Habemus Papam!

Old news by now, of course, but I still wanted to post.  We were all surprised when the first tepid flurries of dark smoke suddenly turned bright white.  I was thinking we wouldn't have a Pope until tomorrow, especially since the smoke seemed a little late in going up. This was my first time waiting for the smoke, then waiting eagerly to see who would be the new Holy Father.  And I am so glad to be able to share the experience with my children too.  

Waiting...  Hooray!  Waiting...  Hooray!

My daughter is lobbying to watch the inauguration in real time, but I'm not sure that being up for several hours in the middle of the night then trying to get through a busy Tuesday is the right thing to do.  Memorable, yes.  A good idea?  Doubtful.

We are all so excited about Pope Francis, and we're looking forward to getting to know him better.  The kids and I are looking forward to learning more about him and about Argentina.  This evening we celebrated his election with grilled steak with chimchurri sauce, a classic Argentinian recipe (see below).  I have a few other recipes that I want to try next week too.  I think we'll have Milanesa Napolitana (Argentinian Fried Steak, Italian-Style) on Tuesday.  It seems quite appropriate to celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph and Pope Francis' Inauguration!

I looked at several recipes for chimchurri sauce, and of course none of them were exactly the same.  I wanted something that wasn't too spicy, but still had cilantro so I opted to come up with my own variation, using ingredients found in various chimchurri recipes.  It was absolutely delicious, and the kids really liked it too.

Chimchurri Sauce

1/2 bunch parsley

1/2 bunch cilantro

6-8 cloves of garlic

1/2 t salt

1/2 t or so fresh ground pepper

1 t onion powder

3/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

After plucking all the leaves off the herbs, I placed them in the food processor with the garlic and processed until coarsely chopped.  I then added the salt, pepper, and onion powder, processing a little more.  Then I combined the olive oil and red wine vinegar, and added that to the food processor while it was running.  The result was a lovely green sauce that smelled (and tasted!) wonderful!  

To use the sauce, you could either marinate the steaks in half of the sauce overnight, or spoon some on before grilling.  I used a large top sirloin steak from our quarter of grass fed beef (appropriate for an Argentinian meal, don't you think?) and it was very tasty.