I think this is my first real ingredient-through-finished-dish recipe post I've done in Uruguay! Wow, and it's only taken me 9 months! It's silly it's taken me so long, but better late than never.

I'm woefully behind on posts, so I'm trying to conjure up the excitement I felt last December when we did actually get our van. :)

On December 1st we went with our landlord, Guillermo, and saw this little beauty on the floor of Montossi Motors in Maldonado. We really loved it at first sight and loved it even more when we found out the price! It was $14,500. It was going to be a tight squeeze for us, but we were thankful that we could afford it.

If you live in the departmento of Maldonado in Uruguay and you have not applied for residency yet, you are allowed a 90 day extension to the 90 day tourist visa you are given when you enter the country. Actually, you are allowed one extension whichever departmento you live in, but I live in Maldonado, so this post is about the Maldonado office.

Last night we went to the beach to watch the sun set. The sun has moved far enough now that we can see it set over the ocean from the beach in front of our house. Previously it would set over the peninsula that is Punta Ballena. We went down with our beach mats and some mate. It was a great experience and a great lead-in to Thanksgiving.

I saw this article a while back and meant to post it, but never got around to it. NPR interviewed a fellow Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. She does a great job of articulating why raw milk is worth it in every way to her family.

Drinking Raw Milk Is Worth The Risk, Advocates Say

I think I may have posted something similar to this a long time ago. I heard about the practice years ago so I started sprinkling raw milk on all my raised garden beds every spring before planting. I have no doubt in my mind that simple step increased the health and productivity of my plants. There was no comparison, really. I mean, how else are you going to pull in 12 GALLONS of carrots from a plot 4'x6'? Besides, what could be a more natural, organic soil amendment than grass fed raw milk? :)

Read the article. It's very interesting.

I had to share this excellent video about Uruguay. Thanks to Brad and Lisa at UR MOVING WHERE?!?! for finding it!
I really love how it brings in so many aspects of life here in Uruguay. I guess it's just a video to bring in more residents, but even so, it's well done and quite interesting.

Enjoy!

A long, long time ago...1991 to be exact, I had the opportunity to go visit my sister while she was living in Brussels. I worked really hard babysitting all summer long for my other sister and by the end of summer I made enough to buy my own ticket. I was 15 years-old, a Freshman in high school, and I had the opportunity to make such a great trip. I got permission to leave school for a month. I left in the beginning of October and arrived back home on the 30th, the day before a bad blizzard that would have kept me in Chicago had I flown a day later.

Some days ago this article was brought to my attention: Five Things You Need To Know About Uruguay . While the writer assures the reader that he "loves" Uruguay, he's still pretty snarky in his comments about this great country. I took the time to write down some facts whereas he took the time to make some assumptions.

For our 9th anniversary, about a month after we arrived in Uruguay, we decided to venture out to find the restaurant La Huella (it means, a "print" - footprint, fingerprint, etc.) as featured in the Uruguay episode of "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations - Collection Four" .