Diego

Ernesto's cousin, Diego, is staying with us in Monteverde this week.  He's been a great help around the house, but he's also added a lot of laughter to our lives.  He bragged about his jello-making abilities, and true to his word, made a delicious looking bowl of jello.  The only problem?  Suspended right in the middle of the transparent, red, gelatinous form was a bug, frozen in space like a rare archaeological find.  We made Diego eat it.  (Just kidding).

He's also been asking us every night if we want some delicious hot chocolate.  Last night, Ernesto agreed to try the powdered mix.  The task?  Boil water.  Add powder.  Stir.  A few minutes after Diego started to prepare the drink, he asked Ernesto how he felt about cold, or lukewarm chocolate milk.  Diego thought the water was boiling and added it to the mugs.  It wasn't.

Diego also bragged about his pupusa-making abilities.  Pupusa's are a traditional dish from El Salvador.  They are kind of like thick corn tortillas stuffed with meat, beans, and/or cheese.  Last night, he was in charge of dinner.  Diego wasn't sure of the corn flour-to-water ratio and I was of no help.  While it's true that tortillas and pupusas consist of two simple ingredients,getting the consistency right is quite an art, and one that no one in our household has mastered.  Aside from the dough problems, Diego forgot the onions.  I think he initially forgot the cheese too.  But somehow, everything came together and he and Ernesto started rolling out the dough to make the pupusas.  Pupusas are supposed to be thicker than tortillas, but flat.  Diego's looked like softballs, both in size and roundness (to be fair, they did seem to flatten out during the cooking process).  Diego tossed (literally) the first pupusa into boiling oil and somehow managed not to burn his eyes out.  He exercised more caution after being yelled at.  In reality, what we ate for dinner was something closer to an empanada, but whatever it was, it was delicious.  Diego's dinner was, in the end, a success.

What I admire about Diego is his endless enthusiasm for helping out in the kitchen.  He's GREAT at washing dishes and doesn't even ask if there's anything he can do.  He just washes.  And dries.  He's awesome.  When it comes to the cooking, he has endless confidence, and you  have to admire that kind of confidence, even if sometimes a bit over-estimated.

At night, I do workout videos.  The other night, Diego was sitting on the couch, watching me workout, and he commented that the video wasn't very hard.  I challenged him to join me, which he did.  We have a video documenting his participation.  I'm sure Diego will pay us every penny he owns not to share that video with anyone.  Ever.

As happy as we are to have Diego with us, I think Charlie is the happiest of all.