Since it's a given that I'll cook for my host family at least a few times, my mom and I started practicing recipes. Today, I made pumpkin pie completely from scratch (cooking the squash and making the dough) and Chilean carbonada. Chilean carbonada is a soup made with ground beef, onion, bell peppers, potatoes, pasta, mixed vegetables, and egg. Since baking isn't my forte, it was a bit of a challenge. But, I had fun and the pie turned out delicious. We finished the whole thing in one night! I have a few other foods that I want to try to make, and I have left over pie dough. I hope to make apple pie, chili, porotos chilenos, pasta casserole, pan de pascua, and roscas as well. Many of these are Chilean foods, as I want to share both of my cultures with my host family. I still have no information about my host family, but I've gotten my flight plan and tickets. Happy 4th of July!!