Exploring Uruguay

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Recipe of the Week: Pigs in a Blanket (Stuffed Cabbage)

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Cabbage

I used to eat these a lot growing up and forgot about them until we had a large head of cabbage that needed to be used.

When I suggested making Pigs in a Blanket, Brian thought I meant the hotdog version so he was confused (since I don’t eat hot dogs).

It is a bit of a process to make this recipe, but they’re good and the recipe makes a lot, so it’s great for a meal where you want to have leftovers.

Ingredients:

  • 1 ½ kilos (3 pounds) extra lean ground beef
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
  • ½ teaspoon, salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 2 cups white rice, cooked and cooled
  • 1 large cabbage
  • 5-6 large tomatoes, peeled and crushed
  • 4 cups homemade chicken broth
  • Olive oil

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 160° C (325° F)
  2. Coat large roasting pan with olive oil and set aside
  3. Wilt head of cabbage in large pot of boiling water for 5 minutes
  4. Remove cabbage from pot, cool slightly and separate leaves, taking care not to break the leaves
  5. Mix ground beef, cooked rice, garlic, salt, paprika, cumin, oregano and pepper.
  6. Form 3-inch balls
  7. Place meatball into cabbage leaf and fold leaf around the ball.
  8. Place into roasting pan, folded side down
  9. Repeat until all filling is used
  10. Cover cabbage rolls with crushed tomatoes
  11. Pour chicken broth over the rolls
  12. Cover roasting pan and bake for 2 hours or until cabbage is tender

Tips and Modifications:

  1. Top with hot sauce and/or cheese
  2. You can omit the cumin and replace with a teaspoon of basil and ½ teaspoon of rosemary for an Italian flavor; top with cheese and/or ketchup.



Video: Kaylee’s Debut

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As promised, here is a video of Kaylee, not just a video… It's her first of many:

If you want to watch another video right now of Zoë meeting Kaylee… Check out Chrystal's Happy Mothering Blog.

We'll be doing weekly "Two Under Two" updates there, so you can follow the girls through videos, pictures and stories.

We'll still have our family adventures in Uruguay here as always…

BTW… Yesterday many of you guessed and a lot of you were correct… But a lot of you weren't.

For those of you who guessed that Kaylee was on the right and Zoë was on the left… You were WRONG…

Kaylee is on the left and Zoë is on the Right.

Which One is Zoë and Which One is Kaylee?

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Baby 2 Baby 1

One of these babies is Zoë and the other is Kaylee.

Can you tell them apart?

Left is ?
Right is ?

We'll give you the answer along with some video tomorrow… In the meantime, take a guess…

Kaylee Joy Johnson is Here

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Hey Everyone…

Kaylee was born yesterday morning (2/14/10) at 1:10am… We have a Valentine's day baby.

Chrystal and Kaylee are still in the hospital, we thought they were coming home today, but tomorrow is what it's going to be. 

We'll be getting some video up of Kaylee,
Zoë and both of them meeting for the first time in the next day or so…

In the meantime, here's a picture of Kaylee:

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Here's a picture of my beautiful wife and Kaylee:

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Have a great day!!!

Recipe of the Week: Quick n’ Easy Honey Mustard Wings

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Wings

This recipe comes from Brian’s bachelor days. I have never been big on using a microwave, so I was skeptical when Brian suggested cooking chicken wings using it. However, they turned out really good.

If you need to whip up a quick appetizer and don’t have time to use the oven (or just don’t want to use the oven in this heat!), give this recipe a try.

Ingredients:

  • ½ kilo (1 pound) chicken wings (cut at the joints)
  • 1 cup yellow mustard
  • 1 cup honey

Directions:

  1. Mix yellow mustard and honey until well combined
  2. Coat the chicken wings and place on a microwave safe plate
  3. Place plate in microwave
  4. Cook on high for 10 minutes, or until fully cooked
  5. Stop, flip and rotate the chicken every 2 minutes
  6. Serve

Tips:

  1. You make these honey mustard wings in the oven; set the oven to 200° C (400° F) for 20-25 minutes. Be sure to flip and rotate the wings at 10 minutes.



We Almost Got Mugged About an Hour Ago

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Street

Pocitos is a nice area of Montevideo. When you hear about how safe Montevideo is as a whole, the one place you're always warned about is Ciudad Vieja…  Never Pocitos… I've known a few people to have bad experiences in Ciudad Vieja, thankfully we've never had a problem there. We've never had a problem anywhere other than here in Pocitos…

We had been here for 2 weeks, I was getting money late at night and a couple of guys who were watching me tried to circle me… I'm sure their intentions were less than honorable… I pulled out my blade told them I'd kill them, they took off…

One night I was coming home late from my favorite little bar down the street… Some guy came up, got in my personal space and grabbed me requesting cash… and I hit him until he stopped moving.

Both of these incidents happened late at night while I was by myself.

We just got back from the Wednesday Feria here in Pocitos… We live in
what I feel is a safe and nice area… And most people would agree…

Chrystal is due to have Kaylee
anytime now so she wanted to walk down with me. I threw Zoe in our
Kelty Carrier and off we go… Again, we live in a nice area and it's the middle of the day; it's beautiful out today…

So in this part of South America there's a drug called Pasta Base (pronounced: pasta ba-say)…
It's a derivative of cocaine and makes crack look like candy and meth
look like a picnic… It's highly addictive and from what we've been
told, when someone gets on it they're completely gone in 6 months… We see them on the streets, we call them base heads… I don't know their official terms, but they're
whacked out of their minds…

We just had one try to mug us on the way to the feria with his bare hands.  Zoe's Kelty is
weighed down with an extra 20 lbs of crap for when she goes off to stay with friends
when Kaylee gets here… She wanted to ride in it… The Kelty is a ton better than pushing her through a stroller in crowds and such…

So this dude comes from the other side of the street and walks up to me asking for money… I firmly say "no" and
we continue to walk… Then he decided to invade my personal space and
put his hands asking me demanding "dinero blah blah blah, dinero ahora blah blah blah, dinero blah blah blah
dinero…"

I'm not talking about putting a hand on my shoulder begging for money… I'm talking about him coming up on my and trying to go for my pockets…

I shoved the guy hard across the sidewalk and told Chrystal to take
Zoe… She started to then stopped… The guy caught himself from hitting the ground and took a
few steps back, so Chrystal thought he was walking away and didn't take
her… The guy started to come back towards me…

Thank god I was in the Marines and we learned how to maneuver and fight
with a 60lb pack on our backs… So I squared up to the guy and was
ready to defend my family, I intended to kill him… My daughter was on my back, my pregnant wife was with me… I wasn't going to screw around.

I'm not sure how I looked, but it was enough to put some fear in that guy's eyes… and he started
to back up yelling at us (I'm sure it had something to do with my mom,
goats and apples… I couldn't make out most of the rest of the
words…)

We proceeded to back away from him and separate ourselves… And I got
Zoe ready to toss of my back if he were to try to come back (I have my
little girl and my wife there, I don't want to be in this situation…)

Behind us a construction worker (probably in his 50s, but stacked) was stopped on the
corner, had set his toolbox down and had his hardhat in his hand…
When we got closer to him he stared venting about pasta base and the
crazy kids and such and told us he was ready to come hit him with his hard
hat… 😉

I hope this serves as a lesson to Expats here and people all over. It doesn't matter how nice of a neighborhood you live in… Bad people don't stop at neighborhood boundaries…

From what we've seen and heard, these base heads usually don't carry a weapon… they just try to mug you with their fists and intimidation. One thing I will suggest is to give a hard shove and get up in the person's face, prepare to be violent… or run.



The Couples Retreat Controversy

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Have you seen Couples Retreat yet? It’s really a pretty funny movie.

When we watched it, we weren’t aware of the big controversy surrounding the movie poster that was used to promote Couples Retreat in the UK. For whatever reason, the studio decided it was a good idea to alter the original movie poster, seen here:

Couples-retreat-posterv11

The black couple was removed from the poster used in the UK. It caused quite a stir and cries of racism in the media. It was all over the Internet – you can check out the article on Yahoo Movies, the Huffington Post and Mail Online if you want to read more about it.

In these articles, you’ll see this quote from the studio:
“The studio said it regretted causing offense and has abandoned plans to use the revised poster in other countries…”

Hmm… that’s interesting because we were just at Montevideo Shopping last week and this is the poster we saw at the movie theater for Couples Retreat:

CouplesRetreat-UY

I don’t think the studio was being exactly forthright with the public about their plans to use the revised poster in other countries…

What do you think about this controversy? Does it affect your interest in seeing Couples Retreat?



Zoë Thinks Her Name is “Itsyou”

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Every time Zoë saw a picture of herself, she would say, “baby.” So, we tried to explain to her the baby in the picture was actually her by saying, “It’s you, Zoë.”

Well, she understands that it’s her in the pictures, but now she thinks her name is, “Itsyou,” because every time she sees a picture of herself, she gets all excited, points at the picture and exclaims, “Itsyou!” and then points at herself and then back at the picture.

She absolutely loves looking at pictures and videos of herself, so we get to laugh about this one pretty regularly.

We’ve been trying to keep Zoë busy with lots of fun activities lately. We’re always reading, coloring and just having a lot of fun. This last week, Zoë has been having so much fun that she hasn’t wanted to take a nap.

She’ll be completely exhausted, but doesn’t want to miss out on the fun, so there have been a couple times in the past week where she has just fallen asleep in her high chair while coloring.

DSC_0005
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She got to play with playdough for the first time last week. We found a recipe for homemade playdough, so we made some this week. It’s super easy to make (and it’s non-toxic), so if you want the recipe, check out Chrystal’s Mommy Blog on Wednesday and you can get the recipe.

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We also got another package from Mimi last week (thanks Mimi!). Zoë got a new dress and a bunch of hats to dress up with (along with a few other things). She loves her new little dress. Here’s a picture of her wearing it getting ready to go shopping.

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And for those of you wondering, Zoë’s little sister still hasn’t arrived. Chrystal was due on the 4th, but Kaylee is more than content right where she is for now. Hopefully next Monday we’ll have pictures of Zoë and Kaylee together to share!



Recipe of the Week: Peach Sorbet and Chocolate Ice Cream in a Bag

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On Tuesday, we posted a video of Zoë making her very own Peach Sorbet in a bag. It’s a very easy recipe to make, and much less expensive than the store bought ice cream here in Montevideo.

We also made Chocolate Ice Cream using this method and it came out good. With the heat, it melted very fast, so be prepared to eat it right away!

If you’re looking for an inexpensive (and fun) way to cool off, give this recipe a try.

Peach Sorbet Ingredients:

  • 1 cup peach juice
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
  • ½ cup rock salt
  • 1 pint-size Ziploc
  • 1 gallon-size Ziploc
  • Ice cubes

 

Chocolate Ice Cream Ingredients:

  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons powdered cacao
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
  • ½ cup rock salt
  • 1 pint-size Ziploc
  • 1 gallon-size Ziploc
  • Ice cubes

Directions:

  1. Fill the large Ziploc half full of ice, then add the rock salt
  2. Seal the bag
  3. Put the juice, sugar and vanilla for sorbet (or milk, cacao, vanilla and sugar) for the ice cream into the small Ziploc
  4. Seal it
  5. Place the small Ziploc inside the large one and seal it again carefully
  6. Shake until the mixture becomes ice cream, about 5 minutes
  7. Take the small Ziploc out of the large one and scoop the sorbet or ice cream into a bowl
  8. Serve promptly because it melts quickly!

Tips and Modifications:

  1. Make sure the Ziplocs you use seal well – we used the type with the slide top and they leaked quite a bit while we were shaking them
  2. You can make vanilla ice cream by using ½ teaspoon of vanilla and no cacao
  3. Try out other types of extracts or juices for new flavors

If give this recipe a try, let us know what you think! We’d love to hear about any modifications or new flavors you experiment with.



Where Do You Pay Your Bills in Uruguay?

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You pay your bills at the Abitab… The what? 

One thing to look at when estimating your cost of living in Uruguay is your monthly bills, how much they are and where/how you pay them.

When we lived in San Diego, we rarely pulled out the checkbook and mailed a payment for anything. We paid everything online… from our electric bill to rent and everything in between. If it wasn’t set up to direct debit from our account, we would have our bank set up to automatically send a check out to whomever. 

In Uruguay, we go to the Abitab to pay our bills… We could go directly to the company, but the Abitab is the “all-in-one stop.”

Abitab

Our porter collects our mail and slides it under our door… The majority of our mail is our monthly bills…

A Quick Shout Out: Celeste and Ren’e; we just got your Christmas card… Thank you very much…

When we get our monthly bills, we open them, complain about how much they are (since the value of the US dollar has dropped, our cost of living in Uruguay has increased) and then walk down the street to the Abitab.

How much are our bills?

We've had a lot of questions about cost of living in Uruguay lately, so here are some of our fixed costs in Uruguayan Pesos per month:

  • Internet: $2,604 (Antel, ADSL 4 MEGA 4096/512)
  • Home Phone: $343 (We have to have a home phone for our Internet because it’s ADSL.)
  • Electricity: $3,500 (give or take… but this should go up because we’ve been running the AC at night lately)
  • Gastos Communes: $3,375 (This is our building common expenses; It covers our water, trash, heat, building maintenance and our Porter)
  • Health Insurance: $3,999 (3 months after Kaylee gets here it’ll go up to $4,926)
  • Emergency Service: $870 (After Kaylee gets here it’ll go up to $1,160)

The point is that all of our bills seem to arrive around the same time… for a total of $14,691 per month.

Now you have your bills… what is an Abitab and how do you find one?

Abitabs are little offices that are speckled all throughout the city and the countryside. Each of your bills has a barcode on it that is scanned in by the clerk at the Abitab… You pay the clerk, they give you a receipt and you go on your way.

It’s a little bit of a pain not to be able to pay our bills online or drop a check in the mail, but we’re fortunate enough to have two Abitabs within 2-3 blocks of us.

One thing to ask your realtor when searching for a place to rent or buy is, “Where is the nearest Abitab?” 

For those of you already living in Uruguay… How far away are you from the nearest Abitab?