Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Easter and Fanesca

Day One Prep--Peeling and chopping.

Our introduction to Ecuadorian cooking continues through our nanny Anita who is a pretty good cook. This week I asked her to make Fanesca which is a Santa Semana or Holy Week tradition. Squash, beans, peas cabbage, salted cod and lots of other ingredients makes up this yummy treat. The twelve beans or grains are supposed to represent the 12 disciples but Anita didn't know about that when I asked. Check out the Wiki link for a little more information. It's traditionally made on Good Friday when the whole family gathers with a little extra for your neighbors. Anita said she's going to church on Friday and Saturday but didn't have plans yet with her family to make the soup. 

  
Boiling the beans and veggies.

Frying the onions on Day Two. Fanesca in progress is on the right. YUM!

She also made Arroz con leche y pasas (dessert--rice pudding with raisins). This will be my last meal with milk since it looks like Lillian might have the same allergy to milk I did as a baby so the elimination diet starts next week. Bummer cuz I like cheese and it's hard to label read abroad.

I'll post a pic of the final dish after dinner.


Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Back in the Saddle

Well, we've been back in Quito for just over three weeks. Sleep deprivation makes cultural adjustment feel more extreme than it probably is. I am spending my days at home with Lillian learning how to manage household staff and remember how to speak Spanish after 10 weeks off.

Lillian is doing great--she's only really had one bad night when she woke up every 45 minutes due to altitude adjustment. A little baby tylenol seemed to do the trick. We've made a couple trips to the Embassy and joined in on the annual baby photo with the Ambassador.

Fingers and mouth meet.

Ok, so it's not the best photo but I was able to catch one of her latest milestones. She's loving her fingers and is quite good at getting them in her mouth now. She's still working on her social smile which she's gotten really close to. Tristan says she smiled for him at 3AM while changing her diaper and I've gotten something really close but she's not yet consistent. We're hopeful for smiles soon!

The past two weeks have been busy with workmen in the house and I've been picking up household vocab and stumbling through explanations of plaster repair and plumbing installation. Lessons learned: plumbers will take you for a ride round the world. We hired some recommended plumbers to install a UV water filter. Problem was the instructions for our UV water filter were all in English and I couldn't understand them. After four hours on a Saturday, they broke the glass protector for the UV light and installed it backwards causing a flood. Came back on the next Monday with a new part and young guy who seemed to know what he was doing and two hours later they finally got it straightened out after I called the company in Texas to get advice and order replacement parts. We are now the owners of one expensive filter and some spare parts which I think I could now install myself next time. Super frustrating. I successfully shared my frustration with them in Spanish and think I got my point across.
Plumbers--I'll refrain from further comment.

We also had some water damage to the wood floors and walls near the front entrance since the grass was so tall when we got back after two months and the sprinkler system sprayed water on the front windows. Interesting to be in a country where doing things by hand and wood are still very much an art form.

Sanding the new wood floor--got dust all over the house!

Hopefully everything is set for a while and we're tackling the last few boxes and hoping to hang some things on the wall for the first time in 4 years. We weren't very motivated in Yekat and Moscow since those were one year posts.

Rental furniture arrives.


Day to day, I'm with Lillian which is challenging and rewarding. She's a really good baby--only fussy when she really wants something (diaper, food or sleep) and generally quite content to snooze, hang out or drool when she's awake. Hoping to get more adept at being out and about with her. I am missing Seattle and the ease of life there but for an overseas posting Quito doesn't have too much that one can complain about.

Baby & Bug meet.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Embassy Quito Babies

It's an Embassy Quito tradition to take an annual picture with all the babies born to officers while assigned to Quito. Quito is a medium sized post and as you can see a popular post to have a baby. Lillian is the youngest baby at post and we're standing next to Ambassador Hodges. Miraculously, no one cried during the picture! (click on the images to see larger versions)



Lillian slept through the whole event.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Garden Tour

We didn't accomplish much on the unpacking but we did take time to smell the roses with Lillian!

Tristan shows Lillian the Hibiscus. She doesn't look so interested.

Trying to get the fire started for grill night in the lower garden.

Empanadas

I've been having our afternoon empleada cook since I'm not ready to hand over the baby. She made empanadas the other week. It seems every culture has some kind of version of filling (meat or sweet) wrapped in dough. These were the meat ones which had ground beef, carrots, onions, peppers and raisins on the inside. Not exactly healthy but they were delicious!


Here are a few pics!


Anita rolling out the dough.



The filling.


Before frying.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Lillian is growing fast--1st international trip


Ready for her first trip to the Embassy--Feb 24

First flight--she did great!

She's grown fast--first walk on Greenlake--Jan 5

For comparison--1st trip out. Unfortunately, back to the hospital on 12/26/09