Christmas: A Pisco-Injected Chicken and Fireworks

So Christmas in Peru has officially come and gone. You may be wondering what it’s like to celebrate Christ’s Birthday here in Iquitos. There are alot of things that are very similar. There’s a Christmas tree in the living room, lights hanging on the house, Santa comes, there’s a big dinner that involves a turkey, and families all gather round…but not near a fireplace. However, my personal Christmas with Jorge was unique for several reasons.



Unable to go to Lima or California, Jorge and I chose to spend our first Christmas together, just the two of us. The Air Force recently allowed me to move into an empty house on the base because we are getting married. I am so thrilled to be in what will be our future house together, even if there’s no furniture, no stove, I am borrowing a bed, and I have a little plastic table with chairs for eating meals in the kitchen. But this is the first time in months that I have had access to a kitchen and an air conditioner. And I feel so blessed. So, Jorge was here with me to celebrate and we created a Christmas celebration for two.



We decided we wanted to go all out even if it was just going to be the two of us. We wanted to make a big dinner with a turkey and stuffing and all that stuff. Everything pretty much worked out except for the turkey part. Jorge is given a Christmas Turkey every year from the Air Force and we planned on picking it up the day before. But unfortunately we received a call that our turkey was being held hostage in Lima because Jorge was still listed on the “Lima Turkey List.” But it’s okay because his dad picked up the Turkey and used to feed his family, and they have a lot more mouths to feed than we do. So we went to one of the only grocery stores here and found ourselves a Christmas chicken!




So Jorge being as manly as he is, decided he would be in charge of the meat of course, along with the mashed potatoes, rice, and hot chocolate. I was in charge of the salad and the stuffing and moral support during the Christmas Chicken project. And the Jello was a team effort. I want you all to know that tracking down ingredients for this meal was not easy at all. Between the open air market of Belen and the various other grocery stores that carry ‘this’ and not ‘that,’ I think we spent more time looking for items than actually cooking. And all of this was cooked with a tiny electric grill, a mini rice cooker, and a microwave.



So here we have Jorge working on his Christmas chicken.






I love my future husband because he does things like injects chicken with Pisco and Coca Cola. Yep. That’s right. He bought a legit surgical needle (how he managed to find that and I couldn’t even find garlic powder is beyond me).





He proceeded to pump the little chicken full of the liquids and then stuffed it with something and basted it with something else. I wasn’t watching the whole time because I was trying to figure out how to make stuffing without an oven. Which may lead you all to a question…how does one cook chicken without an oven? I will tell you. You get on your moto with your freshly pisco-injected/basted chicken balancing on your girlfriend’s leg and you drive around Iquitos until you find a bumpy dirt road where there is a little handmade sign that says “Hornean” with a little arrow pointing down the street. Hornean means “we bake” by the way. Then you get a little lost as you are driving by people’s houses and right under volleyball nets in the street until a little boy on a bike yells to you “pavos, pavos, pavos?” (turkeys, turkeys, turkeys). Then you follow the boy on the bike until you find a little house where a sweet lady charges you 5 soles (less than 2 dollars) to bake your chicken in her oven and you can come and pick it up two hours later. I wish I had pictures of this little journey but I was too busy holding the dripping chicken on my leg. But it was all totally worth it!!!!!



The chicken was delicious and so was everything else. We planned to eat after church and by the time we had retrieved the chicken we ended up eating really late, like 11:00pm. And much to my surprise around midnight I heard what I thought was a war zone outside the front door. Turns out every one and their grandmother was setting of fireworks and firecrackers right in front of their houses. What? Yes, fireworks everywhere on Christmas Eve right at midnight. Okay awesome. Jorge set off a few little fireworks that he had bought and then we played with some sparklers the next day when our friend came over for leftovers.











A note about our Christmas presents to each other, we didn’t have any. It was a gift to just be together, so made Christmas cards for each other. I think it's one of the best presents I have ever recieved. We also spent time sneak attacking family members with phone calls, hanging out with friends and eating their leftovers, and taking in a movie. And that's it.

Anyways I hope you all had an amazing Christmas. I love you so much.