Happy New Year from the Southern Hemisphere

     Today we had tacos, Spanish lessons, a cook out on the beach with new friends. Now we are at home watching and listening to the locals shoot off lots of amateur fireworks. Look for new pictures posted today and many more yet to come. Feliz Ańo Nuevo!

Same surf time, same surf channel

    I have not posted in a couple of days because we have been busy and content. On Friday we took our first Spanish lessons from http://www.outdoorecuador.com/. It was an hour and a half and the kids lasted an hour. We need to do our exercises for tomorrow. We will take lessons three days a week. Sorry Mrs. Tilley but this was much more interesting.
     We met a nice English family who are living here full time. We went for lunch at the beach and they were eating there as well. They have a 7 year old daughter that Lumia quickly became best friends with and the Dad loves chess and already started a game with Cael. They are very friendly and knowledgeable. They showed us where to get rotisserie chicken, beans and rice straight from a grandmother's kitchen. It was very yummy. The husband of the chicken lady also delivers the bottled water around town. We will meet our new English friends for a cook out on the beach on New Years Eve Day.
     With a working fridge and a better knowledge of what we can buy and make we are planning better meals. This will not stop us from going out because that is how we meet people.
     Cael and I are venturing out further into the surf at low tide (high tide is pretty rough) and the farm girls are close behind. Cael and I will take lessons this week.
     We will also probably take cooking lessons. Tuesday we will hire a cab and head into the big town to the grocery. The hardest items to find here are a can opener and good wine.
     It is exciting to see that you are all reading this. Keep is up and please comment. Thanks to my commenter Elizabeth Austen.
     I should also thank our fantastic neighbor Tony from Texas. He has helped us on many occasions including holding our groceries when the fridge died, introducing us to Gringo Hour at the beach (big beers and lots of them) and telling us about all the locals to call for things like water and transportation.
     The season if picking up. More Ecuadorians are here now for vacation then when we got here so the town is very busy. Our spot is  a bit down the beach so it is not crowded but there are definitely more crazy ATV drivers, para-gliders and beach goers. It is supposed to climax New Years Eve and they stay busy for a while. They make paper-mache effigies and burn them at midnight. I will take pictures.

Feliz Navidad!

     This Christmas Day we went down the beach at low tide this morning to watch the local fisher men. We had been watching them from our house. They used a skinny old green wood boat to take a big net out past the surf. Then tens of them came up to the beach and hauled it in. Then they rolled the fish in the surf with the net until they were all in a big pile. A slippery shiny pile of skinny silver fish, the same fish we have been eating in town. Next week I will learn how to cook this local faire. All of this was done through a cloud of big black frigate birds and pelicans that were frustrated by the net.

     Santa visited in the night and bought some toys and a book for the kids along with American candy and Christmas Jammies. I love Lumia’s enthusiasm when she declared this the best Christmas ever although we all agreed that next Christmas needs to be spent at home.

     The clouds have burned off and it is a hot beautiful day. We are inside for the hottest part. Cael is reading from the Kindle (actually now playing World Cup Soccer) and Lumia is playing kindergarten level education games. There is too much to think about so I have not been able to read a serious book. I go back and forth from reading my new Dungeon Masters Guide (be prepared for my return fellow adventurers) and writing for your and my entertainment. I also put some black beans to simmer for lunch.

     I have not told you about our house. You can of course see pictures but I will also tell you about it. We are on the beach end of an east-west dirt road with 5 houses between us and the main road. There is a white wall most of the way around the house with lockable gates. The house is two stories with a large patio facing the ocean and two smaller decks up stairs. The patio has a large cabana bar covered with a palm leaf roof. There are three beds rooms upstairs and an open kitchen, dining living area down stairs opening to the patio. It is all white washed masonry over concrete with red brick tile floor. There is also dark wood details and glazed tile. The stair way is probably prettiest part of the house. Beds in Ecuador are made of concrete with a mattress on top, firm but comfortable. The water pressure only works for one thing at a time and the hot water is hit and miss, fortunately we don’t need much hot water. There is no air-conditioning but the house stays pretty cool with lots of open windows and ceiling fans. We have renamed it Casa de Sandra, hopefully it will catch on. Our closest neighbor is Tony from Texas at Casa Bonita. He is down here fixing up his house while his wife is back in the states finishing up her last year before retirement. His house is beautiful and twice the size of ours and he has been working on landscaping. Eventually Casa de Sandra will be available on VRBO so start planning now.

     For our afternoon quite time we finished The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever. I was a nice return to a classic and the first time for the kids. I love it when Imogene is worried that Jesus would never pass 1^st grade having to write his name. But truly I miss my copy of Little House on the Prairie. I would love to read How Mr. Edwards Met Santa Clause. Now it is nap time because the kids were up to early.

     The gardener came by to put in a number of plants. I guess you don't get Christmas off around here.

Christmas Eve

     Merry Christmas Eve! Today we rode the chicken bus up to the local orphanage for their Christmas Program. Lumia pointed out some of the similarities with The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever, which we have been reading. Every Ecuadorian knew the words to the Spanish Christmas songs that they sang. There was a nativity, folk dancers and Santa. The expats had given a decent amount so that every one of the kids got a new back pack full of fun things and one wrapped present. The orphanage is on top of the hill immediately south of town and has a great view. Things learned, little boys everywhere cannot keep still and little girls everywhere like to dance a program for an audience. 

Lumia is cutting out ornaments for our construction paper Christmas Tree. She said, “this is the greatest Christmas tree ever.”

     New unintended adventure for today is a dead Fridge. Hopefully we will get a new one today but most likely Friday or Saturday. We will eat out a lot and keep a few things in our neighbor’s fridge. Yesterday the local construction gang came and installed accordion doors on the inside of every easy access window. Their idea of clean up is to push the dust into the corner so we had a clean the house day. The kids were very helpful.

     Last night we rode the chicken bus into Montanita for dinner and a moment on WiFi to down load books and check the Book of Faces. The town matches every description of a hippy surf town but there are a lot more places to eat with some more familiar menu items. There was a bakery at the bus stop where we stocked up for a few breakfasts. The local behind the counter was super nice when she picked up our forgotten wallet and held it for us till we got back. “Rookie mistake,” said an abashed Steph.

     Anyway, have a Merry Christmas everyone. I hope to get back to WiFi soon and post more pictures.

Two days

12/21

     We are settling into a routine. We are hitting the beach twice a day once in the morning and once in the evening to avoid the strongest sun. Then we have reading, writing and home work time in the mid day to avoid the heat. It has not been to hot yet but we are certainly not used to any heat

We are doing our best to avoid lots of mindless screen time which is made easier with a slow limited internet. We are however reading lot of books on our devices. Last night Cael and I worked on his book report for Ender’s Game.

     Today we walked into town and looked up the places for Spanish and surf lessons and will return tomorrow when they are open. All the locals were out getting ready to watch the final Ecuadorian fútbal match. Lots of people were wearing their blue or yellow jerseys. There was a local match taking place on a concrete pad and lots of old men were watching. Walking into town by way of the road is much less attractive than by the beach. The road side is littered with trash. There are many messy construction projects.

     All that said this place is beautiful. We are at the south end of an 8 mile beach. Coconut palms and palmettos are the primary plants. There are also occasional trees with bright flowers from purple to yellow. Each end has a reddish brown rock hill trust out into the sea. Less than a mile to the south the rock has a church and an orphanage. The hills to the side and behind us are covered in dry brushy plants with occasional cactus and palm trees. While it has remained mostly over cast it is still very bright and last night the clouds cleared for a vivid orange, pink and purple sunset. At night you can see 20-30 little lights bobbing out in the ocean, fishing boats. The beach is 100 feet from the back of our house and the surf is always pounding. Follow the link to the right for my Flickr page where you can see lots of pictures.

     One mile to the north is our town of Olón. The beach front has lots of little restaurants all serving the same seafood fare from ceviche to, pasts to fried fish. All the seafood is very fresh and yummy. So far we have tried the fish, skinny and white and the shrimp, plump and fresh. The beers are large, cold and crisp. The town is a few streets wide and deep and mostly tiny shops and hotels. The expats report that this town is much calmer than the next town immediately on the other side of the hill to the south. Motanita, Sodom and Gomorra as it is called, is a bigger surfing town and we have not explored it yet. We have been told to avoid it at night.

     We have seen lots of birds. There are pelicans, sand pipers, are little white cranes. We glimpsed a bright yellow bird but I was not able to get the camera in time. There are lots of little brown lizards and we saw one pretty good sized green iguana.

12/22/14

     Surf is up. Today is the most beautiful day yet. The sun is shining, the water is turquoise and it is hot. And we all slept well. Today on my morning constitutional I noticed little red crabs that pop back into their little holes when you get close to them.

     We went back into town and had lunch at the le playa (beach) at one of the little hut restaurants. These folks were Peruvian and had slightly different faire including a couple of fish curries. We watched two Coca-Cola reps nail their signs up on every hut.

     The language is not sticking in my head unsurprisingly the children are picking it up quickly. We went to the language school and signed up for family lessons three days a week starting after Christmas. It does not feel like Christmas down here.

     Went to the fruit stand and got a number of things that you will find familiar. The carrots are huge. We also got a couple of fruits that you have never seen before. We will taste at dinner and report back. See the Flickr site for a photo of our fruit bowl.

     We made more connections with expats and have been invited to the local orphanages xmas performance. I will let you know how it goes.

     It is now night and the wind has picked up but it is still warm and we can hear the surf. I hope everyone is well back home. Sleep tight

Not fancy living

Swimming, walking, eating were out accomplishments of the day. We did not plan any more. The surf is great, it is warm and people are friendly.
People come out here to Olon to escape or they live out here to begin with. It is attached to the rest of the world by paved roads and has all of the comforts but the locals are dirt poor and getting those comforts is an adventure in it self. Our electricity was sketchy when we got here but it works now. Through that we got to meet the local electrical company.

We have met all the immediate neighbors two of which are expats. They invited us to the weekly Gringo Lunch at a ceviche place in town, a five minute beach walk.  They are nice but definitely not used to having kids around. Cael said he had heard those words before but he was still a bit wide eyed. We also met a nice family that live in Texas but are from here and are vacationing. They had two little girls that played with our two in the surf.

Even though we applied sunscreen we were all pink cheeked at the end of the day. We will need to remember to reapply.
We are very tired and will hit the hay. Sleeping with the surf sound will take a couple of days to get used too. Tomorrow we will walk into town and explore and contact a Spanish teacher. Sleep tight.

In Paradise

Nothing further got in our way in our travels. Now we are in Olon Ecuador in our beach house. Now we need to fix a few more issues here like sketchy electrical systems. But we are here, dipped our feet in the Pacific, made a quick dinner that filled us all up. Soon we will hit the hay and see what tomorrow brings.

Travel adventures the first

We are all hoping that our experience with American Airlines is the entirety of the low point of this trip. Thans you Sharon in Chicago and Emile in Miami, after much tapping on your secret airline key board you found ways to move us closer to our destination. And thank you to our personal ombudsman Eric Jordan who's travel advice and sick humor can be followed at http://www.cntraveler.com/contributors/eric-jordan

At this moment we are eating at the Miami airport. Pretty good Cuban food. Our first flight yesterday was delayed an hour making us miss our second flight. We were put on a replacement second flight to Miami this morning after a stay at the O'Hare Holliday Inn Suite courtesy of American Airlines. This afternoon we will wait standby for our final flight to Guayaquil. We are numbers 2-5 on the wait list. Last chance will be a flight to Quito tomorrow afternoon where we will have to gather our luggage and fly to Guayaquil. We will keep our fingers crossed. I wish there was enough time to ditch the airport and head to the beach. Either way we will be in Ecuador by tomorrow and the beach by Friday. Do you need a map yet?

Anticipation

     One month from now the SPCL team is headed to Ecuador for our 3 month adventure! We are super excited as preparation is in full swing. Most of our accommodations are managed. Typhoid shots and mosquito netting are purchased. Mosquito clothes are packed (end of the season sale at REI). Lists are being finalized. EBooks are being selected. Just today C got hiking boots.
     This has been a long time coming. We had years of ideas. Did we want to go for a whole year? Would we have to work? How much did we want to immerse. When is the bast time for grade school kids. Then timing was decided. We did not want to have to work. Our current jobs did not allow us to go for more than 3 months. The school supported us.  Then we narrowed down our destinations. We tossed around SE Asia, Eastern Europe, Central and South America, and New Zealand. Finally fortune allowed Ecuador to leap to the front of the line.
     So we will be in Olon Ecuador, on the coast, on and off for 2 months and the rest of the time is up for grabs. Top other destinations are the capital Quito, the Amazon, The old colonial city of Cuenca, cloud forest, the largest market in the world in Otavalo, the equator, Incan ruins. The list goes on and on.

     Keep coming back here for more news as this blog will become our family blog on this adventure. 

Fermenting

I tried pickles this summer but now I have read about the health benefits of fermented veggies. This site lists recipes for many vegetables and other things. http://www.savorylotus.com/85-ways-eat-fermented-foods/. I tried the brussel sprouts because they are on sale still on the stalk at the best grocery store in the universe, Shoreline's Central Market. And because I love brussel sprouts. I will let you know in a week if they taste good.

My Favorite Cookbooks

     I love to cook. I started as a kid when my mom told me to start the baked potatoes and chicken when I got home from school. I learned from her, my friend Joe who's step-dad had a chinese restaurant and I read cookbooks. My wife can cook from scratch and I can in a pinch but I love a good recipe to follow.
     The first cookbook that I remember using was the Kitchen Wizard Cookbook by Deborah Jarvis. You might remember the artist Arthur Robins from the great books "Where did I come from" and "What is happening to me."  It is out of print. The recipes are easy and the illustrations fun. There is a section on basic kitchen ABCs that anyone should remember.

     Five years ago the family stayed in a little house in the Tuscan country side near Siena. I won't go into details in this post but the food was fantastic. I studied the Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan before hand and made a few really good meals that we are looking over a grapevine covered valley. Upon our return I mastered he gelato recipe (seen other posts).
     Flavors by Donna Hay was a favorite for a while and is a very beautiful cookbook. It is also simple and good for beginners.
     She-Smoke: A Backyard Barbecue Book by Julie Reinhardt has great BBQ and grilling ideas and a couple of great charts that I use almost every time I grill for perfectly done meat. The author is a Seattle local and owner of Ballard's Smokin Pete's BBQ.
     I am working my way through many different cuisines and I frequently return to Thai food. It is not nearly as hard as it looks although I have been stymied by rice noodles. Thailand: the Beautiful Cookbook by Panurat Poladitmontri is my favorite one and has a great fish cakes recipe that everyone loves. Never however have a made the dishes as pretty as a Thai restaurant 
     Pasta and Co. Encore by Marcella Rosene is by far my wife's and my most used and most loved cookbook. We met the author at her cooking class in 1999. Every recipe is great. Most notable are second skin chicken. apple cake I have given it as a gift many times 
     The Gourmet Cookbook: More than 1000 Recipes -Ruth Reichl, John Willoughby, Zanne Early Stewart. WIth 1000 recipes I have barely scratched the surface. It also has great cooking advice. Be mindful however that some of the recipes are quite involved and take a long time. To my detriment I have started recipes at 5 for dinner tonight and realize that it will be for dinner tomorrow night, usually worth it but still a long time.
     Better Homes and Gardens: Cookies and Candies -Better Homes and Gardens Test Kitchen. This is a holdover from a distant past. My mom looked for a copy for years after loosing her's. I have tried a couple of recipes but I really only have it for the "best peanut brittle in the world." -Poppop
     Urban Pantry -Amy Pennington. Amy Pennington is a NW cook and I frequently read her blog about cooking in Seattle. This book is really for a beginner and talks about many ideas for creating food wonderful in a small space.
     Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook -Leslie Mackie. This is from the best bakery in Seattle and has many great recipes. My wife has used it more as she is the baker.

     I could go I but I must post sometime. It took me forever to find the Kitchen Wizard Cookbook to start this blog.

Squash Gnocchi

Don't bother with a ricer. It used to be the best way to get the appropriate texture but a cheese grater blade on your cuisinart will do just as well and be 1/4 the time and mess. Or do I speak to soon. Maybe they will fall apart  We will see. Stay tuned. Right now the gnocchi are cooling in my new fridge and I will cook them tonight.

Go here for the recipe I used. I don't know what squash I actually used.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Butternut-Squash-Gnocchi-with-Sage-Brown-Butter-361270

Shrimp Ceviche with Rellenitos

I have started practicing my cooking for living in Ecuador. Did I tell you we are going to Ecuador? This winter for three months all four of us are going to spend 3 months in Ecuador. Why? We have always wanted to go abroad for a while.  A whole year is to expensive and we would have to work. Thailand is out cause of a coup. We decided on Ecuador due to an inexpensive place to stay. We will have a language immersion time for the whole family and daily beach time. That is why I am practicing Ecuador cuisine.
I made rellenitos which are plantain cakes stuffed with sweet blackbeans. Then I made ceviche.

My backyard dinner table makes the best background for food photos. That is rose in the redhook glass.

SOUP PARTY

For many years my wife and I and now our whole family have had an annual soup party. Usually is has been early in December. We invite many people for an open house, make five or so big pots of soup and then sit back and let people come visit us (not as easy as it sounds). It is a great way to see and catch up with lots of our friends and feed them. Previous favorite soups have been Poppop's Fish Chowder, Tomato Fennel with Pernod, Carrot Curry, and Marcella Hazan's Minestrone. We use our favorite cook books and websites and family favorites. To see some family favorites go to my recipe page here at BigOven.
For 2013 we went to DisneyLand instead so we decided to throw a summer soup this year. Same rules as before but all the soups were cold and we sat outside in the backyard.

Review

Many thumbs up for the strawberry dark chocolate gelato. Thanks Stephanie and Kyra.

Fresh Gelato

On the way back from water fun in Snohomish Washington we stopped at Maltby Produce where we picked up among many things 4 pints of fresh strawberries. They have garnished our breakfast for the last two days and now the remainder are going into Gelato. Gelato deserves to be capitolized.

When we were in Italy in 2008 we had Gelato nearly everyday. The best was on Piazza Cisterna in San Gimignano.

Thanks to Marcella Hazan I had a great cook book during our stay. I used it to make a number of great recipies at our little house in Tuscany. Upon our return I used the Gelato recipie to great raves. The strawberries in the recipie can be replaced by any fruit you like and I have done lemon, lime, grapefruit, raspberry, plum and peach. Lemon is by far my favorite and will get a separate post. 

Today my niece Kyra who is visiting from North Dakota wanted to learn how to make Gelato. It is easy and a great use of seasonal yummyness. The recipie is in The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. For fun we sprinkled some shaved dark chocolate in at the very end. It is currently in the freezer and will be tasted tomorrow. Sometimes cooking is about waiting. 

Pickles

I have discovered that pickles are easy and yummy. Lately I have pickled radishes, onions with jalapenos and the classic cucumbers. This current recipe I got from Smitten Kitchen. Every Smitten Kitchen recipe I have tried has been great. My five year old cut the ends off the cucumbers from Costco and helped me manage the Cuisinart. I also got a thinner Cuisinart blade from Amazon.com which cuts down the use of the mandolin. I can't wait to see the results.

Here is the link- http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2014/07/easiest-fridge-dill-pickles/