a record of events

Pictures coming soon, but for now, here is our whirlwind of a week since I last blogged:

Tuesday: work and then a dinner party at Guillermo’s boss’s house for their team (they are our neighbors and friends from church)

Wednesday: work and then dinner with Guillermo’s small group (teenage boys from Los Pinos) at Pizza Hut.  Traffic was horrible and Guillermo got out way late from a meeting, which means I got to hang out with them for a while and eat bread sticks while we waited.

Thursday: Guillermo worked at the office and I worked from home.  In the morning I went for a walk and had breakfast with some other ladies from our church who live close.  It was great-minus that I got covered in ticks which have been biting and itching all week!  In the evening we went on a surprise last minute date with Anibal and Yadira because Yadira was in town for some errands.  We were going to see a movie but ended up going to dinner instead because that night was the premier of New Moon!

Friday: I had a very short day of work because they were fumigating our office area.  I met up with Yadira for a day of girls shopping-something I haven’t done in a long time.  I picked up some crocks for Guillermo and some new juice glasses.  It was fun but tiring, I hope I don’t have to go to the mall again in December.  In the evening, we went to dinner at our friend’s Charlie and Jenny’s house.  They live far away, so it was another late night.

Saturday: We were up early, me for cooking and Guillermo for soccer.  I made sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and a big apple pie with a crumble top.  We at a quick lunch and then headed down the hill for youth group.  I didn’t go because I had a year end board meeting for work.  After that, we went to the Christmas dinner for our small group (hence the cooking).  It was great fun and we even had the treat of live music.  Several in the group are very talented or professional musicians.  With the addition of Tio Bill, who plays the flute and sax, we had live Jazz and Christmas music.

Sunday: Church, rest and oh wait, more soccer for Guillermo.  Do you see a pattern here?

The good news is that I didn’t have to cook dinner or lunch all week!  It was a rich week with friends and we feel very blessed.

This week is quiet.  Guillermo is away for work until Thursday and I have normal days at the office.  Last night my usual good night call didn’t come until I was asleep.  The culprit, soccer, despite a pending cold and tiredness from all the nights of staying up.

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Monday afternoon in pictures

Do you know what this is?  The beginnings of juice…

Our one and only Christmas decoration

Our 2000 piece puzzle hasn’t made it very far.  Don’t you like our new table?  Made from one big tree in Olancho.

Brownie cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.  I’m using restraint to not try one until after dinner.

Bundled up for a walk- it is cold.

I’ll do the dishes later.

Bokeh.

Flame of the Forest, on the ground.

November moon.

“Skreeches to a halt”

Ivy at the nice house.

Re-doing the church

Clouds in the mud.

I’ve always wanted to take a picture of these when we drive by.

Where we live.

Local flower market.

Fading beauties.

The flower lady is kind of mean sometimes.

PS-I have a lovely bunch of these Cala Lilies on my bedside table thanks to the husband!

s’mores

Teaching the fine art of making s’mores: translating s’mores into Spanish, seeing the excitement on their faces when I said they would each get their very own bar of chocolate, teaching them how to roast and make the sandwich, getting to luxuriously hand out marshmellows from the never ending bag thanks the the generosity of the group from Wabash church.  OK- we did cut a few off after like 10, but at least we are not at camp and they had to go home at the end of the night.  So fun doing things for the first time!

Around the fire

Good form!

Singing and watching the fire

We couldn’t get it going with out gas (I am so embarrassed, but fire making is a little harder in humid Honduras than dry Colorado)

Making sandwiches

The horchata crew

Brown Sugar Pineapple Goodness Sauce for Ice Cream

I pulled this recipe together after reviewing a few I saw on the web.  You can also add rum!  It tastes especially good the day after, when the flavor soaks in.  Better than the stuff from the jar!

Brown Sugar Pineapple Goodness Sauce for Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 fresh pineapple

1 T butter

~1 cup brown sugar

optional: rum

Instructions:

Start by melting the butter and about 1/3 cup of the sugar.  Keep it on low while you cut the pineapple, you don’t want it to burn while you work.

Cut the ends off the pineapple and discard.  Pay attention, this is the best way to cut up a pineapple.  Trust me.  My mom taught me and I live in a country where we eat a lot of pineapple.

Stand the pineapple up and cut it into quarters.  Now you are going to cut off the hard inside corners, throw them away.

Now cut the rough outside off, like this:

Keep the outside parts because depending on how juicy your pineapple is, you could use a spoon to scrape out the fruit pulp.

Next, you will cut the pineapple up into chunks and eventually a pulp.  Choose your method: a knife and elbow grease, a blender or a food processor.  I decided to try out my new mini-processor I just bought at the grocery store for $7.  Sometimes you get your money’s worth…. in this case, I did.

You want a pulp, but not a puree.  Keep some small chunks for texture.

Add the pineapple to the brown sugar and butter.

Now you will have to use your cooking intution.  Depending on the size of the pineapple and how juicy and ripe it is, you will have to adjust cooking time and the amount of sugar you add.  For this size pineapple, I added almost a cup of brown sugar.  Taste as you cook.  You will notice that before you add the remaining sugar, the sauce just tastes like pineapple.  As you cook (on high now), you should stir occasionally and cook until the sauce sticks to a spoon and all the thin liquid has evaporated from the top.

This sauce is even better the next day!

Jose and Valerie’s Birthday Party

Best buds

A rare Dana smile!

1,2,3 blow!

Taking pictures with her camera phone

Dancing dress

Dancing with Dad

Aaron, Milton, Valerie, Bismar

Norman and Valerie

Mmmmm, chorizo!

simple mornings

French press coffee

Blueberry cobbler

Reading

Laundry

Surprising a friend for her birthday

he’s back

This is a little overdue, but I am catching up on blogging.  Guillermo made it home from his long trip in South America.  We had a nice Saturday morning on the porch with pineapple, cinnamon raisin breakfast biscuits with spicy honey butter and cafe con leche.

first food blog

Unfortunately, I didn´t get any pictures of the blackened fish tacos from last night because the camera battery died.  They were delicious and we had fun with my sister in law, Carmen, eating, talking, listening to music and watching Slumdog Millionare.   Another success of the night was the limonada con soda, or, limeade with soda that I made.  I made it again tonight and captured everystep.  My kitchen has horrible lighting, so the pics aren´t good, but it has been fun to do a food blog.  Enjoy!

Lazy Limonada con Soda

(no syrup making or lime squeezing involved)

You will need: one can Club Soda, 2 limes, 1/8 to 1/4 cup sugar, limes and ice to garnish

(Optional:fresh mint leaves)

Put all ingredients into blender.  You can basically make 2 servings at a time since you can only put one can of club soda into the blender at a time without a mess.

Blend on LOW for 1-2 minutes.

Strain through a mesh strainer.

Pour over ice and garnish with lime wedges!

Guillermo is enjoying his drink, but not enjoying having his picture taken.

afternoon snack

This pretty much sums up our Semana Santa… eating messy tropical fruit snacks at will in the sun on the patio.  Oh, the laziness.  The sandia was not as good as it looks, but the mango was amazing!  I’ve also been wandering around a lot of food blogs, so this post felt appropriate.  Tonight or tomorrow we are having blackened fish tacos and some kind of chocolate dessert that I have yet to plan.  Perhaps I will make a blog post out of the meal…