Pantalones en Fuego!

Our housemate, Jan, has made a wonderful friend here in Turrialba - a woman by the name of Gerardina. They met because Gerardina was recommended to Jan as a great house cleaner (which she is!), and they have become quite close.  Today, Gerardina came over to teach me how to make Gallo Pinto (the wonderful rice/black beans mixture that you have surely tried if you've been to Costa Rica). 

A quick side note: it is still raining.  In fact, it has not stopped raining for more than an hour since January 10th.  So when Jan missed the bus from CATIE yesterday (3 km outside of Turrialba), she got quite soggy on her walk home.  And since nothing is really drying out on the lines these days, she stuck her jeans in the warm oven for a few minutes to dry them off.  It's a little trick she uses.

OK, back to the main story...  So Gerardina, Gracie and I started making Gallo Pinto in the kitchen. It involves sauteing vegetables, adding in cooked rice and black beans, chopping cilantro, etc.  It's quite easy, really - but then you have to fry the eggs to put on top.  So Gerardina was mixing Pinto, frying eggs and handing me plates to serve the kids (who were all asking for different egg styles), when it started to smell like something was burning.  I turned down a burner.  More eggs were fried. It got smokier.  Suddenly I looked down at the controls and realized that the oven had gotten turned on in all the confusion.  So I opened the oven -and smoke came pouring out.  Jan's jeans were more than a little warm!!  Gerardina grabbed the jeans and yanked them onto the floor.

At this point, Greg started hopping up and down, yelling from the other room, "pantalones en fuego! pantalones en fuego!" which literally means "pants on fire!" (this is one of the few Spanish phrases he knew before getting here - a favorite he likes to hurl at the children if he suspects that they are pulling his leg or telling a little white lie).  The kids joined in - and Gerardina and I were laughing so hard we could barely carry the plates of food to the table.

Thankfully Jan's jeans were not ruined, just a little toasty.  And the Gallo Pinto?  Delicioso.

Cooking BEFORE the "pantalones en fuego" incident.