Pastelon

Last Saturday I woke up thinking about the ground beef that had been in the freezer for 10 days. Sort of random thought to be on my mind at 7am. Stuff just does not keep super well in the freezer here so we needed to use it up soon. Hamburgers in my family are sort of hit or miss.... with me and Melanie loving them and the others kind of not so much. What to do with this ground beef??...... Lightbulb goes off... Pastelon!

A pastelon is a Dominican version of lasagna. This is actually my 2nd time making pastelon. My first time was pretty yummy, but I got sick the next day. Honestly, I don't think the two were related, but my body associated the two so it took me 6 months to try it again. In March I bought a small piece of pastelon at the supermarket deli and it was yummy. I decided that I was over the taste aversion and ready to move on in my journey of Dominican cooking. Hurray!

First disclaimer... Typical Dominican Pastelon is with mashed plaintains. However, I found this recipe that won me over with fried Plaintains. Yep, more grease, but so delicious. I think this is more the PuertoRican version, but Shhhh.... don't tell my Dominican family.  So here is the link to the recipe that I used.  Gather your ingredients:

1lb of ground beef
3-4 eggs
1-2 tbsp tomato paste
several cloves of garlic
one onion
cilantro or recaito as it is called here aka cilantro ancho
1/4 cup of raisins
6-8 olives chopped ( I don't like olives, but they added so much flavor)
4 ripe plaintains (see below, these could have been more ripe but it's what we had on hand)

Chop all the vegetables. Add the chopped green pepper, onion, garlic and cilantro to the ground beef. Add 2 tbsp of vinegar.  Mix well. Heat 1-2 tbsp of oil on medium high heat and brown beef.  When close to brown add olives, raisins and the Goya seasoning if following the recipe link or any type of general seasoning. This is what we had on hand. This stuff is not good for you.... but when in Rome...

Next you are going to peel the plantains. Google this if needed. I can't offer any tips really, because I'm so bad at peeling plantains. Fortunately ripe plantains or easier to peel than green ones.

 Slice the plantain down the middle. Carefully peel away the peeling. Slice the plantains into strips.

 Heat oil and fry until beautiful golden yellow. My first batch were a little too golden aka burnt, but they still tasted so yummy. I actually used one extra plantain because I knew that I was sure to be snacking on these way before the Pastelon was ready



Butter pan generously. Layer the plantains first into the pan, followed by the ground beef, then cheese. Repeat again, being sure to end with plantains and cheese.  Crack 3 eggs. Mix with 2 tbsp of milk. Stir well and pour on top.

I used 2 mini pans because I couldn't find the 8x8 or 9x9 pan.  Bake in  oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Enjoy with a nice side salad!

I used 2 mini pans buy any 8x8 or 9x9 pan should work! 

Bake in  oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Enjoy with a nice side salad!

March Update .... Pictures!

It's April already... wow time flies!  This post will be less writing and more pictures. Here goes, March in review. Lots of love to you all!

Two teachers from school who went with us. Adrys and Monica

The beginning of March our foundation was invited to be on a local News Program.... Lo Buena is Noticia. The Good is News. Basically the host was sick of hearing so much bad news and started a news program to share the good things that are being done in the city. Awesome idea, huh.

Shhh... don't tell. While we were waiting I decided to practice for my future cooking show!

Take #777, I gave up on trying to get a good group shot.

 Our kids enjoyed 2 field trips this month... one to the Monument. Well, ok the official name is the The Monumento a los Héroes a la Restauración, but that is way too long so folks just call it The Monument. There is actually a lot of neat history about the Monument as it was originally built in 1944 by the dictator Trujillo. After his death rather than tear down the monument, as he really was a dictator whose rule is still felt in certain aspects of Dominican culture (read more here), the decision was made to rename the monument. 








Inside is a history museum that provided a good lesson for our little ones.  You will also note the Carnaval costumes in the background as our visit was right after Carnaval ended.  While there we also took advantage of kite flying season y subimos chichewas aka cometas aka kites!

Now, here are pictures of our other field trip... a walking trip to the local fire station and the water plant.   Francisco tried on the fireman's gear .... maybe it's a tad too big! The fireman did a little demo with the pole that the kids really enjoyed!

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Pre-Primario (kindergarten) lining up for the walk to the fire station and water plant. They were so eager to go that they made a straight line in no time at all. Major accomplishment for us!  This picture is minus 3-4 who missed out on the fun :(.  It's hard but they have to learn consequences right??. I still remember the first day when I thought I would never learn all 20 names. Wow, now I can tell who is still talking even with my eyes closed, I can tell you who is crying when I'm a couple of classrooms away and most times I can tell when they are being truthful and when they are not.  Don't let their cuteness fool you....  but I heart these little ones!




We take for granted clean drinking water. Drinking water comes in the large blue bottles for about 35 pesos each. This place, Proyecto Bernabe, was started by a mission group from Indiana. They provide clean, filtered water for 15 pesos each! We are glad to support their work to provide clean water to the Cienfuegos community. (read more here)






I really like doing this overview. It's amazing all the things that happen in a month that you forget about. I was scrolling through and ran across this picture of me and the pregnancy class. Unfortunately do to a schedule conflict I missed most of their classes... BUT I did make it to the last one and we played Newborn Jeopardy (thank you J. Oh and the Centering curriculum at LCHC). The ladies had a good time and I did too! Maternal child health has always been a love of mine.... I think I forgot how much!

There were lots of joyful fun in March, but there were some hard times too. Our community, Villa Rosa II, suffered a large house fire. The kids ran to greet us that morning, out of breath they began to tell the story. Fire.... big fire... bomberos came (firemen).... died.... hospital....crying.... sad.... The words tumbled out of their mouths.

After hearing the version from several little ones it began to make sense. An infant died in the fire and another child was in critical condition. The funeral was to be held the next day and of course the family was devastated. In a community like Villa Rosa most of the kids gathered with their families outside the house as it smoldered. You see, folks, don't have much to give, but what they do have is time. So, they gather and spend time with the family, lingering around, talking, sharing, reminiscing, crying. In some societies we try and shelter kids from this hurt, but I've learned over the last months that pain is a sad reality of their lives. They often will tell me of someone being shot, or 'tigeres' (gangsters/bad guys/i don't know the translation) who beat someone up, shot or cut someone, motorcycle accidents, death, sadness and pain is something they accept as normal. So, I try to let them process it, talk about it, hear them out as they try to make sense of life. And I pray for them, that God would heal their community, their land, their hearts. That God would shine his light over their lives and protect them from the dangers that are so prevalent and surround them with loving arms to embrace and reassure them along their journey.

Lastly, I will wrap up with a few pictures from Holy Week aka Semana Santa. I enjoyed a sunrise service outside the city with a lovely group of folks from Santiago. We sang hymns and shared in communion to celebrate that Christ has risen! Cristo ha resucitado!  Amen!

Gazing at the beautiful sunrise!