7-29-2020 Yes, More of Cara's Cooking and an Update on Belize

One beautiful Sunday we drove down to Mango's Beachfront Bar so Eric could have their Sunday
special of a $6 burger.

We ran into several friends who had arrived by boat - smart and fun!

It's not unusual to see a horse in the village, but on this day we saw four! Three adult horses and a
foal, all hanging out at the playground in front of the school.

I, Cara, attended a virtual Yelp event via Zoom and learned how to make a sugar body scrub from
simple household ingredients. Easy to make and nice - even Eric likes and uses it.

Black bean burgers - my first attempt, and they were pretty good. The recipe made a decent amount,
so I froze some for later. They were easy and tasty, so I will make these again.

Tostadas - Homemade corn tortillas topped with caramelized corn and black beans, pepperjack cheese
and fresh, homemade guacamole. Yippee, it's avocado season!!!  While I normally make guacamole
with avocados, a friend introduced me to the way they eat avocados in Guam, and it's eye-and taste
bud-opening! Halve the avocado and remove the pit. Fill the center of the avocado (where the pit was)
with a mixture of soy sauce and black pepper. Spoon out bites of avocado, making sure to get some
sauce with it and eat. Wow, is it good!

Zucchini fritters - these are yummy, and I make them fairly regularly.

My second attempt at gluten free banana bread. The first one turned out gooey, but this one, while
slightly overcooked, turned out the right texture. Yay, I'm improving! And I had several leftover
overripe bananas, so I mashed them and froze them to make another loaf at a later time.

I processed my first breadfruit (messy) and made it two ways: pan fried (on top) and spicy baked
breadfruit fries (on bottom). Eric is not a fan of breadfruit, but I like it. Both ways were good.
I don't know if I would make it again, though, since it would just be for me, and it was fairly labor
intensive. It's worth it to get it when we go out and someone else makes it.

Hash browns

A new friend, Dwayne, recently moved to Hopkins from Corozal (in the north of Belize). This is
his dog, Blue, who was huge but super sweet. Sadly, he recently passed from tick fever.

Every new repatriation flight brings in at least a couple new people infected with the virus.
Plus, illegal border jumpers who visit Mexico or Guatemala then return to Belize keep
bringing in the virus as well. So, we are now up to 48 total cases (only 19 active, as most
recover, thankfully).  

The State of Emergency ended at the end of June, though we still have to wear masks in public and social distance.  Now every businesses can open if they want to. Many have not, though, because there are no tourists here to sustain them. People in the country are traveling around some, but it's not enough. 

The land borders will remain closed for a good while since Mexico and Guatemala have a ton of coronavirus cases. However, for several reasons, the government decided to open the international airport on August 15th.  (The wisdom of this is a matter of great debate in the country right now.)  In any case, tourists that do come have several requirements.  They must provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test from within 72 hours of travel, or they must submit to a rapid test at the airport (at their own expense).  They must also download an app to their phone that tracks their movement and allows the government to check in with them on any symptoms.  Plus, they are only allowed to stay at approved "gold star" all-inclusive resorts that have their own restaurants and tour operations.  These tourists are not supposed to leave the resorts and wander around the villages, but we'll see how many actually adhere to the rules. 

4-28-2020 Quarantine Cooking Part 2

Thick cut (baked) sweet potato fries with a creamy/smoky/spicy dipping sauce.

Pao de Queijo, a Brazilian cheese bread that is naturally gluten free because it is made with tapioca flour or cassava flour.
We were introduced to these last summer in L.A. and I (Cara) am a little obsessed with them now.  At first I figured I was
going to suffer for eating bread, but they were soooo delicious. Then I discovered they were gluten free, and that opened up
a whole new world. I ate them every chance I got and vowed to try to make them. There are different ways to make these,
and since I don't currently have a muffin pan I used the heated milk method, which makes a thicker dough that you can drop
in balls onto a baking sheet. I made these once before using tapioca flour as the recipe calls for, and they were very good -
not as light and airy as the ones we had in California, but still good. This time I tried using cassava flour. They are even
denser and darker in color, but still good. They are chewy, garlicky, cheesy little bites of heaven.
Update: Since making these I have found a muffin pan, so next time I will use the other method (and tapioca flour) because
it sounds like they will turn out lighter (less dense) and more like what I experience in L.A. 

Zucchini tots - yum! I have a recipe for zucchini fritters that are really good. However, I wanted something healthier (not pan
fried like the fritters), so I did the alternate recommendation and made them into tots and baked them in the oven. Very good
- I will likely make these again.

Veggie lasagna made with gluten free green lentil pasta - delicious! I made this in the toaster oven so I didn't heat the house
up any more with the big oven. It's in the 90s every day now, after all.

Cheesy garlic butter potatoes - first time making these this way. They were decent, but took way longer than I expected.

Beans and cheese pupusas with curtido - everything turned out pretty well for my first time making these. The pupusas were
great with some garlic pepper hot sauce and lots of curtido. Pretty cheap and easy to make - I would try these again.

As of yesterday we are still at 18 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and now 6 have recovered. Two weeks with no new
confirmed cases!  They are voting now, though, to extend the State of Emergency for another two months.  They could
soften the regulations and start opening things up during that time, but we'll just have to wait and see.  Clarification of the
new laws will come on Thursday or Friday. 

4-20-2020 Cooking Under Quarantine & More

Okay, there is obviously not much fun stuff going on here to report about, so here is the view from our bedroom window.
Can't complain - that's the sea you see through the trees.  Things could be much worse.  ;)

We are fairly well stocked with food, and I (Cara) have been experimenting in the kitchen. So, I guess you'll be seeing lots of food pics for the foreseeable future (vegetarian and gluten free, of course).  I have to work with what I've got, so I often change the recipes on the fly.  I recently made my first gluten free banana bread, but I forgot to take pictures.

Creamy cornbread casserole - yummy.

These are some tasty quinoa patties.  They look a little darker than the recipe because I used buckwheat flour instead of
bread crumbs (to make them gluten free).  I also added a bunch of herbs and spices, and they turned out really well. 

Homemade vegan sausages and "pancrepes" we'll call them - I thinned them out so they are thinner than pancakes, but
thicker than crepes, and still nicely pliable so I can roll up the sausages in them. I used a gluten free pancake mix, but used
sesame oil instead of olive oil, and added turmeric, smoked paprika and cayenne for some zing.  

Asian slaw with a sesame oil dressing.

The asian slaw, along with sesame oil seasoned rice noodles, black sesame seeds, and sweet Thai basil, made for a nice
filling for some Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls. The peanut sauce is homemade too.  We both really love this dish.

Risotto Cakes made with leftover veggie risotto. I coated them with gluten free flour, then eggs, then almond meal (instead
of bread crumbs), then pan fried them. They are messy to make, but good.

Just to mix things up a little, here's a random photo from before the quarantine - a sheep at the basketball court, definitely an
unusual sighting.

The other day Cara went for an 8+ mile socially distanced power walk with a friend. Eric took a short walk in town. This is a
photo he took at the public pier (that was damaged in a storm last fall). You can barely see someone in a dory (like a canoe)
in the distance. He/she is probably fishing to feed the family because that's about the only reason one is legally allowed out
there under the quarantine laws.

We got a home improvement project done today - yay! We removed the frame from the broken
down old screen door that never fully shut anyway. Then we installed the new screen that has
magnets down the middle, so it automatically closes after you when you go through it. Now we
can leave the door open for some breeze (much needed now that it's in the 90s) without letting in
all the flies.  :)  It works great, and we got it for only $1 at a garage sale in the States - woohoo!

A view from Cara's power walk this morning. The sea was dead calm, and it was hazy so you could hardly see the horizon.
Apparently this is because there are wildfires in western Belize, and the wind has been blowing from that direction.

Belize Covid-19 Update: As of yesterday there have been 762 tests done (159 more than my last update), and
still only 18 known positive cases (no new ones - yay). Plus, the first two cases are now testing negative and
they never had severe symptoms. It's great that Belize is doing social interaction mapping of those infected.