Adventures in … Life

So Bebeth’s mom asked us about what sort of things are we eating on a daily basis here, so I thought I’d share what we can get, and a recipe that we’ve adapted from the Peace Corps issued recipe book. So in the market we can get a ton of fresh vegetables and fruit. Here’s a list of what is easily achieved from the local market:

Vegetables: Tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers, avocados, cabbage, kale, cilantro, egg plant, mushrooms, cassava root

Fruit: Bananas, Mangos, Oranges, Limes, Passion Fruit, Tiny Plums, Pineapple, Papayas, Apples

From the supermarkets we can get all of the basic things. In the bigger cities we can get a good variety of Asian ingredients. Something we haven’t tried to do a lot of is Indian food even though there are a ton of ingredients here.

So with all that we tend to eat a ton of garlic pasta dishes and stir fry’s. Sometimes we eat ugali and cabbage sometimes substituting rice for ugali. On special occasions we break open one of the fajita mixes our family sent and make burritos with home made tortillas.

Anyway we eat the following dish quite a lot, feel to try it home:

(All of the items below are per person)

2 cloves of garlic

½ an large onion

1 – 2 tomatoes

Spaghetti

2 TB olive oil (I’m guessing here since we don’t have measuring spoons)

¼ - ½ cup of water

Spices to taste: Salt (lots), basil, rosemary, oregano, hot chilies (if you like spice)

Dice Onions and Tomatoes. Crush garlic. In deep frying pan (deep enough to hold the pasta you are cooking) heat oil and add garlic, onions, and tomatoes. Add above spices to taste. I like to add a good amount of salt. Cook till onions half way cooked. Add around a ¼ cup of water cover and simmer. Next boil water and cook pasta. When pasta is about halfway cooked strain it and add it to the sauce. Add just enough water to cook/steam the pasta. Cover and let cook till pasta is ready. Serve. Voila!

So now that we’ve shared a recipe with you we’d love if you were to share your “fast and easy” dishes with us. (Anything with an oven is out since all we have is two burners). Looking forward to your recipes.

Mark and Bebeth