Gratitude Attitude

Feliz día de Acción de Gracias!

It doesn't feel much like Thanksgiving here in Honduras.  Christmas decorations have been up since October.  It's 1,000 degrees outside.  I don't have a T.V. to watch the parade.  I'm in an empty house while my family is hundreds of miles away.  But luckily I did get to celebrate with a big feast this past Sunday, thanks to some very generous friends who invited us over for a big American-style Thanksgving. 

Of course, I couldn't just pick one thing to make, so I spent the better part of 2 days in the kitchen cooking up some yummy dishes to share.  Thanks to Mom's Thanksgiving care package, I was able to bring 2 kinds of dressing- our traditional Peperidge Farm mix and this cornbread dressing.  I adapted it a little based on the ingredients we have here, and it turned out spicy and fantastic!

And after spending hours searching my new addiction, Pinterest, I found some new recipes to try.  This corn casserole got gobbled up! (I mean, how can you go wrong with bacon and cream cheese?)

But quite possibly the star of the Thanksgiving feast were these homemade yeast rolls.  They were fluffy and sooooo incredibly easy to make.  No kneading!  I'll definitely be making these again.  And if you try it, watch the video from her blog.  Rolling these was so much fun!  I made about 50 rolls and guess how many were leftover?

Even though we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Honduras, the school gives us a couple of days off since most of the teaching staff are Norte Americanos (side note:  Yes, we are referred to as NORTH Americans.  If you say you're American people get quite defensive, as they consider themselves to be Americans too.) 

 I felt like it was important to teach my class a little about Thanksgiving, and why we were celebrating.  We made turkey hats and wrote things we were thankful for on the feathers.  We also preformed a little song at the school assembly on Friday.  Here are my adorable little pavos.

I am thankful for so many things today. 

• I am thankful for my family who supports my crazy adventure and sends me little reminders of home and supplies for my class. 
• I am thankful for my health.  I am so glad to be feeling better after my Honduran hospital adventure.
• I am thankful for my students who put a smile on my face each day and inspire me with the way they try so hard to use their English with me.
• I am thankful for the friends I have made and their families that have welcomed me into their homes when I am so far away from my family and friends.
• I am thankful that our house is finally mouse free!
• Most of all, I am thankful for a God that is universal, who knows no borders.  I am thankful that I have a church family that I can worship the same God with both here and at home.

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!

(You can take the girl out of Texas,

but you can't take the Texas out of the girl.)

Mi Cocina

It's no secret that I love to cook.  Things can get a bit tricky sometimes when you're in Central America though.  The ingredients are different.  The stores don't carry products that I am used to.  I have learned to adapt and adjust recipes to fit my lifestyle here.  Here are some of the tricks that I have learned:

1.  Baking in the Microwave
We cook by a gas stove.  This usually is helpful because we lose electricity so often.  It's nice to be able to still prepare a home-cooked meal.  But what happens when the propane runs out in the middle of baking?  You would assume that your dish would be ruined, but this is not the case.  Did you know that you can bake in the microwave?  Just prepare your cake according to the normal directions.  Make sure your dish is microwave safe.  Blast that sucker on high  (we did 10 minutes at a time and kept checking until it was cooked all the way through).  Our cake took 60 minutes, but the power on our microwave can be pretty low sometimes.  I would do the 10 minutes and check method.

2.  How to Make Ricotta Cheese (or at least a good substitute)
I love lasagna, but they don't carry ricotta cheese.  I've tried using other recipes with cream cheese, but for me, nothing beats the texture that ricotta brings.  One of my Peace Corps friends taught me this trick.  Boil a pot of vinegar. Pour cold milk into the pot.  Soon there will be "ricotta" floating to the top.  Skim the mixture from the surface.  When it is cool, squeeze the vinegar out.  It isn't exactly ricotta, but when I mix in an egg and some herbs, it does the trick!

3. Cooking With Local Ingredients
Foods are very seasonal in the market here.  There are some imported items, but they can be quite expensive.  For example, I can get a green apple for 12 lempira, or a bananna  for 1 lempira.  I'll go with the bananna!  Here are some ingredients I've learned to use:

Pataste

This is a starchy vegetable that can be found in the markets almost year-round here.  It is good in soups or can be sauteed with other vegetables and served as a side.  Its lime green color adds a nice color to dishes.

Platano (Plantain)

This has been one of my favorite tipico dishes.  At first glance you might think this is just a banana.  In fact, some of my colleagues have made the unfortunate mistake of trying to make banana bread with these.  They are a little firmer and not as sweet as an ordinary banana.  My favorite way to eat these  is fried.  Slice them up and put them in a skillet with a little oil.  Brown them on both sides.  You don't have to salt, sugar, or season them at all.  I think they're delicious just as they are! 

Queso Seco

Sadly, cheese is scarce around here.  There is a brand called Sula that sells cheese, but everything is just a little bit off and it can be more expensive than the typical cheese. Translated, queso seco means dry cheese.  That's exactly how I would describe it.  It crumbles like feta.  I will admit that it took me a little while to aquire the taste.  It is extremely salty and has a strange smell, but I have come to love it.  Most often, I'll eat it crumbled in baleadas (If you're unfamiliar check out this post).  It's also nice served sliced alongside beans, eggs, avocado and tortilla (a traditional dinner here). 

So next time you think something can't be done, get creative!  There's always a substitution or a solution.