Let's go to Ecuador!

Enjoying a taste of Ecuador in HoneyB's kitchen

When Susan emailed me and asked me if I would like to chose the country we would cook from this week I knew I would have no problem choosing. Since we have already visited a few Asian countries lately I thought of the students we have in our department and thought of where they were from. What country could we cook from that we had not cooked from where we had a student from that country? Hands down....it was Ecuador. Little did I know when I made this decision that it would turn into what it did!

A little more than a year ago Grumpy and I bought the home we are now living in. Grumpy was working out of town during the week and that only left us the weekends to get our stuff together and get moved out of the rental we were in and into the home we had bought. This was pretty tough with him out of town all week. I did a lot of packing by myself. When the weekend came when we could start moving, we were able to move what we would need in order to spend the night at our new home from that point on. We still had a lot of things to be moved though. During the week, on my way home from work, I would stop at the rental and pack my car as full as I could and drive to our home and unpack. I did this everyday for a week.

We really needed to get some more of our heavier things moved and it was hard to have to wait for Grumpy to get home and then have only 2 days. So, two of our grad students where I worked volunteered to help us move. Andy & Ian were a huge help to us and to thank them, the day they did the major moving, I of course showed them my love an appreciation by making homemade macaroni and cheese for them.

I instant messaged Andy one day earlier this week asking him what I should make from his country for this weekends post. I needed ideas and who better to give me that idea, than the student from Ecuador himself? He gave me an immediate response of Tripe as that was his favorite. My stomach turned. No way, I thought. I wouldn't be adverse to trying it, but I would rather not cook it the first time I had it either. Basically because it is the cow's stomach. I just got rather ill thinking of it. So, I begged for some other ideas and he came up with Arroz con menestra (lentil stew with rice) and Carne asada (Grilled thin steaks). He also told me I should make Tres leches cake with Dulce de leche.

Now, during this process, my calendar on Friday morning alarmed me that Andy's birthday was on Sunday! What coincidence! Andy would be coming to eat a meal from his country at my home on Saturday, and I could wish him happy birthday with his favorite cake. He better tell his momma about me! (He promised me before he left that he would tell his momma!)

Andy enjoying his birthday cake!

This was a great experience for me and I was very pleased because as you can see from the photos Andy was very happy! He went home with what was leftover of the meal, cake, and dulce de leche! Yeah, I'd adopt him. But I doubt his real momma would let me. ;)


Check out the My Kitchen My World site to see what other meals were made from Ecuador this last week!