When we first moved to Guatemala Mari (our housekeeper) made food on the wood stove. The 2nd day she couldn’t get the wood stove going so I said use the gas stove; she said I can’t; “I don’t know how.” I showed her how and now she really likes the gas stove. She says it is much faster. She still needs to learn to cook on lower heat because some things are crunchy. There is a deforestation problem here because most people cook with wood. Another job we trained Mari to do is make coffee in an automatic coffee maker. The next day the coffee was late. After an impatient wait, I discovered the grounds were in the water reservoir and the pump was plugged.
Our past visits allowed me a chance to see the future, so I own a potato masher and a can opener, most here don’t. I also thought that I would fix Guatemala’s entire problem, the salt shaker. The great plan, to put rice in the salt, not only did it not work, but I had to throw it out. Now my salt is Guatemalan style in an open dish; literally a pinch of salt.
My kitchen also includes a 5 foot section of cabinets (a luxury). Dennis mounted it to a brick wall. About a week later I noticed the doors were funny. That evening a large crash, the screws pulled out. Apparently the bricks are different here. We broke about ½ of our dishes.
I have learned how to improvise here. Sometimes you can’t find an ingredient or don’t have a utensil. When I first arrived I bought a cookie sheet so I could make a large pizza. Well, the oven door would not close because the cookie sheet was too big. It worked; I just had to cook it longer, with several rotations. Since that day, I have purchased 2 pizza pans that do fit in the oven and they also work great for making cookies. I also decided to make apple pies for Dennis’ birthday; well another problem no rolling pin; we made one out of a piece of white PVC pipe. It works great! Another improvision is a plastic bag instead of a pastry cloth. I made 4 pies which took several hours because I can only cook 1 pie at a time in my oven; but at least I have an oven. Bill (Sue’s brother) was here visiting and Dennis and he decided that they wanted mashed potato donuts (a Kniskern family recipe). Well, I needed lard to make donuts, and Bill found lard for me in Tecpan (a city close to where we live) so he bought some. It is different than in Wisconsin. Here it is liquid so the store triple bagged it so it wouldn’t leak. I made donuts with this lard and the donuts were a bit heavy and tasted greasy. I found out that lard here is pure unrendered fat right from the pig when they slaughter it. From now on, I will only use Crisco. Another interesting lesson learned. I made fudge at Christmas but I couldn’t find marshmallow crème but I did find marshmallow topping for ice cream. It worked; the fudge was a little soft, but tasted good. I decided to make a turkey; well it’s a good idea except a roasting pan won’t fit in my oven so I ended up cooking the turkey in a stewing pot. In order to not burn the bottom, I put a saucer in the pot, it looked strange but it worked great. So we had a turkey dinner with all the trimming including cranberry jelly (Sue’s favorite.) I tried chili because I found chili coban (chili powder) so I made chili using the typical amount of chili powder. I smelled the soup but couldn’t smell the chili powder so I added some more, several times. When we sat down to eat, I took one bite and said WOW! It’s very spicy! I found out that chili coban is made of crushed red peppers. Apparently “chili” and “chili” is different. Now I have learned my lesson and I taste everything, just to make sure. I’m still getting used to cooking with gas. I’ve only burned a few things and it is getting better. Another is the need for a funnel, cut the bottom off of a 3 liter Pepsi bottle.
A few other things that are different, ketchup, mustard, and mayo come in a plastic bag, bleach has no smell, potato chips are thicker with flavor, brown sugar is more granulated similar to white sugar only brown.
It’s interesting here because you wash dishes in cold water; there is a bar type soap that works great on grease in cold water. I bought some terry dish towels to dry the dishes with; well the problem with the towels is the lint stays on the dishes. I thought after the towels are washed they will be better; well not so. I bought some different towels that work better.
When I moved to Guatemala I was concerned about having ice cubes; well I can make purified ice cubes but it’s a lot of work so I have learned to just drink things chilled without ice. It’s amazing what you find out you can do without.
We’ve learned how to flexible and figure out ways to do things in the kitchen, because you can’t just run to the store when we need something here. Except for an emergency run, I needed more peanut butter, Christmas cookies. Two and a half hours later Dennis returned. Other calculations, half as much oatmeal than water and 7 minutes for microwave popcorn.
Life is always interesting in Guatemala and I love it!
Sue
