After another later start we had a brief breakfast then we headed down to the office and I did a series of backups of computers and changed around some configurations on Office and such so that Daniela would be able to take all the information home and have emails going to the correct places and such. That took a couple of hours. Daniela's mother arrived and we went upstairs to prepare lunch for everyone. Dianita was not going to the office that day. We made the carapulcra which had to be started the night before by toasting and soaking the papa seca. We started by cooking some red onion in oil then adding minced garlic then red pepper and cumin. We added some pieces of pork and chicken pieces and browned the meat. Then the papa seca was drained and rinsed and added to water where we began to simmer it. We added some cinnamon and cloves to water and boiled that to release flavors. When the papa seca was to a certain doneness we added the meat back and the water flavored with the spices. That again simmered until the meat was correctly cooked. We then added finely crushed peanuts, pecans and almonds to the mix to finish it out. We cooked rice as a side and she made a small salad of lettuce, tomatoes, red onion and lemon juice to accompany. She also quickly lemonade. I had the beer I bought the day before which was another Barbarian IPA. We called Daniela and Donna because the food was basically ready and they said they were coming right up so we plated and waited then ate when they arrived.
After dinner we cleaned up and I finished some emails before joining the girls downstairs. There the folks from the gallery her office is in were preparing a small going away party for Daniela so we hung out until they were ready then went down to the stained glass store Rosita runs and had a bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine along with small picky snacks like cheese, olives and sausages. Juan Carlos, his wife, Mr Coloma, Rosita, Donna and us were the attendees and it was a nice time with a few toasts and a lot of talking about memories over the past few years. It was all very nice of them. Mr. Coloma offered to take us to a nice Italian restaurant after the party was over so a while later when all the snacks were gone and Rosita needed to leave we cleaned up and left the gallery.
Mr. Coloma took us to Pizzeria Mavery (hardly an Italian name). He was very fond of their food and talked a lot about their empanadas, pizza and lasagna. So we each ordered a different empanada. Daniela had lomo saltado and I had aji de gallina. They were good and very different because they were deep fried instead of baked. We shared a couple of pitchers of sangria with the meal. Donna ordered fettuccine with meat sauce which she really liked. The rest of us shared a jamon pizza which came with ham and olives and sun dried tomato pieces. It was good though the crust was a bit bready in my opinion. Meaning it was not the same dough consistency you would expect from pizza but more from a commercially made loaf of bread. We left behind a piece and a half and we took that with us in a doggie bag. We talked about all sorts of things. Mr. Coloma used to live in California and is a big American football fan. He attended USC and is a huge fan of the college team. So we talked football for a while and a few other things. It was a nice night. When we were done Donna and Mr. Coloma took their own taxis home and we walked. It was maybe a 20 minute walk back. We settled in for bed after that.
The pictures from today are located here.
No comments:
Post a Comment