jadite salt shaker

Paca score of the century! Well, not really but, I'm pretty cized on it. I've been pining for an old jadite salt shaker forever. I spook them on etsy all the time and they are always way too pricey for me but, I've kept up hope that one day I'd find an affordable one. Look no more I will (Yoda voice).

I found this one for Q5 yesterday...that's less than a dollar and I didn't even bargain on the price!

It's already washed, dried, filled with salt and in action.

Ohh, it's the little things....

And don't you think it'll be the perfect salt shaker for our little farm? I do.



Broad beans for a favour.

I had the pleasure of shelling these beautiful Fava Beans aka Broad Beans. A couple of days ago my honey-bunny, Zach, helped a dude & his son carry his 2 huge costales (think modern feed sacks) full o' beans they'd grown & harvested. They were all on a bus together going to the market in San Francisco and the bus did not indeed drop them at the market as they said they would but, a ways away, downhill from the market, no doubt. Anyhoo...Zach got some great cardio in (hah! I think he about killed himself carrying that 100 lb.+ bag of beans.) For his very kind hardwork he got a 'free' bag of beans that he brought home much to my delight, they are one of my very favourites!! We eat them about twice a week. I will peel the ones in the picture one more time. I usually cook them like this: saute them for maybe 5 minutes with olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt then, add water or stock and let simmer until tender! We eat them just as they turn out or I'll mash them and I add them to soups, stews and pasta dishes too. Yum!

flowerheads

Not everysingle time but, a lot of the times I buy flowers and arrange them I am left with the odd flower heads that fell off or can't be used in the arrangement for some reason or another. I can never bring myself to toss the beauties out with the stems and scrappy leaves! The last batch I floated the flowerheads in bowls of water. Floating flowers are so enjoyable to have around. Win win. I've also strung flowerheads and used them for some tipico photos in the background.

assam tea

Assam is a north-eastern state of India surrounded by 6 sister states also bordering Bangledesh and Bhutan. The area is known for it's gorgeous geography, preserved wildlife such as the one horned Indian Rhinoceros, Assam silk and Assam tea. Of course that's not all it's known for but, those are a few big ones. I am just chomping at the bit to visit or possibly live in the culturally rich area.

Assam tea is a black tea clearly named for it being produced in Assam. It is a tea that is known for its robustness and strong bright colour. This is the world's largest tea producing area. It seems to be of the perfect land lying between two significant rivers, the perfect altitude, with the perfect amount of rainfall which is heavy in the monsoon season and the perfect temperature! It's this combination of elements that gives Assam tea such a strong unique flavour for a black tea.

I know it's my favourite black tea!!

frijoles frescos!

                               
I haven't figured out exactly what type of beans these are but, I sure am enjoying them! They are gorgeous and so much fun to work with. We've started drying and collecting our favouritest ones. My boyfriend said the sweetest thing; he says, "One day we won't live in Guatemala and have access to these beans and you'll be so happy to have a dried little collection of them.", darn tootin' sweet boyfriend!

Growing up in the South in a truly 'Southern' family, I was always around bushels of fresh beans and peas. I loved sitting around the backyard in the shade tree shelling them with  my Granny and aunts. We usually 'put them up' (canned) and I am sure I ate plenty of fresh peas and beans but, I don't recall any kind of fresh beans like these at all.

Beans have to be one of my fondest foods. They are beyond healthful and combining them with grains such as rice offers such a complete meal. I recently made sure we ate beans and grains everyday for 2 weeks just to see if we'd feel different and we absolutely did! We noticed that overall we felt way more satisfied in the hungry & craving departments. I'm just going to colour us lucky that we love beans so much!!

tomatillos

2 lbs. tomatillos Q4

to·ma·til·lo

   /ˌtoʊməˈtioʊ, -ˈtilyoʊ/ Show Spelled[toh-muh-tee-oh, -teel-yoh] Show IPA

noun, plural -loes, -los.

a plant, Physalis ixocarpa,of the nightshade family, native to Mexico, having yellow flowers with five blackish spots in the throat and bluish, sticky berries in a purple-veined calyx.

I love green sauce whether it's for a hot dish or just a green salsa! Both of which are super easy to make. For green salsa just blend tomatillos, onions, garlic, cilantro and lime. For green sauce just boil tomatillos, onions, garlic 8-10 minutes then blend with lime and cilantro. YUM!!!

Cutting them in half isn't necessary. I just can't resist.

drinking fresh aloe

A leaf of aloe from our local market. Cost: Q5

Drinking or eating fresh aloe may be hard to swallow for many but, with the awesome health benefits in mind, I've choked it down enough times to like and crave the stuff. I first heard of eating aloe when I was a kiddo; I knew a Mediterranean family that ate a nice slice of aloe flesh everyday and they swore by its longevity factors. I always thought of them eating aloe. Especially when I started having kidney stone issues and was turned on to aloe big time! Aloe is an anti-inflammatory and it'll fix you right up in so many ways if you're ailing from: digestive disorders, arthritis, kidney stone issues, burns, scraps, cuts, bug bites, joint and muscle pain, diabetes, high cholesterol, dry skin and any inflammation. Pretty incredible, eh?

Here is a fantastic link that'll tell you some of the truly amazing benefits you can reap from aloe vera!! It also has a great video showing you how to harvest the flesh from an aloe vera leaf.

We blend aloe flesh with water and coconut water. It might take some getting used to but, it's so pure & healthy!! You can also just blend it into a blended fruit drink. =)

colourful corn

It doesn't take much to amaze me and put a wonderous smile on my face! That's exactly what happened when I 'shucked' this corn. I've never seen corn like the corn I see here. And even more so, I have never tasted corn like the corn here. Truth be told, I wasn't all that much of a corn eater before I moved here. Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike corn, I ate it and I liked it whether it was corn on the cob, creamed corn, corn pudding, corn bread, or hello popcorn! But. But, I didn't exactly think corn was offering me all that much. I didn't choose it as a side when cooking or use it as an ingredient much. But, here the corn is exciting and delicious. My favourite way to eat it is boiled then roasted on a grill, topped with lime & salt. This scrumptous treat is served on the street in corn husks. There is nothing like natural packaging!

i dreamt about pyrex.

These are my absolute dream pyrex dishes!!! They are rather extraordinary, don't you think?? The colours are delicious and the pattern just blows me away! I've tracked down a few pieces online but, they are in far away countries with the most ridiculous shipping costs....looks like they are going to have to remain a dream for a little while longer. Best thing about them is: they go with the mixed up set of dishes that I am currently putting together so, when I do find a piece or two, they'll fit right in. If you happen to have some of these that you are willing to part with, please do be in touch with me.

putting together a daily dishware set of pyrex.

My family (grandmothers, many aunts, countless cousins, my mother and now brother) adores dishes from across the ages. My mom and brother are in the midst of a pyrex frenzy and I've caught the bug. I won't be 'collecting' per se but, am in the process of assembling a daily set of mixed and matched white and turquoise pyrex. My darling brother has started for me! He is a lucky duck living near a bunch of dope thrift stores in Pasco County, Florida. You can see his finds and part of my mom's collection on my brother, Stephen's flickr: PyrexScout. He's a total dream pie for gathering pyrex pieces for me. He's scored 6 plates (white with a thin turquoise ring around outter edge) and 2 oval platters (white with a sweet turquoise band around edge with white leaves and pretty detail) for me. Here they are:



I like the idea of being open to mixing and matching. Maybe I'll just keep it to different pyrex as long as its basically white with colour detailing. So after browsing all the lucious pyrex on etsy, I've made up my mind. I am going to mix up white & turquoise/aqua, brown & white AND red pyrex pieces!!!

Here are some pieces that I think might go together nicely for my set:

To go with the ovals plates above.

These ramekins are listed for a song on etsy! & will be adorable with pyrex's woodland pattern!

Aren't these square bowls the bomb?!

Woodland mixing bowls-2 of them as a set.

Love red & turquoise together...these fridge dishes are so useful!

These can be used for a zillion different things.

These plates just to mix in more red.

I can't wait to have a decent looking set of dishes. For being a dish-head, I've survived a year without my beloved Fiesta Ware (at my Mom's house, safe and sound) and have used the motliest crew of lame dishes. Well those days are numbered and I couldn't be happier!!!!!!!

Coffee? Tea? Yes, Please.

The offical proof is here! Caffeine is good for you in a plethora of ways. Just look at the photographic proof here of Denise and we'll get to it after this wonderful visual reference. Thanks a mill, Denise!!!!

As Denise shows us the effects of ones morning coffee we can see it sparks her right up and preps her for yet another lovely day. Caffeine is a natural stimulant, most commonly found in coffee, tea, cocoa and kola, that when consumed in reasonable amounts has a positive effect on us humans.

Energy & Stamina
Caffeine is probably used mostly for increasing energy and stamping out drowsy lethargy. It helps us burn more calories when exercising and enables us to exercise even longer. Win win if you ask me.
Mood & Mental Health
Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system giving us feelings of alterness, well-being and encourages concentration. It has been said by many psychiatrists that caffeine is a mood elevator; plain as day.
Heart Health & Disease/Ailment Protection
Coffee (not kola) is loaded with anti-oxidants which help in the prevention of heart disease.

 

GET THIS! Regular coffee drinkers are "significantly" less likely to develop Parkinson's disease. Regular moderate intake of Caffeine has been shown to decrease the loss of dopamine producing brain cells. It's the loss of those brain cells that causes Parkinson's disease. Coffee specifically has also been proven to lower the risk of cirrhosis of the liver, colon cancer and gallstones. Caffeine can also help relieve headaches.

 

As little as 20 mgs of caffeine can cause noticeable physical & mood changes.

Here's a rough-guide showing caffeine content:

An average cup of tea contains around 50 mgs of caffeine. 

An average cup of instant coffee contains around 70-100 mgs. Instant decaffeinated coffee contains about 3 mgs.

A 6 oz cup of espresso coffee (much larger than the normal cafe cup, incidentally) contains about 80-90 mgs.

A single-hit cappuccino will contain the same amount.

Filter coffee (called 'drip' in the US) can contain 25-50% more caffeine than instant.

A 340 ml or 12 oz can of regular or diet cola contains between 35 and 45 mgs. of caffeine depending on the brand  

Some so-called 'energy drinks' contain very high doses of caffeine - equivalent to to 4+ cups of strong coffee in one dose!

One ounce or 28 grams of chocolate contains about 10-15 mgs .

 

I've been drinking coffee off and on for more than a couple of decades now and keeping up with a lot of the studies regularly done on caffeine...and I have to say that caffeine intake like everything else is all based upon the individual but, all in all, I really think that 1-2 cups of coffee or tea a day is rather healthful. 

oat milk.

Finally I will no longer be dependent on buying processed Soy Milk*. I mean, I've felt lucky enough as is, just being able to find organic soy milk here! I can't believe I've waited this long to try making my own non-dairy milk.
So, naturally, ever since I decided that I wanted to make my own milk I've been reading every recipe I can find on it. I've considered making rice milk and soy milk but, then I found the simplest recipe ever for oat milk. Oat milk! I hadn't even thought of it! Sounds good, right? I made it and it's delicious!!! We are enjoying it in our tea and coffee and with granola cereal.

Here's what you do:

soak 1 cup of rolled oats in 5 cups of water for 24 hours

blend & strain

>>Shake well before each use<<

THAT'S IT!!! Oh, and keep it in the fridge.

On top of oat milk being easy to make and tasting great...it's on the cheap, big time. What would have cost me over $2 in purchased soy milk, I spent about 25 cents making my own oat milk = happy me.

*We buy very few processed/packaged items here in Guatemala and we love it. The two main things that we are dependent upon that are not only packaged but, are processed and imported to add insult to injury are: olive oil and soy  milk.

It's so nice to eliminate at least one of those. I don't see us not buying or using olive oil any time soon. At least not until I own that olive grove of my dreams! Do they have olive groves in Spain? South America any where?

backgammon

Backgammon is a game I played as a kid and then didn't play for many many moons until this year. My mom gave me an adorable travel set earlier this year that she totally scored on at her local Flea Market, Howard's* for 2 bucks! I can't even begin to say how far that $2 has gone and is going. We play almost everyday and it's so much fun! We one day aspire to figure out and use the doubling cube. Haha!

This game lives on our kitchen table. We play almost everyday. It's so much fun because we are even-steven on skill level and that makes it all a matter of 'luck of the dice'!!

*Howard's Flea Market in Homosassa, Florida is where Mike is from. He was all by himself and that is one of the most precious days of my lives; finding that little guy. What a firey little blessing he is. Talk about a flea market find!

growing my own spices

There's nothing like have herbs and spices to cook with! And there's nothing like not having herbs and spices to cook with. While there are many wonderful ingredients to be found in the markets here in Xela....there are a few things that I have grown accustom to cooking with that are not to be found! My solution? Grow them! Mustard seeds are something I incorporated into my cooking while living in Portland, Oregon some years back. I was going to traditional Indian food-themed pot lucks. I discovered a couple of dishes that influenced my cooking still to this day and probably for my ever. One of the dishes I made that had a huge impact on me was Bombay Potatoes. You start the dish by frying a bunch of spices...YUM!

Harvesting mustard seeds is fun but, a wee bit tedious. Thank goodness I've found a huge bag of mustard seeds (the dark ones) in the market...at a pet food stall. They are fed to birds. Who knew? Not me!!! Out of all the plants we had room to grow we only got about 2 tablespoons of mustard. It was a fun project and I've never regretted growing anything!

Mike even loved the plants and helped out, of course he did, he's a very good boy!

fresh herbs....nothing like em.

There are so very many things that are fresh and amazing about Guatemala; fresh herbs being one of them!

Mind you it's really hard to find fresh Basil and that's a bummer but, this bunch of fresh Cilantro is what you get for Q1 (which is about 1/7 of a dollar). ...you can not beat that!

Fresh herbs are so healthful to eat and now I can easily eat them up with every meal! It's a good thing as you know who would say. Oh! And they are grown organically......sweet!

pickling peppers

One of the things I miss the absolute most of my home country is simple pepper sauces and Louisiana style hot sauces. I have, after a year, decided to try my hand at making my own. I started with the simple one first. After buying 3 types of varying heated peppers at the market, I consulted my Southern Momma and she gave me the simplest of instructions:
wash peppers
put in jar
boil vinegar
add a little sugar
pour over peppers & cover in jar
put on lid
let sit for 2 weeks & enjoy!!

I can't wait two weeks!!! Wahhhh! They look delicious!

**UPDATE**

The pepper sauce tastes good at 1 week, tastes a million times better after 2 weeks and tastes freaking glorious after 3+ weeks! Tastes exactly like my grandmothers! Woohoo!

pink, wonderful.

While cooking dinner the kitchen window (our one street window, high up on the inside of our wall but, on the level with traffic outside) lit up intense purple-pink...I couldn't imagine what car was causing that so, I took a peek outside. By the time I grabbed my camera and made it out to the courtyard it was fading fast but, the whole sky was lit up bright rich intense purple and pink...here's the shot I got of the tail end of it. You can even faintly see the moon. It was breath-takingly gorgeous; so happy I saw what I did of it!!!

ovenless/stoveless and happy!

Moving into the warehouse spurred us to come up with our very own kitchen. I don't have a stove and didn't choose to have one. My kitchen consists of a large stainless steel sink that drains into a bucket (we water our garden with the water), an electric kettle, an electric wok, an electric grill and a crock pot. This was mostly the set up that just happened and we are super content and happy with it. The wok especially! The funny thing is thinking about standing in the thrift store and inspecting these kitchen 'appliances' and really asking ourselves if we should splurge the six bucks for a wok or a grill. We just love both of them. Every night we steam greens in the wok and almost every day we make our tortillas on the grill. Perfecto!

I rinse our veggies outside and let the water run directly into our garden.

It is so nice to do kitchen tasks outside!

Mike is a fantastic helper!

Huge leaves of Mong Toi.

Lovin' it!

mushrooms!!

I have always loved mushrooms! They are tasty little morsels! I think they are better than any meat in the world....they are so wonderfully fleshy!

While shopping at my new nearby Asian Grocery I found these 'King Oyster' mushrooms. They are amazingly large!!!!!!

I sliced them up and sauted them with baby green bok choy, fresh garlic and sesame oil. Yum!