Comida

It's always a good day when Sandra invites us over for a meal. These are shots from a breakfast she made a couple weeks ago before Julissa moved back to the States. We are so happy we met Julissa and her mom, Sanda, soon upon our arrival. They've been key people in helping us have an incredible experience here. And lucky for us, Sanda is an amazing chef! She owned a restaurant here in Chimaltenango for a good chunk of time. She lived in New Orleans for almost 20 years and brought a lot of tips and taste tricks from her time there and can piece together anything. We've been fortunate to experience her take on Guatemalan dishes. The breakfast shown was poached eggs on corn tortillas, with a homemade salsa, fried potatoes and freshly made papaya juice. First image was our appetizer - figs and a delicious miscellaneous fruit local to Guate. And of course, a meal isn't complete without a cup of joe. Sanda brews the best coffee, too. She owns a coffee farm and we went picking with her a few weeks ago! We might have also got carried away and brought 200+ bananas back from the farm, too. So this is our early exclamation of excitement for our dinner at Sandra's tonight. Don't worry, I'll document it for you. No doubt it will be picture-worthy.

hey there

What have you all been up to lately? Sadly we were internet-less for the past week and haven't been able to update. But we're back on track with new internet coming this week so we can post and chat and skype much more!

Lately, I've been trying to get creative with my cooking. We're a bit limited by ingredients here, either because they aren't sold in the market or at the stores, or everything I need is quite separated in town. Breakfast has been my favorite. I recently decided that I need to document these meals better, they are really pretty! Thanks to my amazing mama for sending me gluten free flour and coconut oil, I've been baking plenty of cookies, pancakes and granola.

How pretty is this homemade orange jam? (Courtesy of our new friends). It tastes like Christmas. They're going to show us how to make it soon and I'm planning on documenting for a tutorial. Trust me, you'll want to try it out. This would be the perfect present!

dawn to dusk

A few snapshots of a typical day, from morning to evening. Relaxing, warm weather, yummy food. Happy place.

Greetings from Guate!

Hi everyone! We arrived to our new home two weeks ago and are so happy we made the decision to come here. While we have been getting situated in our nice, cozy place, trying to acquaint ourselves with our neighborhood, the city, the market and the yummiest (and safest) food vendors, we have also been focusing on our spanish. Rosetta Stone has been our good friend (but she also drives us crazy on occasion).

Mini Gluten-Free Pies

I made these delicious treats recently and LOVED them. I modified several recipes while adding a few of my own steps and couldn't be happier with the result. They were too good not to share...

Mini Gluten Free Pies

For the crust:

2 1/3 c. GF flour (I'll update this post with a link to the one I used)

1/2 tsp. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter

1/2 c. ice cold water

Directions: Preheat oven to 425 °
Cut the butter into 1" cubes and freeze for 10-15 minutes.
After mixing ingredients together (slowly adding cold water one tablespoon at a time), roll dough out and wrap well in plastic wrap. Keep in fridge for 25-30 minutes.

While you're waiting on the dough...

For the Filling:

3 cups of berries (I used blackberries)

1 tsp. almond extract

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. GF flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 large egg (for brushing)

Directions: Stir everything together except the egg. I made these mini pies by baking them in a cupcake tin. To get the shape, I used the lid of a sour cream container to cut into the dough, then placed it in the tin and molded it to fit. From there, fill each cupcake space with as much yummy filling as you wish. And the the best part...playing with top crust designs...Don't forget to brush the top with the egg.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes, watching closely. Once the juices are bubbling, you'll know they're done.
Let cool for at least an hour!

And there you have it. Super easy, super yummy mini pies.

Bon Appétit!!