4/10 Photo- Our First Passover Seder

Well, it has been over a week since our first experience of Passover at Liz's house, and I finally got around to resizing the pictures to post. It was a very interesting and educational experience (where I discovered I knew nothing about Passovers, Haggadahs, seders, matzah balls, or anything else related to the whole evening!). It was a pretty long evening, with the reading of the Haggadah where we learned about the story of the Exodus from Egypt, ate bitter herbs, made matzo/charoset sandwiches, enjoyed Jason's Hebrew (as well as the singing voices of Liz, Elana, and Jason in Hebrew), and hoped that the part where we ate dinner would arrive soon. ;) We ended the evening with an entertaining game of charades (Justin's "spell" will forever be in my Peace Corps memories). Props to Liz for a very enjoyable evening!

Jason and Elana starting us off with a mini debate (described as typical of a Passover Seder- debate, discussion, different interpretations, etc.) as the rest of us perused our very thick Haggadahs

The Haggadah, brought to us by Maxwell House Coffee and xeroxed by Liz in a Lojano copy shop (where they were confused at why it was backwards)

The Seder Plate, with the bitter herbs and all

Jason holding up the matzo after the middle piece was broken in half

Jennifer and Justin asking questions about the Exodus from Egypt (not pictured- Ethan making hungry faces and hoping people would stop asking questions) 

Hooray, filling matzah ball soup!

We also had a game of hide and seek- whoever found the hidden pieces of matzo won their very own box of Israeli Matzah (I believe it was purchased by Mollie at the Isreali Consulate in Gquil). Winner is...Stacia!

4/9 Photo- Wonton Wrappers in Loja!

On a recent trip to Supermaxi, Adam and I were pleasantly surprised to discover that they had begun selling wonton wrappers in the frozen food section (which is very small, by the way- nothing like the frozen aisles in the US). Since things often appear in the tiendas and markets once, and then are never to be seen again, we decided to stock up on a couple packages. I used them last week and they were pretty decent (had a decent texture and flavor), however they were torture to get apart. But at least I can get them here in Ecuador now (maybe, as long as Supermaxi chooses to keep restocking them!).

4/8 Photo- Ecuador's First Olympic Medalist

I realized that I never posted about our Reconnect Conference held by Peace Corps in Cuenca this past January. I guess I will share about that another time. In the meantime, here is a photo that I took in Cuenca of this statue of Jefferson Perez, the winner of Ecuador's first Olympic medal in the 1996 Olympics. He was a speed walker and got the gold in the 20km. We visited this park and I was fascinated because I don't think I have ever seen speedwalkers in action, and there were lots of them at this park, speed walking around the track and the statue of Jefferson Perez, surely their Cuencano hero. But really, those speedwalkers can move!

4/7 Photo- Loja from Jason's House

This is from last week and I am sure you agree- Loja looks good from Jason's apartment window! This is right before sunset with the light reflecting on the nearby hills. 

4/6 Photos- Homemade Tortillas

Before Peace Corps, Adam and I always bought our flour tortillas in the store because it was easy to get decent ones in Southern California. Since moving to Ecuador, we have been making our own homemade tortillas, which is so surprisingly easy! We can get tortillas at Supermaxi but they are a bit on the expensive side and don't taste all that good. So I thought I would share our recipe (modified from the PC Ecuador cookbook "Buen Provecho" with less oil!).

Ingredients
3 cups of flour
1.5 tsp salt
1-2 cups of warm (almost hot) water
1-2 tbs oil

Mix the flour and salt. Slowly add in the oil and mix around (the recipe in Buen Provecho called for more oil, almost 1/2 cup, but I find just adding a little bit here and there is good enough for me...I don't like super greasy tortillas).

Add 1 cup of warm water to the mix. Knead the dough until elastic, adding more water or flour depending on consistency.

Once the dough is well kneaded and elastic, separate the dough into golf ball sized balls.

Let it sit for about 10 minutes under a damp cloth. Then roll it out into the best circle shapes you can (clearly I am not great at this part!). I try to get them as thin as possible.

Heat pan on the stove over medium heat. Once it is hot enough for a water droplet to sizzle, add the tortilla (one at a time). It should bubble up like in the picture below, and then you flip it over. Do not add any oil. Your tortillas should not stick at all to the pan.

Heat the other side, taking care not to burn it.

And tada, you have homemade tortillas! This recipe yields about 9-10 tortillas. Just double or triple if you want more! We had tacos and quesadillas tonight with homemade salsa and guacamole! Yum!