Cold Spinach Dip

This one's a quickie, just so I don't forget. I was dying for some dip for my plain lays potato chips and realized that it must be easy to whip one up. I found a ton of recipes when I googled 'cold spinach dip' but I didn't really feel like getting that involved. This is a recipe to play with - maybe add in caramelized onions and other seasonings!

Dip, baby!

• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 1/2 cup Casan crem (closest thing to sour cream we've got)
• 1 T. mayonaise
• Salt & pepper to taste (garlic salt, if preferred)

Blend until dip-able!

Oatmeal Craisin Cookies

Yep, I'm still here - I bet you thought I'd punked out and left Argentina. Nah, I'm just hiding in my little apartment...working away. But today I stopped to make a taste of home and use up the rest of my craisin stash. My mom mentioned a similar recipe and said that she'd send it but I couldn't wait - so I just modified the Quaker recipe and gobbled these up! This recipe is for only half of a batch - 18 cookies.

Oatmeal Craisin Cookies

• 3/4 c. flour (I used wheat flour from Coto but it's not whole wheat so use your best judgement if you incorporate wheat flour. Also, if you're using Argentine flour you'll need to add 2 T. more)
• 1/4 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 1/2 c. quick oats
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 113 grams butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/2 t. vanilla
• 1/2 c. dried cranberries

Whisk together flour, bs, bp, cinnamon, salt and oats - set aside. Cream butter and sugars, add egg and vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients until incorporated (batter will be slightly dry), mix in craisins. Drop spoonfuls onto non-stick cookie sheet and bake 12 minutes at 180C (350F).

Lupines and Popcorn!

A while back, Katie of Seashells & Sunflowers, wrote a post about Argentine street snacks. One of my favorites, lupines, was missing and no one seemed to know what they were. Well, finally I managed to snap a photo before devouring a package. It seems, though, that I may be one of a very few number of people who actually like these - many of Guille's friends had never even seen them. It's a seed that's been soaked and salted, quite similar to edamame. You have to bite the casing and pop the seed out. Here, Guille demonstrates the proper way to bite:

Here are some casings separate from the inner seed:

I imagine that lupines are totally good for you so grab some from a street vendor - most popcorn vendors sell them but you'll probably have to ask - they'll likely be kept in a cooler. And help me start the lupines revolution!

Eating popcorn in Argentina means eating a sweet, sugary snack. Pochoclo or pororo (not sure why there are two words) is made and sold by street vendors, and is impossible to ignore once you've smelled that delicious melting sugar. And you can make it at home using the old shake-it-over-the-stove method. I vaguely remember my mother making popcorn this way in the early 80s before an air-popper, and later microwave popcorn, took over.

Sweet Popcorn

• Vegetable Oil (enough to coat the bottom of your pot, about 2-3 T.)
• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• 1-2 cups sugar

Heat oil over med-high heat in a large pot, add a few kernels and wait until they pop. Add all of the kernels and cover the pot. Once you hear popping, start shaking the pot across the burner, but allow it to rest on the burner for a few seconds at a time. Occasionally let out some steam. Once most of the kernels have popped add half a cup of sugar, cover and shake.

Once the popping has slowed to one or two seconds between pops add more sugar (to your taste), lower the heat to medium, and stir continuously with a wooden spoon - allowing the sugar to melt onto the popped corn. You may need to remove from the heat, cover, and allow the sugar to melt before stirring again.

Also, Diego invites you to light his fire.

Día Nacional de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia

Today is a memorial day of sorts, translated to Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice. An Argentine's Facebook page looks like a ghost town today - everyone has taken down their profile pictures in remembrance of the 30,000 Argentines who disappeared during the Dirty War. Going Local Travel also blogged about this Facebook phenomenon here. NPR ran a recent story on on the war's continued effects here.

The holiday is new, created a few years ago, but I wonder if it's enough to really prevent those human rights violations from occurring again. The day's motto 'Nunca Mas' (Never Again) is, I think, misleading. While the holiday might serve as a reminder and a warning against mass atrocities, it's commonplace to find such on a smaller scale in daily life. I've complained about the overwhelming feeling of distrust for the police and justice system in this country, and the Argentine Post recently reported on the high level of corruption that Argentines believe is inherent in the political process. The outcome of this attitude is complete disrespect for government and authority, and sadly, for the holiday itself. Many Argentines hit the bars and clubs last night, taking advantage of the chance to sleep in. I know this because the streets were full of drunk, disrespectful, shouting people throughout the morning.

To really translate the message of remembrance into Argentine life would involve demanding truth and justice today. We need to replace Argentine cynicism with expectations. We should EXPECT more from all levels of government and stop ignoring the injustices that occur so frequently around us. We have to stop letting ignorant and abusive people and companies take advantage of us. We have to reclaim the right to walk down the street without being robbed, beaten, sexually harassed, or electrocuted by faulty power lines. I wonder what those 30,000 'disappeared' would have thought about the current situation here. They were a threat to the dictorial state because they read, they had ideas, and they knew the difference between right and wrong. Don't ignore the wrong Argentina! Pretending that you or your friends weren't robbed is today's equivalent of pretending that your neighbor didn't disappear. I know of one situation in which a person was robbed at gunpoint and then recognized the robber as a security guard at a grocery store - the robbery was not reported. Today's situation can easily escalate again to great injustice.

Today is meant to honor the memory of the disappeared - to do so, we have to protect our small, seemingly miniscule rights. Silence is not going to save you Argentina, it's smothering you.

Eat, Drink, and be Green!

image from drinks are on me

This year I'm taking it easy on the green. Just a simple day with Irish Car Bomb cupcakes (and beer) to celebrate. I've found two amazing, similar recipes from Smitten Kitchen and Drinks are on Me that each feature a yummy Guinness-based chocolate batter.

I also came across the Working Holiday Agreement, which allows students and recent grads from Ireland and the US to live and work in each others' country for a year. Wish I would have known about this sooner! Still, thought it would be nice to pass along today.

Saint Patrick was a gentleman,

Who through strategy and stealth,

Drove all the snakes from Ireland,

Here’s a toasting to his health.

But not too many toastings

Lest you lose yourself and then

Forget the good Saint Patrick

And see all those snakes again.

Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!

Permanent Residency Remains Temporary

Well, the immigration office's 'system' is apparently functioning again. I know this because they printed out a fee page which required me to pay 10 pesos to renew my temporary permanent residence status for another 3 months. Of course, in order to pay the fee I had to go stand in a line at a bank and then return to the immigration office. We were really upset that they charged us a fee to renew this crappy status when they openly admit that we committed no wrongdoing. It's up to the Argentine police to check my INTERPOL records, but they're busy and haven't gotten around to it. However, when we said that this was unfair they blamed me for being American - "Your country is the only one that doesn't sign police records, so..." - so what?!? So I deserve this delay and additional fee because you ask for things that you won't accept and you blame me for your process?? And they said that I would have to pay the fee for each renewal, hinting at the fact that I probably won't be getting permanent residency in 3 months either. Thanks Argentina. You're a real pal.

Permanent Residency Update

Bureaucracy in this country is a pain in my ass. Listen, I know that it's a pain everywhere so this isn't just me venting about Argentina - I'm simply passing my experience along.

As I mentioned, upon complete submission of my documents and proof of marriage to an Argentine I was issued a temporary version of permanent residency - which seems to be of absolutely no use since I couldn't even get a Carrefour credit card without a DNI. Well, being temporary, it's expiring and I should have been issued the permanent version by now. We've checked with immigration several times and they finally admitted that the FBI record requirement is a hoax. Since the FBI doesn't sign the Good Conduct Certificate, it's unacceptable to this country. However, they KNOW that the FBI doesn't provide a signature but they still make you go through the hassle of getting the information anyway. Really, they're checking my INTERPOL records to verify that I'm not an international criminal and apparently this is the job of the Argentine police. However, it seems to take a very long time for someone to enter my name into the online database to do this search so they're going to issue me another temporary permanent residency for 3 months. However, we've been twice this week and their system has been 'down' so we'll just have to go back next week.

Why does this matter? It matters because I can't apply for a DNI - the Argentine equivalent of a social security number - without permanent residency. And without a DNI (or proof of starting the DNI process) I can't file a Petition for Alien Relative (the first step in the US immigration visa process) at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires. I'd have to file in the States. (According to the 'attached eligibility requirements' link on the embassy's site.)

In addition, we're having trouble getting a marriage book - it's like an ID for proving your nuptials - that everyone has to pay for and have. Above is a picture of us posing with a prop marriage book. Apparently, they've been out of stock for, oh, several years now. Every now and then they'll get a shipment but it seems these are usually doled out to friends of the Registro's workers. Guille went in and confronted them about this today. They said that they're first come first served. Not in the order that you get married, but in the sense that if you happen to pop by one day when these rare surprise shipments arrive then of course they'll give you one, if there are any left. I mean, why would they bother to let you know that something of importance that you paid for was available? Or, better yet, why would they bother to actually mail it to you? These are questions that are, honestly, silly to ask.

C'est la vie...or rather, Es la vida.