CABBAGE!!

My host mom is a gardener. I am continually impressed by her (seemingly) effortless production of fruit and vegetables. And thankful, since I have regularly been benefitting from the vegetable surplus as each season rolls around. I think she feels sorry for me because she knows that gardens are supposed to be a thing that I could teach as a part of my heath role, but I am a pretty crappy gardener. There are several people in my community with FANTASTIC gardens, so its a road I've stayed off of for the most part. I prefer to limit my garden participation to mooching.

First, in July and August, it was spring onions and lettuce. So much salad after a dearth of green things all through fall and the beginning of winter. Next, it was carrots, which often became carrot cake. Now tomato season is finishing off. She let me take the rest of the cherry tomatoes home with me because she thinks they are "too acidic." To me they are little red balls of sunshine. I can't remember the last time I had a tomato this good. Maybe when I was a kid and we visited CT and my uncle's garden... there's nothing like super-fresh.

The whole time all of these veggies are running their course, there has been cabbage plants hulking in their midst. During the winter, we ate their leaves, which was a previously unknown veggie to me. Me and my host sisters were in charge of dinner one night, and Nilsa told me we would make vegetables and rice. This sounded amazing to me after many dinners of fried food, but I had no idea what would be providing the "bulk" to our veggies... I mean there were carrots and green onions to put on it, but what was IT? Turns out it was the new leaves of the cabbage plants. We picked bunches of the darker green leaves and cut them up finely. Enough to fill a whole big soup pot. And then we simmered them with piles of carrots and green onions until they all wilted into green oblivion. Then we added some salt and a bit of tomato paste and served it over rice. Spectacular. My host dad (who pretty much only eats meat and pasta) was a bit less impressed. He asked me what we were cooking and since I didn't want to say cabbage (since I knew he would make a face), I said "a surprise!". Julio looks at me dead-pan and says "that's not a surprise, its cabbage!" I don't think I have laughed so hard in ages. May not sound funny to you guys but now its like the running joke with them. Its probably also funnier in guarani :)

And now, all of these cabbage plants have heads too, and my host mom has been pawning them off on me weekly. First I made some salad, then "fried cabbage" (sauteed cabbage, onion, garlic and carrot with an egg cracked in it at the end) but today I was feeling a bit bored of the usual, so I decided to try my hand at cole slaw.

Although I was raised in the South my whole life, cole slaw has never been my thing. I think I have had too much over-mayonnaised or soggy cole slaw to want to give it a chance. But I did a search on food.com for a recipe and out popped this one, which was mayonnaise free and had apple. I was intrigued. The results were SO tasty. Makes me think I'll be able to get through the 4 heads of cabbage in my fridge after all.

My host mom's garden a few weeks ago...this isn't even all of it!

Mayo-Free Cole Slaw

1 small l head of cabbage, shredded
1-2 carrots, grated
handful of green onions, chopped or 1/2 a white onion, diced fine (I am not much of a raw onion fan so I used the green ones...)
1 apple, grated (trust me on this one)about 3 tablespoons of cider vinegar
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp fresh ginger (or powder)
Mix it all up and let it chill well


I had it with bean burgers for dinner...stellar. 

Other than my adventures with cabbage, things are going well. Only 6 months left, and I am trucking along. Tomorrow is World Hand Washing Day, so I gotta get a move on and plan my charlas! Chau!

So little kids aren't so bad after all

I have never thought of myself as being a "kid person." I have never had nay younger siblings, and have very few younger family members in general. Consequently, I really feel like I don't know how to deal with kids. This sentiment has been one of the reasons that I haven't been super eager to work in the schools. But hen our VAC decided to do a project on trash management in the schools, I knew I would be forcing myself to get out of my comfort zone. The second time I went to do charlas I had decided that I would read  a short story about trash to the youngest kids (about 15 first to third graders). When I started to read, I asked the kids to come closer if they couldn't hear me. Before I knew it, they had all grabbed their chairs and made a circle around me about one foot away from my chair. I read them the story and they were attentive all the way through. When I was done we did a little discussion on the theme and everything went well. I stood up to leave, relieved that I had survived, when the kids started clamoring for mere stores! It made me feel great! I told them I would have to come back and read them another one, and I think I will. Maybe little kids aren't so bad after all.

Campo Productive

A common topic of conversation among volunteers is "productivity". Often, I find myself talking to my friends about what we did that day and we tend to break it down a couple of different ways. Of course there is "work productive", usually referred to in Paraguayan Spanish as guapa.  Instead of meaning handsome or pretty here like it does in other Spanish-speaking countries, guapa here means hardworking. So on a day like yesterday when I finally finished putting the health post's census into digital format, I could say I was definitely being guapa. Visiting families, doing charlas, cooking at the Puesto, all of those are checkmarks on my guapa list for the day. Heck, right now I'm being guapa by writing this blog and telling you all a little about Paraguay (President Kennedy stated that the Third Goal of the Peace Corps is to "strengthen Americans' understanding about the world and its peoples." )

But there is another kind of guapa, which is a bit harder to measure because it doesn't go on my 4-month report to Peace Corps, nor do my Paraguayan friends and neighbors give me much credit for it either. It involves doing housework. The kind of elbow-grease dirty housework that one really doesn't have to think about much in the states. Like mowing your lawn with a machete, pulling weeds in the garden, baking bread from scratch, sweeping the dirt floor over and over, or my momentary arch nemesis: laundry.

Up until last week, I had it really good as far as laundry was concerned. My neighbor, the super-guapa Melania had brought a front loading, rinsing, spinning washing machine from Argentina when she moved back 15 years ago and had been more than willing to let me use it. All I did was buy her soap and dutifully truck my clothes to her door and they would reappear, damp and clean at the fence for me to hang up in the sun to dry. But last week the door of the washing machine broke, sending suds into her kitchen and I happened to appear the same day with two weeks of dirty clothes ready to wash. My laundry luck had finally run out...until further notice I'll be washing my clothes by hand.

So the next day I decided to dedicate to two time-consuming tasks: doing a water boiling test on my fogon and doing my laundry. Since going to a workshop about fogones I have been running a lot of tests on mine to get a good baseline and learn more about the efficiency of traditional cooking. The water boiling test is pretty straightforward; all you do is boil 5 liters of water on the stove twice, first from a cold start (no fire in the stove beforehand) and then hot start followed by a 45 minute simmer test. During all phases of the test you have to measure the amount of wood used, amount of charchoal generated and keep a close eye on the temperatures of the pots. As long as I could check back every five minutes or so, it left me plenty of time to do laundry while waiting on water to boil. 

Things I've learned in PC: Be resourceful! The scale I use to weigh my wood for my testing is an old baby-weighing scale from the Puesto that I'm borrowing. Ironically donated by JICA (Japanese development org)

Water on, wood in, temperature measured...now just missing the important part...FIRE!

There is a specific way to do laundry here in PY, and luckily I was able to learn it from my host mom during training. First, you put the clothes to soak in soapy water. Luckily I have a giant concrete 2-sided sink to make this task easier. Then you scrub. Either by hand or on the washboard-esque side of the sink. Not too hard, though...there are only so many clothes I have left to last me til the end of service. 

Then you wring. Then rinse two or three times in dedicated buckets of water. When the first rinse water becomes too soapy, replace it and it switch the buckets. Wring again. Hang on the line. Repeat. A few hours later you get something that looks like this: 

And even though its not going on my VRF (PC work report), I felt pretty dang accomplished at the end of the day. Not only were ALL of my clothes clean, I managed to do a water boiling test, bake bread, do dishes, AND sweep. All before 3pm! Now thats what I call campo productive. 

Easy Whole Wheat Bread (makes 2 loaves)

2.5 cups warm water (should feel like bathwater)
1 T yeast
1 T sugar, honey or molasses
1 T butter or oil
1 t salt
Flour (mix of white and wheat, I usually also add about 1/2 cup of sesame seeds)

Put first 5 ingredients in a bowl with about 2 cups of flour. Stir well for at least a minute (this makes sure the yeast is good and dissolved). Add flour a cup at a time, mixing with your hands until the dough is no longer sticky. Knead for 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic (a good measure is if you poke the dough and the hole springs back quickly, its ready). 

Put in a warm place (in an oven on "warm" or in the sun if its a nice day) and let it rise for 1-1.5 hours. Rise time will vary on how warm your place is. On a hot sunny day the dough doubles in 45 minutes, on a cool cloudy day it can takes much longer. Break into two pieces,  and put into loaf pans. 

BUT WAIT...what if you could make one of those into cinnamon raisin bread instead of plain old wheat bread?? 

Flatten one of the halves into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle on about a half cup of pre-soaked raisins (leave them to soak in 1 cup hot water for about half an hour until they are soft) and 1T cinnamon and 2T sugar. Roll up like a jelly roll and place seam-side down in the loaf pan. 

Let rise another 30 mins or until the loaves are slightly taller than the pans (ensures nice tall loaves)

Bake until their internal temp is around 190F or they sound hollow when tapped from the bottom. 

Still here, still cookin!

Alright ya’ll I know I’ve been away for a while, but I decided I should take up blogging again. Mainly because it’s a great time-filler for those long winter nights and of course because I wanted to fill everyone in on what’s goin on here in PY.

Speaking of winter, its cold here! I woke up this morning to a brisk 40 degrees outside AND inside my house. I could see my breath in my bedroom! The other day it was like this I spent the morning curled up in my bed with a book and mate, but today I had to jump out of bed and ride my bike to Caazapa to do our weekly TV show.

The TV show is something we’ve been doing for a while. Every week we pick a topic or series of topics and do a short educational segment about it. This week we talked about biodigestors (topic of a future blog post) and fogones. We have even started doing a cooking segment once a month for one of the shows, which of course is my favorite. I feel a bit like Juilia Child.

Cooking has actually been a big part of my service so far. From building and designing the stoves people cook on to having a weekly cooking club with high schoolers my favorite projects here have all had to do with food.

Which is why I decided to start blogging again…I wanted a place to share all my good recipes and food stories with my friends!

I still cook lunch for my nurses at the health post at least once a week. I try to cook healthy things using all ingredients that they normally would have on hand just used in different ways. Usually we rely on tried-and-true favorites that I have made for them before such as fried rice or frittata and I know they like.  But today I had a special guest ingredient: heavy cream. My friend Ana said that she had bought it to make some kind of pasta with cream sauce but she didn’t really know how to make it and wanted to know if I had a recipe. I told her I didn’t but I could give it a shot!

Cooking here in PY has made me so much more adventurous. I don’t think I’ve ever attempted cream sauce in the states since it sounds so tricky. And also when the version out of the jar is tasty, why not just do that? But my lack of prepared food here has forced me to whip up things I wouldn’t even think of taking the time or effort to do in the states like homemade tahini, tortillas, refried beans, and in this case, cream sauce.

The basic recipe was vodka sauce, but I was lacking the vodka. Not a problem since Paraguayans would probably think I was completely nuts if I started cooking with booze (not a feature of PY cooking).  I wanted to add some more vegetables as always, so I grabbed the fresh peas I had in the fridge at my house and brought them over. Living in the US, I barely realized that peas had a non-canned form. I had no idea what I was missing! Fresh peas taste nothing like those little green mushy balls you get out of a can. Since I learned last year that pea season is short (only a month or so) I’ve started stocking up and had plenty to throw in a few for this recipe.

Cream sauce was deceptively simple and came together super fast. I had to preface lunch with “you know, we can’t eat this every day since its pretty unhealthy, but this is a special treat…” They didn’t listen. They already want me to make it again!

Pasta with cream sauce and fresh peas

400g pasta, cooked and drained

2 T olive oil

3 large tomatoes, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup fresh peas

½-1 cup water

1 cup heavy cream

2T fresh basil, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Sautee the garlic and tomatoes in the oil for about 5 minutes until the tomatoes start to soften. Add the peas and the water and cover the pot and cook until the peas are cooked but not mushy (around 10 minutes) adding water if the mix gets too dry. Stir in the cream, basil, salt and pepper and continue cooking until the mixture thickens. Serve over cooked pasta topped with some grated cheese.

And yes, I know a food blog has to have pictures. I’m workin on it for the next one J

Che Acocinakuaa

Back from the fabulous land of the free, and back in work mode! I've been working almost every day at the Puesto de Salud, and catching up with the people I missed during my 3-week hiatus. Also getting ready for the big patronal festival here in Caazapa next week. 

But when I'm not working, chances are I'm cooking! The biggest compliment I think I have recieved so far is “Nde recocinakuaa!” which means “You know how to cook!” One of my favorite activities to do in my site is cook with people. I have learned how to make lots of interesting Paraguayan dishes from señoras in my community like vori vori (stewed chicken with corn based dumplings), sopa paraguaya (cheezy cornbread), chipa, chipa guasu (another type of cornbread made with whole kernel corn), tortillas (dont think mexican torillas, more like fry bread). In return I try to teach them new dishes that they can make using ingredients that are locally available. Most of the time I try to create dishes that are healthier and less meat focused than what they usually eat here, incorporating more legumes and vegetables. Ive been trying out my many of my dishes on the nurses at the Puesto de Salud since they are generally pretty adventurous eaters, but I have also cooked meals for my neighbors, my host family and others. My hope is tho start up a cooking club and bring my most popular recipies to a wider audience.

Fun things I have cooked up to surprise, amuse and satisfy my neighbors and friends include:

Chili- Generally people here only know two ways to eat beans, either stewed with beef, or “bean salad” which is served cold with tiny cut up veggies with either a mayo or lemon based dressing. I have made a simple chili with tomatoes, peppers onions and garlic seasoned with oregano and cumin for many of my neighbors and friends. Strangely when I prepare it for people here they are always surprised that I put tomato paste in it...apparently quite a novel concept. To make it a little more “paraguayan” I usually add a little queso paraguayo (fresh cheese) at the end..people love it!

Lentils- I have busted out my favorite curried lentil recipe for my contact once. She loved it. I am a little leery to try it out on too many other paraguayans since many have never even seen a lentil or tasted curry.

Soy meat- This versitile product is found all over Paraguay and is known in the US as “textured vegetable protien-TVP” which sounds far less appetizing. I love throwing it into food and then asking PYans if they think it tastes like meat (and they usually say it does). Cooking with soy meat is incredibly affordabe compared to beef and much healthier. Empanadas de soja are a big hit as well as added to tomato sauce for pasta. Even when I can't convince someone to make something all soy, I compromise and show them how to stretch their budget and make it half-and-half for anything they would usually use ground beef for.

Frittatas- Especially for someone who raises hens, frittatas are a hit. Take any vegetable, sautee it, throw eggs and cheese in and bake it. What could be simpler? I made my uncle Johns swiss chard and potato frittata for the nurses at the Puesto a few months ago and you'd think I made it yesterday for how much they still talk about how yummy it was.

Bread- Fresh bread is almost impossible to come by here in PY especially in the campo. Most bread products are dry (like little cracker balls) but people really enjoy fresh bread if you show them how to make it. I especially like making whole wheat bread using alfrecho (the wheat berry part usually discarded when making white flour- used as a base for pig food here in PY). I usually wait until AFTER they've tasted it and declared it tasty before telling them its got pig food in it.

CAKE- Who doesn't like cake? I know its not the healthiest thing in the world but its a great way to throw in some more veggies and fruits (banana bread, carrot cake etc). I am actually going to try to make squash cake for the first time today from fresh squash. We will see how it turns out.

And there are so many other things, like pizza, fresh juice, tarta (all kinds of savory pies, mostly veggie and cheese filled) pesto (basil in general really. It grows like wildfire here and people have no idea how tasty it is!).... I could go on and on. Basically I took my love of good healthy food to PY and am making it part of my job. PC is pretty cool right? Oh yeah and my other favorite compliment about my cooking? “You can get married now you know how to cook ofr your future husband!” Not exactly what I had in mind but I'll take 'em where I can get 'em!