Holiday Series: Father's Day in Peru

Father's Day in Peru is not quite the extravaganza that is Mother's Day here, but they don't ignore the dads by any stretch.  We spent a chunk of time at Miss M's school yesterday for Día del Padre or Día del Papá.

Dad and the girls.

Similarities to the Mother's Day program:

• Big extravaganza
• Included all kids from the school and the whole family
• Lots of food available for purchase
• Loads of decorations
• Hundreds of attendees

Differences from Mother's Day:

• Held on a Saturday instead of during the week (and M has school off on Monday to compensate)
• Longer than the Mother's Day event- 5 hours instead of 3
• The dads participated in a number of sporting contests; moms just watched a program
• Kids were organized by house (there are four houses; M is in the Cocodrilos)
• Emphasis was on sporting contests.  The four houses each prepared a skit and/or dance and seemed to perform it for judges.  Families could earn participation points for each house by coming dressed in the house color.  (Fortunately M's color is green; we would have been up a creek without a paddle if she was a lion as they wear yellow.)  

They handed out balloons, maracas, crocodile signs,
and more for the green cocodrilos.

The start of the cocodrilos skit.  It was all about
coming together in friendship for all four houses.

The cocodrilo girls dance.

Dave and another dad held up crocodile signs, balloons, and a banner/flag.

Dave's team won their tug-of-war contest.

A happy popcorn consumer.  Her shirt has light green stripes
plus green pants (and a green diaper!)

Another of the sports contests.  Half dribbled a soccer ball in and
out of cones, then the other half jumped back in a sack.

Dave anchored his team to victory!

The yellow team won the overall point total.  Here is the representative "king."

Some of the food we bought.  Chocro is the boiled corn and a slab of salted cheese.
The other is a tamal (like a tamale but no e)  wrapped in a palm leaf.

Another fancy bulletin board.

M's father's day gift.  Te amo papito (I love you daddy.)

The Holiday Series

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Advent

Christmas

New Years

Easter

Mother's Day

Father's Day (that's this one)

Lemon Cream Pie: Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #1

So, you may or may not know I have an interest in historical things, especially day-to-day life from the past. I reenact civilian life from the early to mid 1860s. One of my friends from that group started a group with biweekly food challenges for a year. I decided to participate (as I will probably have more time to do this while on sabbatical in Peru than I would in the US). If you want to know more, here is their blog on the Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge.

Challenge #1: A Literary Dish

The Recipe: Lemon Cream Pie, Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery, Marion Harland [1882] (p. 362)

Lemon Cream Pie

1 teacup powdered sugar  (NOTE: I made this again with granulated white sugar and without the rind; leaving the rind out is great but use powdered sugar if you make this.  It creates a better texture.)

1 tablespoonful butter

1 egg

1 lemon, juice and grated rind, remove seeds with care

1 teacup boiling water

1 tablespoonful corn-starch

Stir the corn-starch into the water, cream the butter and sugar, and pour them over the hot mixture.  When quite cool, add lemon and beaten egg.  Take the inner rind off the lemon and mince very small.  Bake in open shell.

The finished product.

The Date/Year and Region: Recipe is in English, published 1872 in New York.

How Did You Make It: Followed directions closely, using my great-grandmother’s crust recipe (dates from late 1800s and have found similar recipes in cookbooks from the 1870s.) I used butter for the fat; I would have used lard but haven’t been able to find it in Peru. I even tried to buy some fat to render my own but couldn't find any from a trusted source. **See below for a mini-crust tutorial and recipe.**

I used milkfat instead of butter for the 1T butter. We have been pasteurizing our own milk here in Peru and I wanted to figure out a use for my milkfat; it also helped me feel more “old-fashioned” to use it. I used purchased butter for my crust as the author suggested only the finest butter should be used in pastry. I combined the milkfat and powdered sugar by cutting it in with two knives. I then put the cornstarch in a little bit of cold water and mixed. I boiled water and used the same teacup measure I had for the powdered sugar and combined the dissolved cornstarch and boiling water. I then poured the hot liquid over the top of the powdered sugar/milkfat rather than putting the sugar mix into the water. It meant less bowls dirtied. While the mixture was cooking, I grated the rind off the lemon, peeled the white rind off sections of lemon, seeded the lemon pieces, and minced the white rind. I wasn't entirely sure if “take inner rind off the lemon” meant that I should be baking the white rind into the pie or if she meant that the membranes should be discarded and I should mince the pulp. I left the membranes, minced the white rind and baked it all in the pie after juicing the lemon wedges. I figured that no one would die from it, since Shaker Lemon pie includes whole lemon slices.

Time to Complete: About 40 minutes at a leisurely pace to prepare the pie and approximately 70 minutes to bake. My oven temperature fluctuates (though I do have a stand-alone thermometer) and I baked the pie at around 375 F but sometimes it was more like 355-360 F.

Total Cost: About 5 soles (Peruvian money) or roughly $2 USD. Half the cost was the butter which is quite expensive here.

My ingredients and the "teacup" I used.

How Successful Was It?: Nice tart lemon flavor.  It has less sugar and less of a sweet taste than modern desserts, but it was still good. I served it to 5 other people and no one threw any away, though they took small slices to start and didn’t take seconds, either. I will be eating the rest of the pie.  If I made it again, I would use actual butter for the pie filling and skip putting the rind in, minced fine or not it still altered the texture of the pie enough that I would prefer the pie without. But, it was perfectly edible and gave insight into the past.

The finished pie, a little cracked on top but tasted just fine.

I was worried the pie was going to be really flat, but it baked and puffed up nicely.
This is just before it went in the oven.

How Accurate Is It?: Used cups and spoons instead of weighing or measuring ingredients. Mixed or cut by hand without extra tools. I have only one sad disposable aluminum pie pan here, having broken my glass pie dish. I would have baked in a tin or aluminum pie tin but I don’t have one here. I chose to use whole wheat flour (ground here) for the crust.  

My milkfat (used instead of butter in the pie filling).
I used a regular tablespoon instead of a measuring spoon.

I grated the rind instead of using my zester.

I seeded the lemon slices and peeled the rind,
then minced it fine for adding to the pie.

Interpretation: Inspired by this scene in Anne of the Island just before Gilbert proposes to Anne for the first time. Anne says she made a lemon pie. I learned in my research that lemon pies in the early 1800s were typically lemon custard pies; lemon meringue pies rose in popularity in the mid to late 1800s. I wanted to make something new to me and hypothesized that Anne may have made one of Marilla’s old recipes, hence more likely to be a lemon custard pie and not a meringue. Marilla would have learned to cook during the early/mid 1800s.

Time to Research: I think I put about 2 or 3 hours in doing online research. First I tried to figure out exactly when Anne was born and found this backwards timeline which was close enough for my purposes (put Anne at college in the 1870s and Marilla as being born in 1820 or so, so learning to cook and bake in the 1830s).

I also tried to figure out what kind of cookbook to use and attempted to learn who settled Canada and Prince Edward Island (French, Scots, and English) and what kind of heritage Matthew and Marilla would have had (Cuthbert is both a Scottish and English last name; I don’t recall the books saying anything about their ancestry and didn't do a search on that).

More time was spent trying to find a recipe. I learned about the history of lemon pies, specifically that what we know today as lemon meringue pies rose in popularity in the mid to late 1800s but the name didn't come to be called “lemon meringue” until later. I also found that lemon pie before the mid-1800s was most often a lemon custard pie. Since I've made lemon meringue pies before and wanted to try something new, I went in search of a lemon custard pie from an English or northern United States cookbook. Multiple strikeouts in finding either cookbooks that had no lemon pies at all or later cookbooks having only lemon meringue pies. I finally gave up and was going to make a meringue pie when I looked up the actual cookbook that was referenced in a secondary source and learned the original cookbook also had a lemon cream pie receipt. Success! 

Bonus Mini-Tutorial for Pie Crust: 

Recipe from my great-grandmother, Elsie Hagen

1 cup flour, 1/2 cup fat, 1/4 cup cold water.

• This recipe is quite flexible, I have used everything from white enriched, bleached flour to crunchy whole wheat flour to pre-made gluten free flour blends and they have all turned out fine.  You can use whatever fat floats your boat; my preferred fat is lard.  But I have made it with lard, butter, and half lard/half butter.  I don't cook with shortening but I'm sure that would work also.

Directions:

1. Put flour in bowl. 
2. Add fat (cut in small cubes) 

   

   You want your fat cut down a little before you start mixing it with the flour.
   Butter and lard work best when at room temperature. 

3. Cut fat into the flour until it's pebbled. 

   

   This is a good start but not quite enough.

   

   This is what you want your dough to look like just before you add water.

4. Add water 1-2 Tablespoons at a time.  Cut or mix with spoon or paddle until flour is wet through and you have a nice dough consistency.  If you need more water, continue adding.  If you mess up and the dough is too wet, add a little more flour.
5. Sprinkle some flour on a flat surface (counter, silpat, or whatever works for you).  Put the dough ball on the surface and gently shape into a ball.
6. Roll out the dough, starting in the middle of the ball and moving out to the edges until you have a nice circle. 

   

   I find that rolling on a flexible mat allows me to flip the dough into the pan,
   but you can also fold the dough in two and transfer to your pan.

7. Move dough to pan.  Reshape as needed.  You can do nice edge work or just sort of smush the dough in.

Living in a Cash Society

Peru functions on cash.  There are some stores (mostly restaurants and shops geared toward tourists and grocery and department stores) that accept credit cards, but the bulk of our lives here are lived with cash and most people pay for purchases with cash.  It's unusual to be behind someone paying with a credit card and it really does take much longer than whipping out cash.  (Most of the time when you travel, cash is just easier given that most credit cards have a 3% foreign transaction fee- it's cheaper to get money from ATMs or exchange US money you bring than pay those fees.)  We have a credit card without the fees, but given that we usually have to show our passport to use it, we just stick with cash.

I have seen articles based on studies that suggest people tend to spend more when using credit cards instead of cash (here's a Dave Ramsey Q&A about it.)  I have long suspected that my personal money personality means I spend the same regardless of payment mode.  In the states, I charge everything I can on a credit card that gives me cash rewards and I've always paid my bill in full each month so I haven't gotten tripped up on interest charges.

Spending in cash here doesn't seem to make me any less likely to spend money (though Peruvian money still has a little bit of a monopoly money feel to me....but since I translate virtually everything I buy into dollars anyway, I'm still thinking about the value I'm getting for whatever I purchase).

Paying bills here is quite different than in the states.  I mentioned the bill delivery system before (bills taken around to homes by the company, e.g. the internet provider or the electric company).  Once you get the bill, you take the bill and your payment to an agent (they are all over the place, some you can pay the bill without a commission and some you pay a small commission, like 30-40 cents per bill).  These agents may be in shops like a corner convenience store or a pharmacy.  If you are making a deposit to an account, you can go to a bank and make a deposit into the bank account (the bank also takes a small commission, which just means the person getting paid receives less money than you paid them, so it's kind of like PayPal fees that way where the seller takes the hit.)  There isn't an option to pay online or set up autopay as far as I know.

We have the following bills per month.

• Rent (paid by depositing our money at the bank; I always take A along with me because moms with small kids get to use the preferencia line which usually has between 2-4 people waiting instead of 30+.)
• Mirabel's school tuition (paid at one specific Caja, the agents who broker money payments; in this case, there is only one location that takes money for her school).  I am hoping we're in the free and clear zone from here on out, because I tried to pay last month's tuition 6 times before I was finally successful.  Last month there were a number of issues which have all been resolved now. This month, the electronic file was there, on time, with the right amount due.  
• Electric bill (paid at an agent (BCP) that doesn't charge a commission)
• Internet bill (paid at an agent (BCP) that doesn't charge a commission)
• Water bill (used to be paid at any Scotia Bank agent because there was no commission, but now they charge 1 sol, so I switched to paying at Interagente which charges .8 soles (or 80 centimos) per bill.
• Paying our empleada (cash given to her at the end of the month)

This might not seem like a big deal, and it's really not that big a deal to me- I just take the bills and try to pay them when they arrive.  But sometimes the bills never come (I assume the delivery person loses some each month or something).  In that case, you need to realize the bill didn't come, take an old bill, have them look up your name and pay it.  This has happened twice with our internet.  One time, we got a robocall telling us to pay or else they would turn off the internet.  This last month, when I went to pay the bill, I was told I owed for two months.  Or you can wait for the notice that says you are going to have your water or internet shut off if you don't pay by X date.  And sometimes the lines wherever you want to pay are too long, so you plan to go back later.  Or the system isn't up to date and doesn't have your bill in the system.  I think that for the 5 bills, I probably make an average of 10 attempts per month to make the payments.  And there is a part of my brain that is constantly thinking about bills, when they come, when to pay them, if they came, etc.  

You also need to save the receipt you are given with each payment in case the company comes back and asks you to pay again so you can prove it was paid.  Saving the receipts for our payment is actually a condition of our lease.

Then we also have to ensure we have enough cash on hand to take care of other expenses like groceries, doctor visits, and anything else we purchase.  I feel like I am constantly working to track/maintain our cash flow and that paying with credit cards and settling up at the end of the month and paying my bills online is much easier. Plus, I like the cash back that I receive that way, since it makes it seem like I get a little something for my purchases.  (Yes, I know that stores pay a convenience fee to the credit card companies, and if I purchase from a small retailer I specifically try to pay with cash or check so they get a higher profit.)

What about you?  Are you someone the cash envelope system saved? Do you prefer to charge everything?  Or are you still a check writing aficionado? 

Holiday Series: Mother's Day (Felíz Día de la Madre)

Mother's Day in Peru is a big deal.  A BIG DEAL.  Not that it isn't a big holiday in the states, but you've got nothing on Peru. There is the "normal" stuff like fliers showcasing gifts you should get mom (my personal favorite was the meat store flier that suggested hotdogs were just what mom's been hoping to receive).  This mom wasn't so much on board with that idea, but fortunately no one else in the family thinks I would ever want that.  And I recycled the flier right away.  Beyond that, I present the following norms:

• Programs at children's schools for mother's day.  These programs are several hours long, involve costumes for the children, pins for the moms, drawings for baskets (mostly food) and other prizes, special food, crafts given to moms that appear to be made by teachers, not children (at least for the younger ages) and more. 
• Restaurants have specials for moms (a free meal, appetizer, dessert or drink) if you go out to eat on Mother's Day or maybe on Saturday, too.
• Lots of signs and specials at restaurants and other stores.
• The week after Mother's Day, all the kids are off for fall break.  (This isn't at every single school, but quite a lot of them, including Miss M's school and those of her friends.)

Moms walked in to a shower of rose petals.

The pin they gave to all moms.

Baskets to win (2-3 names drawn per class; I didn't win)

Theme was "The Best Mom in the World" and this is a class
with all of the highlighted countries represented in costume.

Miss M's class (Mexico)

 Here is video of Miss M with her big Spanish debut.  She did a great job of talking right into the microphone, even persevering through technical difficulties when the mic didn't work at first.  So proud.

Picture with my Mexican dancer and bug bitten little one

A photo booth opportunity (missing M who went back to school,
a block or two away from the program venue)

In my own family, Dave was kind enough to create a Mother's Day week, with something special in the days before and including Mother's Day.  He had time for me to go out by myself and do some errands, special food, a special breakfast on Mother's Day with handmade cards from the girls and chocolate, and I got to pick the restaurant for our weekly date lunch and our Family Friday.  And on Mother's Day, I got to do whatever I wanted, which ended up being a deep conditioning treatment for my hair.  I know, I live on the edge.  But it's the kind of thing I'm supposed to do regularly but almost never do, so it was actually a treat.

Homemade cards, flowers, a fruit and cheese plate,
chocolate and a special homemade breakfast.

My only concern is how I'm going to even come close to matching this for Father's Day (although I've learned that there isn't nearly the same reverence for fathers here, almost none of the hoopla that exists for Mother's Day.)  More to come in a future post when we've experienced a Father's Day here.

The Holiday Series

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Advent

Christmas

New Years

Easter

Mother's Day (that's this one)

Holiday Series: Easter

Easter here in Peru is very focused on the passion of Jesus (death and the steps leading up to it) and not quite so much on the Resurrection piece.  Candy, Easter eggs, and the Easter Bunny are almost unheard of (though a few eggs are creeping in here and there...it's a very new phenomenon).  I've mentioned in past posts (like the Christmas one) how there isn't the same separation of Church and State that we have in the USA.

In fact, the government sponsors several public religious displays.  The police station sponsored a mechanized show using Barbie style dolls in costume and sets for Christmas and this year was their first year to do the same for the passion.  And the city of Arequipa sponsored a live actor passion play on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) that we happened upon.  Next year we'll know to look out for it.

I was impressed with the costuming, there were at least 50+ actors.

They didn't shy away from uncomfortable scenes.  This is the whipping
by Roman soldiers, two soldiers had whips (cotton rope) and they did the whole 40 lashes.

The crucifixion.  This was the end of the passion play.

This is the mechanized passion play at the police station.
They had 15 stations, I think.  2014 was the inaugural year.

They had amazing detail for Barbie type dolls.
Jesus carried the cross, ascended, Roman soldiers pounded nails, and more.

Each station had a light on it and narration/music for that scene.

It's interesting, in going around Arequipa there are a lot of shrines in places that you wouldn't expect.  For example, the post office, a public park, the vegetable/meat/fruit market.  I have only ever seen shrines to Mary and Jesus.  Most often, Jesus is in some state of torture, like with a crown of thorns carrying his cross or bloody and on the cross.  We aren't Catholic or Orthodox so I didn't grow up with a lot of iconography in church.  I do know from talking with others who are from faith traditions with icons that at least some of this is to help remind people of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.  My own faith tradition tends to more heavily emphasize the resurrection and part of that would be hanging an empty cross (if a cross is used at all). So it has been interesting to be in place where this type of religious iconography is not only present in churches but literally everywhere.

On Easter Sunday, we went to church at a Baptist church a couple of blocks down the street.  They had someone dressed in a robe who I believe was Peter at the empty tomb (constructed of paper on a 2x4 frame).  But it's very difficult to understand what is happening when you don't fully comprehend the language (fortunately, we had a pretty good pulse on the story they were telling).  Outside of the mini-play, the rest of the service was much like usual, about 40 minutes of singing and then a sermon.  I don't know what the Catholic service tradition is here, but I was told by others that have lived here that the big event is really more about Good Friday and Jesus' death than a big service/tradition on Easter itself.  (Anyone who is Catholic in the States who cares to chime in about your traditional Easter service?)

I love the Lutheran tradition of brass playing and church choirs and I look forward to experiencing that again when we return, but I did enjoy seeing the various passion plays here.

We invited some people over to our house for Easter afternoon.  Dave fixed up a yummy meal of lamb, potatoes, and veggies and we had some bread, chicha (the purple corn drink, kind of like Kool-Aid), and cheesecake, homemade cream cheese mints, and Cadbury style candy for dessert.

Mowing down on homemade Easter candy

Having fun outside

Our guests included another expat from the states who is here doing medical work (particularly helping with kids who have club feet) and couple of her patients who were in the hospital getting casts done in preparation for surgery.  We dyed Easter eggs and did a hunt for the eggs and some chocolate bunnies I bought.  None of the Peruvians had ever done that before, so it was especially fun to see them dying eggs and on the hunt.

Egg decorating "I haven't done this in YEARS!"

Quite the artist, I think she enjoyed this.

Crayon polka dots

First time for both of them

She found (and cracked) a couple of eggs.

Searching for eggs and chocolate bunnies

Miss M found an egg in the dryer, so A thought she'd check it out, too.

Finally found her chocolate rabbit

It is fun for me to see how other people celebrate holidays in a foreign culture and also fun for me to see the universality of Jesus' story.  But, I missed my home culture something fierce during this holiday- it was the hardest one so far to be away from home.

The Holiday Series

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Advent

Christmas

New Years

Easter (that's this one)

Mother's Day