Griselda, my godson’s mother, invited our her home for lunch on our last day in Jinotega. She made an amazing pot of chicken soup with countless vegetables. Here she stokes the fire to get the soup boiling.

Back in the kitchen, she and one of her girlfriends make chicken meatballs to add to the pot.

Truly the best soup I’d ever eaten. I was hungry and it was so filling.

She also served boiled taro root, which I hadn’t eaten since Africa. It is chalky but good.

And these boiled plantains were sweet and perfect naturally — like a yam.

In a non-traditional moment, we hit a great pizzeria in Granada for lunch yesterday. After a week of rice, beans, chicken and more rice and beans (called pinto gallo in Nicaragua), thin-crust pizza, bruschetta and fruity cocktails were heaven.

Yum.

~K

My creative cooking side is pretty hit or miss, but I searched around to create a few dishes for weekend festivities without having to go to the grocery.

First up — pineapple upside down cakes for Alma’s early birthday celebration. I took a yellow cake mix, some applesauce, a lemon, a can of pineapple rings and some crumb mix I had leftover from a muffin recipe and threw them together. I used the applesauce to make the recipe lower in fat. Alma is dropping weight like it is her job and I knew she wouldn’t bother enjoying her birthday cake if she knew she’d have to run it off later.

Mike and Sam were in town and having a pool party. Mike called and asked if I could bring a “Kelli creation” to the party. I had about two hours to prep and no motivation to go to the grocery. The result was two-fold:

I took a package of taco seasoning, a can of black beans, a can of garbanzo beans and some pickled jalapeños (including the juice) and threw them into the blender with some lemon juice.

This dip I loved. It could be great warm with cheese on top, or cold with pita. It was just spicy enough and I liked the added white beans.

I also made some green tea sugar cookies. Morag (my old roomie) left behind some packages of Chinese green tea powder. I found them in the pantry and threw them in with my standard sugar cookie recipe, although I also added applesauce to these to make them more cake-like. The flavor was a muted sweet sesame. I really liked them, although I think I should have baked them for 5 more minutes.

I’m taking a baggie of food with me to travel — some to share and some to avoid eating mystery meat in a fit of hunger. Protein bars, instant oatmeal, Crystal light are all in there. I’m trying to convince myself I won’t end up drinking cold Coke in the bottle. Pretty sure Nirvana is inside a cold bottle of Coke on a hot, humid day.

~K

Last night was the final community dinner of the Spring season. I hope to resume in the Fall when I’m in a new, larger house where half the crowd doesn’t have to sit outside on the patio furniture.

We had my mom’s Mexican meatloaf. I added a layer of Hatch chiles through the center and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thrilled to have leftovers for this weekend. A cold meatloaf sandwich is pretty close culinary heaven in my book, and no I do not have a mullet.

We also had buttermilk biscuits (which I added way too much baking powder to on accident. Woopsie. Baking power does not equal baking soda), steamed veggies, salad, strawberry pie and chocolate chip cookies.

Spence entertains the crowd. This summer will be his 30th trip to Africa.
There was a steady flow of beer and wine and Spence — my friend from Colorado who is also my Africa travel saint for this summer — brought his iPod with a pretty incredible collection of jazz. It was a lovely night!

~K

P.S. If you have t-shirts you’d like to mail for the Peace t-shirt project, please do! There is still plenty of room. Thanks again!

Ingredients:
One butternut squash/acorn squash/root veggie of your choice
2-4 cloves of garlic
dash of cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons horseradish
dash of salt, pepper, garlic powder
Olive oil

Directions:
Cut the squash in half, remove seeds. Fill cavity with garlic and brush squash with olive oil. Carefully flip over on a cookie sheet, flesh down. Roast at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Remove and let cool for 30 minutes.
Scoop out squash and garlic from shell and place in a blender with all other ingredients. Pulse for 20 seconds. Great with pita or veggies. Can be served warm or cold.

~K

I’m cheating a bit for this month’s 12-of-12 challenge by posting my photos today, on the 12th, rather than tomorrow. I had such a great and busy weekend, I figured I could sum it up in a dozen shots instead of bouncing around with my camera today.

Saturday:

The SheRox tri was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the race and it was definitely worth the $85. Tempe Town Lake is warm (74) and the course was well marked. I was impressed with the organization and will do this sprint tri again. Alma completed it and it was her first tri. I was beaming, I was so proud of her.

Groceries. I love apples. I cringe at the fact that these aren’t local, but they are organic and they are from the US. The Chilean apples looked prettier, but my fruit shouldn’t need a passport.

The Tempe Library is so fabulous. Not only do they sell books on the cheap — this stack cost $3 — but they also have a great cafe and selection of audio books and DVDs.

Supplies for another loaf of no knead bread. There is something about buying one giant can of beer that makes me feel a bit like I should be calling my third cousin for a date this Friday. But then I have some of this warm bread and the whiskey tango feeling disappears around slice three.

Africankelli Apron #4 completed; #5 is on my kitchen table ready to be completed this afternoon.

Sunday:

Mama’s day and my British Grannie’s 74th birthday. There was the mandatory visit, along with some beer bread (see above) and brownies. She was tickled.

More sewing — a pintucked, reversible table runner for my psuedo Arizona mom Jackie. Jackie is Rebecca’s mom and their family have me over for dinner every Sunday. They are pretty incredible folk.

Wrapped and ready to be delivered. I stole Finny’s idea for photo cards a while back. I print my favorite photos at Costco and glue them down to some cardstock. They come in handy for just about any occasion.

Shelley, Bec’s eldest sister, wanted this butternut squash spicy dip I make. It isn’t my favorite, but the squash looks so pretty all roasted and rested on the cookie sheet.

Pita for the dip. I make my own pita chips because they are less expensive and healthier. I buy a package of pitas and cut them up and toast them in the oven. Voila — chips without the frying.

Irish soda bread muffins for her other sister, Christy. This recipe is from the June issue of Bon Appetit and is excellent.

And the random drink with my brother, who happened to be in Phoenix for 24-hours to see some friends. It is always nice to spend time with him. I miss him like it is my job.

There was some bowling, napping, church-going, and a fair amount of NPR listening in there too. A great weekend indeed!
~K

Today was much sweeter. I woke up after a good 11 hours of sound, deep sleep feeling headache-free. Granted, my heart still aches, but that will take more than a night of rest to change. Baking could help.

Tomorrow we are having a potluck at work and I’d signed up for dessert. I definitely got carried away, but the relief I find in cooking is parallel only to running and I just didn’t have the stamina for a long run tonight. Tomorrow’s menu includes Sweet Sedona bundt cake, lemon coconut cookies and Mexican cinnamon brownies — all in celebration of Cinco de Mayo.

Maddy and I had a great time. She is a doll and such a great reminder of the joy of life. I watched her today with her girlfriends and family; I want to be more like her — she’s carefree, confident, strong and sweet to a fault.

Thank you for your kind words about yesterday’s post. My apologies to the Monday dieters cruising through the blog.
~K

Black bean hummus + cut veggies: I swapped garbanzos in this recipe for black beans, added a dash of flax to thicken this a bit more and a lot of cayenne. Now that I’ve got the hang of making my own hummus, no more store bought nonsense. This takes all of 10 minutes to throw together at 1/4 of the price.

~K

Cheap red wine + two liters of Sprite Zero + sliced citrus + lots of ice = Sangria!

Community dinner has been on a hiatus for the last couple of weeks and will more than likely go into hibernation again soon; summer is arriving and everyone is getting busy — including this wanderer. I thought last night’s dinner would be canceled, but last minute I received several RSVPs. As a hungry reader of Andy’s Diner, I shot Andy an email and asked if he had any quick go-to Cuban recipes he thought would work.

Ay caray! He was the man to ask. I made Cuban black beans (substituting turkey bacon for pancetta) and stewed chicken with white rice. We had sangria and coconut-pineapple sugar cookies too. It was a feast and everyone went home with perrito-bags. And I may have wolfed down black beans with my eggs this morning.

Thanks Andy! Great suggestion.

I hope you are having a happy week. I am very much looking forward to this weekend; one of my best friends is coming into town and we plan on painting it red. Or rojo, as one with another round of sangria up her sleeve might say.

Hasta luego,
Kellita

No Knead 2.0, honey whole wheat.

A loaf for a dinner party last night, and a loaf today for a luncheon at work. I tripled the recipe (and quadrupled the yeast) to get bigger loaves than normal. It worked!

I think a sign of a great week to come is a slice of warm, homemade bread to start off your Monday. Don’t you? Giddyup and pass the butter.

~K

Looking for a great way to honor your mama/wife/girlfriend this Mother’s Day? Yep, it is right around the corner and this year you could give her a gift that makes her beam with pride. What a thoughtful child I’ve created! A custom-made apron is a super gift to celebrate Mother’s Day.
Does your mother love to cook? Perfect! And for those who look at kitchen-time as a chore, we all know that the easiest way to make a bummer job better is to look great doing it. Having a glass of wine nearby doesn’t hurt either.
Send me a digital photo, recipe, memory, color, Bible verse, poem or feeling you want included in your mother’s apron. In turn, I’ll create a unique, thoughtful gift that will be wrapped and ready to rock by May 10th. The cost is $50 including shipping. Email me if you are interested — international orders will be accepted for the next two weeks: africankelli at gmail dot com.

Honor thy mother — rock thy kitchen.
~Kelli