Back in Amsterdam

We are back from our trip I will post some pictures later this week. Thank you to all the ones that have sent us Christmas cards.. It makes our room look so cute!
My favorite things when returning home
1. Sleeping in my bed
2. Tasty Food

3. being potato couches
We were brave enough to leave the house and discovered frozen canals


with all our love Happy New Year hope to see you all soon

Fully satisfied

One of the things that I miss the most about San Francisco is Thai food. I have tried to cook Thai food before but have not been fully satisfied until TODAY! Yes, ladies and gentleman let me introduce you to my favorite dish Lemongrass coconut curry chicken with jasmine rice. I used 3 teaspoons of green curry paste that gave the dish a good kick, also I added a whole tablespoon of ginger, which honestly I was afraid that it would ended up very strong but it was perfect.




Look at that delicious yellow sauce that made the rice so moist. Yummy!




To finish up my lunch I started looking at other recipes and I came across the ultimate peanut butter sandwich. I saw the video to surprise Cristian with a nice peanut butter and jelly. The sandwich looked so good I had to tried it. So I did.. and as a foreign I have to say yummy again..doesn't it look good?

Lunch was pretty good today!

My first job in Amsterdam

I had the idea of doing community service once a week. In the community service office, I was offered this opportunity to help with kids and the environment. Today I had my first visit, I arrived to a farm in the middle of the city. The farm is a petting zoo where they have guinea pigs, roosters, chickens, turkeys, pigs, bunnies, goats and ponies. My job is to help kids get on top of the pony and lead the pony around the circle of mud. Because kids don't ride ponies in the snow I will start my community service in January.. Here are some pictures of the petting zoo..

One of the ponies
This is a huge pig...


and a big rooster.. look at his claws

"When good Americans die they go to Paris.”

Quote by Oscar Wilde.

After spending a week an a half with grandma in Amsterdam while Cristian was in Chile..Grandma was begging me to take her to Paris. For some reason I was sure I didn't want to go.. I just felt it was not the right time for Paris.. Yes, call me crazy but I feel there is right moment for every city and right now in my life, Paris was not on the list. Grandma begged and begged for me to take her. So finally I said yes. When I was looking for tickets, hotels, etc.. I realized Cristian took my passport to Chile. Who does that?? I felt that time was agreeing with me.. It is not time for Paris. My grandma was very upset and Cristian ended up mailing my passport for us to go.

I was going to Paris... So highlights of the trip

1. Food was absolutely awesome.. I used this book "Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris" one of Lina's frequent blogs to look for unique food.

2. Nike Paris. the store was AWESOME it has one of the four Nike ID labs in the world.. Most of the collection at the store was sportswear and just a few athletic wear for futbol and other sports. The ROSA soccer shoes were on display and they were powerful. Their walls were full of Nike ID designs from other people which was so inspiring.. it was a museum of clothes.



3. Patrick Demarchelier's photography exposition, Fashion photographer.. here are some of the famous pictures.





4. and the top attractions of Paris for every tourist..
















At the end it was a wonderful trip with grandma even though we got robbed, fell on the metro, got lost, got into fights.. but at the end "in Paris you learn Wit", - Virgil Thomson

“The stomach carries the heart"

Yesterday I cooked Pumpking soup.. that is right it is pumpKING because it turned out to be very tasty. After doing some research on the food network I wasn't convinced by any of the recipes. I decided to saute bacon, onions, garlic and some roasted bell peppers. Then add the chicken stock with some cilantro leaves. While that was cooking I roasted the pumpking and sprinkled some ginger over and drizzle EVOO. After the pumpking was roasted, I added it to the soup and let is simmer for a 1/2 hour.. then served it with some cheese and VOILA.

Here are some pictures...

He looks Happy!

Point back at the US

When I am about to write the blog I look at the pictures taken throughout the week to recall any specific events that you should know about. My source failed me this week because we didn't take that many, just a few that you will see at the end of the blog. So just as the banking system is poitning back at the US we will do the same at pointing and updating you in how our family is doing back in the US.

To start we want to show you our beautiful niece Hannah. She Look how big and cute.. Isn't she adorable?

Lina is having her baby Shower this weekend and she is showing the cuttest belly. Less than a month ago she was barely showing but now she has a bigger bump.
Just some pictures from these week. We had a beer tasting festival in our room. From left to right the percentage of alcohol increased from 5% to 12%. The last one on the right tasted sooo bad. We found a winner and that is the burgundy Bavaria can. It tasked just like Jeremia Red at BJ'S.

With the lack of Mexican food and avocatos.. we decided to try to make a 7-layer dip and it came out pretty good.

To finished up the week we had another Latino Flocking night. We cooked Arepas (which are corn-based bread from Colombia and Venezuela)
Some pictures from the event: The Cheff, Daibory from Venezuela

The boys. From left to righ Cristian-Chile, Miguel-Venezuela, Josue-Mexico, Bruno-Mexico, JP-Argentina

Yummy Arepas
Me and Gaby

The whole group

Tonight Meik is coming to see us and then on Wednesday we will go back with him to Bremen. As the holidays are approaching we are trying to figure out where to go. I want to either go to Slovenia, Budapest and Istanbul.. and Cristian wants to do either London.. Any voters? Where should we go?

Love,

Kika