It's the Great Pumpkin...

Pumpkins.  They come in all shapes, sizes and colors and all told, there are about 50 different varieties.  There are pumpkin varieties just for making pies (The Cinderella, Sugar Pie and Blue Hubbard), Stew and Soup Pumpkins (Red Kuri and Kobacha) and even varieties that make great stuffing (The Acorn and Sweet Dumpling).  But if you are a tried and true American at Halloween and are looking to carve a pumpkin, and roast some seeds, you really are looking for just one type (or offspring of the variety) and that is the Jack-O-Lantern.  But I live in Chile and it is not pumpkin season here.  We are in the middle of Spring, not fall.  Which means you won't find them growing locally, and finding an imported Jack-O-Lantern is like trying to find, well, it's like trying to find anything else that is typically American - almost impossible.  I searched a couple of stores for them and finally found something close to what I was looking for.

Not perfect.  But pretty good.  If you could get over the fact that there was no way a knife was ever going to be able to actually carve them.  They are hard as rocks.  But, no worries here.  My girls are too little to wield knives anyway.  So I brought out the markers, the stickers and a sharpie.  I asked them each what kind of face they wanted me to draw and then let them be as creative as they wanted.  We had a great time and I don't think it even phased them that the pumpkins were different.

Stinkerbell went with a happy face.

 

MadHatter went with a scary face...Just like hers.

BTW, a small piece of trivia the largest pumpkin on record weighed in at 1810 lbs. and came from Wisconsin, she types with a bit of pride.

Colchagua, the Kids Version

Our mini-vacation to Colchagua (Santa Cruz) was a lot of wine as I said in my last post, but it was also a lot of great family time.  We know that visiting wineries isn't on the top of the girls list of favorite things so we do our best to make it fun while we are there (carriage rides and cable cars, and a few museums) and we add in a lot of fresh air and free spaces to play.  It does help that the hotel had a playground and so did some of the restaurants.  Kudos to Chile because so many of their restaurants have open air playgrounds for the kids. So, a typically adult vacation of wine tasting was turned into an adventure for the girls. And from the look of the pictures I brought home with me, I think we succeeded.  Enjoy! (BTW - if you click on the pictures, another window will pop up and you can see them better, and in slideshow format).

 

Ready to be on her way!

 

 

That was one good lunch!

Spending her down time doing her favorite thing - coloring!

 

B told them to run to the sign and back...both started strong, but turned around here and said -ALL the way?

MadHatter always loses it after the one good picture.  But hey, I at least get the one good one, right?

Posing the way only Stinkerbell can.

Blowing kisses for Papa!  She said she had so much fun!

Red, Red Wine...

I never thought these words would come out of my mouth (or my computer keyboard, as the case may be) but I think I have had enough wine to last me awhile.  A long while.  Don't get me wrong, I still love my wine.  But after spending 3 1/2 days touring wineries and having wine with lunch and dinner, I think we need a break from each other.  Especially the reds.  I am just not as young as I once was and starting to drink at 10 am has lost it's appeal.  And I know that tasting is supposed to be just "tasting" and not "drinking", but it just doesn't work that way, at least not for me.  I can't see throwing away something that tastes so good.  And it did taste good.  Oh. so. good.

The Colchagua Valley lived up to it's reputation and then some.  If you haven't heard of their reputation I will summarize -  the valley's wines were ranked #2 in the world by Wine Spectator Magazine in 2004 and it was Wine Enthusiast's Wine Region of the Year in 2005.  Wines from the region have made the list every year since.  But that is all lost on me.  As much as I love wine, I am no connoisseur.  I have drunk enough wine in my time to know what I like, don't like and will never drink again, but I couldn't tell you why.  I like to call myself a "wine slut"...I will try anything once.   These were not my first tastings, but some of my first tours, since in Southern California, wine tasting rarely consists of anything more than walking in, paying for your glass, and tasting at your discretion.  The person behind the counter is knowledgeable, but you aren't really there to learn too much, you are there to get in your drinks and move on.  Not in Chile.  Here, they take their tasting seriously, and not a single drop is going to pass over your palate, until you have appreciated all the work that went into making the wine.  Rightly so.  There is a lot of work and time involved...though I am sure I am still underestimating it as all but one of my tours was conducted in Spanish.  I learned a lot though, including the fact that I can follow about 90% of a wine tour, given in Spanish, even after the equivalent of about a bottle of red.  And all you were getting out of Colchagua was a red.  (The whites are made in another location about 1 1/2 hours from Santiago in a Valley called Casablanca).

I love the Reds - all of them.  (I even named my cat Shiraz).  And I added a new one to the list this week - the Carmenere.  It is the signature wine of Chile.  The grape was thought to be extinct in the mid-19th century when a nasty bug destroyed it in Europe.  It then reappeared about 100 years later in Chile, unknowingly mixed in with a crop of Merlot vines that were brought in to the country.  It has thrived ever since because of the perfect combination of climate, soil and long growing season.  It is one of the deepest, darkest and purplest (is that a word?) of grapes and the end product can be compared to a Meaty Merlot with a hint of Spicy Cabernet (I told you, I learned something!).   If you can get your hands on the Montes' Purple Angel (this means you, Luciana, Nichole and Lisa) please, get a couple of bottles.  If you don't care for it, no worries, I will drink them for you when we come back to visit!  Because perhaps the saddest part (for me, not for most of you), is that I live in Chile where it is very hard to get your hands on the best of Chilean wines.  They export most of it.  And with a 35% IVA/Tax rate, it is cheaper to buy the best of Chile in the USA anyway.

But the trip wasn't all about the wine.  OK, yes it was, but it was also a family trip so we hit 2 museums, did a couple of carriage rides, a cable car and spent a lot of quality time just playing around as a family.  In kid terms, it means that they had no idea that they were on an adult vacation and had a great time.  I took a ton of pictures to prove it, but can't possibly post all of them here.  Today I am going to post the "winery" pictures...tomorrow, the fun family snaps.

If you find yourself in Chile, I do recommend a trip to Colchagua.  Next month, we are off to Mendoza in Argentina. Maybe by then I will be willing to drink wine again...

If you can get a bottle of the Purple Angel, pick one up...you won't be disappointed.

I loved the open barrel design of the winery!  

Designed to look like the Guggenheim staircase, but practical too.  This is a 6 story, gravity fed winery and this gets you from floor to floor.  It is also one of the reasons they don't allow kids (we got lucky and even got a private tour and tasting!)

Vina Santa Cruz.

 

 

They suffered a lot of damage from the earthquake.

Our horse ride through the vineyards.

Our lunch selection...Mmmmm.

Lunch!

                                                       

                                                         Our view from lunch.

MadHatter loves Jails.
She was sooo excited to
be in a real castle, with
a real jail.

Stinkerbell on the other hand, could have cared less where we were...