Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Chef Nevarez


What an exciting weekend! To begin, Saturday was our day of cooking. We found out last Wednesday on our way to Longhorn Steakhouse when S Carmen casually mentioned that Ash and I were going to cook on Saturday for lunch. What a pleasant surprise right? Wrong! Ashley and I looked at each other with the expression of "What the..? What are we going to cook?" on our face. I quickly panicked as I tried to think of "meals" I can cook. (Quick note: all the sisters expressed how much they LOVED Mexican food upon our arrival three weeks ago and asked if we could cook anything). I thought, "Wow, they are really going to test us!" So after dinner that day, Ash and I taked about all the possible meals we could make without burning down the house, or at least the kitchen. We decided to make Green Chicken Enchiladas with traditional Mexican rice and beans, guacamole, chips and chocolate cake for dessert. On Friday when we went grocery shopping for all of the last minute ingredients, we discovered that Ralph's in Puerto Rico did not carry Enchilada sauce (who are we kidding, we weren't going to make it from scrach; I regrettably can't cook beans..yet) so we switched to plan B. Instead of Enchiladas, we were going to make Chicken tacos.
    Saturday morning, we started bright and early because in case anything happened, we had plenty of time to fix it. So as the sisters were starting their Chapter Meeting (thats the reason we were cooking) we started chopping in the kitchen. Ash startd with the cake and I started with the chips. I cut the tortillas in pretty little triangles and fried them up. Some were perfect, some were "tanned" and some a little roasted, but they were all delicious! Then I began the guacamole (my favorite). Ashley had already cut the cilantro, onions, tomato, and limes so my job was to smash the avocados, mix everything and add salt. MMMmmm (my mouth is watery just thinking about it!). Meanwhile Ashley is preparing the rice (which was AMAZING) and warming up the beans. Yeah, we didn't cook the beans from scrach; it takes too long. Any ways, finally we prepared the chicken and grilled it. We set up the table, fixed the food buffet style, and were done right at noon, just in time for lunch. Or so we thought. Usually, we eat lunch at noon but no one said we were having lunch at noon that Saturday. So we waited... and waited.... and waited. We wondered how long can a Chapter Meeting be? The sisters must be starving by now. So at 12:45 sharp, the sisters enter the kitchen. They compliment the smells and the looks of the food but, I just want them to taste the actual food. I was a bit nervous. When Ashley and I entered the dinning room, all the sisters began to compliment the actual food. We were extremely pleased by they compliments. They went something like, "It's so GOOOOD", "I've never had rice this delicious", "The chips are great", etc. Boy, was I happy. And then the unexpected happened. S Mary Ruth said she wanted us to cook for her birthday party. Since S Mary Ruth and S Vivian are born on the same month, S Vivian said we can cook for her too. And then, S Rufina (the sister who cooks most of the time) said that she didn't know who was going to cook on her birthday, but it wasn't going to be her. Wow! I was a bit shocked they liked it that much. Not that I expected the food to taste nasty or anything but I was really really happy they liked it so much. Some of the sisters even got up for seconds! So once again, Ash and I exchange that same look as we did when we found out we were cooking in the first place.  Last but not least, the Devil's Chocolate Cake! What a way to end a meal! I'll just say that some of the sisters took a nap after this lunch.
    Then Saturday evening, Ash and I went out with Yvone and her husband Ceasar (a couple that the sisters have know for almost a decate and are in the same choir group). They took us out to El Conquistador resort in Fajardo. I went to the casino for the first time and played on the slot machines. Those are the only machines I understood. All in all, it was a good evening of just being out and in a new enviroment. Then on Sunday, Ash and I went to mass in the morning and then spent the whole afternoon in Plaza Las Americas. Its like a smaller version of the Mall of America with a little over 300 stores. Walking around and seeing all the familiar stores made me feel as if I was 'home" for a bit. Again, it was nice to just be out and about, walking, people watching, and doing a little shopping. It was a great and enjoyable weekend and we found out that this weekend might be full of excitement as well.
       S Maria's nephew is getting married this weekend and S Mary Ruth told me that we might be going along with her.  The wedding is in Maria's hometown of Mayaguez. Mayaguez is located on the west side of the island and rumor has it that the best beaches are on the west! So i'll just wait and see what happens next... Till then, toodles!

1 comment:

  1. Just call me Cinderella!

    BAHHAHHAHA this post almost made me CHOKE!! As you could hear from across our bedroom...

    LOL next time they are late for lunch we are ringing that prayer bell GIRL!

    And we should have made the food nasty so we don't have to cook anymore. Oh well. JK. You are so right, it was nice to know that they enjoyed it! hopefully they weren't lying!

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