North American Expats Retire to Chile - The Land of Rainbows and Waterfalls: May 2014

Friday, May 30, 2014

4.9 Earth Quake In Chile

You can almost see the Hobbits running around

Last night we had an earth quake that shook the house. It was our first such experience since we have been here in Chile. When we lived in Gaffney South Carolina we had a small earth quake as well but it was so slight that we barely felt the shake.

At 11:30 pm last night the earth quake shook the house where we are living. It was mild and almost amusing. Lori thought that it was Andrew shaking the house with his big self upstairs. For those of you who do not know Andrew is 15 years old and 6 foot 2 inches tall, so he can shake the house.

In either case it was no big deal. The epicenter was about 100 miles north of us in Rio Bueno which like most of the south of Chile is rural. Keep in mind that here in Chile we may have one earth quake every day or once a week. So there are many small earth quakes here and it is just a part of life in rural Chile, which is another reason why one should not live in the city.

Lots of rain means lots of rainbows

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Stuffed Chilean Pork Loin

Here is what I made for Sunday dinner. The pork loins here are excellent. They are as good as the meat at Browns Butcher Shop in Gaffney South Carolina. Real tender and they cook up juicy. The loin cost me about the same as $6.00 U.S.

Before sliced and served up fresh out of the oven

So I bought a large half of a loin about 14 inches long and flayed it out into a large sheet about 1 and a half inches thick.

On the side I diced some onions, mushrooms, celery top, garlic, savory carrots, and sauteed them in a large frying pan with olive oil and a little sesame seed oil till they were all tender.

I had some home made bread that Lori had set out to dry and i took these loaf ends and broke them up into large chunks, being careful not to waste the crumbs. I put all of this old bread into a bowl and put it to the side. I sliced some Queso Fundo or farm cheese in nice large slim lengths and set this aside as well.

Once the veggies had started to caramelize, I took some red wine and de-glazed the pan so that I was not wasting that good flavor from the saute. I smothered the day old bread that I had earlier set aside with the onions, carrots, and wine saute.

I placed the rolled out juicy pork loin on the chopping block in a large cooking platter. I seasoned what would be the inside of the roll with salt pepper and some olive oil. I spread out the bread and saute contents evenly over the pork loin topped it with the cheese slices, and then rolled and tied up with cotton string the whole mess of goodness to recreate the pork loin in its new and improved reconstruction.

The whole loin, with the excess stuffing around the edges, was placed into the oven at 350 degrees for about 35 to 45 min. Once fully cooked and crispy browned on the outside, I set the loin aside for about 8 min to rest. Before slicing into portions, I drizzled some olive oil over the top.

I served up the loin with hot buttered and seasoned home made pasta noodles, and a healthy glass of red wine.

Sliced and ready to put on the table

Here is our quick video on the pork loin. I am sorry I did not have time to film the preparation of the meal.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Here is some land we looked at buying - Chiriuco

A friend of ours told us about and took us to look at a parcel that is available for Sale. Here are the pictures;

Road in front of land going north

Road in front of land going south

Open pasture about 1/2 of land

Small building

Thomas looking at the woods

Of course there is always a view in Chile

I was able to write the owner who is a north american who no longer lives in Chile and he gave me permission to spread the word about his property.

The land was a little too small for Lori and I as we would like to have a minimum of 20 acres so that we can be more self sufficient with our small farm / fundo.

This Parcel has a total of +/-6.5 acres.

There is a large creek that borders the north side and runs with good water all the year long.

The property is about half wooded and half open pasture.

The pasture is good and level and has a good stand of fescue grass.

The wooded areas have good large hardwood trees which would be more than sufficient to make enough lumber to build a large house, barns and fences, and still have plenty of woods left.

It appeared the property was fenced

It had public electricity available and needed a well

The pasture area had no standing water or wet areas and there was good drainage.

It was a beautiful parcel that was so very peaceful and quite. The air was cool, fresh and clean. It was a rainy day so we could not check out the views, but every thing here has a view........ even the ones that do not have a view.

We would have scooped it up but it was just too small, but it remains an option.

If you are interested just let me know and I will put you in touch with the property owner and you can discuss it further.

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