Fire Guy

We figured it was time to use the awesome quincho in our backyard and finally had a party this past Saturday. A quincho is a room/pavillion/area with a parrilla. Parrillas are basically slow-cooking South American grills. Quinchos (and parrillas) come in all sizes, and ours is pretty darn big and really nice. It's a large room, not attached to our house at all, and has a kitchen table with chairs, a huge freezer, an armchair, and a rocking chair. And a bar with a sink, and the big parrilla. And a bathroom complete with shower and bidet. (Do people actually use those? Bidets, I mean, not showers.) It's right next to our pool and has a big sliding glass door. It's fantastic, I must say. And this doesn't count as bragging, because 1. it's true, and 2. it's not really ours, we just get to use it for a little while.

It takes a long time to cook meat on a parrilla. You build the fire about an hour or so before you start cooking, then spread the coals under the grill, and begin! Then the meat cooks slowly, but it's fun and turns out quite delicious. We had brochettes with beef, onions, tomatoes, and peppers, and also chorizos and entrecot, which is a big yummy steak. We also had provolone. Yep, cheese on a grill! They put provolone in little stoneware or iron dishes and melt it...yummm... Here's some pics of the quincho and parrilla. First is our master asador, preparing the parrilla. The coals fall through the grate under the fire, and then he spreads them under the grill that's up in the air. Of course, for cooking, the grill is down and has food on it (this is where your imagination comes in handy). Next is the inside of the quincho. I took the pic standing by the freezer:

So we had an asado and invited a bunch of friends from church. We wanted to invite more people, but didn't know really how many we could sustain food- and space-wise. We had (including our fam) 10 adults and 9 kiddos, 12 and under. We decided afterwards that we could've invited more people, and we had soooo much food! And nice weather, so the older kids got to swim and we could hang out in the backyard, too. Zachariah did a fabulous job cooking the meat stuff on the parrilla, and the other men were there to give him advice. Everyone brought a side dish, and we had soda and a kiwi-pineapple-apple juice-7up fruit drink and strawberry shortcake (on Cookie Monster cookies). It was hard deciding who to invite, because there are so many we would've liked to have over. I guess we'll just hafta do it again. Our friends were wonderful and helped clean up so much (especially my friend and a favorite of Bran and Nuala's, Ileana. She wouldn't stop cleaning! We should have her over more often... ;) that there was almost nothing left to do when everyone left! N&B had a blast, they loved playing with all the kids and basked in the attention. They ate too much, though, especially moochy-boy Bran.

I meant to get pictures of everyone during the asado, but never really got the chance (...and I forgot). So the parrilla pictures are from before anyone showed up, and here is our one and only picture from the actual event...it's Guillermo! Nuala and Bran's little buddy. Everyone was leaving and Z got a picture. Guille's usually grinning all the time, but the poor little fella was so tired and actually not feeling all that great, but see what a cute little chub he is?! Hey, just noticed Nuala and I are right behind him, I'm wearing that splotchy blue shirt I have. And there's more people, so we did get pics of lots of our guests after all! But Guille is just adorable... (and here in Uruguay, the "ll" isn't pronounced "y" like in Mex., etc., it sounds more like "sh," so "Guille" is pronounced "Ghee-zshee." Cute, cute, cute.)

...anyone know where "Fire Guy" comes from...?