Peru & Ecuador - Part 7

Our first full day at Kuyana Lodge began with breakfast. All meals were included with the pricing at this lodge. All of the food we had was delicious, so compliments to the chef there. The food is locally sourced, and she found unique ways to use what was in season and available.

breakfast

Following breakfast we did a hike onsite to a waterfall. As in the previous night, there was a loose interpretation of a trail, and it was steep and slippery. Keeping us company on the hike was the local monkey, Ramona. She is a rescue animal, as her mother was killed by poachers. Ramona was quite the character, and liked being carried more than walking. The waterfall was very pretty, and though our daughter continued up the hill with the guide to see the upper waterfall, we chose to wait by the lower falls once we heard we would have to pull ourselves up the hill with a rope.

morning hike

After lunch we walked around and explored the grounds a bit. Again, we were the only guests there, so we had the place to ourselves.

around the resort

That evening we took part in a cooking class, presented by our guide. First we went into the jungle to find leaves that would be suitable to cook the fish in. We had a choice of cooking a whole fish or just a filet. Then we learned about cocoa beans and how chocolate is made. First the beans were roasted, then we removed the shells. Next the beans went through a grinder, and finally the cocoa was placed into a pan and cooked. He added a sweetener to make it so the cocoa was not so bitter. Once the fish was done, that became our dinner, and the chocolate sauce was spooned over some fresh fruit for dessert. It was delicious!

cooking class

We went back to the cabin following dinner. And again we had no hot water. This was definitely getting old.

Let There be Cake(s)

I finished up the Family History Writing Challenge on Saturday. If you are interested, you can find my blog posts over at Write Formation. It was definitely a challenge this year, but for the first time in the several year history of my participation, I actually wrote every single day. My final word count was 16,125 - not too bad! I think the accountability of posting my daily writing on a blog made the difference for me this time. I have to say that it felt good, but I am glad that the month is over. It was very time-consuming, but it forced me to take all my years of research on John Murdoch and bring it together in what I hope is an interesting and informative story. Now I can get back to the graduation quilt that someone has commissioned me to do.

My husband's birthday is today, (Happy birthday, Jim!) but we celebrated on Friday because the weekend was crazy busy and he is off to Joplin today. We tried a new Mexican restaurant in our town, and it was good but not great. He wanted an angel food cake for dessert, so I had made one earlier in the day. I found an interesting recipe on the Internet to change the plain cake into something a little more interesting. You simply add a can of crushed pineapple to the cake mix instead of the water that is normally used, and bake it in a 9" x 13" pan instead of an angel food cake pan. That was fine by me, as it always seems to be a little tricky to get a cake out of the angel food pan, and it is no picnic to clean either. You can serve the cake as is, or frost with a container of Cool Whip. I followed the suggestion of a reviewer, who added a little yellow food coloring and a small can of crushed pineapple to the Cool Whip.

Pineapple Angel Food Cake

Our review of the cake is that we liked the taste and texture of the cake, and in fact it was better the second day. We would not do this frosting again next time. Instead, I would either dust it with powdered sugar or use a small amount of traditional vanilla frosting. If you are interested in trying the cake for yourself, you can find the recipe here. This is one of my favorite sites for finding new recipes.

On Saturday I had lunch with my niece and great-niece at Pantera's Pizza in Edwardsville, Illinois. I don't get to see them often enough, and it was nice to just have some girl time. Unfortunately the snow started before I left her home in Cahokia, so it was pretty treacherous driving home. I find that the older I get, the less I like being out on the roads in inclement weather. Jim was supposed to go to an overnight poker party at his partner's lake house, but they canceled that due to the road conditions. Good thing I brought leftover pizza home with me. Instant dinner!

Yesterday some friends had us over for dinner. They made an amazing southern-style meal of pulled pork, cole slaw, corn bread and collard greens (those were a first for me, and likely a last.) We brought a sparkling wine (a Prosecco, which we had never tried before - yum!) and dessert. In keeping with my angel food theme, and the fact that our host is a diabetic, I made another angel food cake. This time I substituted a can of pumpkin for the water and added pumpkin pie spice to it. I lightly dusted the cake with powdered sugar and a little cinnamon instead of making the frosting in the recipe. I have to say, I liked this cake better than the one with pineapple. It was good on a cold, snowy night with the hot tea our hostess provided. The recipe for this variation is here. Even though it calls for using a 9" x 13" pan, I used an 8" x 8" pan since we were taking it to our friend's house. I put the remaining batter in a small bread pan and baked the two together. This recipe did not rise like the one with pineapple, so I think I could have put all the batter in the 8" x 8" pan and been okay.

Pumpkin Pie Angel Food Cake

Funny story about making the second cake - As I was getting ready to pour the teaspoon of what I thought was pumpkin pie spice into the bowl containing the angel food cake mix, I noticed the color seemed a little bit off. I had grabbed the poultry seasoning instead of the pumpkin pie spice! Oh my gosh, I can only imagine what the cake would have tasted like. There was an old saying my mom used when teaching me to sew - measure twice, cut once. Apparently I need one for cooking as well. Read the label twice, pour once?

Smokin' Ribs

It is hard to conceive of now, when the temperature is a measly 8 degrees, but Sunday was a beautiful day here. My husband was off on a motorcycle ride with a friend, so I decided to surprise him by grilling ribs for dinner. He gave me a head's up when he was about an hour away, so I fired up the grill. "Fire" would end up to be my word of the day. I put the temperature halfway between medium and low, wanting to cook the ribs for a longer time period. A little later I looked out the kitchen window and saw too much smoke pouring out the sides of the grill. Uh, oh! Grabbing a glass of water as I had seen my husband do on many occasions, I dashed out the door and flipped open the lid of the grill. Flames were everywhere! I quickly moved the ribs off the grill and set them on the side board, then doused the flames with the cup of water. Well, that didn't work, so I slammed the lid shut hoping it would burn itself out. No dice. By now there was black smoke pouring out of the grill. I was quite surprised that no one call the fire department. Perhaps I should have. I turned off the burners and ran inside for another cup of water.

Following a second dousing of water, there was still a small fire burning. When I opened up the grill doors, I could see that the lower tray was lit up like a bonfire. That is where my next cup of water was tossed. And that, thankfully, did the trick. I took the semi-blackened ribs into the house and put them in the oven. I was afraid to try lighting the grill again. Which got me thinking about gas grills and fire. What is the best way to put out the fire? Do you keep the lid closed? Does opening it feed the fire? Can you use a fire extinguisher? After all, that is a propane tank right under the fire. After searching online, I see conflicting information on water versus no water. This is a topic I plan to research further before I try the barbecue grill again.

In the end, I feel lucky that I wasn't burned and that I did not set the house on fire. We had a nice meal, and watched the fabulous sunset St. Louis was blessed with Sunday night.