Artichoke Festival May 18, 2010
I visited the artichoke festival in the artichoke capital of the world, Castroville with some friends last weekend. Still not sure how you crown yourself a title like that, but we did see a lot of artichokes. It was the typical North American festival complete with a classic car show, concert with hay barrels to sit on and kettle corn. Festivals here are more organized than ones in South America. I usually correlate slight disorganization as a bit more fun, but I enjoyed this festival immensely, complete with the greatest crowd watching in the agricultural armpit of the state. There were no dressed up baby Jesus statues or guinea pigs on sticks, but it replaced these traditions with some just as entertaining attractions.
Not only did it have the not so conventional touches on food such as artichoke tacos, burritos and cupcakes.
But it also provided an artichoke art competition.
Probably the most entertaining part of it was the artichoke eating contest. Each of the five competitors tried to eat 3.5 lbs of whole artichokes.
and the champ…
It was good times.
Our Place April 25, 2010
Here are some pictures of our new apartment. Three blocks to the beach and a great location for Santa Cruz.
Living room and balcony
Outside view. We are on the third floor. No elevator.
Living room and dining area.
Kitchen
bedroom 1
The beach is at the end there.
And the bathroom.
It’s a very nice apartment!
Strolling February 28, 2010
I have found a new church. It is a few blocks away and although it has no roof and can be sandy, it serves its purpose well. I sat by the water and thought of a number of choices I am making. Of where I am and where I am going and also I drained my mind and soaked up the beach beneath me.
The ocean is such a powerful body of water and it provides such a soothing feeling. It can cause such destruction as seen yesterday in Chile, but is usually so predictable. Sort of like me I guess. Sometimes I feel so orderly, with an edge of chaos under it.
Samaipata Pizza Dough February 13, 2010
This is a recipe that a friend asked me to post months ago. It has served me well over the years in making a kick-ass homemade pizza. The recipe was originally taken from an online source, but looking around it is a pretty general recipe so I don’t feel I need to reference it.
Samaipata Pizza Dough
1 cup wheat flour
5 cups white flour
pack of yeast or pinch
2 tb. olive oil
1 tb. Salt
1 tb. Sugar
2 1/2 cups warm water
For conversions click here.
In a large mixing bowl dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water for 10 minutes. stir in oil, 1/2 cup wheat flour, salt and 3 cups of the white flour. Mix in the remaining flour slowly. At a point you will need to tip the dough out of the bowl and begin to knead it. Knead for 8 minutes and create a ball with the dough. Place the dough in a bowl and rub with a layer of oil on top (this will keep it from getting hard). Leave it for 1 hour and then roll it out and make pizza.
You can add what you want to this recipe at the end when you are kneading it to make flavored doughs. Try chopped garlic, fresh herbs or even just pepper. It will make a good herbed dough. I think I used chives in the dough above.
Experiment with the amount of wheat flour you put into the dough. I like it with more wheat dough, but some like it with none.
Cooking tip: I have found that it helps to pre-bake the dough. Roll out the dough to the size you want it and bake at 350 degrees for about 5-8 minutes. After that, put the toppings you want on it and finish baking for another 10-15 minutes.
I’ll leave you with an image of my pizza tossing skills.
Seis Meses and flying January 29, 2010
Greetings,
It’s been so long I’m not sure who will even read this. I am sure I’ve had no visitors in months. This is my effort to continue a blog.
Our travels have almost come to an end. We do not yet have our own house over our heads, but we are taking baby steps toward that and hopefully in the coming week it will happen. We are moving to Santa Cruz where I will begin full-time…normal work from 9-5. My Wednesday afternoons with flamingos has come to an end. I will be working as a student advisor in a small international office. It is on the most amazing campus of the University of California Santa Cruz.
I am hoping to return to blogging. I will try to post recipes (made an awesome leek, kale, arugula soup last night) and pictures of our new lives.
We are happy and healthy and I’m back online.
Update: Well, we have moved to Santa Cruz, but I am not beginning work at UCSC. In this past week I have been offered a job with a Canadian company and begin that next week. I am settling in and yes, I did actually post a recipe although not the one mentioned above. I’ve changed the name of the blog as I am the only one who will update this.
Blogging it North August 12, 2009
I have not updated this blog for a little while as I have started a new one for our travels. Check it out at: www.southamericabyland.wordpress.com. I hope to pick this back up once we are settled again in the south of Chile. Maybe around December. Until then see you at our other blog!
Sunlight everyday, all day July 22, 2009
With temperatures between 60 and 115 Fahrenheit, endless amounts of peaches, nectarines, excellent Mexican food and health food grocery stores galore, California has to be one of the coolest states the northern part of America has to offer. Arriving in the southern part of the state on the Forth of July to fireworks and constant Michael Jackson music and news, I was reminded that returning to the United States is a challenge, but always an entertaining one. I began the adjustment with five days in Los Angeles before heading north 4 hours to Morro Bay for Grandpa’s 95th birthday. I stayed with family (see picture of totally cute nephew above) and enjoyed the incredible vacation.
From Morro Bay I continued traveling north and met up with friends. We hung out in Santa Cruz and once again I had awesome weather and incredible company.
We played frisbee (see pictures above), checked out the boardwalk including rides (below), ate lots of Mexican food (the national food of California I’m sure) and chilled on the beach.
I also visited a farmers market in Santa Cruz. What incredible produce that state has.
Fresh blueberries were in abundance….for $10 a cup.
After reaching the most northern part of the world I will visit in the next 2 years, I ended my trip with an exceptionally long drive back to LA and another few moments with my parents. I then set out for a journey south through Atlanta and on to Santiago…where I am currently chilling on the 7th floor of Mar del Plata, Providencia with a glass of Chilean (of course) Cabernet Sauvignon. From here it’s on to finding our traveling vehicle, getting our things together and setting out for six months of traveling.
Thanks to all who made the past 17 days possible. To good friends and family who made the time to hang with me, drive me places, laugh like fools together and catch up on lost time. And to the beautiful state of California for it’s incredibly dry, hot and clear weather (a complete contrast to where I am now) and its sunsets after 8 p.m., I couldn’t have asked for more.
Lastly to the California Kittens who surely have a home on earth or in kitty afterlife today. You made me laugh harder than I had in years and gave me yet another tragic animal story for the year.
A special thanks to Mom and Dad. They make it all possible.
Lush June 16, 2009
Andres took an afternoon nap. One of our last in this house. Taxo joined him.
We will move in less than 2 weeks. Packing is a pain. It is not something that gets easier the more times you do it. It’s still a headache the 10th time I’m pretty sure. The cat does not get to come with us, at least not for the time being. Maybe next year we will ship him to Chile with the in-laws. He will be greatly missed, along with a number of things. It’s been a good 12 months.
Cool Mo June 16, 2009
My nephew Mo graduated from preschool this week. I wish I could have been there. He is really such a cool kid.
He’s the bright eyed one. I just love the “I Love Jesus!” sign behind them. Ridiculously cute.
And the Rest of the family; Christine, Kali, Jo and Grandpa Phil.
What a crazy bunch.
Thanks Dad for supplying the pictures.
Have my Cake and Eat it Too June 9, 2009
What a wonderful birthday I had. My last 365 days of my 20s. Time does fly doesn’t it?
To Baños for a 29th Birthday June 6, 2009
I’m off of work for 8 days due to the swine flu. Two students at Colegio Menor were diagnosed with it after returning from a trip. So Andres and I took off Friday a little after lunch and came to Baños to stay at Luna Runtun and relax for a few nights. On our way we were given a spectacular show of a full rainbow. It was hard to do it justice in photos, but I tried.
The 4 hour car trip was good practice for what is to come in our lives for the next 6 months and really, just good times…
We checked into our room at Luna Runtun and chilled before dinner.
We enjoyed a wonderful meal orchestrated by Rodrigo. I didn’t get good pictures of the food yet, but I do have the chef.
Roberto and Mercedes are on their way to join us here for a night, to celebrate June 6, 2009. What a cool gift.
If only the rest of my family and friends could join me.
Selling off material possessions. May 19, 2009
This is the second time in a year that we are selling off our worldly items and moving on. I think that is too much for one year. Luckily it’s the last time….then 6 months without a house. Which is worse?
I’m posting the items we are selling here. It will all be available as of June 30th.
Refrigerator
1 yr. old
Electrolux
$425
Durex stove 4-top
$35
Indorama Toaster Oven
$50
Glass Blender
$30
Osterizer
Chaide & Chaide Mattress-1 yr
Full 2×2
$130
Crazy Hail in Quito May 4, 2009
Andres was out running errands today and managed to pass under one very heavy storm cloud. Being 8,500 ft. in the air causes the clouds to do strange things. One cloud passing managed to dump a lot of hail in a very small area. Look behind at the nice blue sky. My father-in-law Roberto works barely a mile away and didn’t get touched.
Crazy Andes.
April 22, 2009
From record heat in California to mega-droughts in Africa I think by now it is clear that the heating of the Earth is eminent and will be painful for us who will see it. It is unfortunate that if only we each made daily choices that were pro-earth and stopped looking at our surroundings as linear we could likely begin to start healing the vast damage that we’ve done.
Today, for Earth Day I shared with my students the image of the earth being like a large cruise ship. If the captain of the ship wants to turn the ship to the left he can turn the wheel, but it takes awhile for the large ship to react and begin to turn itself. It is the same with the brakes. It takes 3-5 miles for a large ship to fully stop. The Earth is the same. Once we begin to make changes in our lives and begin to live in tune with the Earth understanding that it is not at our disposal, it will take time for Earth to feel the change and begin to heal. Unfortunately, if we don’t begin to change until we feel the true effects of the damage we have done, we will have to live years of pain until nature can begin to renew itself.
I am a proponent of Earth and I hope you will join me and begin now to make daily pro-Earth choices.
Back in the south April 14, 2009
We are traveling in the south of Chile and visited the island of Chiloe. Incredible place. We slept in a palafito, which is a house hanging over the water. The place was called Hostel Palafitos and it was wonderful. Great service, great breakfast, quiet and just so cool sleeping over the water. Here is the view from our place.
We also visited the coast and hiked to the water. The water was completely red as they are suffering from red tide. But it was still beautiful. On our way there we came across the most amazing mushrooms I’ve ever seen. They are called amanita muscaria and although they are poisonous you’d have to eat about 13 caps to die. They are also eaten for nutrition as you can cook them and then they are eatable. They are also hallucinogenic when eaten raw. We passed that up, but couldn’t help but take 1 million pictures of them.
I also followed Andres around taking pictures of him taking pictures.
Tomorrow we head to Buenos Aires for 2 days 3 nights of eating and shopping, yum yum.
Wedding in Atuntaqui March 13, 2009
We attended the wedding of Andres’ first cousin, Paca.
The wedding was on a Saturday evening in the town of Atuntaqui. It was an interesting small town wedding. We attended the Catholic church service first.
After surviving that we made our way to the reception, which was conveniently held in the hostel where we were staying. It was more like a hacienda with a dinner room. It was a nice venue called Hosteria Natabuela. Highly recommended place to stay if you find yourself in Atuntaqui. After a quick dinner and dessert each table was given a bottle of whiskey and the drinking and dancing promptly commenced.
Zumbahua to Quilotoa March 10, 2009
I traveled with my Dad for a long weekend south of our place to a town called Quilotoa. After 4 hours in the car we stopped to visit the market in Zumbahua. On Saturdays Zumbahua has an amazing Andean open air market. The stands are full of ready made food, knit wraps and plastic shoes and the floors are littered with sheep skulls. It is an experience. We arrived hungry and, as neither of us were that bold, ate granola we had brought and some bananas we bought. It was no sheep head stew, but we were satisfied.
After a stop there and 30 minutes driving in the wrong direction we were finally back on track towards Quilotoa. We arrived in the late afternoon to the beautiful and small town. We checked into Pacha Mama hostel and I visited the reason most people come to visit this small town; the caldera Quilotoa.
The town of Quilotoa lies 1500 ft. above Quilotoa lake. After a strange night of sleep we spent the day hiking down to see the turquoise water from eye level. We spent our late morning and afternoon kayaking, eating crackers and tuna and chilling in the good weather.
After relaxing by the water we rode some tired mules up the hill. I think I may have preferred the walk, even at 13,000 feet. It was such a wonderfully, typical, Andean town and I’m lucky to have visited it with my Father.
Two Headed Butterfly February 13, 2009
We traveled to Mindo last weekend, a two hour trip by private vehicle and really worth the time. We visited a butterfly arboretum and went on an awesome hike to a waterfall.
While viewing butterflies we found a two headed one.
Jungle Palm Worms February 6, 2009
I went on a trip with 34 students from my 7th grade classes. We spent one night in a jungle lodge near a town called Tena, about 4 hours from Quito and another night camping in the rain off of the Arajuno River. Torrential downpours is a better description as rain just doesn’t do it justice.
Here is a picture of one of the few clear moments.
This picture was taken from my tent.
For dinner we had a covered area near where we camped and put together our own dinners of chicken, fish, heart of palm and a palm worm, wrapped in a leaf and cooked over coals. This was served with yucca and madera, or ripe cooked banana. The worm was an experience. I’m not talking about a small grub. This thing was huge and moving as you may imagine a giant worm moving.
This live worm was ripped in half to release its flavor and then tossed with the other meat and wrapped up in the leaf.
I didn’t eat a whole worm, but I did take a good sized bite. I can’t say I was able to stomach it easily, but I can say I tried it and it tasted good. Then I was slightly grossed out that it was stuck in my teeth for the next 15 minutes. I do have to say that evening, I was just as grossed out by the chicken. Thinking about a live one of those in front of me and killing it is much worse than the palm worm.
I’m not sure how ethical it is to eat something you can’t kill.
