Cooking, or the Lack Thereof (by Lawrence)

It's funny, but I can't get this scene from one of my favorite (and now canceled) television shows out of my head. Lindsay, the ne'er-do-well, filthy rich daughter of a scamming real estate developer in "Arrested Development" decides to try and cook. She has not worked a day in her life and is impressed with her ability to even locate and operate the stove. Sporting a pristine chef's hat and apron, she announces to her family that she is experimenting with some recipes and has come up with a winner! "I put canned ham in a pot with water and cooked it until it was warm. I call it "Hot Ham Water"." Sadly, I think Lindsay and I have a lot in common these days.

The food in restaurants here in Cusco is so much better than anything I can make, that it kind of takes the wind out of my culinary sails. All fruits and vegetables get a soaking in a weak bleach solution as soon as they are through our door. We still don't trust lettuce which is a huge part of our diet in the USA, so we are eating differently. A lot of avocados, potatoes, chrimoya, fava beans, bananas, tomatoes, RICE RICE RICE and CHICKEN CHICKEN CHICKEN. I make a lot of "soup" which I should probably call "Hot Chicken Water." Tonight we deglazed the pan in which the chicken breasts had been sauteed (CHICKEN CHICKEN CHICKEN...) with -- dah dah dah --coca cola! Really! And, scarily enough, it was delicious.

There is a dearth of cheese here. There are two kinds: Queso Andino (a salty tasteless round) and a Swiss-like variety of American cheese. We were pretty smug about locating some nice Manchego in the Mega supermarket, only to get home and find that it had the hardness of a diamond and required herculean force to cut. It had probably been sitting behind that deli glass for quite some time. We miss our Cabot Cheddar! There are also no corn tortillas, so there goes burrito night (which is almost every night at our house in Maine). And how about the grill!? We are confined to cooking on a mini-stove that is just one half step above a Coleman camp stove. My ability to cook has basically evaporated here in Peru. Cooking is one of those skills that you build up over a long period of time, and involves everything from knowing where to get which ingredients to how best prepare and serve them. Without my familiar tools, ingredients and kitchen layout, I have become Lindsay! Hey everybody, dinner's on! Hot Chicken Water!

But the meals at the restaurants serving "good food" usually cost between $3 and $8. So, we do eat out a lot more than at home, and it doesn't break the bank.

Enjoy the photos of Sophia on her "school bus." I think she likes the bus ride more than school! If you look carefully you can see her smiling face through the back window as the bus pulls away.

We also had a nice rain storm today that shed some glorious light on the neighbors' homes as it departed.