End of School Fiesta!

This is Shirley, who has stayed with Carolina everyday while Wes and I were in school.  She's become a sweet part of our family.  Carolina goes to school next year, so this was our last day with Shirley!  A sad day... but, thankfully, she lives right down the street!! :)

The boys were all excited about the last day.

This was also Carolina's last day of having 'cafe' with the ladies.  I don't think she really realizes what that means... :)  She sure does love these ladies!

There was an "end of school fiesta" with lots of fun activities for the kids. Carolina FULLY enjoyed herself. :)

Weston's class, saying goodbye to Josefina, their teacher.  The kids have the same teacher for two years.  Josefina teaches 1st and 2nd grade, so we are hoping she will have Jonathan next year!  She is a wonderful teacher... she even invited Weston over to her house this summer.  She says she misses having kids around. :)

Nathan had a blast in the "bounce house"

Nicolas (the son of one of my good friends, and one of Jonathan's good friends!) with Jonathan and Nathan.

Nicolas, Jonathan, Nathan, and Inés.

Wes and Antonio playing ball with several of the kids

My good friend Pepi and her son Fernando.

Carolina was fascinated with watching this confetti fall to the ground... it was so cute, I had to try to capture the moment.

Jonathan's Graduation and Last Day of School

 School finished at the very end of June for our kids.  It seems so late compared to what we were used to in the States!  We do go back the 3rd week of September, though, so I guess it evens out in the end. :)  The school doesn't have air conditioning, so they do the schedule with the heat in mind. :)  It's much cooler here in June than it is in August!

The kids had a fun last couple days.  Jonathan had his graduation, and his teacher was also retiring, so it was a BIG thing.  It seems that the ladies I do coffee with everyday (most of them are moms from Jonathan's class) are the "leaders" of this group of parents.  Each of them had some important role to do.  I volunteered to do whatever they needed me to do.  I was asked to wrap the gifts... I'd given a gift to my friend this past year, all wrapped in a pretty ribbon, and everyone was fascinated by it.  Apparently, I am now known for it. :)

One of the gifts that they did was to ask all the parents to write a note, thanking the teacher for something.  My friend Toña re-wrote them all and fit them together in a flowing story.  She asked me to type it up and print it on pretty paper.  I was elected to do this, b/c I had a computer and a printer.  Interesting, huh?  I think Cáceres is 15 years behind the times... and I'm really not joking! :)  Well, I typed up the the story and I brought it in for the ladies to proof read before I printed the final copy.  I was really nervous.  Why would they ask the foreigner... who barely knows their language... to type this!?  Well,  I did pretty well, except for one major blooper.  Oh, my goodness, we all laughed and laughed.  I SHOULD have caught it, but at least we got a good laugh out of it!  My friend had talked about how each parent had brought their child to this teacher's "door step" but I had miss spelled "puerta" and put "muerta"... so, in reality, it was more like saying "stairs of death."  Not quite the idea Toña intended. haha... after we had a good laugh about it, they all just patted my arm.  As if to say, "Poor foreigner." :)

But, other than that one blooper, everything went rather smoothly!  It was fun to be involved in the planning of everything going on, rather then just sitting back and being clueless about everything (like we did last year with poor Nathan's graduation!)

Jonathan receiving his "diploma."

Each child had a line of "thanks" to tell Pepa.   Most of the kids read theirs, but Jonathan memorized his.  He spoke in perfect Spanish, and said it all exactly like he memorized it!  He did such a good job!

His diploma! :)

This is Inés, my friend Toña's little girl... she is one of Jonathan's best friends.

Weston was in a play on the very last day of school!  He had a blast doing it, and did his part very well!

This is Weston and two of his best friends... and Josefina, their teacher!

The LAST day of school!!!!

Recipe for Spanish Pisto

Here's another recipe!  This is authentic Spanish Pisto... we all love it.

1 Large can of pureed tomatoes (plain!  no spices added)
2 T. olive oil
1 onion
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 zucchini, diced
2 cloves of fresh garlic, minced (or 3 if you like garlic!)
1/4 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste (I do about 2 pinches of salt)

Sauté the garlic and onion in olive oil, add the rest of the veggies and cook until tender.  Pour in the tomatoes and mix.  Stir in the sugar and salt and simmer on low for 20 minutes to combine all the flavors.  Serve in a soup bowl with a fried egg on top and with fresh, warm bread for dipping!

Recipe for Empanadas

We've had a couple requests for recipes, so I thought I'd just post it here so everyone can use it!  Please remember that here in Spain, they don't use exact measurements.  They don't have "teaspoons" or "cups"... it's a little bit of this or a lot of that, etc. :)  I've put it as much in American terms as I can, but even then I'm guessing and estimating.  You might have to adjust to your own tastes!

Empanadas by Gaby

Filling:
1.5 lbs. ground beef
2.5-3 lbs. diced onions (yes! it's not a typo!)... I don't know, maybe several large onions.
2 sticks of butter (unsalted, if you can)
cumin- lots of cumin!  (My friend says you know you've used enough when you can take a sniff and smell cumin!)
oregano- a couple dashes
2 vegetable bullion
2 beef bullion
1 T. Paprika

This is best if made the night before and let sit so the flavors mix overnight.  Melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the onions until cooked through.  Brown the ground beef, add the rest of the ingredients and mix.  Store over night in the fridge.

Masa: (dough)
4 cups of flour
2 sticks of cold butter
1 T. salt
1 T. paprika
1 cup of cold water

Pour flour into a bowl, add in the salt and paprika and mix.  Cut in the butter until crumbly.  Add water until desired consistency.  (it's very similar to making a pie crust!)

Hard boil 4 eggs.  Dice and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400ºF.  Roll out dough to about 1/4 in. thick.  We used a snack bowl (maybe a 5in circle) to make the cut-outs.  Fill the circle with 1 T. of the meat and 1 teaspoon of eggs.  Fold it in half and fold/pinch the edges closed (my friend actually twists it closed) and you should be holding a half-moon shaped Empanada! Take a fork and poke a couple holes in each empanada.  This allows the air to escape, so it doesn't puff up. Bake on an un-greased cookie sheet until slightly brown and you can see the filling bubbling out of one or two of them.  About 15 minutes for us here.  (But I do find my oven here in Spain is different from the States!  So, watch your first batch and time if for yourself.)

Yummy!! They freeze and reheat really well, too!! :)  Enjoy! ... and many thanks for my friend Gaby who taught me how to make her family recipe AND allowed me to share it with y'all! :)