My Suede Pear is a Quince! That is all.

Except to ask, "What is a runcible spoon with which to eat this quince?"

Food! Are we in heaven?

Ceviche and crusty bread in a seaside town. Zoom in on all the deliciousness in this yummy dish: bits of all kinds of seafood in a tangy brine.

 Yes, those are green beans, not the bell peppers that I thought I was getting from the picture on the menu: twice! Liked them both times, too.

 Fresh juice everywhere. Just imagine raspberries blended up into a liquid. That's it. And pebre (pico de gallo--rather spicy) instead of fry sauce for those papas! 

 The mother of the farm's security guard made this "pan de campo" for us. Crusty, flavorful and baked in her horno. Smear avocado on a slice of this bread with tomatoes, onions, salt and pepper for a fabulous supper.

 The day's shopping trip--to one of the produce stands that line the roads here. Strawberries, raspberries, basil, potatoes, plums, lemons, avocado and melon jelly!

Here's a woman baking empanadas in one of two adobe hornos (ovens). There's a little door near the ground where wood is placed and a fire heats the food above it. We went to a nearby town to see if we could find a huaso (cowboy) hat for our wall. We didn't find a hat, but there were many restaurants to choose from. We decided to stop at this little hole-in-the-wall place and were not disappointed. Just watching her make the empanadas and smelling the wood-fire baking the food was worth the trip there. I ordered the empanada and Jay ordered pan de choclo, a quiche-like dish with a yummy crust and a corn filling.

Now the tuna update: prickly pear fruit. They are in season now, and are juicy and fairly sweet. People buy them by the bagful. I understand they are picked in the morning when the thorny things are less thorny and then the gunny-sacks they put them in removes the small pricklies. The seeds are hard and many, but I think people just swallow them down. I've had many slices and quite like them. The sliced ones are on the plate beside a fruit called membrillo, which looks like a suede pear. The suede coating rubs off and then you can eat it like an apple. It's kind of sour and goes well with salt. It also has the texture of cellulose but with the mouth-puckering factor of alum. It must be an acquired taste. I'll keep trying as they get riper, but don't think they are going to be something I buy. We have plenTY on two trees!

"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." Robert Louis Stevenson

My Little Redhead

Our Julianne is a big bargain shopper. Savers is her Nordstrom, and she finds some pretty good stuff, too. Once, at DownEast, she found the perfect pillowcases for her daughter's bedroom: perfect color, all cotton, very nice. The monogram didn't matter for their function, but when she got home and presented them to Claire, Claire wanted to know, "What does MLR stand for?" Just a quick as that, Julianne calmly said, "It stands for My Little Redhead." It has become a favorite nickname for this little redhead.

Well, Julianne is my little redhead, and she's likely going to lose that incomparable, gleaming, just curly enough strawberry-blonde hair to chemotherapy. She has been diagnosed with Hodgkins and we are celebrating at the prayers-answered miracle that this is. Nothing worse? Ha! We laugh at lymphoma. Seriously, the menu had nothing better and a lot worse options. 

She has tons of wonderful friends and neighbors and of course, six siblings who stand ready to help in every way they can....and have thought of things I wouldn't have already. We are so appreciative of your prayers and kindnesses and concern. Having served a mission herself, she wants us to stay here, and truly, we feel a new motivation to be the best missionaries we can be; to make this time away from our loved ones count, and to try to say thank you for the Lord's miracles--particularly this one--in our lives. 
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Here's a picture of the patient with the fabulous hair during her first chemotherapy, with Saundra, the doctor known for her glamor (and her gift of compassion) checking up on her. It's going to be a brutal six months, but this is the girl who runs marathons in downpours, jumps into a neighbors' yard with a snarling dog to get a runaway ball and prays our old van up the mountain in Colorado when nothing else would get it going. We know this territory. We can do this.