Dreams do come true!

Just a couple of weeks ago, we posted about madly lusting for the sweet tastes of Fall. Well, today we can proudly say that our lusts have been fulfilled! Last weekend, we made a trip to the market where purchased the ingredients necessary for this apple butter recipe. Then on Sunday evening after returning from an amazing but exhausting day at the kite festival, I decided it was now or never. The recipe that I was working from is designed for a slow cooker, but since I'm working with the bare necessities here, I decided I would just cook it slowly, on the stove, not in a slow cooker. I certainly can't take credit for this deliciously simple recipe {that credit goes here}, but I am looking forward to the day when I can make it in a crock pot, just like the recipe suggests.

Crock Pot Apple Butter {yields 5 pints}

16 peeled, cored & chopped apples
1 1/2 C white sugar

1 C light brown sugar

2 T cinnamon

1/2 t ground cloves

1/2 t ground nutmeg

1/2 t kosher salt

Place all ingredients in crock pot and stir so all apples are coated. Cook on HIGH for 1 hour. Reduce to LOW for 8 to 10 hours; stir occasionally.

Once the apples are a rich brown color and mash easily you can do one of two things. If you like your apple butter thick you can scoop the apple mixture into a mesh colander to drain off excess liquid before blending. If you like it thinner leave liquid in the mixture. With a hand-held blender, blend the apples to a lovely “apple butter consistency” in the pot until you reach your desired consistency. {If you don't have one, then just "pulse" it in your blender a few times}. Then can or freeze for enjoyment all winter long!

Since I don't have the supplies for canning here {and have never actually canned on my own} I just picked up a few of those ziplock reusable containers and popped them in my mini-freezer. The recipe says it yields 5 pints. I suppose I was just really hungry, because I expected a lot more. Next time I think I may double it, can them up real cute {after I purchase some canning materials} and gift them to my friends and family.

Here are a few photos of the work in progress. {Oh and did I mention that I had to get up a few times in the middle of the night to check on my "slow cooking"? It's true - I did.}

the fresh cut apples

coated in delicious sugar & spice

several hours into the cooking

the final product

I love homemaking! One day I'm gonna make someone a real good housewife. {Hint, Hint!}

Then just a few days later, Greg came to Guatemala with a bag full of surprises for us. You'll never guess what made the trip the whole way from Colorado........

That's right! Dechutes Black Butte Porter.

Just so happened that he was sipping on a BBP while reading through our blog one evening back in Denver. Call it luck, call it fate, call it whatever you want......Ben called it just what the wanna-be beer brewer ordered! {And please excuse his tie-dye - he was in the middle of painting when Greg dropped by.}

What's all the stink about?

A walk through the market usually includes {whether you want to or not} a stroll {or beeline} down the meat aisle. The juicy cuts of beef are the most eye catching, but if you look close enough you may even see chicken with little hairs still on it, or even the occasional pigs feet. While it's pretty horrifying for someone like me to enter this part of the market, one thing is for sure {I don't really dig a lot of meat to begin with}, you'll smell it long after you see it.

A few weeks ago, while doing our regular weekend shopping, Ben got a craving for a steak. We just so happened to be in the market already and somehow he convinced me that we should go pick up a cut of beef in the meat section. Having never purchased our meat there before {note we did eat meat from the market all the time in Xela}, we sought out the cleanest stall with the fewest flies and ordered up a side of beef {yea, one of those big ones hanging in the photo}. I watch the "butcher's" every move to make sure it was clean, just so I could put my mind at ease a bit. Later that night Ben grilled it up on our market parilla {remember this one?} and served it up with some fresh spicy salsa. It was delicious.....and we didn't get sick to boot!

Mixco Viejo

With all the craziness of the past month, somehow this blog about our trip to some local ruins got missed. Sorry! Back right before we went private (sore subject, we know) we made took the scenic drive over 2 hours away to the ruins of Mixco Viejo outside of San Juan Sacatépquez.


A bit of history {thanks to Lonely Planet - there are absolutely zero informational signs at the site}. Mixco Viejo was the active capital of the Poqomam Maya when the Spaniards invaded Guatemala. The location is awesome, wedged between deep ravines with only 1 way in and 1 way out. To add to the impressiveness, the Poqomam people built a rock wall around the entire city. Legend says that it took Conquistador Pedro Alvaro and his troops more than a month to conquer Mixco Viejo, which at the time of it's height was said to support close to 10,000 people. After the invasion, Alvaro had the city burnt and depopulated.



The ruins themselves are architecturally different than any other ruins we have seen. Strangely, they look new - almost too new - like they were renovated a little too well! Archeological excavations were carried out from 1954 through 1967 by the Musee de l'Homme of Paris under the direction of archaeologist Henri Lehmann, who believed that he was excavating the Pocomam capital as described in Colonial records. The ruins consist of 15 groups containing the remains of over 120 major structures, including temples, palaces, and courts for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame.




The day we were there, the parking lot appeared like not another soul was in sight. After being charged a shifty entrance fee {the tickets had been stamped with the "new" price on the back side}, we hiked in where we surprisingly came across a large group of Guatemalans who were having a bit of a get together. It was killer hot, but Ben really wanted to climb to the top of some of the temples. Interestingly enough the Guatemalan's weren't very interested in mixing with the tourists. {see 1st photo in last set}

A different kind of Halloween

With the idea of embracing the Guatemalan culture this year, we pretty much skipped right over Halloween this year and decided to celebrate the day after instead. You've probably heard about the November 1st Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico with all those cute little skeleton guys in big sombreros, but here things are much different.

Here the day is called El Día de los Difuntos (day of the deceased) and is celebrated by families cleaning and adorning the graves of their loved ones past with cut flowers (marigolds & chrysanthemums), candles, incense and cut tissue paper. They also honor the dead with festive foods - tamales, candied fruits and fiambre (a cold meat and veggie dish). El Día de los Difuntos is very important through Guatemala, but especially in the town of Santiago Sacatépquez, when there is a heavy Kakchiquel (Mayan) population. It is there that the traditional kite flying ritual takes place. The kites are thought to raise messages to the deceased, informing them of where they can come down and visit their family members.

Preparation for the big day begin more than a month before, when kids begin to construct the kites from tissue paper. Customarily men did the majority of the work, but these days both women and children. The huge kites are intricately designed, often supporting religious, cultural and political themes. Before the kite making begins though, the unmarried men of the villages will travel to the coast to search out bamboo to be used for the frames. Tradition says that this journey marks the passage from boys to men. Upon their return the bamboo is distributed to the various kite making groups and the processes begin. The kite making process is all natural. Glue is prepared from yucca flower, lemon peel and water. The ropes used to hold the kites is made from maguey (the plant from which tequila is extracted). Even the kite tails, which are adorned with hand written messages, are made from woven cloth.

There are 3 main styles of kites. "Crown" kites measure 3-5 meters in diameter and have a circular frame with an empty center, "Moon" kites are larges circles that are 10-15 meters in diameter, and "Diamond" kites are shaped like a diamond and range up to 10 meters with a long tail.

Around 4am on November 1st, the people of Santiago begin to fill the cemetery where they clean, paint and decorate the family tombs while the reminisce about the deceased. It is a time of joy. The young people wait for the first strong wind to raise their kites. They kites soar until 4pm, when they are brought down so that all the people can return home to await the arrival of the souls .

Fortunately for us, we also happen to live in the department of Sacatépquez. Sunday morning we headed out with the masses to take in the spectacular kites. Albeit super crowded, the display of kites was absolutely amazing.

No Fall Backs

What time is it in your neck of the woods?

Daylight Savings time does not exist in Guatemala. That means no "fall backs" or "spring aheads." It worked out quite conveniently for us when we first arrived here, since the hour coincided perfectly with Mountain Time. That way it was easy to remember that when we wanted to call home to Pennsylvania it was 2 hours ahead.

The story is that a couple of years ago the Guatemalan government tried to implement Daylight Savings to align with the rest of the world for business and commerce reasons, but just like every other change that is proposed here, things didn't go so smoothly. Everyone seemed to have different opinions about whether or not to comply with the change, and it was pure chaos. People were describing the hour as la hora de Dios (God's time) or as la hora oficial (government mandated time) and apparently if you didn't clarify exactly which hour a certain business or person was referring to, you'd most like be showing up at the wrong time!

To fully understand this dilemma, you must first recognize that Guatemalans in general are proud people, stubborn some might even say. They like to do things the traditional way, the way they have always done them, even if another way may make sense or be more efficient. In their minds, why would they go along with a change that just plain didn't work? Really when I think about it, it makes total sense. The Guatemalan culture isn't so time rigid like we northerners are used to. You don't normally see the Guatemalan people walking around checking their watches every 10 minutes - in fact, you don't often see watches! This is a primarily agricultural society where people are deeply connected to the land. It makes more sense to them to live by the rising and setting of the sun, than by the ticking hands of a clock. It just wouldn't work for families with a father that makes a living farming and children who were attend school on the government's time schedule. When would families ever have time to just be together? Fortunately just this once the government decided to actually listen to the people and six months later, when all the clocks had been turned back, it was announced that Guatemala would no longer be changing time for Daylight Savings any more.

So while in this house we're all a little cranky that it starts getting dark around the time we're leaving work these days, we wouldn't have it any other way. When the people speak, we listen.

Color Affair

I've got a secret to admit. I have a love affair with colorful textiles. I could walk through markets every single day admiring the array of colors and patterns all around me. Not all of them are my taste, but I have a deep appreciation for the work that goes into the making of them, from the dying of the thread all the way to the thought that goes into the color combinations. I know that one day I'll probably go home to the land of neutrals and have a hard time knowing how to incorporate all of these brights into my decor, but for now I embrace them. These are the colors of life! Viva Guatemala!

Boo! Lusts for you!

As October wraps up, we're trying to get things back in order here on the blog. The whole privatization thing didn't work because Blogger got cranky with the invitations, so we had to rethink the dilemma. Problem solved. Go check FB side bars for the answer.

It's pretty hard to believe that Halloween is just around the corner. I'm not in the mood at all. Maybe it's that there was no change of leaves, no pumpkins, no bombardment from retailers for tacky Halloween junk. In fact I doubt that we will even do anything for the holiday. Having a budget makes going out to waste money on a costume a little lower on the priority list. Plus with our jobs being quite hectic lately and the projects we've been tackling lately in the house, we could use a few days of relaxation.

Anywho, enough bellyaching. Yes, we've been busy, but not too busy to crave a few of our favorite fall treats. So without further adieu.......Boo! October lusts for you!

Krista’s current Must Have Lust

apple butter & apple cider

Delicious! One my favorite things about Fall is the smell (and taste) of cinnamon, spice and everything nice. There's no fooling those of you who know me and my absolute obsession with baked apple goods, but I never quite realized how much I love apple butter - that is until I couldn't seem to find it anywhere. I think I may have learned this love first from Barbie my babysitter from a very young age, and it stuck with me for the duration. A blob on an english muffin or on top of a bowl of cottage cheese (I know it sounds gross, but it's soooooo good!). Yum! I've searched high and low and can't find it here anywhere, but lucky for me one of my favorite bloggers posted her personal recipe here . I can't wait to try it! Do you think I can can here? And of course going along with the apple theme, there is apple cider. Oh how I could go for a big gulp right now! For sure I'll be partaking in something seriously big Fall celebrations next year.

Ben's current Must Have Lust
Deschutes Black Butte Porter

Moving from the land of great beers to the the land of 3 choices - Gallo (blah!), Cabro (drinkable) and Moza (the only truly good beer), Ben sure has been lusting for one of his favorite Fall favorites. Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewery in Oregon. He's not quite as descriptive as me with his taste buds, but I'm sure he'd agree that the Coors Lite-like light beers that Guatamala serves up, pale in comparison (no pun intended) to this dark beauty (like Butte E). In fact Ben has been missing his old friend the tasty beer so much, that he's about to begin the process of brewing his very own homebrew right here in our humble little abode. He's been collecting bottles for a couple of months now, and just recently announced that he's gathered enough to get started. Give him a couple of weeks and we'll be hosting a tasting. Purchase your flights now!