The Birthday Girls

Another niece and I did all the decorations. Jazmin did their make-up and hair. I have little flowers all around the cake because, here, in Paraguay, all the single girls and friends have to pull one of the strings with flowers on it. Tradition says: if you get the string with the gold ring on it then you are the next to get married. Then, one by one, or family by family, goes and gets a picture with the birthday girls. Since I was the fotographer, we just got some close-ups of us...

Cold, Cousins, and Cakes

It's been so cold for the past month that I don't sit down and write often. It's too cold to sit still and my hands freeze while I write. I like to be in a warm spot, like the kitchen. Well, I am way backed up from the birthday party, but I still wanted to show you some of the pictures of my cakes. My icing didn't work as well as I wanted it to. It was kind of runny, but I tried to hide it well!

There were bunches of cousins at the "Quince" (the 15th year birthday party).

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!

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.

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!

Stuck in the Sand

We were visiting our relatives in San Pedro. We had to get back to the city (50 km away) by 7pm. Oscar's brother told us to go a different route back to the main highway. He said it was a smoother dirt road than the one we usually use. Five minutes later, we were jam-packed in sandy dirt. Can you see how the car is lifted up? We tried everything...parts of logs, pushing, etc. we just kept getting deeper.

It was almost dark. We were so far in the country that our cellphones didn't work. I stayed in the car with Edson (to pray) while Oscar went out walking (and praying) to find help. We were both remembering a time about 10 years ago when we were stuck in the middle of the pitch-black countryside with no lights and no help so late at night with two little kids for hours...

In just minutes...a pick up showed up from no where and this rancher-guy pulled us out. Then, just as quick as he appeared, he disappeared.

God's Angles at work!

Seven people intoxicated by fox poison...

We got a call this morning that Oscar's sister's family were all admitted to the hospital. The news is in our local newspaper, ABC. They were drinking sweet Máte last night. The abuela (grandma) fixed the máte and added anis. What she didn't realize was that it was actually fox poison. All who drank the máte were admitted to the hospital. My sister-in-law did not drink it, but her little boy did and also some aunts, uncles and cousins. Sometimes in the country this is their dinner along with rolls or bread sticks. So, since it is cold, the family was sitting all together sharing this máte drink and were intoxicated.
Kind of weird and scary, huh!

Pigs!

Sorry, friends, I just hate pigs! Probably the only thing I really like about pigs is bacon. To me they are ugly, dirty, smelly, snorty, greedy, etc. I have a friend who owns a pig farm...3000 pigs - way to many for me. I have another friend who loves all sorts of "fake" pigs: stuffed animals, pictures, stickers, cups, or just anything piggy. Those kinds are the cute, clean ones, of course.

Take a look at this one! Oscar's niece has this one on her farm. Sometimes, I don't even want to look it in the face...it is so ugly. I think they are going to make it a Mother's Day meal (May 15th).

A Quick Trip to San Pedro

Partying San Pedro Way

This weekend we were in San Pedro for my mother-in-law's memorial-birthday gathering. The family made it a point to invite as many of her friends possible. We had a HUGE cook-out. There was spaghetti, Paraguayan cornbread, chipa, mandioca and asado all cooked with an open fire and in this huge brick oven. The slow-cooked asado was super-delicious. They call it asado a la estaca...barbecued beef on roasted poles or sticks cooked over firewood - a very Paraguayan-style barbecue. It has more of a smoked taste after it's cooked.

We had a wonderful, family time.

A Quick Trip

We took a quick trip to San Pedro with Martha's family and Jason. We were surprised by CLOSED shops and NO food at even a gas station. Well...it WAS Labor Day so people must have been taking it THAT serious. We met up with the boys at my sister-in-law's house and saw a petting zoo! There were chickens, guinea chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, pigs, piglets, cows, bulls, oxen, and sheep...plus, dogs and cats, of course. We headed on to my mother-in-laws for a baking class. She was preparing fresh bread in a TATACUÁ...a fire oven (a brick oven). We visited Pastor Marcial's Mom's house and saw more animals, (all of the above) PLUS, goats and A MONKEY, her house pet found in the woods. After that we had dinner at Pastor Marcial's house and the Weinhardts got to take a horse and buggy ride to Vivi's mom's house where the young kids were all playing volleyball.
We had one more adventure planned for today, but the 25 kilometers on the dirt roads in the rain scared us off. We DID get home earlier than planned and even found a crate of fresh pineapples on the side of the highway for only $3.00. It was a fun Quick Trip and GOOD to see family, again.