Well, it’s really become a huge habit that involves losing myself for hours searching for and reading through recipes to come up with ideas and adaptations using available produce and such here in Belize. Having been working at it for over a year now, I’ve really learned a lot of cool techniques and now come up with my own recipes much more frequently. We have both also learned the importance of good seasonings and spices and have of course found my favorites – we have gone through ridiculous amounts of chili powder, cumin, and cinnamon (that’s for the baking my friends, but I do toss it in a few other dishes to give them that little something special!). We also find it quite interesting that we are on our third one of those Morton’s Salt things – all our lives we never saw any of those finished. I thought they just sat on shelves, but we use them. Because we are very health-conscious cooks, it’s not used exorbitantly, but you can finish those things with regular use (especially baking). We also have gone through a few things of unsweetened cocoa powder – it’s so perfect for Anthony's no-bake cookies and I love to make brownies and have discovered a pretty fantastic devil’s food cake recipe that involves a good deal of the precious powder.
I’m not a huge chocolate- lover, but that cake is pretty awesome and Ant has been asking me to make more ever since he indulged on the ginormous one made for his birthday. Our other major staples are fresh onions, fresh garlic (which I often wonder if my hands will permanently smell like since I chop so much of it!), and fresh tomatoes – nearly every meal begins with a sauté of 
onion and garlic to get things going. Depending on the cuisine, it will then be accompanied by any number of spices, seasonings, and other fresh produce. And, of course, no Belizean kitchen would be complete without a bottle of pepper sauce – our top choice is good ‘ole Marie Sharp’s (we will be placing online orders if we have to when no longer in Belize – this stuff is addicting and just gives that little kick to EVERYTHING we eat – seriously, well not the baked goods, but you know dinners. and lunches. and sometimes popcorn.)
Somehow, this cooking thing became a major secondary project and is now involving a lot of work; all of which will be well-worth it since it will provide some Belizeans with a tool for healthy cooking based on the ingredients they have access to in their backyards. We're both pretty excited about it and looking forward to the final product. It would be awesome if we could print it in color, but I don’t think that will be affordable. Some people will receive it in an electronic format, so it will work well that way. I certainly never thought when I came to Peace Corps I would leave with a homemade cookbook! I’m sort of excited about how all these recipes can then be adapted to all the produce we’ll have wherever we live after Belize – I can’t imagine too many places where there will be fewer options J. I’m most excited about the baking section because I receive a lot of requests for my baked goods, all of which have reduced fat and sugar from their original recipes (the people eating them don’t know that and if they enjoy it as is, then we know it’s good – the highest compliment is when a Belizean tells me “Ms. Ginnie, your cake/cookie is nice.”) I’ll include information on how to substitute fats and reduce sugar so they can adapt
other recipes I have yet to try. It’s very difficult to find a little baked snack here that isn’t loaded with trans fats, expensive, or made with lard so I had to start baking and I just fell in love. The bread thing keeps getting better, too. My cooking habit involves subscriptions to several food blogs and I have gathered some great recipes on a special bread making technique whereby I can use all whole-wheat flour and still create moist delicious bread! It’s been one of the projects I do for fun and relaxation – my perfect Saturday or Sunday activityJ. After making bread, cakes, bagels, English muffins, doughnuts, brownies and many, many different cookies and learning how easy it is to bake from scratch I can’t imagine why either of us ever used those box mixes (fyi – most contain partially hydrogenated oils)! I thought I didn’t like cookies until I started making them myself – now I make the best moist cake-like cookies that are a perfect mid-morning snack (because they are not loaded with sugar and fat) or great for dessert! Anthony laughed when I recently said “I can’t wait to visit friends and family and cook for them!” because that is not something he’d have ever expected to hear from me in a lifetime. What can I say, I pick up a hobby and I commit to it – I really want to stick with this one, I’ve already looked into baking classes I can take. I want to get better and learn the technique from professional bakers so it’s not just me interpreting from a recipe (though, I had a batter epiphany recently when I was making Ant’s cake and it resulted in a brownie-like batter – I knew exactly how the cake would turn out in consistency; I’m working on getting there with my yeast doughs, but that will involve more practice). Anthony is really good at a lot of the yeast and bread-type things - he is the master flour tortilla maker and makes them perfectly and super-thin. He has also mastered naan(see first picture) and pita bread and of course his pizza dough and pasta dough are both fantabulous.
Check out some of the results of our research.
Baking Fun:
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