After living here for many years I have found that I have made, by hand, more pies, bread, tortillas, chips, cookies, cakes, etc. than probably in all my adult years in the U.S. of A.! Why you ask - well if I don't we would not have them.
Not that the people of Honduras don't bake; but they don't do pies or usually bread. Their cookies are different (I find them much harder) and they don't have a variety of deserts other than cake or flan!
My husband loves apple pie and when finally they started getting apples on this Island all year round, I started making them quite often. He loves chocolate chip cookies (are there any other kind?), so I make them along with brownies, another one of his favorites.
I finally discovered a good recipe for biscuits and bread and I even make French bread now to the extent that I bought myself some special baking pans just for that purpose.
I love making bread now that I have the long wanted Kitchen Aid mixer I hinted at a few Christmases back! Love that machine. It might not mean much to anyone else, but I have coveted that machine for years, just never got one because of the expense. I suddenly decided one day that I deserved it with all the cooking and baking I do. I am so glad I bought it! It saves me so much time as the machine does all the kneading! So, now I can make and bake more things more often. Is this good you say? Makes for more work but I love cooking.
Once in a while, however, I get tired of trying to figure out what to make for lunch or supper and after 46 years of making those decisions, I sometimes run out of ideas! Of course, it is a good thing I have lots of cookbooks. I love going to a book store and browsing among the cookbooks - one of the first places I head. Unfortunately, Honduras has no book stores to speak of so I must save this special search for when I return to the States.
I enjoy going to other peoples' homes and eating their meals as it gives me fresh ideas making future meals. Believe me, I've gotten many recipes from the "gringos" on this Island and am thankful for their inspirational ideas and willingness to share recipes.
Just recently we bought a large sack of oranges from the coast. It weighed about 75-80 lbs. and cost about $13.00 with shipping. We have had these oranges in the past and they are wonderful juice/eating oranges. So, I whipped out my handy-dandy juicer (bought in Honduras many years ago) and started in. I store the oranges in a laundry basket on the porch and when I need juice, I juice up 30-36 and keep it in the refrigerator. Occasionally I freeze some juice but we drink it so fast that I really don't have the need for this step. While this is time consuming, as I prefer to strain my juice removing the pulp and any seeds that get past the cup one places the orange in the squeezer and then pulls the lever down releasing the juice into holes in the cup and on to a container, I like the end product more than the juice they sell on the Cay. They have one brand: Leyde that tastes like colored sugar water with maybe a drop of orange oil in it to pretend that it is orange-flavored. Sula makes a better juice but not as good as my fresh squeezed or the fresh squeezed you can find on the coast sold at street stands.
The thing I like to make most is deserts! Have always love creating them AND eating them. One of my favorite items is cheesecake. I have to obtain the cream cheese from the coast so when I'm there (and I'm going next week for a food shopping trip), I will stock up on 6-8 packages along with all the wonderful imported cheese I can find! Yumm. Next week I'm thinking of making a special dinner for Valentine's day and hope to include a cheesecake!
When I do go to the States for the holidays, my children demand that I made pumpkin bread for Thanksgiving and Christmas and, now, I have to make Eggplant Parmesan too! They love the stuff.
I guess it is lucky that I've always been thin and don't have a particular problem with weight gain! Otherwise I would be 350 lbs. by now!
I do so miss your baking, Sharon, especially your breads and cakes! Yum-MEE!
ReplyDeleteI wish you guys had regular mail service down there. I'd send you so much cream cheese that you *would* weight 350 pounds!
Makes me hubgry just reading this. I hope to start baking now that the pots and pans are here, but I have decided to buy the tortillas,just can't get it right.
ReplyDeleteHello again. I have written you before. I grew up in Key Largo, Florida. My name is Bill by the way. I was laughing when I read about the orange juice. My ex-wife is from Nicaragua, and we spent a lot of time there with her family. The "orange juice" they served, even in the Intercontinental Hotel in Managua, was something close to Tang. I also know what you go through in order to find certain food items. I have always done all the cooking in my family, and my inlaws were fond on asking me to make things they usually never get to eat like lasagna and pizza or even BBQ chicken. It was a real challenge to find the ingredients to make those items most of the time. I ended up spending the day finding all that I needed for even the lasagna. Then when I started cooking, the maids and cooks stood around watching in awe (and pulling in people from the street at some point) that a man was in the kitchen cooking. I write for a few places online where I help people with cooking and recipes. If you ever need a recipe for anything, please feel free to ask.
ReplyDeleteSincerely, Bill Mosley
I've had some luck with foodnetwork.com when I'm looking for some new recipes.
ReplyDeletekman