Eventful Month of May

I realize during these past few weeks I have proved myself as a most unfaithful blogger, and for that I truly feel ... well, a lot of things: bad, guilty, regretful, but mostly anxious to get back to it. So:
The past 20 days have been filled with activities, all of which have had their element of fun (ok, so I'm just ignoring the fact that I have to work to maintain myself here...wait, how do we say that in English? Maybe "survive" suffices). Let's start by looking back about two weeks ago.

May 11th, Mother's Day
I am happy to say I really enjoyed it. Feeling the ever blessed gringa, I had 3 very important mothers to appreciate that day. One was Ely, my Chilean host mother who I lived with for a year about 2 years ago. She is the most awesome Chilena mom I know and I cannot imagine my life here in Chile without her. I ended my Mother's Day with her family, over at her beautiful old home having some coffee and cake. The other is my equally important "suegra", or mother-in-law, although the term carries a different connotation in Spanish. Just imagine if I had to say "my boyfriend's mom" every time I mentioned her. Besides, that doesn't say much about my relationship with her. So, she is my suegra. Anyways, she is especially significant because she has opened her home to me here and made being here a real possibility for me whereas otherwise it would have been near impossible. Also, she's quite young (39!) so it's easy for us to get along and laugh and giggle like little girls. We spent lunchtime together that day, all prepared by yours truly. And then of course, mi mamita who gave me life, the queen bee and most dear to me of all. And how I miss her. Now, as they say here in Chile, I think I am somewhat of a "regalona" (help me out if you can think of a good translation for this word!) and I do miss my family and especially spending time with my mom, but I am also very used to being far away at this point. So, I pulled my resources together (i.e. the internet, a debit card and e-mail) and sent my mother a long Mother's Day letter and a beautiful bouquet of flowers from our local florist (in Maryland). Of course I was a bit misty about not being able to spend it with her, but I did my best to appreciate each of my mothers. Now, what I really want to tell you about is the meal I made. In order to cope with the occasional lonliness and boredom here in Santiago, I have started to bake and cook, and I've really, really liked it. Thus, I was zazzed (made up word, just think how it makes you feel when you say it outloud, I think you'll get the point) about being able to cook up a storm for my suegra. She is a cooking machine and usually insists on providing me with food, so the least I could do was make her a damn good feast. Knowing I couldn't spend a bundle, I focused on things I knew I could make delish but with limited resources. So I made a yummy pasta dish with a mixture of two recipes, one called Winter Pesto and the other called Ziti with Spicy Pesto Pantesco. Now, important note here, as I've become more involved in the blogging world (read: I sit at my computer for hours reading fashion and food blogs, and my friends of course), I've become obsessed with finding recipes and reading about food. That's how I came across the Winter Pesto idea and I loved it. Here I'll hit you with the recipe for my fellow cooks out there:
(note: I doubled it, and as I said, mixed it with another recipe which I'll explain further on)

Winter “Pesto” with Parsley and Almonds
2 Tbsp. whole almonds
1 packed cup Italian parsley leaves (flat parsley)
4 - 6 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
¼ tsp. salt 1 small garlic clove, pressed (opt.)

In a small food processor, pulse the almonds until finely ground. They don’t need to be quite as fine as, say, sand, but close. Add the parsley, 4 tablespoons of the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and garlic (if using), and process to a paste. Taste and, if needed, adjust salt, lemon juice, and/or olive oil. I like to add an additional tablespoon or two of olive oil, just to boost the flavor. Yield: about ½ cup

I tweaked the recipe by adding pepper, mint, and dried basil (I had no fresh) to the pesto and then at the end added chopped tomatoes and grated Parmesan. I served this with "penne" pasta, which unfortunately here sounds like the same word for penis. It's definitely caused me issues in the supermarket when telling D to go fetch me some "pene". Yikes. Oh, and this can be given a kick with some crushed red pepper, which I can't seem to get my hands on here. And I must give credit where credit is due. If I can only remember where I found this thing. The recipe, that is, not the penne. So I'll just let you know my fave food blogs and it came from one of those: The Amateur Gourmet, Orangette, The Wednesday Chef and Dorie Greenspan. Awesome. Ok, but that wasn't it. I made garlic bread with "marraqueta", my favorite of Chilean bread, and it lends itself wonderfully to garlic bread. I made it in the oven wrapped in tinfoil, spread with butter, garlic, a bit of parsley and parmesan. And of course we made a big salad which I dressed with a homemade dressing that was mmm mmm delish. Try it out, it was super easy and was scarfed up all in the same meal:

Cream Vinaigrette
4 Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp. heavy cream
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
About 1/4 tsp. pressed garlic
About 1/4 tsp. salt
Pinch of sugar

Whisk all ingredients well. Taste, and adjust as needed. Spoon liberally over any bitter (or bitter-ish) greens, such as watercress or arugula. Toss well. Top, if you want, with a poached egg, bits of bacon, or cubed ham.

And then of course there was dessert: French Apple Tart. This recipe I got from The Amateur Gourmet, and I must say, mine looked a lot prettier than his. Check out the recipe at the link. It came out well, although I manhandled the dough a bit too much (hey, it was my first time!) and I think I'd prefer a juicier pie with more filling. All in all, though, it was beautiful and I was pleased, as were my happy eaters.

May 17th, Gringa/Chileno Asado
What a great night! Lovely Katina so graciously hosted us for this barbecue get together and we got to use their swanky grill for the asado. It is a lifesaver indeed that these ladies exist and that we've all somehow managed to make our lives cross. I am happy to report also that I finally got to meet all the significant others and while each was so different from the other, I really liked all of them and was pleased to see the chileno-folk getting along and having some good man time together. And I am pleased to say my banana bread and banana cake (I made two different recipes) was a hit and finished seconds after I put it on the table! So easy and so delicious. Check out Kyle's or Tamsin's blog for a photo of us crazy ladies. I can't wait till we all get together again! I'm still counting on poker night ;)

May 18th, Baptism
So I went to my first baptism last weekend. D became a godfather! It's all very bizarre though touching I guess, he is his cousin's godfather who is maybe 3 years younger than him. Anyways, it wasn't exactly the sacred service I was expecting. People were taking photos like crazy, practically on top of everybody, and my suegra forced the camera into my hands and I too converted into one of those that I so desperately get annoyed by. I understand having a photographer, but please, ten+ people running around with cameras, not necessary. So I have no idea exactly how the ceremony went, it was over in a flash! Literally! But I do have some beautiful photos to show for it and the church was amazingly beautiful. I can't remember the exact name, but it was something like Sacramentina. I have to admit, though, that my favorite part was seeing D in his suite. Sigh. I'd include a picture of myself with the D-man, but unfortunately we are mid chew in all the photos.

This past week has been a whirlwind of other family events, the most important of which were a bachelorette party and a wedding! This was my first bachelorette party and I must say, wow, impressive. I had a blast, and I would include photos here, but you know, better to keep that stuff private, and the wedding was a civil ceremony in D's aunt's home, so I wasn't snapping away during that, left that task to my suegra who happily obliged.

I have eaten an obscene amount of food in the past 2 weeks and am ready to get back on track at the gym, where I only seem to be able to keep the motivation rolling with the company of my gringas (Kyle? Emily? Where are you?!). So, thus begins a new week, and instead of preparing class for tomorrow I think I will now run off and make some cornbread or zucchini bread. I've been dying to try these recipes, and hell, maybe I'll make both!