Arroz con Leche / Rice Pudding

Arroz con Leche / Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

- 1 cup of rice

- 2 cups water

- 20 beans coffee

- 2 cinnamon stick

- 10 cloves

- 2 cans of coconut milk

- 1 small lime, whole and washed

- 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Method:

> put the rice, water, coffee beans, cinnamon and cloves in a saucepan with a tight lid; bring to a boil, then simmer until the water is gone and the rice is cooked

> add the coconut milk and the lime (whole); cook over low heat until it reduces again

> remove the cinnamon stick, cloves, and lime

> add the sweetened condensed milk and stir over low heat until the mixture thickens

> decorate with a shake of cinnamon and a few raisins if you like

To see a full menu created for the Guatemalan lunch, go here. 

Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies

WARNING:

Highly addictive chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe follows. Use with extreme caution.

In combination with a tall glass of cold milk or a bowl of vanilla ice cream considered delicious and worthy of consumption until the cookies are all gone.

Consider yourself warned.

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Camping & Cooking

Whenever we go camping, we take all the camping essentials and one of those is our camp stove. Okay, it's actually a "Camp Chef" two burner bbq, like this one:

We have a grill box that sits over one of the burners and that is where the grilling of meat and veg occurs.

Spiced Espresso

I love espresso, just in case that wasn't already obvious! All beans are not grown or roasted equally. Find out about the ones you use; are they ethically grown? harvested? fairly traded? organic? treated chemically?

There are times when I feel the need for a flavour in my coffee, something more than just the warm, welcoming hug of espresso mixed with hot water.

In those cases, I often end up in front of my spice rack, wondering what to grind with the beans. Sometimes it is whole green cardamom, other times it is cinnamon, vanilla, or oil of oregano (yep).

Have you tried herbs or spices in your morning brew? Did you like it? What have you tried?

Whole green cardamom pods that will be ground with espresso beans.

Lazy Cookies

When I was little, my family bought packages of half-cup squares of Parkay Margarine. At one time, I'm ashamed to say, I used to eat it straight up, by the spoonful.

My parents have long since converted to buying actual butter and I thankfully no longer eat margarine (or butter) by the spoonful. My stand-by cookie recipe comes from that Parkay box and if I'm creating a new recipe for a cookie, it often originates here:

Sometimes the Mug Makes the Drink

A couple of years ago, my mother- and father-in-law gave us some beautiful dishes from an artesian they know. We received four coffee mugs, a serving bowl, and a salsa & chip platter. They were gorgeous! Because we were in the midst of updating our kitchen at the time, we put them back in the box and tucked them away in a safe place.

This morning's latte

Fast forward two years and two months. The last piece of the kitchen is now done (the banquette) and we have unpacked all the kitchen things we had packed away. Many items will be given away. But not these earthenware dishes, they are too beautiful and precious. We now also have a matching teapot and sugar bowl.

So, instead of curling up on the couch with a warm handmade blanket, my second steamy hot latte, and a good book, I am going into that kitchen and I will make it sparkle! And it is likely that a sparkly kitchen will inspire me, leading to new creations. I can hardly wait!