Why we love Saturdays and Wednesdays

Every Saturday and Wednesday morning, less than a block from our flat is this 200 foot stretch of freshness, deliciousness and color.

Every week I'm learning to buy less and less because whenever I go I come down with a severe case of 'My eyes are bigger than my stomach'. Everything just looks so delicious (and is) but there's only so much room in a small south american fridge shared by 7 people. Just because the sign sells one kilo of grapes doesn't mean we need a whole kilo because I would probably already have in my bag oranges, plums, carrots, celery, bananas, avocado, tomatoes and apples.  (Thats a little over 2 lbs of grapes for about $1.10)  But since we get it two days a week I simply have to remind myself to buy less but go twice.

Just one of the many reasons we love living here.

Bienvenidos a Argentina!

Last weekend we escaped the smoggy city to find some more good wine, meat, and sunshine across the border in Argentina.  We left Santiago at 10:30 on Friday night and arrived in Mendoza around 6:30 the following morning. Normally the trip would only take 5 or so hours but stopping with a bus load of people whose passports and bags needed to be checked and stamped made the layover at the border slightly longer.

                Upon arrival early Saturday morning we found our hostel, dropped off our bags, grabbed a bite to eat and went in search of the highly recommended wine tours via bicycle. We caught a local bus that took us about 20 minutes outside of Mendoza where we hopped on bikes with maps in hand and peddled and drank the day away.

       Our first stop was to a tiny specialty olive oil production factory. (Tiny as in about the size of a small house) There we sampled olive oil, olive spreads, specialty made jams, dulce de leche, distinctive liquors and homemade chocolates. We were in heaven and this was only the first stop. After we filled our bellies we were ready for the vino.

         From there we went to the wine museum, then peddled on further to two other small wineries and ended our tour at a little beer garden where sipped on artisan beers. It doesn’t get much better than that- a sunny day with a slight breeze at your back, riding bikes along tree lined streets outside of Mendoza with views of the snowcapped Andes in the distance – plus lots of good wine in between.

            

Yes the beer garden does look empty... we were enjoying ourselves too much to get up and take pictures while other people were there... we basically shut the place down...

    I was coming down with a cold but had no reason what-so-ever to complain. We were having a blast! Around 6:30 we caught the bus back to Mendoza to rest for a bit before a typical Argentinean dinner consisting of lots of beef. 

     The following day we only had a few hours before catching our bus at 2:00 so we decided to be uber touristy and hop on one of the buses with the roof cut out. It turned out to be great and we got to see a good deal of Mendoza in a short amount of time.

 Downtown Mendoza streets.

Admiring the interesting tree species. (Check out the thorns on that trunk!)

View from the hill 'Cerro de la Gloria'

        Though an even better ride was the first four hours of our trip back to Santiago; the landscapes crossing the Andes were incredible.  Our eyelids grew heavy from the short but full 33 hours spent in Mendoza but the beautiful panorama kept us awake and in awe until the sun set after crossing back into Chile.

We officially love Argentina.

Road Trippin

Mendoza, Argentina for the weekend. More good wine, beef and apparently out of this world ice cream.

Summer's Last Hurrah

 This weekend we broke out the sweaters and socks... Warm days, we will be awaiting your return in October.

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesdays

These were the most beautiful grapes that were hanging from someone's trellis in Pomaire. This is officially my new favorite color palette.

(Thank you Laura for the great idea of 'Mostly Wordless Wednesdays'!)

A Village of Potters

About 45 minutes southwest of Santiago lays the little town of Pomaire.  For years, nearly every Pomaire resident made pottery from the local red clay found just beneath their feet. The Pomaire style of pots are prevalent all throughout Chile and are incredibly popular in Chilean cooking for their ability to withstand high heats in the oven.  After years and years of throwing, the clay supply has almost entirely diminished and today the raw material must be imported from other parts of the country.  

These artisans have created shape after shape of different vessels which we would simply call just pots but the Chileans have special names for each; pailas, fuentes, tinajas, maceteros and many more.  The incredible part – everything is so inexpensive! The challenge though is the limited size of our suitcases to bring these treasures home for our kitchen.

Tucked in between the pottery shops are the occasional mini green houses. I was in succulent heaven!

Pomaire is actually also known for their empanadas that are one whole kilo! But when we stopped for lunch we weren’t quite that hungry…. so I went for the normal sized empanadas while Henry got meat with a side of fries. (very Chilean) All washed down with beers of course.

Those that you see hanging with $3,500 pesos written on them cost about $7.50 in U.S. dollars.

Though it was a grey day we enjoyed exploring the streets of the tiny town.

An attempt at baking in the degree-less oven...

A few weeks back I was invited to an afternoon of paintball with Henry and his co-workers. Honestly I wasn’t at all excited and entirely terrified because I didn’t imagine it was going to feel good getting hit by little balls of paint flying at me at high rates of speed. Though the first two games were slightly painful and stressful, I finally began to enjoy myself by the third game and absolutely loved it by the fifth one! Thanks to the three minute lesson my loving husband gave on army tactics - once I got over my fear we started to work as a great duo and helped our team win a game or two.(or three or four!) 

Thus I felt the need to thank the arch daily crowd for inviting me so I attempted to bake a batch or two of sugar cookies. Originally I wanted to make homemade chocolate chip cookies but I couldn't find brown sugar anywhere! So I settled on baking sugar cookies. Now, in our little cocina we are not only limited on space, but also on utensils and pans. So I tried to make do with what was available. I’ll let the photos help tell the remainder of the story…

A little too much heat...

Not quite enough... (also was not a fan of the shiny pan)

And finally! Just right!



Holy oven mitt! I lost a tray of cookies thanks to this stupid mitt. Pierre promptly ran to the pile of dropped cookies to see what he could salvage. I on the other hand, said a few inappropriate words and went for an ice cube.




All in all it was a great success.



























The archdaily crowd apparently loved them. Thankfully they appreciated my thanks. I must say though it wasn't the best sugar cookie recipe ever... They definitely needed sprinkles but of course the one grocery store I decided to go to for the ingredients didn't have any. Does anyone have a spectacular sugar cookie recipe you would recommend for round two?