cooking

I always had an idea that it would be a bit of an adventure cooking for myself, here in Ecuador. In the past I've helped Wendy make things, but never had to do everything myself. It doesn't sound like it should be that big of a deal, but since I've never really cooked on a gas stove before, or had to buy all my groceries in a foreign country, I wasn't sure how difficult it might be. All this to say, it's been more of an adventure than I bargained for! :) Part of the adventure comes from not having a stove or refrigerator for the first week. The stove was delivered the first Saturday after I got here, but the electric burner starter didn't work and we thought it was because there was no gas in the tank. Monday my roommate and I bought 2 tanks of gas and connected the first one. That's when we found out the electric starter didn't work! Thankfully there were some matches in the apartment, so we were able to try it out. Most food items here are prepared on the stove top, so we didn't think about trying out the oven. We still didn't have a fridge, either, other than a little tiny one, Diana, my roommate had brought, so we couldn't do much, but it was better than before!

The true adventure came Friday night when I decided to invite my really good friend, Ivonne, over for pizza. I had been wanting to make pizza for a couple months, but when I was in my apartment in Oregon, I was trying to use up what food I had, not buy new stuff, and then I was with my Grandma, and I was so busy finishing my packing that there wasn't time. But now I had the time and finally an oven to cook it in!! Or so I thought. :) Everything went really well mixing up the dough and sauce, I was able to find everything that I wanted and it smelled really good! We decided to light the oven early, to see if it worked, since not all of the stove burners did. We lit the oven and walked into the dining room to wait for the dough to rise. Just after we got into the dining room, we heard a really loud BOOM coming from the kitchen. Ivonne was closer to the door and looked into the kitchen. She started yelling that there was fire!! Somehow, I'm not sure how she was brave enough to do this, she turned off the oven, so that there was no more gas to feed the fire. When she came back into the dining room, she told me that there were flames coming out of the back of the oven!! We decided that it would be a really good idea to take the dough and sauce and toppings over to her house to finish up the pizzas! The only problem with that is that she lives on the other side of town, about a 20-30 minute walk. The dough really didn't need to rise that much, so we called for a taxi and drove everything over. :) I'm sure we must have provided much amusement for the driver!! So, we (Diana and I) are still without a real fridge, or an oven. We tried the stove top again today, and it works fine, with no problems, aside from not all of the burners working, but the oven I haven't dared try again. :) Thus ends one of my first adventures in cooking in Ecuador. :)