Random Musings

Ryan's Valentine's Day present was a pressure cooker. I LOVE IT! Make sure you read the first sentence correctly. It wasn't a present for me, but for him. But I think I might love it more than he does. It's simply amazing! I made dinner in it last night in about 10 minutes. If you don't have one and you live at altitude you should probably invest. I can't wait to see how fast it cooks beans!

I think we're really becoming Ecuadorians. If we don't have rice for at least one meal a day something is wrong. Last night I made the most Ecuadorian of Ecuadorian meals. Seco de pollo, rice (and Ryan made) tree tomato dessert. I forget the name but its the one where you peel and then boil the tree tomatoes in sugar and water until soft and delicious. Seriously I could eat that meal every day.

Apartment Update - In the throws of 'talking' with our landlady (and her husband/boyfriend lawyer). I'm not letting myself stress out about it. It's not worth it. We'll keep you posted when we have something concrete to report. Right now they're trying to get us to pay rent and then (probably) keeping the guarantee in the end. Why didn't I study Ecuadorian contract law in college? Oh right, because my school had 1400 students!

That's about it!
MULUB,
Taylor

Chuki's Pretty Amazing Routine

Chuki in Banos!

It's been a while since we've posted any updates on Chuki. I think the last time was when we majorly overhauled our training techniques. Well I'm very happy to report that he's doing SO SO SO well. We started with NILIF towards the middle to the end of January and that has been the single biggest help. If he doesn't have toys laying around, he doesn't wine to be played with. Don't get me wrong, we still play with him! But now, it's on our schedule, when we want and for how long we want.

His walks are 100 times better. He still doesn't like to walk in the rain and will go a little crazy when he's had enough. But really, who likes to walk in the rain? Also, he's doing a million times better running with me. The trick is to only go for a short run because he gets really hot (if it's sunny) or really wet (if it's raining) and he doesn't like either one. So I usually only take him when I'm going to do a quick 5k and he does great!

The thing I'm most happy about is the jumping. He's slowly but surely learning that jumping is NEVER allowed on people. I think this is a pretty common problem with boxers. Here's what we've done to train him... Whenever we're coming home (whether it's just one or both of us) we open the door and stay outside of it and tell him to sit, lie down and stay. It's pretty cute because he does this crazy wiggle but he's still lying down. Then we come in the door, put down our stuff and go pet him for like 1 second. He can't get up until we've pet him first. If he does, we go back outside and start the whole thing over again. We tell him sit, lie down, stay. Then we come in put our stuff down and pet him. The key is to not pet him for a long time and give him lots of praise. It's just for him to associate our touch with when he can get up and greet us.

When there are guests coming over the method is slightly different. We put his leash on. The doorbell rings. Our guests wait for a minute outside the door while we tell Chuki to sit, lie down and stay. We tell the guests to not pay attention to him. When we tell him he can get up one of us holds the leash. As soon as he jumps on one of the guests we put him into the bedroom and close the door. He stays in the bedroom for a couple of minutes and then we let him out. And the process continues for as long as there are guests over. Every time he jumps he goes into the bedroom.

Now this may sound a bit exhausting for the guests and for you as the host(ess). It was in the beginning. Either Ryan or I had to be with Chuki for at least the first hour of people being there and Chuki spent most of the night in the bedroom because he would jump so frequently. But we had people over this past Friday and he only was in the bedroom 3 times in the very beginning. Then he calmed down and just wanted to sniff and check out our guests. Eventually he fell asleep on the couch while we were all eating dinner. MAJOR PROGRESS!

Plus he's learning new tricks, which is keeping his mind stimulated. He can kind of roll over now! And we're working on touch still. Actually we're working more on no touch.

His pretty awesome routine looks something like this:
6am breakfast
sleep
10am walk
sleep
12pm lunch
sleep
3pm walk
sleep
6pm dinner
sleep

Now maybe this is what most dogs do all of their lives... But Chuki has NEVER had a routine like this. It's more like 6am breakfast, play/whine/bark until you play with him, 10am walk, play/whine/bark until you play with him, etc. So this is a big and welcome adjustment for us!

Last but not least, the crate training is going. It's not going well and it's not going poorly... it's just going. He eats in the crate. He gets in the crate on his own to see if there's any food left over. When we put him in the crate he sits patiently and even lies down. He doesn't really whine in there or try to escape. But he's certainly not going in the crate to take a nap on his own accord. So we're happy with the progress. It's not important to us that he loves it, but just that he's comfortable in there and that he's able to stay in there for at least 6 hours.

That's about all we're learning right now, well at least when it comes to Chuki. Can't wait for everyone to meet him someday!

MULUB,
Taylor

You probably want to make this...

Interested in extending the holiday of LOVE? Make this for dessert tonight and you'll feel like it's Valentine's Day all over again. I followed the directions exactly and didn't change a thing, so I'm just posting the link. Warm Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake

2 suggestions I would make:
1. Don't strain the raspberries. Just mash them up and be done with them.
2. Don't take it out of the oven too soon. Make sure you wait until the pudding part all comes to the top. It will, just be patient!

Enjoy!
MULUB,
Taylor

Valentine's Weekend Recap

Ryan ended up taking me to Papallacta! It really was a surprise up until we got off the bus at Supermaxi in Cumbaya. By then I realized there must be only one place we were going.

Papallacta is a small little town (if you can even call it that) far up in the Andes. It's a tourist destination because of the thermal baths. See, Papallacta sits near Antisana, a volcano, that heats the natural springs. Ryan could sit in a thermal bath for hours. Me on the other hand, I get a little too sleepy in them. Papallacta was the perfect place for both of us because in addition to thermal baths there is GREAT hiking in the area. We did absolutely beautiful two hikes! What's better than a thermal bath after a nice long hike? It was really great! We both came back feeling rested and relaxed.

Photos to come!

MULUB,
Taylor

Valentine's Day

This is our second Valentine's Day here in Ecuador! Last year we went away for the weekend to Otavalo. It was our first little trip outside of Quito. We had a great time, except for the part when Ryan got sick for 3 days because he got dehydrated on a hike. Oops! We've learned a lot since then about traveling together and about hiking together. To celebrate Valentine's Day last year, my parents graciously (as always) let us go out to dinner at ZAZU on them (you all know how much we love ZAZU).

We were talking about Valentine's Day this year and we realized that our Valentines 2010 weekend was the last time that we've gone away just the two of us. In March we got Chuki and since then we haven't traveled too much just the two of us. So we decided that we'd go away again just the two of us this year!

Ryan has been planning the whole thing! I'm super excited because I love surprises! Chuki went to Sebas's for the weekend and we're leaving right now. I thought at first that we were going to the beach but a few nights ago at dinner Ryan said I needed to bring warm clothes and a swimsuit. So I'm not sure where were going!

Instead of trying to figure out where we're going, I've been trying to figure out what to bake to bring with. We're going to bring some food, because the place we're staying at is a little pricey. I'm thinking heart shaped cookies and red velvet cupcakes, but I'm not sure. I also made this awesome chewy granola when we went to Quilotoa for us to munch on during the hike. It was supposed to be bars, but they fell apart. I'm thinking a repeat attempt is in order.

Other than that, I'm just excited to be going someplace new, just the two of us! Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

MULUB,
Taylor

Chicken (almost) Marsala

The dinner duties have been divvied up depending on who has night classes. It's been changing a lot lately because of our schedules changing. Often times, one of us gets home and we have a conversations something like... R: "I thought you were making dinner tonight."T: "I thought you were making dinner tonight." You get the picture. It's late and we're hungry and there's nothing made. Last week we had one of these nights and I decided that I would go ahead and make dinner, as Ryan had been making dinner a lot lately. I was completely uninspired to make anything, but of course we were both pretty hungry. So I consulted the usuals (smittenkitchen, 101 cookbooks, budget bytes, and sing for your supper) but nothing sounded oh my word, i have to make this right now good. Plus we didn't have too many ingredients in the house. I decided on Chicken Marsala after browsing Taste Spotting for inspiration (always does the trick). But of course, we don't like mushrooms and we didn't have actual Marsala. So I took a little from this and a little from that and the result was delicious!

Here's what I did for the two of us:

CHICKEN - Salt, pepper and flour two chicken pieces (bone in and skin on). Heat oil till hot. Sear on each side for 3 minutes. Remove from heat but keep them warm (I put ours on a plate in the toaster oven).

BACON - Reduce heat of the oil. Add chopped bacon. Brown. Remove from heat but keep warm (I put the pieces on the plate with the chicken in the toaster oven).

VEGGIES - Chop 1 onion and 3 peppers. Mince lots of garlic. Put veggies and garlic in the pan over medium low heat. Season. Add chicken. Cook until veggies are tender and chicken is almost done. Add a big handful of spinach, the bacon and about a cup of red wine. Cover. Simmer until ready.

I served this garlic mashed potatoes and lemony green beans. Everything was ready in about 30 minutes and it was delicious. Make sure to enjoy it with the rest of the wine! Even we were fancy and had wine from the bottle (not a box)!

Ryan's Back

That's right! Ryan is back to blogging. He should be posting at least one blog a week. So all y'all who prefer him to me, give him a hard time when he doesn't post enough!

MULUB,
Taylor