markets

After three weeks of bemoaning the fact that I was unable to go to the market in Antigua, as I did not desire to drive there, another CAM missionary, teacher at CAG, and friend, was kind enough to show me one right by my house! I am sad at the wasted time of buying at Piaz (the local Wal-mart) produce instead of fresh market foods, but there is nothing to be done except use my new knowledge! I was so delighted to find this small, indoor, market which was stocked with ample fruits and vegetables that I didn't barter this first time around, being too overcome with joy in simply being there and the much lower prices. I did find two very interesting finds along with my normal purchases, 1. yams (which up till now my family thought did not exists in Guatemala) and 2. mora- blackberries! perfect and waiting to be made into a yummy dessert.
I personally love to eat blackberries with fresh cream or frozen yogurt (from Passion Berri) but here they have to be washed first if they aren't going to be cooked, and that gets sort of messy. So I resorted to the timeless and wonderful blackberry pie with a flaky butter crust. Katie has become the resident pastry chief (making all the crusts for my various projects) and obliged me again in this project. Here are a few shots.


It turned out wonderful, sweet and juicy, warm and delicious.

Crazy Conner Craft Class

I normally-well don't really liking crafts. I never signed up for the craft elective at camps, and never saw the point in having a bunch of tacky stuff around. Yet somehow I seemed to always be doing them. I remember the summer of S.E.N.D. where the Conner's basically ran the camp with 5 of us involved in teaching classes in the morning and afternoons, and what was Crissie's class? The Crazy Crissie Conner's Craft Class! (Where may I mention one girl sucked paint up into her mouth through a straw!) Anyways, recently with more free time than usual, I have *gasp* started to enjoy and do more crafts. I think it is because I have found useful crafts not resulting in tacky junk such as card making, letter writing, (you saw the Valentine's ones), etc., etc., Yes I have found a delight in crafts. I spent a good hunk of a day watching the BBC version of Jane Eyre and cutting out pictures from magazines (thank you Mrs. Stewart!) to be used in crafts. And that very evening came a chance to use them. Katie's friend had a birthday the next day and we made a pretty extensive card for her. The pictures didn't come out too good but the card was pretty cute.

Crazy Dinners

So we like to have a bit of fun at dinner these days, meal time is almost never the same but somewhere between 5:30 and 7:00.
The dinner this evening was in honor of 2 people.
1) Papi Lepu; he was the first person that every made me twice baked potatoes and I still think his are the best.
2) Heather O. because I can never eat potatoes without thinking of her, and her excellent and sooo fattening mashed potatoes or he families sinful potatoes!

So we had twice baked potatoes and because I didn't have any large potatoes we just used the small ones I had. They ended up being twice baked potato bites, and I think we should suggest them to sonic! Imagine the deep, loser-ish sounding sonic voice saying this..."Craving a loaded baked potato on the run- come to sonic and try our new twice baked potato bites!" HA.

Anyways they were very good to say the least and were enjoyed with Pringles, which of course must be made into duck bills.

We are losers, and we know it =D

Summer in January ?

It is hot today in Guatemala, it has been for the past two days. It feels like summer when I wake up, I am hot and blow-drying my hair is the last thing I want to do. It usually ends up in a single braid down my back, which, Katie informed me, is very unfashionable. All I wanted to wear this morning was a cool skirt and a tank top, thanks to a little help from the closets of Mother and Laura =D I found it. As I took the kids to school it felt like a perfect "last day of school" day. You know, that day that you can't sit still in your seat because in a few hours all the outdoors will be yours for three months! Those days when you want to run barefoot in the grass, jump on the trampoline, and play bicycle tag through the neighborhood, and make trips to QT to fill up your 32 oz. slushy cup. That's what it feels like, and its January!
In honour of the weather two nights ago I made, what is in my mind, the most classic summer dessert. Strawberry Shortcake. (Upon hearing this Lydia asked if a picture of Strawberry Shortcake was going to be on a cake-ha!) It was sublime. Fresh strawberries sweetened with a light dusting of sugar, home-made shortcake (not angel food or pound but the real shortcake), and freshly made whipped cream. We finished it in one night, with large help from David and Katie! Here are some pictures...

Here is the delightfully easy recipe for the shortcake (I think the rest is pretty self explanitory!)
2 c. flour
2 T. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
sift all together in a bowl,

cut in
1/2 c. butter
until it resembles course crumbs...like making any other pastry

Mix
1 beaten egg
2/3 c. light cream
Add: to the crumb mixture

bake at 450 for 15 min. in a slightly greesed round cake pan.
let cool 5 min. before cuting in half. butter the bottom layer then pile on the strawberries and whipped cream!

a new book

I love the smell of an old musty book, I love the sound of the cracking spine and shifting pages, I love the sight of old cover designs, and the feeling of a new, old, book.
I found this book thrown in the pile of several others in Antigua. The book in and of itself carried not the interest of the beautiful cover. Upon seeing it I though of Mom, how she loves cardinals, and how she loves them because of her mother. I knew she would love the looks of this and so that made me love it. Not only that but I had heard of these books a lot, so I though I should have one. Only to add to the grandeur of this Q5 purchase, I opened the book in the middle and low and behold what character should be waiting for me but one name Caroline! I knew I had to have this book. So I made the extravagant purchase. (For those of you who don't know 1 U.S. dollar equals about 7.7 Q [Quetzales] so this purchase was about 75 cents.)
All of the kids in the car stole my book wanting to smell the beautiful odor, I finally got it back and made it home. Once home and after taping pages, and photographing the book, I opened it eager to find out the story of Caroline. So far I love it, the opening scene has young Caroline sitting on the sea shore with the cold wind whipping her two braids around her face as she waits for her father to come back from sea. We will see if the whole story can keep up with its fascinating purchase and opening.

My Valentine

Every day I am blown away by the ways I find love in this amazing world God has created. The little things can be so beautiful, if we open our eyes to see them. Last night when I was putting Lydia down to bed, I went in to check on her as she was changing her night gown and she gave me a gift. The sweetest gift I have received in a long time. She made me a valentine.

She misspelled my name, and instead of caring she said I was crying; a most beautiful gift. I gave her a hug and told her how much I loved her, I hope she knows. I thanked God for a most beautiful gift and for the reminder of His love.

The Actual Valentine's Day

here are the little gifts I made for the kids and the cards as well.

after breakfast we took off with the Stewarts to Pana. We are here in a very nice little house having a relaxing weekend as the kids don't have school Monday. Another family from the kids school is here so Lydia has been playing outside all day with her friends!

Valentine's Day

I have never really liked Valentine's Day and never really celebrated it. But this year, with the kids I decided I wanted to make the day special for them. I have some little gifts I made for them, but those cannot be reveled until Tomorrow. And am planning to make some heart cookies tonight. A few days ago Katie, Lydia and I decided to make some window decorations. It was really simple using just wax paper and crayons but turned out cute, and most importantly gave us girls an activity to do together! Here are some pictures, of course since they are in front of the window they didn't turn out the greatest but its an idea.

Gingerbread Pancakes

Here is the recipe for the gingerbread pancakes we had, they are so yummy and definitely worth a try. I halved the recipe and had enough for four people.

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 Tbs. packed brown sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. brewed coffee, cold or at room temp.
4 large eggs
1 stick unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1/4 c fresh lemon juice

Directions:
Whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk water, coffee, eggs, butter & lemon juice. Whisk wet and dry together until just combined. Let stand 15 min. so batter will thicken.
Cook in a skillet, but use a bit lower temperature, they tended to burn quickly.
Good with butter and syrup, but excellent with applesauce on top or apricot preserves!

Sunday Afternooon

We had a wonderful Sunday here at the Conner Villa, actually the entire weekend has been pretty nice. Saturday Trisha and I took Lydia and Katie to Mira Flores, the local mall. We got to have tea and crepes and watch a movie at the theatre. Meanwhile Davie made us 3-way-chilly (in Honor of the Blacks) for lunch. Trisha and Davie rented movies for us and somehow got 4 for the price of 1 ! haha.

This morning I decided to try out a recipe that Katie copied for me of Gingerbread Pancakes. They ended up wonderful and not one of the kids complained about getting up at 8:30 to eat them. Lydia asked if it could be "a tradition."

Later everyone pitched in to make Valentine cards for Lydia's party this Friday. They ended up quite cute with little ribbons and Lydia's handwriting.
While that was happening Katie made us pizza for lunch- it was excellent! We are about to enjoy it again for dinner. It is so rewarding to be with my little siblings, and I am loving every moment of it.

I better go check on the pizza reheating in the oven. Katie is helping Lydia do dishes- I am so proud of them two!

What am I supposed to Do?

Since deciding to stay down in Guatemala with my family for a while, I have had many interesting family moments.
Much of my day is usually filled with cooking, reading recipes, and planning meals. Today I made 3 loaves of bread and a batch of cinnamon rolls (half plain and half raisins of course). And yesterday some pumpkin scones. We certainly have some eating to do.
When the kids come home from school the house is filled with noise and bustling. Yesterday Lydia and Katie finished their homework before dinner as asked. After dinner Lydia asked if she could watch a movie since she was done with homework. I replied that she didn't need to be watching movies and she exclaimed, "well what am i supposed to do!" I smiled and laughed. After several options we decided on finger painting. Katie decided to just watch but here are some results.
After Lydia goes to bed, accompanied by one of us rotating older kids, we usual spend some time sitting around the table reading, doing work of some sort, or talking. Katie didn't want a picture of her face because she was "in a towel" so this was all I could get.

I hope this cheers you a bit Mom, I know you hate being so far!