel.  His parents live about 30 from there and he was going to stay with them.  So in other words, he went COMPLETELY out of his way to make sure we got to our hotel and found a place to eat safely and double and triple checked that we knew how to get back before he had more traveling of his own to do.  Amazing.  Yet another reason I love Colombia, my school and co-workers.  Scott, Durkee & I grabbed some Italian food and looked around the mall a bit before heading back and waiting for the people from Cali to arrive.  Their bus wasn't leaving school until 6pm so they weren't scheduled to arrive in Pereira until about 9:30-10:00.  When I got back to the hotel I caught up on Internet, attempted to read before passing out around 8pm.  Woke up when David knocked at the door and then pretty much went back to sleep until morning.  Field trips are exhausting. 

Volleyball and basketball games weren't until 1 in the afternoon the next day, so neither David nor I bothered to set alarms.  Luckily we woke up at 7am to discover our bus was leaving for the school at 7:30 for the day and we would be back until midnight or later.  Quickest shower and re-packing ever.  We made our way to Licio Ingles, the host school for the morning soccer games.  Still somehow exhausted and having little knowledge in the rules of soccer, I spent my morning sitting on a bench attempting to read/nap.  Lunch came around and then it was time for volleyball and basketball.  One of the other three schools didn't have a team and Bolivar had enough for two, so we split up.  Not sure if it was A and B teams (in which case I was definitely put on B) but we both lost to the other two school playing, but I will say we put up a heck of a fight.  I still have floor burns from all my awesome diving for balls sans knee pads.  Three games in a row was exhausting and while it was fun, I was certainly fading and glad it was over.  After our games, the basketball moved from the outdoor court to the covered (but still open-air) court.  Good thing, because most of the players were sun burnt from playing outside for 2-3 hours. 

Most of the Bolivar competitors

After all the sports we showered and changed to get ready for our evening with all the athletes at a finca another school was renting out.  Although finca literally translates as farm, it refers more to a countryside house or estate.  After several stops along the way we finally got there and I got to enjoy my first ever lechona, a traditional Colombian meal consisting of a roasted pig stuffed with rice and other vegetables.  Looks gross, tastes delicious.  The rice from the pig is served with an arepa and some of the crispy skin from the pig.  In general, lechona is made for special events or occasions, our co-worker had one for his wedding, and they can feed MANY people.  Although I was originally very excited for a night of fun, the blaring music and onset of continued exhaustion (I'm telling you it was a LONG 5 days) and excitement wore off and all I wanted to do was sleep.  Others agreed.  While some partied and danced, especially when the live band came, many of us sought hammocks, empty couches or any open floor to rest on.  Finally around 11:30 our friend Lyndi had had enough and called several cabs, since our bus wouldn't be going back until after 1am.

Sunday was meant to be another day of sports, but instead of school against school, we integrated teams and played.  The day started a little later and there was one soccer game and then lunch and then a basketball game.  No one who played volleyball had any interest in playing so we didn't.  We're a bunch of bums.  We packed up and boarded the bus for our trip back to Cali.  After 5 days gone, getting back and sleeping in my own bed never felt so good, but I'd probably do it all again given the chance. 

Oh and in case you were wondering, the school that hosted Binationals didn't have a softball field, hence, no softball.  Bummer.

No Pork Castle for Me, Thank You

Every Wednesday I play volleyball with some other teachers, who happen to all be better than me, and speak more Spanish than me.  But, despite my lack of skills in both I managed to get the invite to play at the Binational teachers tournament in October, score.  Let's face it I'll probably sit the bench, but I'll take it.  Anyway, earlier this week (meaning yesterday, since its only Tuesday) one of the teachers, Octavio, sent out an email, which was entirely in Spanish.  Usually somewhere along the way someone will translate it to English, but this one didn't.  I read my way through it and used a little Google translate, but finally decided to kindly ask Amy to give me a quick run down of the invite.  As I suspected, Octavio was inviting us all to his house after volleyball Wednesday to celebrate the upcoming games as well as other various things, for some chorizos and beer, but if we preferred a pork chop (costilla de cerdo) to email him so he could order it.  I decided this morning that I'd be able to go and emailed back "Voy a asistir tambien, pero no castillo de cerdo para mi.  ¡Muchas gracias Octavio!", Reply All of course.  Now perhaps you didn't notice the slight spelling error, just as I hadn't, but my word has an O on the end, not an A.  Which means I replied "I am going to attend as well, but no pork castle for me.  Thank you!"  Within the hour I got a response informing me of my mistake, and when I saw Octavio on the bus he mentioned it too and assured that we'd all have a good long laugh about it tomorrow with our beers and castillos. 

Cooking in Colombia

Since I was a little girl, I have loved being in the kitchen, particularly when it meant baking with my grandma (and getting to lick the bowl) or watching my grandpa throw together his famous Chicken Cacciatore. While my actual skills in the kitchen tend towards baking, in the last year I have tried my hand at cooking meals. With some help and suggestions from my roommates Meaghan and Erin, I would like to think that I have since perfected my homemade white pizza with garlic, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes and goat cheese; my roasted garlic and vegetable pasta; egg and chorizo breakfast skillet and garlic shrimp pasta. However, when talking to my mom, the avid cooker and try-er of new recipes, about some meals I had made she said “You know Cas, garlic isn’t the only thing you can cook with.” Now as an avid garlic eater, I was offended, but decided to take on her challenge and try cooking meals that didn’t have garlic as the primary flavor, however tasty it may be. To help me on my way, she bought me a Williams-Sonoma “Essentials of Latin Cooking” cookbook to bring to Colombia with me. Having read through the book, I realized a couple things:

• There aren’t many Colombian recipes in here that will help me fit in any better, and I have been told that some of the ones in here are “fancy” Colombian meals.
• It should be re-named “Essentials of Latin Cooking If You Are Not Actually Living in a Latin Country and Have Every Ingredient Readily Available at Your Local Grocery Store and Every Piece of Kitchen Equipment Imaginable”. Not too catchy. There are certainly some modifications I will be making to some recipes due to the lack of tortilla press, grill, Monterey Jack Cheese, squash blossoms (wth?), red wine vinegar, or rosemary among other things. They don’t even have many types of peppers here (that I’ve seen so far). Luckily I have my handy dandy Magic Bullet to help me in my kitchen endeavors
• The majority of the recipes include garlic HAH!
• I’m not nearly as experienced in the kitchen as I thought. Yikes.

Never the less, I found an interesting recipe, but then decided to start small. My first “Latin” cooking experience here (outside of making juices) was making arepas, traditional bread made with corn flour, or Masa harina. There are several ways to cook arepas, but I chose one that didn’t require any deep frying. The recipe is simple: a 1 to 1 ration of ArepArina, or precooked corn flour, to water, with a teaspoon or so of sea salt. Kitchen foul number one: I bought sea salt crystals instead of already ground. Thank goodness for that Magic Bullet accompanied by an informative pamphlet to teach me how to grind spices.

After mixing the ingredients, letting the “masa” sit covered for 2 minutes I was instructed to knead the dough and roll it into an 8” (20cm) log and then cut it into 8 pieces and roll them into balls. Then flatten to 3” (8cm) in diameter. Metric units are something I’m still getting used to, so I’m grateful for the books use of inches etc.

Then I cooked the arepas in a pan with just a splash of olive oil for about 3-4 minutes on either side. I (attempted to) cut them open and we put eggs and chorizo inside for a lovely little breakfast. My arepas definitely need some improvement, I think I added a bit too much water because they were a bit moist inside, but delicious none the less. I had some of the left over arepas with a bit of cinnamon and sugar for a sweet treat later in the day. Check back later when I make arepas filled with chicken and chorizo with chimichurri!