A Bolivian Rite of Passage

It is very common in Bolivia to start lunch, the largest meal of the day with a soup. What still feels like more than one meal to me is only the beginning of a very hearty meal, usually complete with a heaping amount of rice or potatoes, perhaps some veggies, and a meat. Matt and I still cannot eat like Cochabambinos can, although he is close, but we do like soup. So

while I was at work today, DeLoose made the jump from preparing Kraft macaroni and cheese on the stovetop to a true, Bolivian-style soup from scratch...complete with potatoes as any self-respecting Bolivian soup would have it, quinoa (the supergrain that pretty much only grows in the altiplano of Bolivia, peas (which he took out of their peapods-another first), and of course, meat. Success! He may enter it into our stovetop challenge...

For those of you who don't know what the stovetop challenge is, we are a bit limited in our culinary possiblities here as we only have the equivalent of a double Coleman camping stove. We've been able to turn out some pretty impressive meals so far, but have asked our friends and families for their favorite stove top recipes to try out.

We will take the winner to watch Bolivian women's wrestling when they come visit. No joke-check out this link in this month's National Geographic-it is all the new rage....http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/wrestlers/guillermoprieto-text