Avocado Smoothies

Doesn't that sound disgusting?

But if you can muster the courage to taste one, then your thoughts might change.
Avocado smoothies are one of the most refreshing drinks I've ever had. It was much appreciated during the seemingly never-ending heat that we endured as teachers in Honduras. I'm thankful for the people who invented this masterpiece.

I had my first avocado smoothie in Indonesia at the end of my semester abroad. It's not uncommon to see this beverage on a menu in an Indonesian restaurant. It is served cold- a blend of milk, ice, and sugar, and garnished with a bit of chocolate.

It was easy for me to try because my roommate from Indonesia, Beddy, once had me try a bite of avocado sprinkled with sugar. I was hooked! Besides the occasional guacamole night, I made it a habit of emptying the insides of an avocado into a cup, adding sugar and powdered milk, mixing it with a spoon, and eating the paste. Since avocados "only" costed 1,000 rupia (or, 10 cents) in the highlands of Papua, I had an avocado this way nearly every day!

Avocados are incredibly high in potassium, by the way. Much more so than a banana, even. One of my favorite factoids, and I got it from wikipedia... who would've guessed?

Go ahead... try one for yourself!

Just close your eyes, it'll be okay...

My parents bought me a food dehydrator for Christmas, which is my new favorite toy. Actually it's quite boring once you plug it in. It doesn't even make noise. Thanks a lot, Mom and Dad...

I've been focusing on drying apples, since it is the season and I just bought a bushel BOGO (I recently lerned there is a cheesy acronym for this meaning)at Masonic Homes. Additionally, my parents gave me a Pampered Chef Apple Peeler, which is peels incredibly fast with an insanely small amount of waste, cores the apple, and leaves it spiral sliced. It's about a 10 minute process to wash, peel, slice, and core the apples, including cleanup.

The smell of drying apples permeates the house overnight and when I open the door to the kitchen in the morning I no longer smell a burst of Asher's breakfast pancakes (it is possible that he has switched to granola and yogurt) but instead it smells as if an apple pie has been baking.

I tried Pink Lady apples to start - a beautiful variety with great flavor, which only multiplies through the dehydration process!

The peeler/corer/slicer does all 3 things in about 20 seconds... truly amazing, especially if you have many apples to do (see my previous post about unnecessary kitchen gadgets). You can see that there is very little waste. Something awesome about this style of food dehydrator is that it is made up of a base, five stackable circular trays, and a lid. The size of the dehydrator is dependent on how many trays you are using and it is easy to rotate the trays for even drying! However, the opening in the center makes it more interesting to make fruit leather and more food could be dried if the opening wasn't there.

Apples sliced thin enough make a very crispy and tasty chip after only a day of drying. Since I do not pretreat the apples, they end up with a brownish color and a superb taste. Just close your eyes, it'll be okay...

Real Fruit Makes Real Juice

Again, out of inspiration of my mom, I decided to make grape juice. (Grapes have been over well past a month ago now, so this is a little old… but the final product still exists and some has yet to be enjoyed!) Unfortunately there is no memory of a song about grape juice, but for some reason I remember Mom breaking out the grape juice on Movie Night – almost always paired with popcorn.

I remember nearly every year my mom would make juice from her grapes, canned and ready for the whole year. One year we entered them in the E-town Fair and they won Best of Show! She needs a little more practice bragging than I do, so I’ll let you all know right here.

At the very end of the season, I picked about 5 quarts from my mom’s vines in the back yard. She grows plump Concord grapes that are an experience in themselves to eat. The thick purple skins slide right off of the eyeballish clear orb inside and is borderline FUN until you bite into rather large seeds inside the flesh.

After washing and picking out any ugly looking grapes (and the occasional spider...!) I boiled them in water, double strained out the skins and pulp, then reboiled the juice with a bit of sugar (optional) and finally put the juice into sterilized jars. After a few hours the jars were sealed and ready!

Absolutely delicious- bottle of flavored high-fructose corn syrup can not even compare to this!

Fresh Bread, Cool Water

I remember my mom singing a song with those words as she took her bread out of the oven. I felt like singing it today when mine was baking… I used the Oatmeal Bread recipe from the More-With-Less cookbook and it turned out fantastic!

Simple is smart and saves space, sleep, and a slew of societies

I love the More-with-Less cookbook – its recipes are simple, delicious, don’t usually call for odd ingredients (like spices you’ve never heard of or brand-name, already made concoctions that make you wonder if you can really claim that you “made this from scratch”). Perfect for me – I can be a moody cooker/baker… I often get excited about a recipe but it kills the thrill to think about making the effort to drive to the store and find a bottle of this or a package of that (which I might use again but probably not).

I’m not a fan of unnecessary kitchen gadgets either. Last week I was shopping and saw an avocado slicer. I’m sorry to break it to you, but a knife will work just fine for that. Even Big Boi could do it on the first try today on the Martha Stewart show, and he's only ever done a peach.

I won't even get into unnecessary appliances...


Some of these can be legit if you are going to use them a lot.

I will admit that I put “chip clips” on the housewarming gift registry, and now we have almost an entire drawer devoted to storing them. At this moment I realize how small a clothespin is. This afternoon I’m washing towels, so maybe I should use a few heavy-duty chip clips on the line.

I think it is smart to have a few good things – with emphasis on few and good. Maybe we all need smaller houses to figure this out. I’m convinced a good knife can do a lot. It really will cut through an avocado, will slice an egg in the amount of time it took you to find that egg-cutting thingamajig (I have to say, it is pretty cute and looks like loads of fun), will core an apple, peel potatoes, cut flowers, wrap presents, and remove price tags. And you really don’t need seven paring knives, unless you have a lot of young children who you like to put to work… in which case you probably still don’t need seven paring knives.

E. High Street

I have returned to Lancaster County, PA to live for awhile. It’s been 5 years since living in this area, and I have a new excitement for being here. Jason, Asher and I are renting a nice sized house just down the road from my parents.

As I search/wait for a job, I have kept busy with going to weddings, reading good books, spending time with friends and family, and watching our small but awesome garden grow.

Although I would love to have some sort of income, I love being unemployed. Actually, I’ll just claim my well-earned ‘summer vacation’ and call myself a teacher until the end of August. J But I do love having time available to write letters, explore new recipes, visit a friend on a whim, leave early, stay late, take naps…

roommates

pet turtles

Basil day 5

Heirloom tomatoes

some flowers I should know the name of

basil bush

closing out honduras

My sparsely-documented time in Honduras has come to a close. It was quite a challenging year; teaching is the hardest thing I have ever done. The heat and humidity was overwhelming, making teaching (much less – planning!) nearly impossible. I quickly realized becoming fluent in Spanish (goal #1) was going to be very hard, considering English is widely used on Roatan. Secondly, I was disappointed to learn how ‘poor’ my students actually were. The wealthy will always be able to find an education and provide for their children, but the poor can not always choose – often someone else has to choose for them.

Needless to say, as time passed I enjoyed living on Roatan more. I slowly got into a routine, learned how to cope with the heat, and became close with my roommate, Amy, and the other teachers. The parents were very kind and welcoming to me, and felt like friends.

In the end, I have come to the conclusion that I do love teaching, and I believe I am a good teacher. I really enjoy the first grade, and absolutely LOVED my students, with their incredible excitement for life and learning, their surprising and humorous comments, and their unconditional love!

Some highlights:

Spending Thanksgiving with my friend Dulce and her family in La Esperanza

Many nights of Boggle and Scrabble to ease the stress of teaching...

...and planning.

We dressed up as the power plant and the boys as the phone company for Halloween

Amy and I climbed Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala, just weeks before it erupted

The beautiful beach wedding of Sarah and Roberto, friends we made in Roatan.

My family came to visit - what a nice break from teaching!

Jason at the Iguana Farm

Chantelle and I and a huge starfish

birthday party for Ms. Jessica

Ivan and Lisa reading

Field trip!