November update

I wanted to post a quick update before I head back to the States for a month. November was a wonderful month! The weather was near-perfect almost every single day, there were tons of beautiful flowers and trees, and more outdoor festivals and fun in the city as the weather got warmer. On a personal note, we were feeling more settled, making connections with new and old friends and my Spanish was finally making some progress (slowly but surely!).
November started with a birthday dinner for our friend Claudio along with his wife Luciana and adorable daughter, Paloma. Luciana is the founder of a wonderful news blog called Medios Lentos. Claudio is a neurosurgeon and was just appointed as chief of neurosurgery at Hospital Italiano where Fer works, which is great news!

 Paloma was the perfect Spanish conversation partner for my beginner level Spanish :)

One of my Spanish teachers organized for a group of us to go see "Breaking Dawn" on its opening day. I'm not a huge Twilight movie fan because the acting is just awful (in my opinion) but it was fun to go with friends and practice Spanish. Manuela and I couldn't pass up an opportunity for a silly photo op ;)

With Jelle (classmate from Holland), Manu (classmate from Switzerland) and one of my teachers, Leila:

 For one of my classes, we had to do a short presentation in Spanish on something we know or do really well. So naturally, I did my presentation on how to make Challah! ;)

 Some of my friends/classmates from ECELA. I definitely feel like the old lady at school with most of the students ~20-25 years old.

 My teacher, Leila was a huge fan of cupcakes and her favorite was chocolate with dulce de leche so for my last day in her class I brought these tasty treats:

The chocolate cupcake recipe I used is so good, so easy and so strange! Check it out: Simply Recipes. The ingredient list almost threw me off but I'm glad it didn't because they are fantastic! I love Simply Recipes, I use it as my default online recipe search. Once the cupcakes cooled I cut out a chunk in the middle which I filled with dulce de leche then filled with the amazing frosting from this recipe: Dulce de leche swiss meringue buttercream

Aren't my classmates lucky that I bake for them?! ;)

Finally, I tried another delicious recipe from Heidi Swanson's "Super natural every day" cookbook. This time I made the "White beans and cabbage recipe" which was quite tasty although a bit bland looking. I have to say it tasted better on subsequent days when I reheated it for my lunch.

This next month is going to be a busy one for me: I start in Chicago for a few days to catch up with dear friends then head to my parents' house for another few days to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family. I can't wait to see everybody and hold those babies! After that I am flying to Baja, Mexico for an intensive yoga teach training at Yandara Yoga Institute. This is a dream come true for me. I have been trying to carve out time and money to attend a program for the last year and a half and I am so happy to finally be able to make it happen! And I am so glad that I will also be able to finish it in time to make it to my nephew's Bar Mitzvah in DC before I fly back to Buenos Aires mid-January. It will be great to spend time with Fer's side of the family before flying back to BsAs. It's going to be a whirlwind month full of great things. Just not my Fer :( I will miss him so much! We have a trip to Punta del Este in Uruguay planned with the kids right when I return so that will be a fun reunion. 
I have lots of packing and prep work to do for my yoga course so I better end here. If I don't see you during my busy time home in the States, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

El dia de acción de gracias (Thanksgiving!)

On the actual day of Thanksgiving, Fer and I went to a Thanksgiving Luncheon held at the American Club downtown. We were invited by Mark and Mary Beth who are fellow Chicagoans that spend about 4-5 months every year in Buenos Aires during the Chicago winter. It was a very fun lunch but the food just left me craving more authentic North American holiday foods. The apple pie was particularly sad: it more closely resembled apple jello than a delicious, juicy, cinnamon-y apple pie from home. Fer and I had been wanting to do our own Thanksgiving so we planned it for the weekend immediately after to share it with Sofi and Martin. We asked them to each invite a friend and they made a sleepover out of it since the next Monday was a school holiday.
Fer and I had lots of fun cooking the whole day although it was HOT! Now I think I know why the majority of large holiday meals take place during fall and winter- you aren't meant to have the oven and stove going full blast on a 90 degree day. Especially in a kitchen with no AC ;)

 Challah is becoming a staple here. Martin is particularly in love with it, as he told his friend "es demasiado rico!"

Thank goodness Fer loves to carve the turkey! I wouldn't know where to begin.

 Getting ready to eat: Marti, Sofi, Frederico, Martin and Fer

My family tradition is to go around the table and say what you are thankful for from the last year so we did that with the kids this year. Hopefully it is one of many traditions we can make as a family in our new home.

Getting back in the kitchen

One of the things I love most about living in Buenos Aires and having more time on my hands is that I can get back into the kitchen to cook! I have been having fun trying new recipes and am currently in love with this cookbook:

My friend Allie gave it to us as part of our wedding gift and it has been a fabulous addition to our kitchen! Everything I have made from it has been tasty, healthy and not very hard to make. I'm only bummed because there are ingredients for some of the recipes that I haven't been able to find here in Argentina (yet).  I have a long list of items I am planning to buy in the US and bring back with me :)

My current favorite recipe that I want to shout from the rooftops because I am so excited about it is Broccoli Gribiche. Here are the ingredients:

After roasting the potatoes and broccoli, you mix it with a delicious dressing containing hard boiled eggs, dijon mustard, capers, shallots, and red wine vinegar...

 Yummm!! Here it is on one of the cute little plates that was the other part of Allie's gift:

This was a delicious and easy lunch for me for the last few days. I definitely plan to make it again soon! Next time I plan to switch out some of the broccoli for asparagus (in season here now) and add in some roasted leeks.
I highly recommend this book! Thanks Allie! :)