Lago Yojoa, Pulhapanzak Waterfall, and Taulabe Caves

Ah, Honduras.  What a pristine, beautiful landscape you have!  That's one thing about this country - there are incredible sites to see, and for the most part, for much cheaper prices than other Central American countries.  The only thing is Honduras doesn't know how to market what it has to attract tourism!  It's really a shame that there's so much natural beauty here and not a lot of foreigners know about it.  I've slowly been crossing sites off a mental list of places to see.  Each visit has been a great adventure with unique unforgettable memories and I hope that stays true for the remaining places.  

The last weekend in June I went on a long-awaited trip to Lago Yojoa (Lake Yojoa) with my best girl friends in PC.  We stayed at Agua Azul and had our own 3 bedroom cabin complete with balcony right on the lake.  Other than the ever-present mosquitoes, the place was beautiful.  It's one of the nicest budget hotels to stay at, and there weren't too many other people there either so we were free to blast our music and have a dance party if we wanted.  The hotel has a gorgeous restaurant with optional outside seating on a deck that overlooks the lake, and has a pool table as well.  There were several activity options too, like canoe, kayak, pedal-boat, swimming pool with slide, etc but we only ended up using the pool, which in itself was refreshing!

Photo Credit: Morgaine Belanger

One of the days we headed to Pulhapanzak Waterfall, a popular tourist destination here and the largest waterfall in Honduras at 140 feet.  Beforehand though, we ate breakfast at D&D Brewery, and I was extremely pleased to find that they served BLUEBERRY pancakes!!

It is nearly impossible to find blueberries in this country, but they were there, and they were absolutely delicious.  Two backpacker girls wanted to join us on our way to the waterfall, so we went together in a friend's car.  The place has zip-lining, swimming, and a guided tour behind the waterfall.  We opted for the tour, which I heard from others was an intense feel-like-you're-drowning experience not to be missed.  The tour guide lead us down to a swimming hole which we jumped into from the rocks and enjoyed that for a bit before starting the treacherous walk through and behind the waterfall into the small cave.  We all had to join hands, tilt our heads down chin-to-chest, and breathe through our mouths as the water pounded on us and we navigated through varying depths of water on slippery stone.  The cave fit about 15 people, so there was enough space for my group.  It was dark and damp, but was the perfect refuge for a brief respite before heading back out.  As we waded back through the water, the guide mentioned we could jump from a 30 foot ledge if we wanted.  I excitedly made my way to the jump off point, felt a brief pang of fear as I brought myself to the edge, and quickly jumped off, crashing into the water below.  It was a great adrenaline rush, and the whole tour made for an unforgettable experience.

After our lake trip, some of us headed to the Taulabe Caves and did the guided tour of 400 meters.  The caves have been explored up to 12 km, but still nobody knows exactly where they end at.

My Culinary Adventures: Chickpea Curry

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've posted anything!  I've been busy with work, couchsurfers, and an island vacation!  I will write about all of my adventures soon.  Meeting so many new people traveling the world has had  a drastic influence on my potential plans for after service.  All will be revealed in due time =].

For now, however, I leave you with a delicious chickpea curry recipe.  I haven't cooked anything new in a while but I've been inspired to cook more, cook healthier, and get my personal life on track.  Let's hope the motivation stays with me and I'm able to reach my goals!

Recipe

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

I took this recipe and made a few changes and additions and it turned out even better (in my opinion).  I almost used coconut milk instead, but then realized I didn't have any.  Ni modo, it still tasted great!

Ingredients

3 Medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 Medium yellow onion, diced

2 Teaspoons garlic, minced

1 Teaspoon ginger, minced

Curry powder*

Garam masala* (If you don't have garam masala, just use the spices in the link. That's what I ended up doing.)

Cumin*

Salt*

Cayenne pepper*

2 Medium tomatoes, cubed and crushed

1/2 Cup cream or milk

1 (12 ounce) Can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Juice of 1 small lime

4 Tablespoons chopped cilantro

Sliced almonds for garnish

*All spices to taste

1. Place potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil over high heat; simmer until the potatoes are tender. Drain, and set aside.
2. Warm oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion, garlic, and ginger and cook until the onions are soft and translucent. 
3. Stir in curry powder, garam masala, cumin, salt, and cayenne pepper. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes, stirring. 
4. Add in crushed tomatoes, cream or milk (I used whole milk), chickpeas, and potatoes and mix well.  
5. Toss in lime juice, 3 tablespoons cilantro, and some almonds. Simmer 5 minutes.
6. Once it's done, feel free to add some fresh cilantro and almonds on top and serve with brown rice!

My Culinary Adventures: Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Pie

One of my English students gifted me a huge bag of sweet potatoes a month ago, and I knew I had to put them to good use because I don't think I had ever seen sweet potatoes in site before.  I used some of them to make Sweet Potato Fries, and the rest I planned on making a pie with.  In the states I always stayed away from sweet potato fries and pie because I was already so used to french fries and pumpkin pie that the idea of sweet potato anything seemed incredibly foreign and distasteful to me.  I looked upon these new recipes as a challenge to create something I actually enjoyed eating, and it worked!  With the right amount of spices, anything can taste wonderful :)  I unfortunately didn't have a regular pie crust so had to make one myself using crushed vanilla wafers, but that also turned out pretty delish.  It's topped with whipped cream, made with the whipping cream found here, some sugar, and vanilla.

Vanilla Wafer Crumb Crust Recipe

Adapted from Baking Bites

Ingredients

2 2/3 cups vanilla wafer cookies

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

1 egg white, lightly beaten (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Place cookies in a plastic bag and crush to crumbs using a rolling pin or can.
3. Put crumbs in a mixing bowl and add in sugar, vanilla extract and melted butter and mix well to combine. Mixture should resemble wet sand.
4. Pour into a 9-inch pie plate (or 9-inch square baking dish) and gently spread into an even layer over the bottom and sides. Press crumbs in firmly to create a tight crust. 
5. (Optional) Use a pastry brush to gently brush the beaten egg white over the surface of the crust (you do not need to use the whole egg white).  This step will help create a seal on the crust and prevent it from getting soggy from a moist filling.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until crust just begins to turn golden brown around the edges.
7. Cool completely before using.

Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

Adapted from Food Network

I originally put the ginger in as stated in the Food Network recipe, but in the end, the ginger didn't quite complement the pie, so I've taken out that ingredient in the recipe below and instead put pumpkin pie spice, which contains a hint of ginger but combined with other spices as well so it's not too overpowering.

Ingredients

2 cups peeled, cooked sweet potatoes

1 cup sugar

1/2 stick melted butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or more if you're using Honduran vanilla extract, which is insanely weak)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 cup milk

9-inch unbaked pie crust (or in this case, a pre-baked crumb crust)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Peel the sweet potatoes, then chop into quarters and place in a pot with boiling water.  Boil about 30-40 minutes until completely tender.
3. For the filling, using an electric hand mixer, combine the potatoes, 1 cup of the sugar, the butter, eggs, vanilla, salt, and spices. Mix thoroughly. Add the milk and continue to mix. Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

My Culinary Adventures: Pizza Pizza!

Last Thursday I invited my English students to come over and bake pizza at my house, while learning the names of the ingredients in English.  It took a few hours, so we put on some merengue, bachata, punta, and American club music and danced in the meantime.  The pizzas turned out pretty good, except the crust was a tad bit flavorless.  It was however, as the recipe claims, crispy on the outside and soft and doughy on the inside.  We also made licuados, or smoothies, out of banana, peanut butter, chocolate drink powder, milk and ice.  I've actually developed quite an addiction for these smoothies!  That class was definitely more a time to relax and have fun; a welcome break from the twice-weekly classroom lessons to boost morale and keep them motivated (although they honestly are already extremely dedicated to learning!).

I had extra sauce, onions, and bellpeppers leftover from the day so decided to make my own pizza yesterday and add some herbs into the dough.  This time the crust tasted a billion times better.  I chopped up the dried rosemary I had from the spice bottle, added garlic salt, ground oregano, ground thyme, and Trader Joe's' 21 Seasoning Salute.  You can use whatever you'd like, but I definitely do recommend flavoring the dough, otherwise it turns out disappointing.  I kind of double layered the toppings, which I wouldn't suggest doing because it makes the pizza difficult to eat without a fork since the toppings weigh down the crust.

Oh yeah, did I mention it was stuffed crust?  :)

Recipes

Pizza Crust

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

I changed the Serving Size from 15 to 8 and followed the recipe from there.

Ingredients

1-1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon brown sugar

3/4 cup and 2 teaspoons warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon and 1/4 teaspoon olive oil

Herbs to flavor dough

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour (or more depending on dough)

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Stir the salt, oil, and herbs into the yeast solution. Mix in flour until dough can be transferred to surface.
3. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
5. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the crust is golden brown, then broil for a couple minutes until cheese is slightly golden, about 40 minutes (but keep an eye on it, time varies. Original recipe says 15-20 min).

Sauce

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) bag tomato paste

8 fluid ounces water (or more, depending on how thick you like your sauce)

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons honey

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes (I omitted these and instead opted to put them on top of the finished pizza slice with Sriracha sauce!)

Salt to taste

1. In a saucepan over low, combine tomato paste, water, garlic, honey, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together.
2. Sauce should simmer on low for 15 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired.

Pizza!

1. Use whatever toppings you want! Just spread the sauce on first, sprinkle a bit of cheese (quesillo is the closest thing to mozzarella that we have here), add your toppings (bell pepper, onion, salami, tomato, anything!), then completely cover with more grated quesillo.  I prefer Sula brand because it really does taste like mozzarella!  Bake according to instructions above and enjoy!

My Culinary Adventures: Baked Ziti (ish)

My friends had left some quesillo (the closest thing we have to mozzarella) in my fridge from the welcome party we threw for the new North Coast PCVs, so I had been making a lot of grilled quesillo, tomato and basil sandwiches, but wanted to try something new.  I looked up some pasta recipes with mozzarella in them and came across Baked Ziti, which looked easy enough to do.  I altered the recipe a lot though, and it really can be whatever you want it to be.  I threw in some bell peppers that had been in my fridge forever (but still edible), and used the highly condimented beef they sell in site since it's impossible to find regular ground beef here unless I go to a city.  This actually turned out incredible, and I had a friend over for dinner and he said it was even better than his uncle's pasta dishes!  The only thing I would do differently is to use more quesillo so that it covered the entire top of the dish. 

Recipe

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 package dry shell pasta

1 package spaghetti

Salt

Olive Oil

1 pound ground beef (I used the condimented beef since that's all that's available in site)

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

2 (8 oz) bags of tomato paste

1 cup water

Ground oregano

Ground thyme

8 oz Sula mantequilla (sour cream)

1 tomato, cubed

1/2 pound grated quesillo (guessing on this, I didn't have enough when I made mine)

Dried basil for seasoning

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add salt and shells and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Add some olive oil to the drained pasta and mix so it doesn't stick together.
3. Cook the spaghetti the same way and add olive oil after.
4. In a large skillet, brown beef over medium heat. Add onions and bell pepper; saute until tender and until all water has evaporated.  Add tomato paste, water, oregano, and thyme to taste; simmer for about 15 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
6. Grease a glass pie plate with olive oil. Place one of the pastas in the dish; top with a layer of half the spaghetti sauce mixture and sour cream.
7. Cover with remaining pasta, sauce and sour cream; top with diced tomatoes, grated quesillo, and dried basil.
8. Bake in preheated oven for about 50 minutes or until cheese and sauce are bubbly; broil for about 5 minutes until cheese on top is a nice golden brown.  Serve.

My Culinary Adventures: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies

I've had this bag of chocolate chips sitting in my fridge for quite a while because the climate is too hot here to leave them out.  I had another bag that I did leave out, and the chips all melted together to form one big block, which I slowly gnawed away at over the months.  I suppose I could have put it to better use and made something by melting the chocolate in a saucepan, but it was a fast and easy way to satisfy my chocolate cravings and I'd only have to nibble off a little bit every time.  I'm due to receive a box of goodies pretty soon from my uncle, and I know there's another bag of chocolate chips in there so I decided to bake something last night that I could share with some friends today after they get done doing their topographical study.  I had never made any sort of "Blondie" before, but these turned out rich and delicious with a big glass of milk!  The only problem I had was that the refrigerated chocolate chips I folded into the batter melted really quickly before I could even get the pan into the toaster oven.  I guess we could call them Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Swirl Blondies?  :)

Recipe

Adapted from The Sweetest Kitchen

Ingredients

1/2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour an 8×8″ square pan and set aside (I used a round pan).
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from the heat, and stir in the peanut butter. Allow to cool while combining the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the egg to the peanut butter mixture and mix well. Add the vanilla extract and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared dry ingredients, and stir to create a thick, smooth batter. Fold in half the chocolate chips, reserving the rest for sprinkling on top.
4. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, spreading the batter evenly to the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and lightly press them into the batter.
5. Bake for 25 minutes until the top is golden and the edges are slightly browned. Allow to cool in the pan. Cut into squares and serve.

Host Mom's Birthday, Carnaval in La Ceiba, Volunteer Day

My host mom mentioned to me briefly last year when I was still living with her that growing up, she had never had a piñata for any of her birthdays.  I made note of this and as her birthday was rolling around the corner this year, asked her niece if she could make one in secret for her.  She gladly did, and gave it to me practically for free!  I bought the candy, we filled it up, and it was ready to go.  My host mom invited my site-mate, his girlfriend, and I over for dinner since we both lived with her when we first moved to site (at different times), and we enjoyed a meal of fried rice and banana soda (which I've actually acquired a taste for, but would never go out of my way to buy it).  After dinner we sat in the living room and talked for a bit, before I ran over to her niece's house to bring in the piñata.  It was a pleasant surprise and we all enjoyed beating the crap out of it.

Me, host mom, site-mate

That weekend was also Carnaval (Carnival) in La Ceiba, the largest event in all of Central America.  I planned on meeting a couple friends there and we had spots in a hotel that had 12 beds crammed into 1 stuffy room.  The other beds were taken by other PCVs, a volunteer for another organization, and two backpackers from Australia and England who turned out to be really cool and hung out with us most of the time.  The first day was pretty chill; we watched a group of Garifunas play and sing punta music on the beach,

then later at night walked the carnavalito on one of the streets.  It was like a normal fair with a lot of vendors, live music and dancing, carnival games with prizes, food, and jam-packed with people.  I also bought my first pair of earrings in Honduras there!  One of our group went up on stage to dance while everyone cheered the Gringo on as he provocatively danced with one of the Garifuna dancers.  

After the long street fair, we headed to the nightclub Hibou, the best one in town.  It really was amazing inside, with a smooth white floor and colored lights, smoke, platforms, fully-stocked bar, upstairs terrace, and great music.  The next day was the parade on one of the main roads.  It was unnecessarily looooong.  The first part consisted of people riding gigantic horses and they just kept coming, and coming, and coming.... and coming.  Then motorcycles followed, the loud noise scaring some of the horses.  After those I believe was a car show, floats, marching band, fighting groups, and not sure what else.  Oh yeah, there was this guy:

That night we headed to the night carnival which was a lot sketchier than the previous one, so I didn't stay very long.  Everyone later met up at El Pacha, another nightclub in Ceiba because Hibou that night had increased their price to L500 a person, which was L500 more than we paid the night before.  Usually the Pacha clubs are world-renowned for being high quality clubs, but this one was horrific.  Service was terrible and we probably waited an hour to get drinks.  They promised us VIP but we got nothing, and the music changed too often.  The only benefit was that there were no walls as it was situated right on the beach, so the view, breeze, and salty sea air were quite refreshing.  Carnaval finally drew to a close for us and everyone gradually returned to their sites the next day.

The following weekend was Volunteer Day.  It seems to be they have a day for everybody in Honduras - Woman's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Worker Day, Children's Day, and I'm sure countless others.  I worked with World Vision in setting up decorations and prizes at the pool area, serving lunch, and collecting food tickets.  The event turned out much larger than I had anticipated.  It's held annually in appreciation of all the hard work community members have contributed to World Vision's projects.  Children from different communities participated in a talent show which included dances, singing, and reading passages from the Bible.  Delicious food was served, catered by our dance club's owner who is a wonderful chef as well.  After lunch, people lined up to play games and win prizes, while children donned bathing suits and went swimming.  I couldn't resist jumping off the diving platform so I did that a couple of times before I got roped into a watermelon-eating contest, which I won!  I guess it helped to be craving watermelon that day :)

Semana Santa 2011

Semana Santa in Honduras is the largest holiday of the year.  It's also the most dangerous time of year to travel.  Most people with their friends and families head to the beach, pools, and/or waterparks, so the buses are insanely packed with people, which make them an ideal hunting ground for pickpockets and other criminals.  I decided to avoid the buses altogether and stay in site to experience Semana Santa the way El Negrito does it, and I'm glad I did!

Monday, I went on an all-expense paid trip to Zizima Waterpark in San Pedro Sula with the mayor's office employees.  They rented a small shuttle to take us all.  SPS actually has 2 waterparks, and the other one is supposed to be larger, but I've heard it's more children-oriented and doesn't have big slides like Zizima does.

It was a lot more fun than I expected.  I hadn't been to a waterpark probably since high school or middle school, and was excited to go on all the crazy fast twisty slides again.  

A couple days later on Thursday, I went over to this woman's house to make ayote en miel, or squash in honey, a traditional dish here made and served during Semana Santa.  It's also popular on Halloween, when children go around the streets yelling "ayote ayote ayote!" trying to get some from different houses.  The dish isn't exactly made with honey, but rather with sugarcane, which melts, and when mixed with the squash, gives it a very sweet molasses flavor.  Before we made that, however, she served me fish soup, which also is common to eat during the week.  Vendors sell dried fish, which I believe gets rehydrated for soup, but this lady served me real fish, and lucky for me she also gave me the head!  It's a good thing my seafood phobia excludes fish, but I still freaked out a little bit inside, but did a good job of eating the meat on the body.  It actually didn't taste very good with the rest of the soup.  Very salty.  

She kind of just watched me eat, which I guess some people here do, so I just told her it tasted great and thanked her for the meal.  Then we had a short discussion about religion and tried to proselytize me... which I of course didn't like, so I tried to ask her questions to get her to challenge her way of thinking (not that I have anything against religious people, I just have a thing against people who try to force their views on others and who are closed-minded).  I never thought it would happen, but that was the day I met someone who didn't believe dinosaurs ever existed, and as with other questions I asked her, she didn't really have any real answers for me.  It's something you encounter a lot here - people follow their faith blindly without giving thought to historical or scientific evidence, and are taken aback when they discover there are others in the world who don't believe in the same god.  She seemed so convinced that I would one day have an epiphany and start to believe because one of the former PCVs here actually became religious during her time here.  I'm not sure if she did that to assuage her friends or if she really converted, but whatever the matter, good for her.

Ok so the ayote.  You chop it up with a machete, dig out the seeds and other goopy innards, cut the squash up into pieces, leaving the shell on, and you put it in a biiiiiiiiiig pot.  Then you get a cube of sugarcane and chop that up too and place the pieces on top of the squash.  Then you get your fogon (stove) and boil it for hours and hours until the sugarcane melts and has been absorbed by the squash.  Then you eat it cold.  It's not bad, but not really my favorite.  It's incredibly sweet.

Oh yes, I tried a new fruit called marañón, which is the cashew fruit!  It ranks up there with nance's in the way I feel about them.  Both are at the top of the list of fruits I despise.  I do like cashews though :)

During this week, I also made an awesome new friend.  He knows everyone in town and my neighbors are actually his family.  Through him I've met more people, been able to see more of El Negrito and what it has to offer, and I have someone who will lecture me on Honduran culture and when I'm doing something wrong, and can teach him about my culture as well.  He lived in the states for 3 years and his English is actually pretty good.  I've learned a lot from him.  I'm usually pretty stubborn when it comes to money issues and love to pay for others or split the cost, but he always pays for everything, and I think my stubbornness got to him one day so he explained to me that if somebody invites me somewhere, that automatically is assumed that the person who did the inviting is paying, no matter the cost.  And also usually guys will pay for girls if they are out by themselves.  I guess that's good for me!  But I still feel bad since it's not shared equally.  Another lesson I learned is that if two guys are walking with one girl, they have to walk on either side of her, otherwise it's as if they're pushing her off to "sell" her.  Same goes with two girls and one guy.  Something I never would have thought about before!

Anyway, we went with my neighbors to one of the new balnearios about 10 minutes away by car.  It has 2 fountains and a ledge to jump off of into the water!

On Thursday night, most of the townspeople gathered in the park to watch "Passion of the Christ" (which is a very popular movie here), hang out, and wait for certain groups to get started with the alfombras, literally translated to carpets, made on the streets.  I played some basketball and surprisingly made all the shots I attempted in the first game, then two friends and I walked up and down the main road to see the groups getting started on the sawdust Biblical drawings.  They start at night after traffic dies down and the roads have been blocked off, working from about 10 pm - 3 or 4 am about.  Maybe later, I'm not sure.  

On Friday, there was a procession walking through town, starting from the first alfombra and making its way to the Catholic Church right across from the park in the center of town.  My friend and I walked around looking at all the wonderful creations done overnight and watched the procession perform its drama of Christ's crucification.

Then on Saturday, a bonfire was made on one of the side streets near my house, and was put out with water to represent something.  I kind of didn't catch that part of the story.  The bonfire was beautiful though!

People then walked from there to the Chuch again and once they arrived, they lit candles and held a vigil.  Overall, a very eventful Semana Santa and I'm glad I got to experience it with my friends in site.

My Culinary Adventures: Sweet Potato Fries

I normally don't eat sweet potato or like sweet potato dishes, but yesterday one of my English students came by the house to work on some homework and he gave me a bag full of sweet potatoes!  I took this as a chance to try and make something that would appeal to me.  Now, I love everything potato and will eat potatoes in any form possible.  French fries are great, but I also know that sweet potato fries are a healthier alternative.  I never really liked sweet potato fries in restaurants, but I figured if I have control over how I season them, maybe they'd turn into something appetizing.  The result?  They're addictive!!  Next up: Sweet Potato Pie :)

Sweet Potato Fries

*Note: I love garam masala, but I unfortunately don't have the spice, so I kind of just toss in the individual spices that it consists of. I forgot the cumin though, and added turmeric instead.  I also didn't use any salt or as some recipes suggest, sugar.

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes

olive oil

ground cinnamon

ground cloves

ground cardamom

ground coriander

ground ginger

ground bayleaf

black pepper

turmeric

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Slice sweet potatoes into fry slices.
3. In a bowl, toss slices with olive oil and spices until coated evenly.
4. Spread evenly in a baking sheet, evenly spaced and bake for 30-40 minutes.  After the first 15 minutes, flip each fry over and put baking sheet back in oven.

My Culinary Adventures: Steamed Cauliflower with Curry Butter and Toasted Almonds

Steamed Cauliflower with Curry Butter and Toasted Almonds (Serves 4)
Recipe adapted from Pinch My Salt
Ingredients
1 medium head of cauliflower, about 2 pounds
4 tablespoons butter

1 shallot, peeled and finely diced (can use 1/2 a small onion)
2 teaspoons curry powder
3 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
3-4 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted**
salt, to taste

1. Rinse cauliflower under cold water and cut into small florets. Steam cauliflower in a basket over boiling water for 5-8 minutes, or until just tender. Remove the cauliflower to a plate or bowl and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Add shallot and cook, stirring, until softened. Add curry powder and stir for another 30 seconds. Stir in lemon juice, cilantro, and honey. Add steamed cauliflower and almonds and toss until well combined and heated through. Season to taste with salt.
3. Serve over steamed white or brown rice or alone, as a side dish.

**Toast slivered almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat, shaking the pan or stirring often, until they start to turn golden. Immediately remove almonds to a dish or bowl to stop the toasting.