Sunday, December 5, 2010

The Great Pumpkin Pie and Other Adventures

I apologize for my hiatus. I have been incredibly busy as of late but I have missed my blog! To make up for my time being MIA I am writing a nice long update with crazy amounts of photos.

I wrote two more articles for Buenos Aires Stay on What to Do with Children in BA and Buenos Aires Culture and Children and I am now their principal expat blogger and their Childcare in BA special.

I had a little haircut party in my apartment. My friend Nina is a hairstylist and came over to dye Jenny's hair and cut mine and Phil's. We all look excellent!



I celebrated Thanksgiving in Argentina. As it is 85+ degrees every day we skipped the turkey and opted for a potluck that in no way involved any traditional food other than the apple pie. There were only 2 US citizens present so no one seemed to mind.

However, I couldn't give up on Thanksgiving completely so I took on the daunting task of making a pumpkin pie from scratch. Argentina lacks canned pumpkin puree, premade pie crusts and spices like nutmeg and ginger are not as easy to find as in the States. The pumpkins here are also not the familiar orange ones from home. This baking adventure was so time consuming I worked on this pie on 3 separate days. I photographed most of the process so I can walk you through it.

This is the pumpkin I had to deal with. No jack o lantern making possibilities here, just lots of jokes related to the incredibly phallic appearance.


I don't have a proper knife so I cut through the pumpkin with a steak knife (not easy or safe) and boiled the chunks.


Once the cubes were boiled I had to cut off the skin and squeeze the water out by hand and then leave in a colander to drain before I could mash it up to make the puree.

This is where I should have a photo of me rolling out the dough and baking the crust but I actually made the dough at someone else's house. My lovely boss Janet let me use her kitchen and supplies for that part.


I then mixed the pumpkin puree with eggs and sugar and poured it into my partially baked crust.

After making the pie filling I made a streusel topping with flour, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Nutmeg in Spanish is "nuez moscada" in case you ever need to know, as I did not.


45 minutes of baking and this was the end result. I was nervous to try it, but is is delicious. Success!

It's hot and not at all Christmasy here, but I have really amped up the Christmas music listening and I also bought a tiny little tree for 18 pesos and flashing lights for 10. I was too broke to spring for decorations. I might make some for the tree and my apartment if I have the time and energy this week. Jenny is leaving soon (another "Sick of Goodbyes" post is forthcoming) so she wrote me a Christmas card that I promised not to read until Christmas day. It lives under my tree for now.


I received 2 long awaited packages from my mother. She bought me lots of summer clothes because so many of mine were lost in the move and also sent the few pieces that survived it. The two boxes also had Reeses, 2 jars of peanut butter, drawings and a card from my 7 year old cousin Jodi and a ridiculously long letter from my Mama. I won't lie to you, I cried at the sight of my mother's handwriting. We both are devastated that for the first time in my 23 years of life I will not be home for All Day Cookie Weekend. I love my mommy and I miss her dearly. The letter was the best part of the package. 




This week was my last week as an Au Pair for the Ressia family. I'm still very much in contact with the family and will continue to see them and even do some paid work for them but we ended official au pair gig. I was pretty sad to say goodbye but I know I'll see them soon. 

This weekend was very eventful. On Friday I went to Jorge's fancy office end of the year party. A bus took us about an hour outside the city to a club. We arrived and there was a man in a suit playing the violin. Jorge and I almost collasped in giggles when the man raised his bow and began to play "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Absolutely ridiculous. After some classical music with the violin they switched to random 90s dance music including "What is Love?" and other favourites. After that a Merengue band from the Dominican Republic performed. So strange but I had a good time. 

On Saturday I woke up early just to take on the pie making challenge and then babysat for most of the day. After that I went to the BuenaOnda Moonlight Yoga event, which I always enjoy. It's an hour and a half long yoga class at night followed by a homemade vegetarian meal. Afterwards Jenny and I went out for drinks. We ordered a couple shots called "Ball of Fire" and I swear the bartender looked like a chemist. It took no less than 5 minutes to make the concoction and the finishing touch involved putting the shots on an iphone for the light and he poured the vodka in and tiny rainbow coloured balls of some other alcohol danced their way to the top. I wish I had a photo of those crazy shots!

Today Jenny and I woke up early, considering that we went to bed around 4:30 and met up with Jorge. It's Jenny's last weekend so we went to Parque de la Costa, a theme park about an hour train ride away from Buenos Aires. The weather was great and the lines weren't too long so we had a great time, as you can see in this ridiculous photo. (Jenny and I are on the far left)



After all that awesomeness, I am exhausted but I was determined to finish this blog before passing out tonight. I will not wait this long between updates next time!

Also, because I'm obsessed with Christmas and especially my Cookie Day tradition with my mom, I'm curious- what Christmas traditions do you have that you would be sad to live without?






2 comments:

  1. I have to ask... did anyone lose their glasses on that amusement park ride?!

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  2. Daniel- This ride was almost exactly like the one we rode in KC minus the water and I forced Jenny to take off her flip flops after I told her the story of your lost glasses!

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