Eat - Drink - Cooking - Recipes

Lauren's Queso de Tortilla -- as dictated by Lauren

About 2 cups of Maseca Harina

About 3/4 C Water

A pinch each of Salt, Paprika, Cumin, Chile Powder

About a Tablespoon Shortening

Shredded white cheese

Mix all ingredients except the cheese with your hands until the mixture looks like cookie dough.  It only takes a few seconds.  Take a wad and form it into a ball.  Flatten it.  Punch the middle of your flattened ball with two fingers.  Fill the hole with cheese.  Ball the dough back togther and reflatten it.  Put the cake into a skillet of hot oil.  Turn it when its brown.  When its cooked, split it open with a knife, not all the way, and stuff it with cole slaw, guacamole, etc.  Disfrute! (Enjoy!) yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gary sprung for a box of Cracklin Oat Bran.  At $10 a box, its off limits for anyone but a true romantic.  Thanks, Bear!

We cut the top off a beat and rubbed it in a bowl full of sugar which rendered a lovely shade of pink.  That sugar decorated the tops of our hand carved heart shaped cookies, and the remainder of the beet was perfect side dish to barbecued chicken. I plunged the left over greens in water to make more beets if I ever get around to making a garden.

Lauren, Henry, and Miss Kristin enjoy a “pipa” after surf camp on Friday.  Vendors typically from Nicaragua stroll the beach selling coconuts -- and lots of other things.  With a sharp knife, they whack off the top part of the coconut, pop a straw in, and hand it over.  The juice is ice cold and the flesh is soft and gooey.  Its surprisingly refreshing.  Jennea Combs said she paid 500 colones for hers, but we always get hit for a thousand (that’s $2).

One day last week, Gary and I got side tracked on our way to the car parts store and wound up at Coco Beach, about an hour from here.  We stumbled into a breakfast place, where I had, to my surprise, a goblet of beef stew -- and the best tortilla of my life, miserly portion though it was.  I had a long conversation with the waitress, and I’m pretty sure she was explaining how to make them.  On the way home, we bought some masa harina and I gave it my best shot in my own kitchen.  For my first attempt, it was okay, but I’m going to see if I can find a Tica to come over and do it with me some time.   In case you want to give it a try, here’s the deal:

Dump a generous pinch of salt and some masa harina into a bowl -- that's corn flour to you and me.  Don't use corn meal.

Add water, not too much.

When its crumbly but can hold together in a golf-ball sized lump, place the lump on a piece of plastic wrap.  Put another piece of plastic wrap on top and press it into a tortilla shape.  Get it as thin as you can but make sure it can still hold together.

Put the tortilla on a hot, slightly oiled skillet.  Turn it when it blisters up a little and has a satisflying color.  

There you go -- tortillas on demand.  

The inspiration: An empty pantry and a demanding sweet tooth is not a great combination.   Here’s what I came up with:

Toss a handful of flour, two handfuls of sugar, and a pinch of salt into a pan and stir it up.  Add about a pint of milk and bring it to a slow boil.  Temper in a couple of eggs.  Yearn for a teaspoon of vanilla.  Cook the mixture a couple more minutes and then add chopped ripe plantains.  If the sugar burns, you can tell your family that you “carmalized the pudding.”  

At the last minute, I had thrown a nutmeg in my purse before we left home in California, which I grated on top.  All in all, it was pretty tasty.

I’m not a waster, never have been.  As a kid, I watched my mom wrap up 20 cents worth of oatmeal to use later as a facial scrub or use her finger to scrape the last of the egg goo from the inside of a shell.  I watched, learned, and copied.  So its no surprise that while I’m in a country where food prices are jaw dropping, my frugality measures are in hyper drive.  My commitment:

We will eat all the food we purchase.  Nothing will be wasted.

I will find a way to plant a garden, although I have no pots, no soil, and no shovel.

I will trade cookies, bread, and other baked goods for food I cannot produce.

We will be grateful for all our food, even the nasty stuff like “Fud.”

I will not purchase “Fud” ever again.

There are 3 Grocery Stores here, the MegaSuper, the SuperCompro, and the American style AutoMercado.  All have a limited selection compared with what we are used to, and prices on many items can run as much as double US pricing.  It is a shocker and remains a shocker each time we go.  My AutoMercado customer card seems to do nothing to the price when it is scanned at check out.

We did not get shampoo packed for our trip but brought Costco plastic wrap, Glad bags, Scotch tape, and lots of sun tan lotion.  After our first trip here, we knew suntan spray could run up to 20 bucks a bottle, and a lot of other stuff was just not available, so we packed it in.   But, after 3 days here Nancy said "I've got to get some shampoo," so I walked down to the SuperCompro and spent $12 for a $2's worth of Sauve shampoo. I could not bear to buy the conditioner - Nan bought it the next day...but that's another story.

The transition from the highway to the MegaSuper parking lot will swallow a small car.  Its a great place to looks for muffler parts.  Photos to follow.

Inside the Mega Super

And Something a Little More Local

If there is a lot of interest in the Food Page  I will write more about all the stores and take a lot of pictures.  Let me know below-Gary