Weekend of Friends and yes more baking

Chase and I had a great weekend in Santiago. Friday it rained all day so it was a very relaxing day. We did venture out to go to dinner with one of Chase's students Alex and his girlfriend Maria Jose. They invited us to go to a Peruvian restaurant called Otro Sitios in Vitacura. Viticura is one of the nicest districts in Santiago, full of beautiful neighborhoods. We had so much fun getting to know them we will definitely go to dinner again!

Chase took this picture for his grandfather who has a very old MG. This car was in front of the restaurant.

Saturday was another day of baking. We woke up and I made the dough for cinnamon rolls and then made a different type of dough for pizzas. We had left over pesto and red sauce from the Chicken parmigian so we made two different types of pizzas that were incredible.

Chase helping

rolling out the pizza dough

chicken pesto pizza

Chase with the chicken cheese pizza in his new t-shirt that says Full time Merrell Athlete he is really excited about the shirt.

After cooking away all day, we headed to the new Gringo sports bar in Provedencia to watch the Texas game. The old Basic bar where we had been going, moved to Provedencia. This is great for us because now we can walk.

We were not at the bar for long because we had plans to meet up with Lollie and Polo, the couple we met a couple of weekends ago. I am so glad we agreed to go out with them. We went to a bar called Opera Cathedral, which was in a very neat part of town and was located in a beautiful old building with a terrace on the roof. After having a drink on the terrace we headed down to the second floor to listen to a gypsy band. I was little skeptical but they were great. I really enjoyed the concert.

The band

We ended up staying and dancing till around 3:3o in the morning when we realized that if we wanted to make it to church we needed to go home.

Sunday was yet another great day for us. Through Liesl, a good friend from college, I got in contact with some chilean missionaries who invited us to attend their House church.

We had a little bit of a rough time getting to the house because it was outside of the where the metro runs, so we had to take a cab. Unfortunately, we got into the wrong cab that morning we got a crooked cab driver who robed us of all the cash we had on us. First of all I am pretty sure he messed with the meter, because it was double what the cab ride should of cost, then I handed him 10,000 pesos and he claimed I only passed him a 1,000 it was horrible. Although it was painful lesson we learned a lot from this experience. I guess we have been lucky that it has not happened before, but it was still really frustrating.

We had to let it go as we walked into the house. Once in the house we met the nicest people. The service was completely in Spanish so we understood about every 50th word but I think in the long run it is going to good for us. After the service some of the missionaries offered to give us a ride home with another couple from the Dominican Republic. On the way home they offered to take us to lunch to get know us better. We a great lunch and had fun getting to know some other Christians. It was so funny Chita and Frank are from Memphis and actually knew Jamie's Father and went to school with him.

Chita, Elaine, Federrick, Me, Chase, and Frank

Sunday afternoon we made pizza again for dinner and what better for desserts than some cinnamon rolls. Yes, I can honestly say I have never baked so much and I promise this is not going to turn into a cooking blog. I am just so proud of myself! If you want to try these the recipe is from thepioneerwoman.com. I did not use her icing and I cut down the recipe.

Chase enjoying a cinnamon roll!

Lastly, today we had lunch with another couple from Arkansas who are in Chile to serve for six months. They were fun to meet and hopefully we will be able to get together with them again soon.

yummy Apple Crisp!

Chase and I had an eventful couple of days beginning on Wednesday. Wednesday night Chase and I attend a Ex partriot happy hour. It was fun to meet some other English speakers from all over the world. Although it was good I do not think we will be attending many ex-patriot events it defeats the purpose of meeting Chileans.

Thursday night I continued on my baking spree and baked an apple crisp. I have really come to love making this dessert because it is so easy, but taste so good. This recipe is from a good family friend Tami.

The Ingrediants needed

½ cup sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon ,4 cups Jonathan apples peeled and sliced (may also us granny smith)

Topping: ½ cup sugar, ½ cup flour, ½ cup butter, ½ cup oatmeal

Topping: ½ cup sugar, ½ cup flour, ½ cup butter, ½ cup oatmeal

Blend topping ingredients together with pastry blender (or 2 knives) until mixture resembles small peas. Sprinkle on apples

Cut apples

Add sugar and Cinnamon to apples

Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until apples are tender and top is lightly browned.

Lastly add a scoop of Vanilla Ice cream and enjoy!

Who Knew Getting a Toaster Could Be So Exciting

Tuesday was a great day. This is the last Birthday story I promise, my mom wanted to send me a toaster so she bought one and went to Fedex to send it to us. It was only till Fedex told her it was going to be $800 did she realize that there was no way she could send us one. So on Tuesday Chase and I walked to Paris, a local department store, and picked one out. I was like a giddy child looking at all the different toasters. We finally found a rather large toaster that has a convection setting so now we should be able to cook some really good meals.

Trying to carry the toaster, it was a little too big for me

Chase taking it up the escalator

I wanted to try to carry the toaster back to the apartment but the toaster was just too big, so we ended up getting a cab to take us home.

Toaster got the front seat.

My first meal to cook in the toaster was the only recipe that I have memorized Chicken Parmigian. I am so excited to be able to cook some different dishes now. We have been eating the same couple of meals for the last month and half, so I know Chase is going to love having the toaster.

Mendoza, my best birthday gift from Chase

Chase gave me a trip to Mendoza for my Birthday and I could not have asked for a better trip. Friday we woke and packed before leaving to go to the airport. We were not really sure how long everything would take so we left about 3 1/2 hours before our plane left. So we walked to the metro took it to a stop called Los Heroes then hoped on the airport shuttle. It ended up being much easier than I thought it would be.

Walking with our bags to the airport

Riding the bus

We made it to the airport with a couple hours to spare so began looking for a restaurant to eat some lunch. The only thing that looked appealing was Ruby Tuesdays. I have only eaten at one in my life and that was in Auburn, Alabama with Walker but I must say that it was some of the better airport food I have had in a long time.

After lunch we still had time before the flight left so we were waiting at the gate with our bags when this lady that worked for LAN airlines came up to me and in rapid spanish started pointing at my bag and then at me. Finally, I figured out that she wanted to weigh our bags. Apparently, American 22 inch bags are too big for South American airlines, so they took our bags and checked them. The flight from Santiago to Mendoza is only about 35 minutes but it is one of the most beautiful flights I have ever been on because you fly over the Andes mountains they are just so majestic. All I could think was how amazing it is that God created them just so that we could enjoy them. I am not usually one to take pictures out of the plane window but I could not help myself this time.

Chase and I on the airplane we were on the second to last row with a 2 year old kicking Chase in the back.

The Andes

The Mendoza airport was tiny, it reminded me of the Montrose airport we fly into when going to Telluride, except no one spoke English. We found a cab to take us to the hotel. This is when it started to get interesting, we walked into the hotel only to find that the cab driver had taken us to the wrong hotel. So we got to walk with our roller bags through the city of Mendoza to our hotel.

Chase and I walking with our bags through Mendoza

We finally arrived at the Diplomatic Park Suites hotel and checked in. The hotel had a wine tasting of different Mendoza wines every night so we headed down to the wine room before going out to dinner. On the way to dinner we walked through the Plaza de Independence where all these different booths were selling different homemade Argentinian goods, otherwise known as junk. They were fun to look at but we did not buy anything.

The sign welcoming visitors to Mendoza

We had dinner at Francesco Ristorante Barbera, an excellent restaurant located close to the cities largest plaza, Plaza De Independence. We got to eat outside and enjoy the nice weather, while eating some of the best homemade pasta and drinking some incredible Mendoza wine. Mendoza is known for Malbec so that is all we drank the whole weekend.

Saturday we checked out of the Diplomatic hotel and checked into the Sheraton. Chase thought it would be fun to stay in different hotels located in separate locations. However, Chase and I both agreed that we enjoyed the Diplomatic hotel more than the Sheraton. It felt more local and seemed to offer better services.

Checking out of the Diplomatic hotel

We spent the rest of Saturday walking around the city and shopping. I was on a hunt for some leather boots and we looked everywhere without any success. One thing that we forgot to consider was that since Mendoza is a smaller city they still take Siestas, so the entire city shut down from 1:00 to 3:00. So Chase and I went back to the hotel to relax and layout for a little bit.

We saw the weirdest thing while walking around, a guy taking a nap with a duck on top on him and dead chicken next to him.

It was mothers day on Sunday and there where signs to remind everyone all over the place. So Happy Mother's day Moms from Mendoza!

While Chase was looking around the new room he decided to just turn on the Badea and it sprayed up all over him all the way to the ceiling. It was pretty funny.

After showering we headed up to the 17th floor to see the mountains

After the sun went down we headed back to our room to have a drink before heading to dinner. People do not eat till so late, so sometimes we do not know what to do till 9:00 dinner reservations.

Chase getting a beer out of the frig

Andes is the local Argentian beer, we really enjoyed it!

Enjoying the beautiful view of the city

We walked to dinner at Azafran, which is apparently the best restaurant in Mendoza but we did not agree. We enjoyed the food but it was not he best meal we have had since moving to South America. One fun thing they offer is that there is no wine list you have to go to their wine room to pick out your bottle. In the room a wine expert helps find the best bottle for you.

Chase finding us a good bottle of wine

Enjoying dinner

Sunday Chase and I got up and walked to the largest park in Mendoza. It was a fun walk because we got to walk up a street lined with traditional Argentina houses that were beautiful. The park was incredible it was much bigger than I was expecting and had so much to offer. There were running trails, a zoo, soccer fields, a Rec center, a lake to row on and I am sure more that we did not even see.

The main entrance into the park

A beautiful fountain

The Lake where we saw some rowers

After walking around for about two hours we decided to stop for lunch at a local cafe.

One thing that we have both come to love is getting Pico de Gallo served with all the bread whenever we eat out. I would have never thought to put the two together but it is so good.

On our walk back we went through the Plaza Espana, which as you can tell was my favorite. I loved all the tiles that were everywhere.

There is tile covering the entire plaza

After our walk we headed back to the hotel to hang out at the pool before we got a message. Messages are a little different here than in the US first of all it was difficult to communicate, and my lady was so afraid of hurting me that she would not press very hard.

After showering we headed to the out door mall for one last attempt at finding some leather boots. Unfortunately, to no success I found a couple pair that I liked but no one had my size. Chase did find a few things so it was not a complete waste of time.

From the mall we took a cab to 1884, our last dinner in Mendoza. For a couple of seconds Chase and I paniced as we pulled up because the cab went through this alley towards this small entry where there was a guy standing guard. It felt like we were being kidnapped luckily it was just the restaurant, which apparently is very exclusive.

The door we walked through to get into the restaurant. We had to knock and then a hostess unlocked the door.

Enjoying the bar, where we had a cocktail

Mojitos

Our good friend Chris lived in Mendoza and told us about 1884 and said we had to order Mojitos. The bar tender actually went outside to the courtyard and picked the mint then proceeded to make our mojitos from scratch. They were delicious. After finishing our drinks we were escorted to the dinning room, which was beautiful. One really fun thing about the menu was that it was divided up into three sections for the main course: the Clay oven, the Asado (grill which was outside in the courtyard) and the kitchen. Chase ordered a steak from clay oven and I ordered a steak from the Asado. The waiter failed to tell me how big it was.

I am pretty sure the steak was as big as my face, I have never eaten so much steak in my life.

Picture after enjoying yet another Lava Cake

It was such a fun trip and Chase did such a great job planning everything. We had a great time and definitely over enjoyed the food. We will be taking a break from steaks for a little while!