Banana Nut Bread Blunders

(and other cooking adventures!)

So I have only cooked a few times here in Peru. My first time cooking here in Arequipa for my host family was a family dish from back home (originating in Thailand) Fried Macaroni. Overall that went well because it came out tasting delicious, but it took 4 hours instead of 2 to prepare (mostly due to it taking an hour for the water to heat up to boiling point, and I had to use 2 frying pans to mix the ingredients instead of a large wok).

My last experience in the kitchen was a lot more dramatic! Last weekend I had the urge to bake some banana nut bread. I talked with my host mom about it and we planned for it to be ready for breakfast on Saturday morning, so we went and got all the ingredients. I told her that I needed to look up the equivalent between Celsius and Fahrenheit, but she told me that I didn't need to because there were no marks on her oven to show the temperature, and she usually just guesses the temperature. She told me that is why she doesn't use it very often.

A little bit later I started prepping everything. First I had to cream the butter and sugar together with a mixer. The plugs here are different and don't stay in the socket very securely. So as I am mixing the butter and sugar and with each movement of my hand the mixer becomes unplugged! So then I start mixing again with my left hand holding the plug in place in the wall, the right hand mixing the ingredients with the mixer, and my right elbow trying to hold the bowl in place so it doesn't spin with the mixer. Meanwhile butter and sugar is flying all over the kitchen!! What a challenge and a mess!!

Finally I am able to get all the ingredients in, including the sifted flour (which is also a first for me!) The recipe makes 2 loaves, and I am ready to turn on the gas oven. Their gas oven is quite different than the one I used at my parents house in Alabama, instead of an automatic lighter, we have to light a match to start the fire. I typically enjoy playing with fire in a fireplace or campfire when I have a long stick to poke at it, but I have never been too fond of matches, especially now when lighting a gas oven. My sister and her friend helped me out on that and trying to figure out the temp. including the altitude. We agreed that I would check it again in 30 minutes, and we proceeded to watch a movie. I came back 30 minutes later, and should have realized that something wasn't quite right, but the dough had risen, and the oven was still warm so I planned to come back later and check again. The next time I checked it the dough had sunk and the oven wasn't warm at all! We came to learn that the gas tank had run out of gas, and at 11:00 at night we weren't going to go get some more gas! So I put my half-way baked bread into the refrigerator, not knowing if it was even going to come out good the next day!

The next morning we had a new tank of gas for the oven, and we started the temp at a warm temperature to get all parts of the loaf warmed up at the same time. After many minutes of that, I checked again, and it appeared that everything was working well, so I increased the temperature some. The next time, to my dismay, I discovered that all around the outside of the bread it was the perfect golden brown and perfectly risen, however in the middle I had banana nut soup! I lowered the temp and asked my host mom what she thought I should do, if I should salvage the good parts or leave it in for a bit more. We left it in a bit longer at a lower temp, and FINALLY the last time I checked it, granted it was more brown than I like, but I no longer had soup! The bread was cooked all the way through!

After all that went against me I am surprised that it came out at all! It crumbled at lot more than normal, but it tasted just like it should! The next time I make it I'll probably use my friend Stacie's oven (she has marks for the temp. settings). The only challenge she and I have had with hers is to have a stool hold the oven door shut!

Sandsurfing In Peru

As a part of my trip to Lima and brain break from language school, I went with a few friends to Ica, Peru for sandsurfing. It was a blast! Ica is about a 3-4 hour bus ride south of Lima, and unlike Lima right now, it has clear skies and powdery sand. For about 12 dollars one company took us out on a dunebuggy (which was so awesome, like a natural rollercoaster!). After our ride, we got to sandsurf on 4 different dunes.



I wasn’t the most graceful person on the sandboard, that’s for sure! I laugh now because I had visions of me doing some jumps and sandboarding coming natural to me, but I was far from that! I couldn’t tell you how many times I tumbled down the dunes! My second attempt I thought that I might be able to sit back a bit and go down. It was fun for a few seconds before my board started aiming straight down the dune, I couldn’t steer it, and the next thing I knew I was going headfirst, and getting the breath knocked out of me with each tumble. The 3rd dune was quite steep, and I let my fear after my last experience get the best of me. I went down the hill so slowly! I’m sure Andrew and Isreal could have gone down 3 more times at the rate I was going! The 4th and last dune was a doozy! I went down on my belly, head first, which was by far the easiest and most fun way I used going down the dunes. I could control my speed with my feet, and the sand really didn’t get all in my face like I thought it would!



Although I lack much skill with this sport, I hope to return again sometime. Maybe next time I´ll have more air in my face than the sand!

The Familiar Feeling Foreign!

I visited some friends in Lima for about a week, and I was so excited to go to my favorite restaurant from back home: TGI Fridays. I went twice, once for a girls night out with Suzanne Matthews, and again to place an order to go. When I went the second time, I really wasn´t too confident in my Spanish skills, not knowing what the Spanish equivalent to ¨TO GO¨was. I entered and spoke to the hostess saying ¨Lo siento, no puedo hablar bien, pero yo necesito ordenear para salir.¨(aka... I am sorry, I cannot speak well, but I need to order in order to leave). (I learned shortly thereafter that ¨llegar¨is what I should have used for ¨TO GO¨). She directed me to the bar, where I repeated the same thing to the bartender. His response was beautiful and exactly like this: ¨You can order in English if you want.¨ So after I placed my order in English, I waited and I sipped on a Sprite that he served me, while watching ESPN 1 & 2 (and American football was on one of the channels) and behind me was a table of 5 or 6 people talking in English. For a little bit this experience that is so similar to something back home was so foreign! I am not used to going out and hearing English around me, and it felt weird at first. It was somewhat comforting too, so besides the Starbucks in Lima, I may find myself at TGI Fridays as well.