I can't think of a title...

Last week I made this recipe...http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/lasagna-tart-recipe.html. It's vegetarian and it's delicious! :) (I added de-thawed frozen spinach, salt, pepper, and lots of minced garlic to the ricotta.) The sauce recipe she gives is so-so. For the same price you could buy some TJ's marinara and it would probably be quite yummy. Oh, and I'm not a vegetarian. I think I could be...but, there's things called Filet Mignon and Tri-Tip. These meats tend to push me off of the vegetarian bandwagon. :) Oh well.

In other news. I can't find our camera. Not sure where it is but I will tell you that there are some awesome pics to come. For a teaser they involve semi-automatic weapons and a pumpkin. Yep. Awesome.

And yeah. I think that's it. Really I'm just bored. Jason is on a ride and I'm waiting for him to come home. Maybe I will send him some subliminal messages..."Come home...I'm bored. I am way more fun than mountain biking........."

today i...

went from jason's parent's house and ran up madonna mountain. good to know i haven't...yet, given up the marathon dream :). (my marathon training was being sorely neglected there for a while)

spent a lot of time looking at this amazing site. http://www.101cookbooks.com.

ate brussel sprouts for the first time in....a long time. and i liked them.

looked at my fabric box and realized that i am such a "starter". there are things in there that i don't even KNOW what i was trying to make. including two adorable baby booties (seriously cute) for a friend who's baby isn't so baby anymore. two baby booties as in two DIFFERENT baby booties. i think i was more interested in trying out cute combos of fabric than actually finishing them.

cut the fabric for a phone pouch for my new celly. i would like to go from being a "starter" to a "finisher." :)

did laundry...seriously...i think i'm always doing laundry and we don't even have kids!

packed for going to my parents house for christmas tomorrow. yay!

$10 gifts, Freezer Pies, & a Tortilla Recipe

Well, 2 pies later (let's call them "rent", haha) and a shower has landed me here in front of the computer typing a blog. Really, I need to be working on Jas's Christmas present. He's not here so now is the perfect opportunity to finish it. Speaking of presents for one another. Jason and I agreed on a $10 limit this year (funny how lots of traveling and living abroad depletes the bank account). We weren't going to exchange presents at all but that just sounded so...sad. It's our first Christmas as a Mr. and Mrs. and so SOME sort of exchange...no matter how small needed to occur! :) So, Ross Dress for Less was my BFF this Christmas season and I will try to post a picture of the finished product once Jason opens it up!

So, as I said, I made two pies. A peach and an apple. Believe it or not I really wanted to keep baking. I might have if I could have thought of what else TO bake. But I couldn't. I think I have TOO many Christmas treats in my head...I just couldn't pick one (and I didn't want to go to the store to get missing ingredients). Oh well. So, the pies are in the freezer (unbaked but assembled). It's a bit of an experiment. Basically, I volunteered to help make a couple of pies. I volunteered though before realizing that Jason and I go to my parents on Wed. So, bringing a pie on Christmas Day that was baked two days ahead didn't sound so yummy. I thought, hey, why not freeze them? I looked it up, found out it was do-able and popped those pups in the freezer. So, I'm thinking if it works than it will be a GREAT way to get ahead on Thanksgiving and Christmas in the future! And that folks is my 2 cents on $10 Christmas budgets and frozen pies!

Ooh, guess what...I now make homemade flour tortillas and they are awesome. Basically, I love burritos. While in Chile though it was one, hard to come by tortillas and two, when you did...they were expensive! So, I searched out a recipe and good old AllRecipes.com helped me out with this one. These things are EASY too. Granted...I use shortening (well I used lard in Chile since they didn't have shortening). So, if you are not a fan of that this may not be the recipe for you. I wasn't into the idea until I checked the ingredient label of the tortillas I buy from the store...partially hydrogenated oil. So, if I'm going to eat it I'd rather at least have less preservatives (though I'm sure you could use butter if you want...heard though that they are harder to make thin but probably still super yummy) Also...I want to try it with whole wheat flour too...hmmm.

Homemade Flour Tortillas
4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tbl. lard (or margarine, butter, shortening)
1 1/2 c. water

1.Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Mix the lard (or whatever you substitute the lard with) into your bowl of dry ingredients with your fingers until the flour resembles cornmeal. Add the water and mix with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together; place on a lightly floured surface and kneed a few times until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.

2.Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Use a well floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla. Place into the hot skillet, and cook until golden and bubbly; flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side. Place the cooked tortillas in a tortilla warmer; continue rolling out and cooking remaining dough.

**Here are some of my own notes regarding this recipe though. First, 24 balls create VERY small tortillas. I thought that dividing it into 12 parts was better. It's also a bit hard to get them perfectly round. I found that if you flattened the dough balls with the palm of your hand...as flat as you can make it and THEN roll it out...it came out rounder. I also didn't have a tortilla warmer...or a rolling pin in Chile. haha. I used the a plate in the oven on the lowest heat as my "tortilla warmer" and a drinking glass as my "rolling pin". Worked just as well! :)

Will it last?

So, I've come to the conclusion that so far...I love to cook! I love to experiment with cooking meals and I also love to bake. When I bake I like to make it an art. As in, if the yummy little morsel of baking goodness can be accessorized or decorated in some way...it will be. Like pies. I don't like plain pies. I want to make some elaborate vine on top (usually something that I have the vision for but not the skill). Sometimes it comes out pretty...sometimes not. But I usually try.

I like to cook meals without recipes. I like to read the recipes, mentally store in my head what goes together and "works", and them come up with my own thing. Now, granted...if Jason and I are really hungry I don't experiment, I read the recipe to guarantee yuminess! Honestly, if we had more money my meals would be the BOMB! (Yeah, that's right! I just pulled that from my early 2000's bank of vocabulary). But making exceptional meals usually involve an exceptional amount of money...usually. I also like to entertain with food. I could care less about decoration of the house. I want to impress your palate! mmmm. (This is something that I discovered in Chile. When the other volunteers came over I would be SO excited. I would look forward to it for a week...planning the yummiest meal!)

So the question is...do I REALLY like to cook or is this a temporary, novelty thing? I know people have said that when they got married they were all into cooking but than it quickly faded. Well, I'm 10 months into it right now and so far...I love cooking! :)

*So, for those who also love cooking and enjoy more of the "science" behind it I received an AWESOME book as a wedding gift. Seriously, I love it and I wish I could remember who gave it to me because I just might KISS them. It's called Martha Stewart's Cooking School. (A Martha book...big surprise eh? Even if she IS a convicted criminal I'm still completely in love with what her line produces).

**Actually, maybe the person who gave it to me wrote a note in it in the front. Not sure. I shall have to go find it and check!

So Close!

So, first of all, Jason tells me that our blog is boring now. Not having the "Chile Adventures" kinda puts me at a loss for what to blog about. So, he may be right. Oh well. I guess it's back to blabbing on and on about miscellaneous happenings. Hmmm. Definitely not as exciting! :)

In other news. While in Chile I decided that FOR ONCE I was going to read the Bible all the way through...consecutively! I know, I know. I've never done it. I've never been even close to completing it. I mean, I think I may have read most all of it through my little Christian life but always chopped up in bits and pieces. I have tried to read it though all the way through...I've tried a lot of times. The same problem arises each time I try though. It's called 1 Chronicles. Yep. Enough said. SO! I had the brilliant idea of starting with the New Testament first (actually I started with Acts). I figured, hey...by the time I'm done with the New Testament and Genesis through 2 Kings I will be so invested into the project that there is no way that I'd quit. So, it worked...kind of. I have read from Acts through Revelations and Genesis through Luke 11. Yep. Honestly I read that all in about...I think 5 months. Now, I'm stuck. Ridiculous huh? I literally have 2 1/2 books left (granted, big books). So, my goal is to finish before the New Year. I think I can do it! ;)

"I promise I reallllllly NEED that!"...

So, we are back. Obviously. With this has come some interesting revelations. First, I want a lot of things. yep. A LOT! While in Chile I was rather content. There were no good stores to tempt us into shopping or buying things so eventually the desire FOR things went away. I was asked for Christmas ideas while in Chile from family and Jason and I couldn't really think of much. I knew I NEEDED clothes because washing them by hand and hang drying them in the intense sun kind of disintegrated them. We couldn't get past what we just plain needed though. So, my list was a "need list" more or less.

Well folks, my have the tides changed. Man, I went into the craft store and I feel like my head might explode with all of the ideas I have in my mind. One thing about living in another culture is that you experience a lot of new "inspirations" that are way different from the fashions and trends in the U.S. All I have to say is that its probably good that we don't have real jobs yet. It's extremely hard to justify to yourself (or better yet, to your husband) money spent when there is no regular income coming in to replace it! haha.

Also...I really want a black puffy vest. The one at Gap was particularly snazzy!

Vacay Part 2!!! :)

Well, here is Part 2 of our vacation at the end of the program. So the basic rundown is that after Valparaiso we drove 11 hours south to Pucon...an outdoor HAVEN! We loved it! After taking a night bus we got in at 8am or so. Then in the afternoon we went white water rafting. That was super fun! We unfortunately don't have any pictures of it though. The next day, after white water rafting, we met at 7am to hike up Volcan Villarica...or the Villarica Volcano. Finally, on day three we rented bikes and went up into the hills. It was so beautiful. So...bring on the pics!

Here is a little shot of the city Pucon.

This is the looming Volcan Villarica! We were super excited to climb up this sucker!!! It was cool because when we first arrived there was a perfect view of the volcano. Usually you can't see it very well because of cloud coverage!
Here we are getting ready to go up! We were the "brave" (or stupid? haha) bunch who chose to climb from the bottom instead of using the ski lift that took you half up. The two guys in the picture are Swiss. They are biking from Ecuador to Patagonia. Basically, the were insanely fast and every time we stopped for a break I was barely breathing and chugging water. What did they do during the breaks? They lit up cigarettes! haha.

Jason's all prepared for the climb!!!

A peak at what's to come! :)

We made it!!!! Yay!!!

A picture of the volcano...well, the inside! It's rather active and apparently on clear days you can see the magma. We didn't. We DID though inhale a very unhealthy quantity of toxic fumes. haha. Our guide took us around the volcano and then stopped at a point that he declared as "the most dangerous part of the volcano". The fumes were so strong that I literally couldn't breath with out coughing. It was an experience though :)!


So, we hiked up in regular clothes and just the gators (sp?) because all the climbing made you hot. Once we got to the top though the wind was pretty cold so we put on all the gear! Here is Jason rockin' the blue and orange! We got to use icepicks! :) That was fun. We also had the option to use crampons but I felt ok not using them so never got around to putting them on...though it would have made me feel pretty hard core!

This picture is of us going around the top of the volcano...this is a couple of minutes before we breathe in all the toxic fumes! haha

And another one of us going around the top. There is no snow because the volcano is obviously hot at the top...being that it's active.

A picture from the top of Villarica of another neighboring volcano. There were tons in that area.

When we walked around the top we came to this edge! haha. Who wanted their snowboards?!? We did! That would have been rather fun!

Ok! So now for the best part! Once we went up the volcano, in order to get down we were given "butt-protectors" which we strapped on! You basically slide down the face of the volcano on your bum. You could get some serious speed! haha. So, here we are modeling our very fashionable apparel! :)

Very nice Jason! Me gusta!! :)

Ooooh! Who's hard core??? Jason is!!! hehe

And, here is the butt sliding in action. I think that this was someone else doing it. If you brought you knees into your chest and didn't use the icepick to slow yourself down you could fly down! haha. It was awesome!

This is before "take off"! :)

And now we are off the mountain and it's the next day. We decided that it would be a good idea to go on a 5 hour bike ride after hiking up the volcano. haha. We were a bit tired but it was a beautiful ride none the less!

We found a water fall on our ride that we were actually supposed to pay a fee to go see! We didn't. haha. oops!

I found a green pasture with sheep!!! I kind of wanted to run into the middle of it with my arms stretched out singing, "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music". I didn't though. It was private property :)

On our ride we got see these beasts! hehe. Jason was embarassed that I took a picture! I thought they were cool though!!!

So, after our 3 days packed of exercising we rewarded ourselves with coffee and big slices of cake from a cafe. It was super good but a little much. We probably should have had a normal meal after that long bike ride buuuuuut...cake is just so good! Who can resist cake??? Not I!


And now.......welcome back to the USA! This is me in the Houston airport. I bought a Starbucks and I was using the internet on our iTouch. Hmmm. We felt that it was a perfect picture of our re-entry into the USA! Easily accessible internet on our technology and Starbucks! haha. Hey, I was a happy camper! :)

Wow! So, I think that just may be the last post on Chile! How sad! Oh wait! There's another one! No need for tears yet! :)