Stuffing (: Lindsey-made: Get your grub on already.

Ingredients

6 corn muffins or an 8 1/2-ounce corn-bread mix, prepared and crumbled (5 cups)

2 chorizo ahumado (smoked), casings removed (remove all together for vegan preference)

2 jalapenos, minced (with seeds)

2 TBSP earth balance (or butter or olive oil) –not needed for ahead of time recipe

1/2 loaf of bread, cubed (dried-out/day-old)

Note: if you aren’t working with somewhat dried-out/day-old bread, put the cubes in a hot oven for 10 minutes to dry them out first –so they can soak up all the moisture/goodness from the recipe and not end up as just mushiness.

1 yellow onion, diced

2 granny smith apples, diced

6 ribs of celery, sliced

1 16-ounce box/can vegetable broth

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup dates, pitted and chopped

2 TBSP fresh chives, chopped

1/4 cup fresh sage, chopped or 1 heaping tablespoon dried sage

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground ginger

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. *If homemaking cornbread, first preheat oven and prepare one box of corn-bread mix (Jiffy or Martha White’s where you just add water) according to the label directions.  Leave oven hot.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, cook chorizo and jalapenos, breaking up the meat and cooking through. At the same time, heat another large skillet on medium heat.  Melt earth balance (or butter or heat oil) in the pan, add the bread cubes, and stir to coat the bread pieces with the melted butter and let them toast (only turn them when they become browned). 
3. Remove the chorizo and add onion and celery and sauté in leftover fat until soft, about 3 minutes. Add sage, cranberries, dates, apples and pepper; stir to coat. Cook until herbs are fragrant, about 1 minute.
4.  Transfer onion mixture to a large mixing bowl. Add the toasted bread, corn bread, chorizo, jalapeños, chives and broth (1 cup at a time); toss to combine. Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish and cover with foil; bake 20 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is golden brown, about 15 minutes more.

 -or- easy, day-before preparation:

1. Slice bread into half-inch cubes and crumble corn muffins. In large bowl, mix the cubes and crumbles with diced apples, dried cranberries, chopped dates, sliced celery and diced onion.  Sprinkle over mixture the cinnamon, cloves and ginger.
2. In medium-size skillet over medium heat, sauté chorizos and diced jalapeños until the meat is cooked through, breaking with a fork as they cook. Add chorizo, jalapeño and fat to bread mix, along with minced sage leaves. (If cooking in advance, cover and refrigerate overnight.)
3. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Moisten bread and chorizo mixture with vegetable stock. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4.  Transfer to greased 9-inch-by-12-inch shallow casserole. Cover with foil and bake on middle level of oven for 30 minutes. Uncover, and cook for another 15 minutes, until stuffing puffs up and begins to turn golden brown on top.

Travel in Colombia

So thought I'd put my roaming to another use and compile some info for anyone that is thinking of traveling or visiting Colombia!

Let's start by saying: best country in the world.  haha welllllll, I realllly have a soft spot for Argentina, and well, I absolutely love our dear U.S. of freaking A. butttttt... We really like Colombia!  

Would definitely reccommend doing some research on el cafeteria (the three coffee regions in the middle of colombia) because as you may have heard, this country has some pretty nice cafe (:  If you are at all interested in doing some WWOOFing there is a lot of farms in this area!  It's beautiful!  We (Debra, mi hermana, and I) spent a couple weeks on a cool farm that grows bananos and cafe, and it was quite the experience   Although our shack was creepin with cockroaches and we usually had cold showers, we learned a ton about animals, taking care of gardens, using machetes, composting, making bread, how to not want to shower all the time, annnnnd Spanish! haha  To be honest though, the farm we stayed on was more of a family style, grow for their own sustenance type of deal, and we really were hoping to see the scenes behind the coffee production here... which wasn't really what we found, buttttttt we started an englsih class for all the neighborhood kids and I've definitely am satisfied with how much more ninja like I've become (I was basically already a ninja coming in -should ask Maya Webber about it) with my machete choppin yerbas & trees & telarañas down all over like nobody's bizzzz! (:

Anyway enough of that... the farm's name is Albergue Azul, and it's nice, but I'd check out some other places, there's a lot on the WWOOF website!  As far as other places to go in Colombia, soooooooo much to tell!  

Sooo, there's this AWESOME boat trip through the San Blas Islands that I'm going to do (haven't done yet but have heard only good things) with my brother in November from Cartagena, Colombia to Panama (which you are also able to do the other way around)  But it's a 3-6 day (depending) boat trip where u stop at all these beautiful little almost uninhabited islands! It does run a bit on the expensive side though around $400-$600... (which for me is a lot, but i heard its nutsssss slash worth it!) 

Anyway, in Cartagena (up north on the caribbean coast), lot's to do!  The walled city (is what they call it there) is beauuuutiful, and it's the colonial city that was oringially cunstructed because apperently Sir Francis Drake (after many others) stole a bunch of stuff from the city (as pirates) and so they built up this huge wall for protection around their city!  It's literally like Pirates of the Caribbean style, kinda cool!  OK woo woo woo, hostel to stay at Media Luna, do zumba in the plaza a block away on Sundays at like 7 or at the cultural center on mondays and wednesdays at 6 (also right down the street and the instructor is freaking a hoot!  SOOO FUN!) Also, you can do day or over night trips to Playa Blanca, which is beauuuuutiful! Just go to the boats the day before to reserve ur spot (or early in the morning) because they leave at 930 I think!

Also... from there, we went up north even further to Tayrona National Park which is beautiful.  You can do a hike to 'Pueblito', you can camp along the beaches there in hammocks or you can pitch a tent.  We just hiked through the day there, which was cool (get there in the AM because you can walk all day to all the beaches) and then we went back to our spot at Costeño Beach!  Which, is a spot definitely worth checking out! It was awesome!  (bring bug spray tho, cuz the bugs will get u!!!)  It's a little beachfront piece of land owned by two Canadians that are in their late twenties.  It's basically a surf spot slash chill in a hammock and read slash chop coconuts slash eat meals with everyone (it's 5000 pesos for breakfast and 10000 for each lunch and dinner -which is not suuuper cheap, but not spendy, just pretty reasonable, and these are sizeable portions also -there are no stores/restaurants/anything near enough to go out, so bring food or eat theirs family style haha) ALSO MAKE A RESERVATION before you go, because it's boooooked usually.  Basically you get on a bus from Santa Marta that's going to Tayrona and then tell your 'conductor' you're headed to Costeño beach and it's just a couple miles after Tayrona.

*NOTE: Ok also, all flights within Colombia use the airline vivacolombia! It is SUPER cheap (usually cheaper than buses!!!)  

So from there, We haven't yet been to Bucaramanga, but have heard nothing but awesome things -it's a place to do a lot of outdoorsy activities and nearby is some of the best white water rafting (San Gil) but is also a little bit of a city, kinda has both worlds.

Medellín we LOVE!  Are living here!  It's very much a put together city despite it's recent cartels (ever watched the movie "Blow"? haha), it's cleaned up a whole bit!  Great infrastructure in Poblado and other neighboring barrios, it's beautiful.  Wherever you're at, ask about the roads that are shut down on sundays for people to run/bike/walk/rollerblade/walk dogs on and get ur juice on at one of the thousand stands or ZUMBA at one of the handful of places gettin their groove on on the side of the road!  This city is a good escape from the more rugged areas because it's clean and put together.  We stayed at two hostels, one, more chill, but very welcoming and family-esk called Black Sheep, and one called The Pit Stop (both in barrio Poblado) with a pool and a nice kitchen, nice comfy beds, a vball/bball court(ish), a big screen TV movie room with endless DVD's, and a cool bar area with a pool table woo woo woo -it's cool (:  Also, you could work there for a couple weeks if you wanna get your room paid for and work in the bar a couple nights a week!  Also in Medellín many people (including us -one of the few touristy things we did do) take the Gondola up to Parque Arvi which was quite an incredible view!!! (Atención: WE GOT STUCK IN IT! Because of THUNDER AND LIGHTENING! was scary as poop!  Sitting next to a lady who was praying for her life, rocking back and fourth chanting "Dios Mio, Dios Mio..." helpful.)  As far as going out, Zona Rosa is a cool, also a good spot for an afternoon walk/lunch/coffee or if you wanna go out to dinner.

Bogotá we were pleasantly surprised with, but wouldn't say you HAVE to spend a lot of time there.  There's a place called Candelaria that's a cool barrio where you can get good street food and theres fernando bortero museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Botero -he paints fat people, its wonderful) which is free and then there's the gold museum next door (which I also think is free) ummm and a lot of people to couch surf with! (Possibly avoid this guy named Juan Manuel who lives in Largo de Cordoba -which is a really nice/new/clean/safe neighborhood -because it was just a little strange... he's a gamer, and lays upstairs gaming ALLLLL day, so we didn't really get the scoop on anything from him, but we did get his whole house to just have... basically as ours... and he's a chef so he occasionally sous vied pork fat and cookies for us which was bomb/instantly gained 10 lbs kinda sorta deal... so take all that into consideration I suppose...)

CALI!!!!! we haven't been there BUT WE ARE GOING AND IM SO EXCITED!!!!  It's a college town and TONS of salsssssa!  That's all I know so far... Also, I have a friend that lives in Popayan which is a couple hrs out -but another place that we've heard is cute and a little more low key!

Que tengas un buen viaje!

En este momento, estamos

What has been, The story of my life:
'sooooo many people': You're so busy, you have too much on your plate, you should slow down ...woo woo woo... "You just can't do it all"
me: "Watch me."

Bueno, entonces...

Why Women Still Can't Have It All

I am still struggling to wrap my head around her words, as I feel liberated and bound in the same lingering moment.  This is a topic, and maybe a reality, that so many are shielded from or ignoring... It's difficult, contrasting, frustrating & empowering in one sweep.  It's emotionally provocative in a potent and valuable sense.  Worth feeling & worth thinking about (:


Feeling the soft breeze against my neck...
Slowing down to soak up the view & it is quite a beautiful world we have (:

En este momento, estamos
In this moment, we are

Empanadas Dulces

Got a little crazy the other night, and decided that after much observation and time spent trying to absorb the culture around the traditional empanadas here, I was going to begin my experimentation phase and play a little with some new savores (flavors).

I had a birthday party and a dinner ahead of me, and without a doubt I needed to bring something special to each as a thank you for the social invitation.  In toying with the idea of preparing some sort of dish for the occasions, I thought long and hard on what would be appropriate.  I could bring something 'traditionally American', but that mescla (mix) of cuisine options was way to vast to wrap my head around, (although their impression of our typical food is just McDonald's and Burger King, which would have included an hour bus ride to the next city over, and more pesos than I was willing to drop on less than average salty, dripping in grease french fries... and so no... that really wasn't even a thought that crossed my mind) but I also thought about how I would love to share something to really represent my home...  But no, I couldn't pick.  Plus I've been doing all this Castellano food exploration during my stay here, so I thought, I may as well give it a whirl and see what they themselves think of my understanding of their traditions.  So I landed on empanadas.  A great tapas type of food that can be served with anything, along side anything and at anytime... Perfect, seeing as I didn't know how either night really were going to play out!  & Opting for the sweeter empanadas was perfect.  A way around having to provide an appetizer or dinner for everyone at either event.

First and foremost, when preparing empanadas you need to keep several things in mind.  This is an art.  Something done for years by people en los campos and by the mothers of every household, and therefore not something you are going to jump right into and be perfect at.  It takes practice & patience and if you knew my mother, she'd tell you straight away, that after making a couple deformed looking pastries, it's something that you can easily get frusterated with.  But don't let it!  Don't let it get to you!  Just put on some soothing music (I dig Pretty Lights or Dread Mar I myself, but whatever you fancy at the moment) and know that whatever the shape, the taste lies within!!!!! haha So you're not going to fuck it up that bad with a little misshapen body!
*Do note though, that the easiest mistake to make this process way more difficult than it needs to be is overstuffing!  Do not put as much filling in as you think, you can always add more once you've closed off one end if you feel like it's lacking!

Ok!  For starters, I made 6 of each, so this is what I needed: 
2 packs of tapas para empanadas -horno (these can be found at many specialty stores, but are also becoming more and more popular, so you may even be able to snag um from your local grocer -BUT make sure you get the ones for el horno, or for the oven, not the ones to fry!)

1 green apple
2 bananas
10 medium strawberries
1 500g container dulce de leche repostero (there's also the more caramel-like kind that can be eaten with fruit/on toast or whatever that can work fine too, in fact, most people choose that kind, but the repostero is thicker & used usually more in baking and cooking as far as I understand)
1 100g chocolate bar (to your liking -I like dark chocolate myself, but I also made some with a milk because many people like the sweeter creamier taste of milk) *AND try not to eat any when you're making these, or maybe have another bar close by if you may be tempted, because it's hard not to, and I skimped on the ones in the end because I may or may not have nibbled a square... (:


1 beaten egg
1 TBSP cinnamon
2 TBSP sugar
and then...
a tad of oil/spray stuff to oil the pan...
1 oven
1 baking pan
1 pot holder (DO NOT GRAB THE PAN WITHOUT ONE TANTO!)


The gist:
So you have your lightly greased pan ready, and your oven on 'medium-high' temperature (I literally don't have a thermometer or a reader on mine here, so I put it on high to heat up, then turn it down slightly... haha It doesn't really matter, you just need to make sure you keep a close eye on them if you're not sure how quickly their going to bronze!).  So from this point, you're going to carefully take one of your tapas and put your dallop of filling into it's center.  Dip your finger into a cup of water (only a drop literally!) and moisten only the inside rim of the dough (this is going to help it stick together when we press, because sometimes it wants to stay separate).  Then, gently fold the circle piece of dough in half and firmly press the edges together, until they are stuck as one.  Begin in the center of the newly created half moon, and work your way to each end.  This is where you can stuff a bit more filling in if you'd like, but really, don't force it, or they'll explode and ooze in the oven!

Once you have the edges all pressed together this is where the artisanal work comes into play.  Fold the corner edge up over onto itself to form kind of a triangle in the corner.  Then, take the newly created corner-edge, and do the same, pressing it firmly back into itself.  Continue in this manner all the way around the edge of the empanada creating a braided look around the half moon.  Place on the baking sheet and complete the same process with all the rest!  (extra hands are always nice at this part -unless you're a perfectionist and bothered by the way others may deform your dulces... you may want to steer away from asking for help/inviting helping hands)

 

The empanadas are now all aligned on the sheet (spacing isn't crucial, but leave at least a couple cm's between each for expansion) and all you have left to do is paint a bit of your scrambled egg mixture on the top of each one, and then dash them each with some sugar to caramelize!

Put your empanadas in the oven for about 15 minutes (checking on them all the while because we may be playing with very different temperature schemes here!) until they are golden brown and a tad crispy on top & boopity-bing, boopity-bop! (:  Let them cool for a good 6 minutes before burning your whole mouth off, but I dig 'em even more pipping hot!  


Specifics:

Banana, Chocolate y Dulce de Leche

These were the first ones I made, and my personal favorite.  I just dig how sweet the banana gets, and it's mushy self against the flaky and crispy outside casing of the empanada just works beautifully!  Anyway, with a spoonful of dulce de leche carefully smeared in a line down the middle of the tapa, I then stuck in 3 squares of chocolate and added 2 or 3 slices of banana.

Frutilla, Chocolate y Dulce de Leche
(Strawberries, Chocolate & Dulce de Leche)
These vibrant and zesty empanadas were the farthest from any creation my audience here had seen, but they were quite a hit!   Again I began these empanadas by smearing spoonful of dulce de leche carefully in a line down the middle of the tapa, I then stuck in 3 squares of chocolate and added 5 or 6 chunks of strawberries.

Manzana, Canela y Dulce de Leche
(Apples, Cinnamon & Dulce de Leche)
These empanadas were the favorite of all who gave them a shot,  turning out to taste an awful lot like mini little apple pies!  In a bowl I combined my one sliced (or julienned, whatever you fancy) apple first with my cinnamon to taste (I've never been one to measure, but I shook my mini bag of spice 4-6 times, generously covering the top of my mixture!  It's your deal, so do the spicing as you wish!  Get crazy wit it if you want!) and then I globbed in about two heavy spoonfuls of dulce de leche.  Once I sifted around the mixture and made sure the apple slices were all generously covered in the gooey goodness, I dalloped a large spoonful into the middle of the tapa and began folding around it.  
*Again, if I had extra space now, once I've secured one end, that's when I would stuff a little more in... Notttttt in the beginning!

Buen Provecho!

Bryce joins us!

Bariloche came and went almost as quick as holidays and elections do (or maybe those weren´t the best comparisons... Well if those feel like those examples drag on for what seems like centuries beyond your wishes then maybe imagine waiting for that greatly anticipated day in the week when you get to see the newest episode of your favorite TV show...? or... waiting for that moment, when whoever's baking that bomb banana bread that's perfuming your entire house with that sweet, warm & cinnamon-y aroma, to open the oven and invite you to have at it!! ...Anyway... you get the idea). It seemed like so long, in my initial planning, that I was going to have to wait for Bryce to visit, but as time always does, it has just flown since his arrival around the 14th of November.

We had some amazing views and great chocolate while down south, along with Bryce catching some fish that he claims, based on size, and I quote, ¨may have [my] dad for rainbow and brown now!¨. I was a personal photographer and witness to his greatness these long days in the sun, while I practiced Spanish tongue twisters and did abs along the waters edge. And you know what? I liked it so much that I signed up for the position again in Junin de los Andes! :)

We parted ways with Dana for a bit as she went west into Puerto Montt and Valdivia, Chile and we ventured back up north of the Lake district past San Martin and into a small fishing town. We knew that fishing season had just barely opened at the beginning of the month, but had high hopes of experiencing some of the best in the world. We stayed at this hostel (more like home with extra rooms) and enjoyed many scrumptious meals (and me having bites of the famous Argentinian beef -which, in sasuage form (not the steak -still not for me), I liked very much!) and much quiet and alone time. We met Miguel there, a chocolate store owner from Córdoba who had been camping along some lakes and fishing, and immediately latched onto Bryce as a fishing buddy.

He had driven down, so this convenient transportation helped Bryce fish the Curruhue, after the Quilquihue, his first few times out, had only left him with a few small trout. With no luck there, the third day we ventured (as in walked...) 9km down the road past the Military base to the Chimehuin river where Bryce finally had some big catches. While journalling, stretching and occupying myself throughout the day I was able to document two of his 30in plus brown trout successes. Overall, he feels the need to come back again to see how much he can experience during high season, but is optimistic about all else that South America has to offer him :)

Wine and Bike Tour with Mr. Hugo

Before I get ahead of myself and deeper into my travels (which I am well into as of now) I need to share another story about Mendoza. Mendoza was a place of a million memories (as Bryce can attest -it´s been Mendoza this and Mendoza that so much that we´ve now come up with code names to avoid annoying him) as 3 intended nights turned into 6, then into 8 and may have worked it´s way to 12 waay to quickly before we were forced to leave.
Anyway, from the beginning... As we checked in early in the morning of our arrival, Coco and Juanma (two of our favorite hostel guys ever!) outlined all the excursions, activities and events the hostel offered ranging from High Andes adventures to Hot Springs and trekking. The one that instantly caught our eye, obviously, was the wine and bike tour :) As a background helper if you don´t know the area well (which I didn´t until talking to other knowledgeable travellers and reading up in my Lonely Planet guide), Mendoza is known for it´s wine, especially the Malbec grape, and has hundreds of vineyards and wineries lining it´s borders. Going on some sort of tour was a must while experiencing this lovely city. We decided to sleep on the offered excursions, and ask around a bit before we made up our minds.
As we dug for information, we found out a lot about this possible day tasting. The main consensus was that the wine and bike deal was a go, but that it was easily compiled without going through the hostel and was a heck of a lot cheaper at that. So after a fun Asado night at a neighboring hostel (where Dana and I were served a special vegetarian Tart option) we made some friends from Denmark and decided that we´d head to Maipu the following morning.
The third day in esta ciudad linda (this pretty city!) we took a bus out to Maipú and got started at Mr. Hugo´s bike shop. He set us all up with bikes (with baskets!), bottled water and outlined a map for our day´s adventure. We began at an olive farm and paid 15 pesos to taste their incredible oils, vinegars, spreads, liquors (including Absinthe -that strangely had little taste, but left our throats on fire for at least ten minutes after!) and chocolates. We then ventured up the street to El Museo del Wino San Felipe where we had a couple complementary glasses of wine and wandered around exploring the enormous barrels and old wine equipment they had on display. From there, came Familia al Tommaso (a beautiful family run winery), El Patio (a beer garden where we tried a ruby (la rubia), typical of that area), and finally Historias y Sabores (where we each tried a liquor and were treated with a cup of chocolates). 
We finally made our way back to Mr. Hugo´s at around 7 where we were greeted with more wine (and consistent refills of more wine) and a table full of laughs until 930 when Mr. Hugo himself escorted us out to the bus stop and paid for our safe rides back home.
Every city we have been since, we have celebrated his name and business! It was a wonderful day, with all too many great memories, pictures and friends.

Villarrica!

We could see the active volcano from our Tree House hostel, which was lined with colorful hammocks & playful pups, standing at 9,341 ft. We booked our trek the instant we arrived to climb that very next day. Sized for shoes (which turned out killing my heel & leaving two painful blister friends on either side) & coats by our guide Mauricio & given the paperwork to sign our lives away, we began to fuel up for the big day ahead of us!

Rising to see the sun rise at 630, Mauricio picked us up, drove us to our departure point, gave us our stylish orange gear & we all decided that its stature didn't frighten us all that much anymore. Then after 6ish hours of hiking switchback in Crampons & ice picks, we may have changed our minds a bit on that initial assessment. Every crevasse we thought was the final one, we were pleasantly surprised with another peak -over & over & over again.

About three quarters of the way up (after holding it for at least two hours already) I decided I was going to need a pit stop before the day was over. Just after we, & many other groups, finished up eating lunch and rejuvenating, I took my opportunity! Mauricio lead me down a few feet off our tracks & with Dana laughing hysterically above me & snapping as many inappropriate candid shots as humanly possible, I let my bare bum nearly freeze in my makeshift ice crystal seat :) I would not have made it any other way & was very relieved.

Then we arrived. The top was purely incredible. With a 360 degree view of the other neighboring volcanoes, lakes, rivers, towns, & even the Pacific was barely visible off in the distance, this was unlike anything I could have imagined. The smoke & steam billowed up over the edges of the cravasse as we cautiously peeked over into an active lava lake inside its crater. Some days, visitors can even see the lava spilling up, over & down the mountainside!

The air was warm, with a crisp wind, & every once in a while a breath of hot smoke would leave you wheezing & gasping for air -Summitting Volcán Villarica was unbelievably breathtaking, to say the least.

Then, with some very temporary initial hesitation (after we had breathed in enough smoke & steam & snapped enough summit pictures -& pictures of us in the ultra-reflective glasses of our guide) we used our ice picks and sleds to slide down the face of this mountain at outrageous & terrifying speeds! Laughing & still all feeling in awe of our day, we headed back down the mountain to our hostel where we crashed instantly upon arrival.