Friday approaches. The Cowboy arrived today with his usual gusto and the dog was happy to see him. The Storyteller and the Cowboy are two of the dog’s favorite people since he lived in Bolivia and Idaho with each of them for extended periods. The dog had not seen the Storyteller for many years and he cried like a baby and wouldn’t stop for about 20 minutes, then he spent the next 3 days lying outside the Storyteller’s door or under his desk. He must think the Storyteller was his original owner.
I have decided that the cook will use her own recipes for a while. I gave her a stuffed bell pepper recipe, and if I do say so the Spanish translation was quite understandable. I asked her to wait while I showed her how to make it, but she took off on her own. I fortunately entered to kitchen just as she was starting to brown the ground beef. I quickly put a halt to that and told her she had to mix ALL the ingredients together: onion, shredded cheese, canned tomatoes, bread, garlic, and eggs with the beef and not cook it separately, but stuff the peppers with the mixture then cook them as a whole. When I came back to the kitchen, she was stuffing the peppers, but the cheese was cut into half-inch cubes, and so I told her she had to take the cheese out and grate it. Finally we got that part done and I left her to bake them in the oven. Esperando arrived and at dinner time I went back to discover she had boiled them all, not baked them. They survived her brutal treatment, but better she use familiar recipes until I have more time to supervise—we’ll just have to suffer through endless meals of delicious fattening Mexican cuisine. She is a fabulous cook left to her own devices. So far we have had corn soup, tortilla soup, scallops with garlic sauce, flautas and tonite we are having carne asada. I have discovered if we barely eat breakfast and lunch, we can have some of dinner without gaining weight.
I brought a Panasonic breadmaker here and we have just had our fourth loaf using the manufacturer’s French bread recipe. It is delicious, although we have been sampling the local French bread from the El Boleo bakery and it is really good too. The cook and the maid like the bread so well thay have asked if they can each take a loaf home with them this weekend. Mike had a stroke of genius buying a countertop ice making machine. It works really well. The only problem we have had so far is that I relocated it to a different countertop and both of us have gone to look for ice inside the breadmaker.
Today the house is literally crawling with workmen to repair the rain damage wrought by the storm in time for the Big Boss’ arrival on Sunday, except now the Big Boss and entourage are not coming after all. Our next houseful will be on the 7th when we will have a full house of Korean visitors. The Canadians are bringing some chopsticks down to make them feel at home, and off course we have the Kim Chee (cabbage marinated in garlic and hot peppers) that we trailered down here in our ice chest. The hammering, sawing, jackhammering and the paint fumes are a bit overwhelming.
It is beautiful outside today. The view from my office window is great. I can see the ocean is a deep violet blue with the brilliant magenta blossoms of the bougainvillea showy in front of it.
August 30, 2008
August 26, 2008
There's gonna be a floody, floody, floody
Sunday we found out that our next guest would not be arriving as his flight has been diverted to Hermosillo because the Loreto airport was swamped by Tropical Depression Julio. Of course Sunday is the staff’s day off, but we had been grazing on leftover chile rellenos all day. We had noticed many clouds that morning and the air had become remarkably more humid, but we just didn’t give it much thought. Now was our first inkling of impending trial by water.
The internet still isn’t working at our house so we got Hermana and Junior Birdman fired up to fed us some weather info from the internet which described sustained winds from 50 to 85 mph with the storm moving north at 12 mph. The evening was pleasantly cooler, and we spend a good part of it having cocktails and watching the guys with sailboats out in the breakwater tying their boats down. After dinner of yet more chile rellenos we went to bed. I had a hard time getting to sleep wondering what we were in for. At midnight the first serious rain started to fall. About 3 AM I went to see what was happening around the house and that’s when I found the laundry room inundated and water pouring in the back door. The architect had poured the slab level with the door and it was slanting in toward the house. I got Esperando out of bed and we started mopping. Soon Monday morning arrived, but not any household help! They were all in town mopping out their houses. As the wind shifted so did our mopping. We mopped continuously all day in the kitchen, in the living room, the laundry room --and finally our bedroom when the wind truly came up and threw sheets of water under the French doors. The paint on the walls started to bubble with water blisters which grew to 5 or more inches before bursting and spewing water down the walls in the hall, our bedroom and the living room.
It rained like it had in Panama, a tropical deluge of warm heavy rain. The army came in downtown to protect people from crossing the streets. The main east-west thoroughfare here is called El Arroyo and when it rains here that’s where the water runs. Yesterday it had about a foot of running water in it. Ambulances and fire trucks raced around with sirens blaring and car alarms went off. We probably had 6-8 inches that fell at our house in about 24 hours, but were protected from most of the wind until the last 3-4 hours. At about 6 pm, just in time for dinner, the wind stopped, the waves calmed and the rain stopped falling actually rather abruptly. Finally a rest for the weary moppers.
The internet still isn’t working at our house so we got Hermana and Junior Birdman fired up to fed us some weather info from the internet which described sustained winds from 50 to 85 mph with the storm moving north at 12 mph. The evening was pleasantly cooler, and we spend a good part of it having cocktails and watching the guys with sailboats out in the breakwater tying their boats down. After dinner of yet more chile rellenos we went to bed. I had a hard time getting to sleep wondering what we were in for. At midnight the first serious rain started to fall. About 3 AM I went to see what was happening around the house and that’s when I found the laundry room inundated and water pouring in the back door. The architect had poured the slab level with the door and it was slanting in toward the house. I got Esperando out of bed and we started mopping. Soon Monday morning arrived, but not any household help! They were all in town mopping out their houses. As the wind shifted so did our mopping. We mopped continuously all day in the kitchen, in the living room, the laundry room --and finally our bedroom when the wind truly came up and threw sheets of water under the French doors. The paint on the walls started to bubble with water blisters which grew to 5 or more inches before bursting and spewing water down the walls in the hall, our bedroom and the living room.
It rained like it had in Panama, a tropical deluge of warm heavy rain. The army came in downtown to protect people from crossing the streets. The main east-west thoroughfare here is called El Arroyo and when it rains here that’s where the water runs. Yesterday it had about a foot of running water in it. Ambulances and fire trucks raced around with sirens blaring and car alarms went off. We probably had 6-8 inches that fell at our house in about 24 hours, but were protected from most of the wind until the last 3-4 hours. At about 6 pm, just in time for dinner, the wind stopped, the waves calmed and the rain stopped falling actually rather abruptly. Finally a rest for the weary moppers.
First guests
Saturday night Esperando and I had our first houseguest, the Storyteller from Prince Edward Island. He is a long time friend from many past projects. He forgot to bring the moonshine he said he set aside on his desk to pack, but we had lots of tequila and beer.
We had invited 6 people to come for dinner. In the morning I taught the cook how to make Ann Ward’s chocolate chip bundt cake so she will be able to do that next time we have a party. We kept trying to make the cake then realized that part of the ingredients were in the pantry where the workman were jackhammering a concrete block out. We finally managed to get the those ingredients organized, then realized that we were missing Kahlua. Senor Jueves went to the store to get that and sour cream (which comes in a tin can and isn’t refrigerated, isn’t as sour as in the U.S., and is more runny.) I wasn’t sure if it would work. Then we figured out how to set the oven (fortunately the guide was in English and Spanish) and put the cake in to cook. After an hour the cook came to tell me she was worried about the cake. I looked in and it hadn’t cooked at all—the oven wasn’t even working! Our first big dinner and no oven, oh my!
The architect was here fixing some stuff so I asked him if he could check why it wasn’t working. After about 2 hours he and the electrician finally found some valve that hadn’t been opened, and voila we were open for business after all. After sitting around mixed and waiting for the oven for 4 hours with weird sour cream that maybe wouldn’t work either I wasn’t sure what the cake would do, but it had a mind of its own and rose to the occasion. We had dinner for 6 people and the cook made fabulous chile rellenos for dinner along with beans and rice. We gave her a standing ovation when she brought the tortillas to the table. The cook is a really lucky find and we are happy to have her.
We had invited 6 people to come for dinner. In the morning I taught the cook how to make Ann Ward’s chocolate chip bundt cake so she will be able to do that next time we have a party. We kept trying to make the cake then realized that part of the ingredients were in the pantry where the workman were jackhammering a concrete block out. We finally managed to get the those ingredients organized, then realized that we were missing Kahlua. Senor Jueves went to the store to get that and sour cream (which comes in a tin can and isn’t refrigerated, isn’t as sour as in the U.S., and is more runny.) I wasn’t sure if it would work. Then we figured out how to set the oven (fortunately the guide was in English and Spanish) and put the cake in to cook. After an hour the cook came to tell me she was worried about the cake. I looked in and it hadn’t cooked at all—the oven wasn’t even working! Our first big dinner and no oven, oh my!
The architect was here fixing some stuff so I asked him if he could check why it wasn’t working. After about 2 hours he and the electrician finally found some valve that hadn’t been opened, and voila we were open for business after all. After sitting around mixed and waiting for the oven for 4 hours with weird sour cream that maybe wouldn’t work either I wasn’t sure what the cake would do, but it had a mind of its own and rose to the occasion. We had dinner for 6 people and the cook made fabulous chile rellenos for dinner along with beans and rice. We gave her a standing ovation when she brought the tortillas to the table. The cook is a really lucky find and we are happy to have her.
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