More (San Pedro) Winter Shots

1.My sister-in-law is using the wood stove to make fried tortillas for about 50 people.

2. Yes, there is a kitten next to the fire in the second picture.

3. Check out the little niece by the fire...she is bundled up in sweaters and has on flip flops.

4. Our little nephew, Juan, was just so cute and funny. He was helping me make bread.

San Pedro Adventure...

So, on one of the coldest and rainiest week ends of the whole year we went to San Pedro to celebrate two nieces 15th birthdays. The guys butchered the cow while the ladies prepared for the massive cooking! I was kneading 25 lbs. of flour/bread. Oscar was chopping wood for brick oven. Then...we started cutting and cutting.

Every once in a while we had to take a break beside the fire, just to warm our hands up a bit and drink some máte together.

Even the kids made a fire for them to sit around...and pop popcorn over the flames! When they weren't by the fire, they were all huddled together watching a movie...

Ok...three posts in one day is ENOUGH!

Friendship Day - July 30th

To all my friends...HAPPY DAY...Thanks for your encouragement and prayers! Read up about Friendship Day in Paraguay HERE.

Winter Weather

...A glimpse of the Paraguay River from our bedroom window...

Today: 85º F

Sunday: 44º F

CRAZY winter weather!!!!

Baking Bread San Pedro Style

Last weekend we were in San Pedro for Oscar's nieces 15th birthday party. The uncles butchered a cow. I made the bread and milanesas (500 milanesas!) These are pictures of baking bread San Pedro Style. No trays...we use banana leaves and bake them in a tatakua...a brick oven.

Keeping Warm

These are some of the ways we are keeping warm here in Paraguay...wood burning stoves and máte!

I am at it again...more crafts, cakes, baking and preparing. Oscar's nieces have their 15th birthday this weekend. I am in charge of the cake...cakes!
My biggest worry is that I won't have all the kitchen comforts of home to decorate...meaning...I won't have a table, a counter, lighting and a stove that I can work well with. I will have a wood burning burner and a wood-burning oven. I will have one table that everyone else will want to use! I will have many kids running around, touching, sneaking licks of frosting...and to top it all off...it is supposed to be freezing cold, around 30ºF and rainy. That means that we are all together huddled in this small, smoky, farm house kitchen!
I am baking the cakes here at home and taking them up frozen.
The night we get back we will have visitors from Argentina and the whole next week will be a blur.
We had visitors last night and I made 10 homemade pizzas! With my left over pizza dough, I made some cinnamon and nut rolls.
It's winter break...but I am cooking and working like there's no vacation!
I'll post some pictures later!

Mission's Week at CPA

Honduran people eat Baleadas - flour tortillas filled with beans, scrambled eggs, cheese and sour cream with a cabbage on the side. Mexicans - of course, eat flour tortillas filled with different kinds of meats, rice, beans cheeses, etc. and lots of picante, hot sauce. So, since both grades had flour tortillas on their menu, I decided to make the same thing for both grades. I made 120 HOMEMADE flour tortillas out of 4 kilos (8.81lbs.) of flour. I didn't have a comal or anything, just three frying pans.

On July 4th...we celebrated the US Independance eating a Mexican meal!

Flour Tortillas
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons shortening
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Cut in shortening to resemble cornmeal. Add water slowly, mixing with your hands to make a soft dough. You may not need all the water.
2. Knead a few minutes on floured surface until smooth and elastic. Put back in bowl and let rest, covered for 10 minutes.
3. Divide into small balls the size of golf balls and roll out into round discs.
4. Cook on top of stove over medium heat using a cast iron grill or heavy skillet until top is slightly bubbly then turning on opposite side for a minute or two.

Celebrations

We celebrated so many things this past week...Mission's Week at school, 4th of July (at home and with Americans, of course!), and the Paraguay-Spain World Cup Soccer game. The first two celebrations went well, the third one was kind of sad since we were eliminated.
Anyway, at school this past week we celebrated Mission's Week. This whole past month each grade researched many important facts about North and South American countries. They did posters, slide shows, and each grade presented their country. We prayed for these countries and their missionaries at school and the final celebration was a fund-raiser night. Each grade set up a stand with their posters, typical foods, and other interesting decorations. All the funds this year were going to the 12th grade solidarity (??? I’m not sure if you say it that way in English) project. They are different programs throughout they year for a children’s home near our school. We raised about $500. That’s a lot for here in Paraguay even though it doesn’t sound like it.
The pictures are of some of the stands. There is a pizza-party prize for the best Jr.High/High school stand and for the best Elementary stand. So, eigth grade, Colombia, and Kindergarten, Venezuela were the winners! Gaby researched Honduras and Brandon, Mexico. I’ll tell you what I made…tomorrow!

We Lost!

Spain 1 - Paraguay 0

Saturday...a little bit of everything

Well, Things are getting pretty tense here. The Paraguay - Spain game is about to start. They say it is going to be projected in one of the biggest Stadiums here in Asunción and everyone was invited to go to cheer on the Paraguayan Team. Martha sent me a cute link about the Paraguayan Team in South Africa. Sadly, our two neighbors (Argentina and Brazil) are out of the World Cup, but Uruguay is still pretty strong.
Getting ready for lunch, dinner and company tomorrow, I ransacked the house for a special recipe. Oscar in his efforts to "help me" clean up several days ago, put it up with old folders and notebooks in Edson's room. I would have NEVER looked there!
Anyway, I was looking for a recipe that mom made when we were kids. I loved it so much and made it many times since...Zucchini Pizza! (I thought I would stick it in my blog so it doesn't get lost anymore!)
3 C. shredded zucchini
1 small onion chopped fine
1 small garlic grated
2 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup oil
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 cup bisquik (or self rising flour, like I used)
1 cup shredded cheese
4 eggs
Mix together in a 9x13 pan and bake until browned.
It was supposed to be for tomorrow...but we ate more than half of it before lunch...for our tereré break!
P.S. I let you know if we win a little bit later...