About 30 years ago I developed a recipe for bran muffins and for carrot cake that were so great that I have not only made them unchanged ever since, but I’ve made them and sold them here in my little jungle community. However, I’ve never tried the carrot cake as muffins, and this recipe for Carrot Cake Cupcakes sounds like an interesting cross between my muffins and my carrot cake. Thanks to Leanne at Enjoying My Favorite Things, who was the hostess this week and chose them, I get to try them for this weeks Craving Ellie in My Belly event.

(more…)

I wanted to participate in Bread Baking Day (BBD) this month and a week ago I checked online to find the topic and somehow I got the idea that it was “small breads” (now that I look closer, I see that “small breads” was on the menu for August 2008!). So, I made small breads. That is not necessarily a bad thing … I have wanted to find a great bun recipe that I could use for sandwiches (or hot dogs or hamburgers, but we don’t eat them often) for quite some time. One of the Craving Ellie recipes that I missed is for Lobster Roll, and I wanted to use my own home made rolls for it, so this gave me the incentive to read through a pile of recipes for the “perfect” hamburger/hot dog bun … and try out this one that, yes, could possibly be the most perfect sandwich bun of all!

(more…)

I began participating in the “Craving Ellie in My Belly” event so that I would be motivated to create and blog at least one new recipe each week … and now I am making these recipes because they are so incredibly delicious! Every one I have tried so far has been a taste sensation at the table. The recipes that I’ve missed making for the weekly event, are lined up to try as soon as I am able. Today’s choice of Oven Baked Onion Rings by Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen was another winner.

(more…)

I’m a bit behind on my posting of my Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe this week … the small amount of computer time I can eke out while visiting family and old friends goes rapidly just by checking and answering the most important e-mails.

This week’s recipe, picked by Tessa of Handle the Heat, is not only a dessert recipe, but one that just might make a great new addition to the Gringo Perdido menu … so I was looking forward to making it and trying it. I read other comments saying that there weren’t enough graham crackers in the recipe, so I upped them from 14 to 20. Then, I missed the instruction to bake the crust for 10 minutes :>( which resulted in a slightly gummy crust, but it was still very edible. I also used 2% milk since that is what Mom had in the refrigerator, and besides, I’m not convinced that cutting back so far on fats is necessary for good health or weight loss.

(more…)

I’ve just discovered “Bread Baking Day” and since I use only home baked breads instead of store-bought (Guatemala is tortilla country), I thought this would be a great incentive for me to play around with different breads instead of cooking the same tried and true recipe week after week. For the month of May, the theme of breadbakingday is Multi-grain Breads. When I arrived in New Brunswick last week, one of my first purchases was a multi-grain cereal, and I figured this would make an exceptionally great tasting bread. When I began rounding up the ingredients, I discovered, in Mom’s pantry, a bag of Ramon flour that I had brought up with me last year, and I decided to include it for extra flavor and nutrition.

(more…)

Fiddleheads are a local delicacy that appears fresh on the market for only a short time each year. They are a type of fern that grows in the shady bogs and marshes in the spring when the water levels of the rivers and creeks goes down. My mother is from the Miramichi River area of New Brunswick, which is one of the most famous locations for finding fiddleheads, and during my younger years, we always made a special trip “over” in the spring to pick as many as we could find. What we couldn’t eat fresh over the next few days, Mom would parboil and freeze, to pull out for special meals (and to make meals special) throughout the summer, fall and winter.

(more…)

A journey to southern New Brunswick would not be complete without a feast of scallops … and although they are sweet and delicious when freshly shucked and raw (the way we used to eat them on the boat when my Uncle John had scuba dived for them) or just sauteed in butter, one of my favorite ways to eat them is wrapped in bacon and baked. My cousin Greg is visiting from “out west”, and was missing seafood as much as I was, so he brought over enough to treat us all for dinner and even did the cooking!

(more…)

This is my week to choose the recipe for “Craving Ellie in My Belly” and since I am visiting Mom in New Brunswick, Canada, I decided to make something that would be native to this area and not easily obtainable in the jungles of Guatemala. Something that involved seafood seemed like a natural, so I perused Ellie’s recipes with that in mind. I thought first of making something with shrimp or clams, but Mom isn’t crazy about shellfish unless its lobster … and I didn’t know how easily other chefs could get lobster. (I, myself, will most definitely be eating at least one or two lobster rolls here before I go back). In the end, I decided on a favorite from my childhood, Crispy Fish Fingers, although in those days my “fish fingers” were called “fish sticks” and came frozen in a box.

(more…)

I was travelling from Guatemala to Canada last week and wasn’t able to cook this recipe for publication on Thursday, but the recipe looked so interesting and received so many great comments (plus I love fish and am now in the land of fresh fish)that I decided to make it for Mom and I after I arrived. I picked up a couple of haddock filets and just before I began to cook, one of my brothers called and said he had bought some fish (also haddock) and fiddleheads to welcome me home, and was on his way with some of his family, to spend the day with us, so I decided to give this recipe the ultimate test and serve it to them all.

(more…)

I probably would not have chosen to make this recipe myself … mostly because E. doesn’t like his food too hot and finds fruit with meat a little weird. However, I was glad to see it come up as the weekly Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe so I would have the excuse to try it for myself. This weeks pick was by Jenn from Notes From the Table.

(more…)

Once I start seeing the signs of the jungle summer, I know that mangoes are on their way. And when mango season hits the jungle, there is no mistaking it!!

(more…)

Banana Jam seemed like a great way to preserve a few more of the bananas, and I when i ran across this recipe, it sounded perfect.

(more…)

In December of this past year, volunteer Dana Machovek of Alberta, Canada, donated a Sun Oven to Project Ix-canaan with the understanding that we would be able to use it to demonstrate solar cooking and run workshops in the village to build-your-own solar oven. Since we are now in the hot season, and we are finally getting some sunny days, I dug out the oven to get familiar with it.

(more…)