Viva las Aventuras (Part 2)

Behold, more belated stories!

Briefly and randomly, here is the group photo of Mariana's 19th birthday party. See the bday girl front and centre in the shorts and pink shirt. T'was a fantastic time with dancing, both banda and the special exchange student  medley of Brazilian, Mexican and awkward 90's (think the sprinkler and shopping cart, contributed by yours truly). The exchange students got rowdy, and I like to think we passed on some of that cheer to Mariana's Mexican classmates, who still possess shame and therefore weren't quite so enthusiastic. (For me at least, I stopped feeling embarrassment a long time ago, it comes with being an exchange student.)

For Semana Santa, I unfortunately couldn't go to Mazatlan with Mariana and Sara, as was my original plan. Dang Rotary and their complicated permission procedures/rules sometimes! However, I surprised myself and actually had a very enjoyable week here in Tepic. As the granny had her daughter coming to stay for the week I moved in temporarily with Enrique, the club president until the following Saturday (when I went to Sayulita!). Turns out he has a large amount of family living together in this enormous house which is located on Calle Jacarandas, which is basically the social hotspot of Tepic. All the bars, clubs and excellent restaurants located within walking distance, not bad! His wife's mother, sister + husband and then nephew, girlfriend and baby were all living in various parts of the house. Also, Gosia was a resident for half of the week. The Castillos, her new host family, were going on a religious walk for the weekend and correctly assumed that Gosia might not be into trekking for hours a day under the hot sun, and so left her in Tepic. It was actually quite nice to have so many people in the house, as staying alone in the granny's large house all week might have been a tad depressing!

The daily pattern throughout the week was to get up, go to Crossfit (conveniently still located within walking distance, almost as close as with the granny), spend the morning baking or cooking, and then go out in the afternoon/night with friends. I had a movie night with one of my good Mexican friends, hung out with the exchange students, went to the movies as a family one night, and then on Friday I went to a friend's house and made Kraft Dinner and a splendid blackberry cheesecake with some of my school friends. Very low-key, but definitely enjoyable.

(As lately my blog posts have been lacking in food photos, here is an onslaught of them. I promise you, I wasn't eating/making food all day every day, it's just all the photos I have! )

One morning Gosia tutored us on the art of making pierogies, a traditional Polish dish. We made about 70 of these things for the family, which were then promptly devoured in about 15 minutes. 4 hours to make, 15 minutes to eat? Not sure if I'll repeat the experience, but I now have first-hand knowledge about how to make them, in the traditional Polish way.

Start off by making the filling: mashed potatoes, and a special type of cheese.
We were informed by Gosia that pierogies can be made with just about any filling, including fruit.

Gosia making the dough (flour and water)

After the laborious process of rolling out the dough, you cut out tiny circles

You then put a bit of the filling onto the circle, then fold it over
and close it up in a pretty scalloped fashion

Then boil them in water until they rise to the top, signalling that they're cooked! 

And when ready to eat, throw them in the frying pan
with a bit of butter, until golden brown and hot!

Finished product! Yummmmm

To accompany the pierogi meal, I made a carrot/zucchini cake. Enrique once tried this cake when I made while living at the Castillo's, and I guess he fell in love with it! I made it FOUR times in one week at this house, finally teaching his nephew's girlfriend how to do it and leaving the recipe so they could keep producing it.  I would make it and by the end of the day it would be gone (a bit like in Canada and living with my two brothers). It's the easiest thing to make, and I'm glad they enjoyed it so much!

Enrique sent me this photo one day. Neapolitan ice cream and carrot zucchini cake? Apparently delicious

Another day I did my super Canadian meal of blue cheese buffalo meatballs. Definitely not strictly Canadian, but they're easy, delicious, and were a big hit with Enrique's family.

Then one day the grandmother and aunt taught Gosia and I how to make empanadas. They were made in a similar process as the pierogis, but are quicker and (in my opinion) much more delicious! 

With dough made from corn flour, you flatten them in the tortillera,  to make a flat pancake-type thing. 

You then put the filling in the middle of the tortilla (in this case ground beef, olives and peppers), and close 'er up!

The finished (but uncooked) product!

The aunt frying the empanadas

Drying off

Final product! Obviously extremely delicious, but probably not the best for the waistline.

Yumm blackberry cheesecake

And finally, the aunt taught Gosia and I how to make mole (a traditional Mexican dish where you combine a gigantic list of ingredients, including hot peppers, a bumload of spices, chocolate and chicken.

Seriously one of my favourite traditional Mexican foods. It sounds weird but it is SO SO good

I took many photos of the food, but not any family photos (my priorities are a bit skewed, methinks). So, I will just say that I had a great time being part of their large, generous family, and I was very grateful to them for taking me in for the week! I also learned a fair amount of traditional food dishes, important information to store for later use!

Thanks for reading,

Wendy