Bye Bye Blogger, hello Soup and Bread

The time has come to say goodbye to blogger.

I've decided to combine my blog with another site I was working on, Soup and Bread. Soup and Bread started as a way to collect and share the soup and bread recipes from dinner parties that I used to have with a group of friends. When I found myself wanting to write about a new soup recipe I had tried and not knowing whether I should post it here or on Soup and Bread, I decided it was time to merge the two. Plus, thanks to some help from Lucas and Wordpress, Soup and Bread is much more attractive than this site could ever be.

So, I hope you follow me over to soupandbread.org where I will continue writing about what I've been up to and posting lots more recipes. I'd also love any feedback you have to offer on the new site.

Poisoning La Frontera

Tomorrow, the U.S. Border Patrol will unleash it's newest weapon to combat illegal entry into the US -- poisoning over 1 mile of plant life along the Rio Grande River through aerial spraying of the herbicide Imazapyr. If the $2.1 million project is deemed "successful" (¿on what terms?) it may be replicated along 130 miles of the river bank/border with Mexico. This is wrong on so many levels, it is hard to know where to begin. There's the potential of poisoning the water supply of the Texas and Mexican border towns of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, killing wildlife or at minimum destroying wildlife habitat, and once again, making the border crossing even more dangerous for individuals who will simply find other, more dangerours ways to cross. This policy makes no environment sense, it makes no humanitarian sense and it makes no economic sense. Herbicides are not going to solve the problem of the US immigration system.

Read more about the project in the Houston Chronicle

Bagels! Yum.

This afternoon Ruth and I very successfully made bagels. I've got NY Jew in my blood and I'm serious about my bagels. I like them dense and chewy and the version of a bagel I ate here was made by Menonites and it just can't compare to H&H. I was a little wary that our bagels would turn out really cakey, since we just downloaded the recipes from the a random recipe site on the internet, but they were perfectly crisped on the outside, covered to the brim in sesame seeds and delicously chewy inside. Ruth was wondering why she felt so satisfied with what was actually a pretty easy achievement, and I think it's because not only did we make yummy bagels for today, but in doing so we successfully eliminated bagel-longing from life in Xela. It turns out it only takes about 2 hours, start to finish, to make bagels and there are no odd ingredients required. We can eat bagels all the time. The entrepreneurial wheels are turning and we've been thinking about how we can bring these delicious bagels to a wider audience in Xela. They're so fun to make, but there's only so many we can eat ourselves...

For more photos of the fun day, check out Ruth's site.

Here's the recipe we used:

INGREDIENTS
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar

DIRECTIONS
Combine yeast, water, salt and 3 tbsp. sugar in a bowl and let rest 10 minutes. Add the flour to the yeast mixture. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (8-10 minutes). Cover, let rest for 15 minutes. Cut the dough into 10 portions and shape into smooth balls. Poke a hole in the center with your finger, and gently enlarge the hole while working the bagel into a uniform shape. Cover, let rise 30-45 minutes.

Meanwhile, fill a large pot with water, add the remaining tbsp. of sugar and bring to a boil. When the bagels are finished rising, put 4 or 5 bagels into the water, and cook 3 minutes on each side. Remove the bagels from the water, place on a greased baking sheer and bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, flipping the bagels half way through.

Enjoy fresh out of the oven with a little cream cheese!

Hacia un nuevo sistema financero rural

I spent the better part of the past three days at an international microfinance conference outside of Xela. Entitled “Hacia un nuevo sistema financiero rural” (Towards a new rural finance system), the conference hosted presenters from throughout Central and South America discussing challenges, opportunities and innovations to providing financial services in rural areas of Latin America. The organization I’m working with, the Union de Agricultores Minifundistas, was one of the sponsoring organizations of the conference, so I’ve been involved with some of the planning for the past two months (making menu suggestions, aiding with other logistics, but basically just watching other people do these things and realizing that my idea of a good mid-conference snack may not be the same as the average Guatemalan’s and it’s probably best to keep my mouth shut). I’ve been waiting for the conference and hoping that it will provide some more context and depth of understanding for the work I’m involved with at UAM.

Microfinance is one of UAM’s program areas, though not really the area I’ve most been involved with and a topic I have minimal experience with beyond case studies of the Grameen Bank I read in college and Muhammud Yunus’ autobiography I found in out apartment in Xela. UAM is in the process of reviewing all of their micro-finance policies, and through reading these documents and participating in a few meetings (and side conversations with another intern focusing on micro-finance) I have learned quite a bit. But what I’ve most learned is that rural micro-finance is damn hard.

The conference confirmed that, yes, micro-finance is incredibly tricky to implement in extremely poor rural areas, but did provide several strategies for success and examples of creative innovations that were quite inspiring. These included financial products that I had not traditional associated with micro-finance but that are an essential part of rural financial services-products such as affordable life insurance policies (an excellent example from Mexico), and access to savings accounts. Many countries have laws strictly forbidding micro-finance organizations from providing savings account services, so the obstacles to widening access to rural savings accounts are formidable. However, Brazil offers a really interesting example of an innovative approach to rural savings. In Brazil, tiny, rural tiendas have been granted status as banking institutions to host savings accounts for local residents and the number of rural residents with savings accounts has skyrocketed.

The importance of savings was emphasized throughout the conference as a means of promoting decreasing vulnerability of rural residents where micro-loans often have the opposite effect. While micro-loans can be incredibly helpful, they are always a risk and can create an ensuing sense of insecurity, especially when the loan has been used for agricultural production which is dependent on many factors beyond the borrowers control-including weather and international markets. Savings were also highlighted as a strategy to help make better use of remittances to help people in rural areas escape cycles of poverty. Without a place to put remittances, they are spent rapidly on home construction or other durable goods. While these are certainly essential investments, I seen first hand in Guatemala the construction of very elaborate houses in rural areas and wonder whether with better access to savings, people would construct the same kind of houses or would choose to construct something more economical and save the remaining funds to help avert potential future destabilizing events (family illness, bad weather, fall in prices etc.) When there’s no safe place to put the dollars, why not invest them in fancy construction materials?

The topic that seemed to be looming over the whole conference was the current world economic crisis. While so much media attention has been paid to job loss and recession in developed countries, little media attention has been directed to the impacts on people in developing countries, especially Central and South America. Central American economies rely heavily on remittances from family members working in the states to meet the needs of their citizens and particularly those form rural areas with fewer job opportunities. (By 2006, remittances were composing close to 10% of the Guatemalan GDP). With job loss in the US, particularly in industries heavily populated by immigrants such as construction, restaurants etc. remittances are definitely going to continue to decrease. Donations to organizations working in Latin America have decreased as well. (As an example, US-based Heifer International, a fabulous organization and one of UAM’s main partners, was forced to cut their Guatemala staff by 50% this year! In testament of the amazing dedication of their staff, all 7 employees who were laid off are working this entire year without pay to continue the level of work they had been doing previously).

While these are clearly all incredibly negative impacts of the economic crisis on rural development in Latin America, there was also a prevailing sense of hope amongst conference i in the potential long-term impacts of the crisis on the financial sector. What speaker after speaker continued to emphasize was the importance of confidence and relationships between micro-finance lenders and clients in creating a successful financial system. This kind of confidence, the accessibility and the direct relationships, the transparency and accountability inherent in these examples of rural micro-finance are in complete contrast to the financial system that created the current economic crisis—a financial system based on speculation and lack of regulation and transparency. While it may be a bit too early to be looking for silver linings to the economic crisis, there was hope amongst conference participants that the kind of financial system they are trying to create will not only gain legitimacy in the current climate, but may even serve as a model for reform of the world financial market. I must admit that my cynisim is a little bit too high to have much faith in the latter, but I do see alternative financial systems and micro-credit in particular gaining both respectability and prominence.

Tulate

I was fortunate to spend the better part of this weekend at the beach in Tulate with Omar, Vanessa and Ruth. It's now been confirmed for the 100th time, I am an ocean person. I believe that there are ocean people and there are mountain people, and maybe a few mixed up in between. I fit snuggly in the ocean camp. Something happens as we are descending from Xela, down the curvy road heading towards the coast. As soon as we start to sense the heat, some 1000 meters or so below Xela, I feel this sense of comfort, like I am back where I belong. It is hot and humid and buggy, but something about it puts me at ease. So it isn't just an aversion to the dark, dreary winters of New England, but some kind of attraction to this heat, this closeness of the sea. I feel this sense of anticipation and excitement.

Perhaps it is something about beginnings. I grew up just a few miles from the beach. I remember surviving high school math class because I could look out the window of the classroom, on the third floor of a building perched high up on a hill in New Haven, and I could see the coast and feel some sense of freedom from the boredom of the class, some kind of opportuntity. I guess I still feel that possibility when I'm near the water. Time to start figuring out how to live near the coast again...

Guatemalan beaches have pretty poor reputations and I'm yet to understand why. This was wide open pacific, dark, soft sand and very few other people in site; Fish shacks that serve tasty ceviche and cold beer with limes; warm but refreshing, clean water. I couldn't ask for much more. Ruth took quite a few pictures, including of the pigs (literally cerdos, not people with large appetites) who ate next to us last night. I'll post a link when she puts them online...

Cooking Class Part Two

Today was another adventure at Intecap making something resembling paella minus the meat (a good thing for me!). The surprising and somewhat good thing was that three of our group members didn't show up, so it was just me and Eloisa. I should mention that none of them called to advise that they weren't coming. Luckily we were responsible for buying the ingredients this week, so we had the food with us. The other three were supposed to bring the pots and pans, but luckily Eloisa is allowed to store pots and pans in the kitchen because she is also taking the International Cooking course. A very friendly group of other students lent us their second paella pan and we were on our way! Well, until we realized there was no water... We waited, and luckily around 5:30 the water had returned and we got cooking.

This class was actually quite fun--much more what I had originally imagined--me and Eloisa chatting and cooking and ending up with something fairly tasty. I was even reconsidering my earlier decision that this week would be my last. But then we were told the ingredients to bring for the next week's recipe and I promptly reconsidered my decision to reconsider my decision to quit the class. I'm not sure what the name of the dish is, but it's supposedly from France. It has the following ingredients. Read them and you tell me if you'd be interested in eating this dish....

Shrimp
Bacon
Cheddar cheese (1/2 lb!)
Soy sauce
Orange juice

I'm not really sure what Japanese-Vermont raise person landed in France and decided to make this dish, but I think I'd rather keep guessing than try it for myself.

Pues, adios Intecap, it's been weird.

Cooking Class Guatemalan Style

A few weeks ago I began taking a cooking class at a place in Xela called Intecap (Instituto Técnico de Capacitación y Productividad). It’s basically adult ed meets community college meets vocational high school. They offer certificate programs in a variety of areas including mechanics, culinary arts, and welding. However, they also offer non-certificate courses for the average person with a passing interest in these topics. When Eloisa told me that she’d signed up for both International Cuisine and Mediterranean Cooking, I said, “sign me up!” What better way to improve my Spanish than while learning a few new tricks in the kitchen and getting to spend more time with Eloisa. And the class only cost Q100 for 8 4-hour sessions! I left the rest of the world to Eloisa and chose to focus on the Mediterranean.

Alas, I feel a bit duped.

To begin with, the class may have only cost Q100, but the students have to provide every last ingredient and cooking implement. So each week, we have a recipe, divide up the ingredients, head to the market and end up spending anywhere between Q25 and Q75 extra. If we’re lucky, our cooking group partners (we’re 5 to a group) remember to bring pots, pans, soap, sponges, towels etc. Sometimes they forget and have to run out and get them at Hiper Pais, which is conveniently located next door but not so conveniently owned by Walmart and incredibly expensive. Essentially, Intecap provides a room with industrial kitchen floors, a six-burner stove and a convection oven that usually works. You could also say, they provide instruction, but this is really a stretch given that the teacher is usually not in the room (I have no idea where she goes during this time. It is impossible to find her even when there are literally baking dishes exploding in the oven).

So the disorganization and lack of instruction aside, you might think that it’s all worthwhile because I’m getting to learn to cook some yummy new things. Prepare yourself, I’m about to be food snobby and I know this and I apologize, but here it comes…

The recipes are terrible! They’re not actually Mediterranean food. Ok, I should rephrase that. They’re Mediterranean food with a Guatemalan touch. For example the pesto we made on night two…it had crema in it! Now, last time I spoke with an Italian (yesterday. Eloisa’s husband is from Italy) he confirmed that pesto is not made with crema. He also confirmed that calzones are not made with cottage cheese. Gross. I could understand if mozzarella weren’t widely available here, but it is, and so is parmesan.

We’re making something paella-like this week, and I’m trying to be a bit excited. But last week Eloisa and I played hooky and made brownies in my apartment and it was so much more fun….