Friday, December 31, 2010

macaroni and (three) cheese

Besides hanging out with friends and family and catching up on our TV, we've been up to nothing. I need to get on photo editing, but I've been so busy doing NOTHING.
I'm sure you know how that goes.

The other night, while Alex and I were dog sitting, we decided we wanted macaroni and cheese. There was no Kraft, so I checked out what The Pioneer Woman had on her site.
Now, I used her recipe as a starting point, but there was a bunch of cheese in the fridge, and they all sounded so great, so I used them all. Cheddar. Brie. Asiago.


I didn't take pictures, so here is the direct link to the recipe: macaroni & cheese

I didn't have dry mustard, so I used mustard from the fridge. I put about three squirts in, whatever that means.
I also used the optional spices of cayenne, paprika, and thyme,

Our sauce had a lot of flour taste to it, so I added a lot of spices, but I think I should have used more.

We put the cheddar in like the directions said. Then I added a pretty big slice of brie in. Make sure if you're going to use brie to peel the rind off. We also added ours in little chunks as to help it melt a little better.

To top everything off, we added shredded asiago.


It's a pretty easy recipe, both for ingredients and skill. Be careful - it is delicious but definitely not all that nutritious (for the calorie content). Buen Provecho!

Monday, December 27, 2010

tomato cream sauce

If you want to put a little twist on the ol' pasta dish, a tomato cream sauce is an easy way to do it. 

I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman (as usual) but couldn't follow it exactly because I didn't have everything.

Here's what I used:
- Big bag of little pasta shells
- 2 Tbs of butter
- Spoonful of minced garlic from a jar
- Big can of spaghetti sauce
- 1 cup of heavy cream
- Sugar, Salt, Pepper to taste
- little packet of cream cheese
- basil from a shaker

So, if you compare the ingredients lists, they are not the same. A lot of stuff was from cans or jars, but whatevs. It turned out good enough to eat, and that's what really matters.

Heat the butter, allowing it to melt. Add garlic and let it soak for about a minute. Add tomato/spaghetti sauce, taste, add spices to taste, taste, let simmer for 30 minutes.
I personally started cooking my noddles after about 20 minutes of simmering so that everything would be ready about the same time.
After simmering time, add the cream and (cream) cheese. Taste. Add spices as needed. 
Pioneer woman says to mix the two, but we just pour the sauce on our individual bowls since we each like different amounts of sauce. It's up to you.


It's a super easy recipe to try when you're in the mood for pasta. 
Buen Provecho!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

the surprise

I was really preoccupied with organizing our return to the States that I couldn't be bothered with blogging. I mean, the only thing I was thinking about, the only thing I was doing, had to do with coming back to Oregon, surprising our families and friends. I couldn't think about all of the other things that would have been good for this blog. I could barely even edit photos, save for my late nights.

So, we had been planning this for a couple of weeks. At first, we thought it was too expensive for us to come home. I mean, we were looking at about $1,600 for flying right before Christmas. That's a lot of money to just about anyone. But, after a while we became quite homesick and decided that it didn't matter what it cost; we wanted to come home. 

Three weeks later, here we are. We've surprised Alex's family and our friends Josh and Haley. We ran into our friend Brandon on the highway. And Christmas has come and gone.

And still, it was worth it. 


I am still working on editing photos for this blog. I have no idea when they will be done but, now that most of the festivities are over, I will have more time. 

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Christmas time in Honduras

I don't like posting when I don't have pictures. We take so many that it's difficult to keep up with the editing. Especially when you have school (aka WORK) to go to. Can't just make blogging and photography my full time job, ya know!

Anyhow, the kids have been working for about a week now on their door projects which will be judged tomorrow. I've only seen a few, but they are coming together very nicely! We will have pictures as soon as I edit them for the blog.

And we are also getting geared up for our month long vacation! 
I need the break... I mean, yes, I love the kids, but I need a break.
I think that's how moms might feel. Except I have like 25 kids. It's too many for real life.


Pictures to come soon. For everything that I haven't posted on - cooking with Doña Olga, care package, more Belize stuff, etc. It's in the works.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Belize trip - part 1

Nearly a month later....

We left off the night Alex and I had traveled to the border of Honduras and Guatemala. We did not have the all of the proper paperwork to travel, so we had to turn back around and go home. We planned to set off again in the morning.

We were told that we could catch a bus at 5am. We were also told that we could catch a bus at 6pm. Even though it wasn't fun, we opted to try to catch the earliest bus so we could make it to Belize the same day. Our alarm clock went off at 4:30am and we got dressed in the same clothes as the day before. We were down at the bus station at 4:50am, which we thought would give us enough time to get on the bus. Wrong. We were about five minutes late. This changed our plans a little.

There was a bus that was very unoccupied but we were informed that it would be leaving at 6am. We thought we would just wait until that one left, but a pushy cab driver told us that he would drive us out to the main road where we could catch a bus in no time at all. We were unsure, but because we were pressed for time we decided to take his offer.

We got out to the main road at about 5:20am and waited. I watched the sun rise. I watched chickens wake up in their tree. I learned how chickens get down from trees. It's not rocket science, but I was still intrigued.

Finally, after an hour of standing out in the cold, buses started coming by our bus stop, and at 6:32am we were on our way toward the border. Then at 9am we were in Guatemala. This was by far the longest leg of our trip: 5 hours of traveling on very crowded buses/vans with Mayans, stinky sticky children, and sometimes a chicken.

We wanted to be in Puerto Barrios by 2pm at the latest in order to catch, what I thought was, the last ferry. We rolled into Puerto Barrios at 2:20pm and caught a cab to the dock to see if there was any hope of catching a rogue boat. Luckily, we met Memo and he took us, along with a couple other white folks, to Punta Gorda, Belize and even cut us a deal for buying our return ticket in advance.

It was only on the boat that we felt more comfortable taking our camera out of its bag.

It was a little chilly because the boat was able to go so fast. 
That water was calm!


Once we got to the other side, checked in with immigration, etc., we realized that our Honduran SIM card did not work in Belize. We asked Memo if we could use his phone, but he took a really long time and the guys at immigration were worried that we wouldn't make it to our destination. They got a cab for us and we headed to Hickatee Cottages.

We met Ian and Kate at the main building/Charlie's bar and immediately asked for a drink. We were all amazed that we had made it that night what with all the complications we had run across. While we were checking in, a large butterfly decided to say hello. Ian, being the butterfly expert that he is, caught it and showed us its wings.



After that little adventure, they informed us that they upgraded us to the suite for no extra charge in order to celebrate Alex's birthday. We thought this was just amazing because they had already upgraded us once already for no charge. Of course, we did not refuse.

Large bedroom; very comfortable bed!

Sweet living room with a very large collection of movies

Awesomely large bathroom with very plush towels.

Private porch and patio situated in the wilderness.
We didn't have any plans when we arrived, but they told us about the Garifuna Collective, a very well known Belizean musical group, that was supposed to be playing that night and took us into town to get some food and watch the show.

All cleaned up!
Because we had been traveling all day, as soon as we got food in our bellies, we were sleepy. We treated ourselves to some local cuisine, delicious milkshakes, and then got a cab back to the cottages. We would need our rest because we had an adventure the next day.

In the morning, we awoke to hot tea, which we requested over coffee, on our veranda.


Before leaving for the day, we stopped by the restaurant to try out some of Kate's famous homemade bread, butter, and jams. I have to say: they were VERY delicious! 




Some other pictures of Hickatee that we did not take on our first day - 

Hammock on the front porch

Solar panels situated on the farm, behind all of the cottages

Thursday, December 2, 2010

I love Thursdays

I love Thursdays for three reasons:
1. It's almost the end of the week.
2. I don't have to teach anymore little kids. On Wednesday, I have a very full day which includes teaching all of my classes. I have 3rd, 4th, and 6th grades, plus my usual 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. It's usually not a very good day for me.
3. It's bread day!!

It starts with Doña Olga. She gives us some kind of bread every week on Thursday. Usually, it's these babies.

I have no idea what they're called. Today, she called them "pansitas" but I'm pretty sure that's not the real name.
They are quite dry, so dry that it's dangerous to eat them without water. And have a little bit of a sweet flavor to them. Alex doesn't like them so much, but I think they're delicious.


Then, if we've remembered to put in an order, we go pick up our order of bread from one of our student's aunt's. She cooks bread every week and sells it only on Thursday. We've been told that many people come to buy this bread, even from an hour or so away from here. It's pretty delicious, especially with coffee.

Oh, what do we have in this bag?

Oh, "samitas de trigo". These are out favorite samitas.

A little bit of sugar on its hard outside, soft crumbs on the inside.

YUM.

Oh, well, here is another bag...

OH! More samitas and a torta!

These are "samitas de arroz". 
They are also good, but a bit more dry than the samitas de trigo.

Oh, and the torta...

The "torta de mantequilla" is the perfect bread for coffee.
Moist. A little bit of sugar.
Melt in your mouth goodness. 

As you can see, I cut into that torta right away. We decided that since we had just bought more coffee, and now we had bread, that it would be a good idea to just indulge immediately. It just felt right.

And for 100 lempiras ($5 usd) for all that bread, boy, was it right. Delish!