Part of why I stopped blogging was because my Peace Corps service wasn't what I (or most people) expected. I don't live in a hut without electricity or running water, I don't have to poop in the ground, I'm not eating only weird-sounding/looking foods. I don't struggle to find internet or cell phone service. Instead I live in the 4th largest city in Mexico, work in an office and have a beautiful apartment (all to myself) with running water and electricity and HOT water. At one point I was regularly eating SHARP cheddar cheese and I can find/make pretty much whatever I want to eat. I have great cell service and internet in my home that I can actually afford! And the kicker my life just feels normal! That is other than the fact I have to speak in Spanish pretty much all the time, but hey that is much better and easier after 3 years in Mexico.
That being said I am really going to try for the last 9 months of my service - yep you heard that correctly I extended for a little longer through August 12, 2015 to finish my projects and give myself time to really think about what comes next, but more on that later. However this time around it's going to be different a little more focused on my kitchen, which while tiny makes me so very happy, and also my secondary projects working with in Clavijero with Dulce and Club Mariposa and my big project with the Mountain Rescue Team.
So here's to my re-newed blog and the stories I get to share!
Banana Muffins with Dulce
Back in August 2013, I started helping Dulce Karen learn English and at that time I would leave the park early every Tuesday and head to her family's fruit and veggie stand at the temporary market nearby and we would sit in the family's truck and have English class. After a couple weeks, they started sending me home with enormous bags of fruits and veggies. One of those times they sent me home with a huge bunch of bananas and what do you do when you have lots of bananas? You make banana bread of course! And the family loved it and wanted the recipe. So finally, this past August we did it, we made banana muffins (since they take 1/2 the time to bake) and they were delicious and fun. However, I did make her work for it she had to translate my english recipe into Spanish
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| Dulce taking the second 1/2 batch out of the oven |
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| Delicious partial whole wheat banana muffins |
(adapated from this site http://breadtopia.com/moist-whole-wheat-banana-bread/) This recipe yields anywhere from 16-19 muffins
1 stick butter (mantequila)
1/2 cup regular sugar (azucar)
1 tsp vanilla (vainilla (no extract for us!)
3/4 tsp baking soda (bicarbonato de sodio
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (canela molida)
1/4 ground nutmeg (nuez moscada molida)
1/2 tsp salt (sal)
3 mashed, ripened bananas (~1.5 cups)
2 eggs (huevos)
1/4 cup honey (miel)
1 cup white flour (harina de trigo)
1 cup whole wheat flour (harina integral)
15 large pecan pieces (nuez)
(cup= taza, tsp=cucharita, tbsp=cuchara)
1. Ripen the bananas by baking them in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes, I found this http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Bananas-Ripen-Faste
2. Preheat oven to 350F (175C) or in our case we tried setting 5 on their oven.
3. Mix together the butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth, then mix in the baking soda, salt cinnamon, nutmeg. Next add in the banana, eggs and honey and mix until smooth. Then add in the flour 1 cup at a time and once again stir just until smooth. Spoon batter into lined muffin tin filling them only 3/4 of the way otherwise you will have a hard to clean muffin tin. Finally, push a few broken pieces of pecan (or chocolate chips) into each muffins. Before placing them in the oven it is a good idea to let them sit for a few minutes, though I have no clue why I just know that's what every recipe says.
4. Bake for 20-35 minutes (they are ready when a toothpick or knife stuck into a muffin comes out clean). The time they take will depend on your oven and how accurate the dial is. Remove from oven and allow the pan to cool for a few minutes before removing the muffins so you can resuse the tin for the second partial batch.
5. Enjoy!
(This was actually blogged on October 10th, but backdated to August 8th))
