Summertime Limeade and ramblings

It’s like lemonade but tangier.

I grew up drinking freshly made juices on a daily basis. I didn’t realize that it was unusual behavior to do so. In the United States you get your juice from a carton at the store. I don’t think Nicaragua even had premade juices. There were so many fruits, many of which stayed in season for most of the year. We never went without fresh juice. Before I learned how to cook or bake anything I learned how to pick ‘limon mandarinas‘ from our tree and make a pitcher of juice. Now I realize that limon mandarinas don’t even exist in the states, at least not anywhere that I’ve seen, and I’ve also realized that fresh juice is a pricey commodity.  When you decide to pay the price for fresh juice it pales in comparison to what we used to have in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua, my beautiful tropical land. We had over a dozen fruit trees in our backyard. Something was always blooming and bursting with life. I miss being able to climb those trees and pick my own fruit. Sometimes I’d just hide out in the avocado tree if I didn’t feel like seeing people. Or if I was feeling sociable I’d climb the mango tree and wave to the passersby on the street. I have many memories of just being perched on a branch somewhere. This is starting to sound like the memoirs of a monkey but it was peaceful and beautiful; I miss it sorely.

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Quick Cinnamon Buns

I love making cinnamon buns as a house warming to ourselves. We have done a lot of moving recently and we will continue to for the next month. This weekend we are moving out of one apartment, and in a couple of weeks we will be moving into the next. When I saw this recipe I immediately thought of the cinnamon buns I’ll be making when we are finally done with all the moving. Of course, I had to make sure that they were up to snuff, so I had a great excuse to make them.

Red Bean Chili and Cornbread

Chili isn’t exactly the type of food you think of in the summer months. This stick-to-your-ribs dish is far better for the cold winter months and gloomy grey days, but what is a girl supposed to do when she has a craving. So yes, we ate chili in the middle of the summer, while the sun was shinning and the temperature was rising. We also happened to eat it for three days straight–until there wasn’t any left. I guess it didn’t turn out so bad. In fact, I’m looking forward to having it again soon.

Creamy Hummus

I love hummus. It is such a delicious snack, and surprisingly not too bad for you. I think Sabra is one of my favorite kinds. They do such a great job at making it so smooth and creamy. Also, they make a wicked roasted red pepper flavored hummus. In the past when I have tried to make hummus, the texture could never compare to the store-bought kind. Recently, I found a short blog post about a technique on how to make smoother hummus at home. One other important element to good homemade hummus is freshly cooked beans and not the canned kind. It takes quite a bit longer, but I think it is worth it.

A very tall chocolate cake

I’ve always loved to read food blogs and that is what inspired me to start my own. The Smitten Kitchen was the first food blog that I started reading. Seeing her beautiful pictures and delicious recipes really pushed me to a whole other level of cooking. I found myself with dozens of tabs open, all of recipes I was dying to try. In the last two years I have made a large number of the recipes seen on smitten kitchen and I have rarely been disappointed by them. Since I’ve been writing my own blog I’ve been seeking food inspiration in other places aside from the blogs I typically read. I want to find my own style and try new things aside from those that I see on other people’s blogs but every once in a while I see a recipe that I can’t resist. This chocolate cake was one of those. Sam and I made this right around the time of his graduation. We figured that the momentous event deserved celebrating, and what a better way to celebrate than with a huge chocolate cake with peanut butter cream cheese filling, yeah you heard me correctly.