21 Oct 2005- updated, please read!!

So I made a pizza today. But first I had to get ingredients, and there are no rainbow foods around here. So I went to the market. I strolled through the meat section and tried to identify what animal (and what anatomy of the animal) was hanging from hooks- of course not refrigerated. It smelled like my post mortem class in vet school. I dont even want to mention the seafood section- keep in mind Cuenca is not near to the coast.

In the fresh fruit and veggie section (which was too close to the fly-ridden meat, in my opinion), I tried to communicate that no I did not want 3 pounds of tomatoes, that I wanted 3 tomatoes. I ended up with a little more garlic than I wanted, but who cares when it is 25 cents for a years worth. I managed to find some yeast and flour (you must be careful to get wheat flour, because there are several types of flour). There are not many olives around, and they are expensive. Cheese is easy to find.

I brought all my ingredients home and that is when the fun started. Everyone knows what its like to cook in someone elses kitchen, well try it when you have to taste all the ingredients to be sure of what you are adding. The salt is powdery, the sugar is in large granules, who knows what the heck the spices are. And the oven- hmm no numbers on the dial except 250 and 150- must be in celsius, right? So while I was waiting for the crust to rise, cooking some garlic and onions, and contemplating the stove, a huge hail and thunderstorm exploded above the city (hail is apparently common here).

No I did not grow up in the 50s (and never cooked at my great grandmas house) and so could not figure out how to light the dang stove. So I went to go try to ask the receptionist for help. In the front office, however, there was rain pouring through the broken roof onto the floor pretty much like a waterfall, so I decided to try to figure out the stove on my own. After 15-20 minutes of throwing a burning piece of newspaper into the oven, no matches here folks- I finally figured out that there was a little hole in the base of the stove. Despite the chaos outside I opened the kitchen door to let the smoke out.

Ok first mission accomplished. Lets not undercook something- microbes are worse than a little char-so I turned the stove up all the way and threw the pizza in.

You may think with all this that the pizza was ruined, or gross. Neither. It was fabulous. No more rice for me tonight!!! However the oven must have been in farenheit (or the elevation had something to do with it) because it took a good hour and a half to cook the pizza. By that time the hail and rain stopped, the waterfall ceased, and I could kick back and enjoy my pizza.