I am home!

Last week I returned home from my month-long trip with a couple girlfriends to Central America. We traveled from Guatemala through Honduras and Nicaragua to Costa Rica. I am quite glad to be back home with my honey and to cooking in my kitchen. One of my favorite parts of the trip was that I was quite inspired by the cuisines I sampled during my trip. I never imagined I liked rice and beans as much as I do. Central Americans use the foods readily avaliable to make simple, wholesome, delicious meals. Lucky for me, my wonderful travel companions were just as interested in dining on the local fare as I was. I took lots of notes and pictures about the things we ate and will be blogging about them in the near future. I ate copious amount of fresh, tropical fruits for breakfast every morning and could not get enough of the homemade corn tortillas that were served with every meal.

In the meantime, I am off to the kitchen to cook my first Costa Rican dish for some friends who are coming for dinner tonight. I found a recipe for Caribbean Rice and Beans with Spiced Coconut Gravy in the Tico Times the morning I left and have decided to give it a shot. If it fails, we are ordering Chinese, if not, I will post the recipe!

Check back on my blog frequently as I am now officially on the "pro-leisure circuit" for the summer as I look for a new job. I will cooking up a storm, reading lots of food books, and plan to try and test lots of new kitchen gear and products.

Below is a picture of the Central Market in Leon, Nicaragua. Many more pictures to follow!