Baking Cheez-its in the Mountains

There is something about the mountain air that makes everything more enjoyable! (Including baking in 85 degrees!) This weekend I went ¨home¨ with Benicia to Las Peñitas. A caravan of five, we wove our way up the mountain where we spent the afternoon relaxing in hammocks and visiting with family and friends who heard we were in town and stopped by. I was able to spend lots of time hanging out with my god son Bryan, who is one of the most content babies on the planet!

Bryan, ready to be ¨shipped out,¨ and his cousin Michelle

Besides visiting family, one of the main reasons I spent the weekend in Las Peñitas was to learn how to make rosquillas!! My quest to learn the art of rosquilla making began quickly after arriving to Honduras and falling in love with the quirky Catracho ¨cheez-its.¨ There was only one problem... no one wanted to teach me how to make them!! Even the Doña from whom I used to buy a dollar´s worth of rosquillas daily told me ¨you don´t really want to learn, it`s too much work.¨ After sharing my plight with Benicia`s family over Christmas, her sister told me, ¨come back and we will make rosquillas.¨ Cheque!

Rosquilla making began Saturday night when we cooked the dried maiz that we would use to make the dough. The corn is boiled ever so slightly to soften and then left to soak overnight. At 6am I am in the kitchen to find that Benicia has already ground the maiz by hand in the mill. At 7am Allie shows up and we begin to make the dough or masa. The primary ingredients in

rosquillas are:

• Maiz (corn)
• Cuajada (a soft cheese- delicious!)
• Butter or lard
• Eggs
• Milk
• Baking soda
• Salt

Cooking in the campo takes some creativity. After realizing we did not have a whisk to beat the eggs, Ally fashioned one using a corn cob and a branch.

Ally and I are milling the cuajada

Making rosquillas turned out to be a great arm workout as nearly everything needed to be passed through the mill, including the dough when it was finished. (I will save the ¨gun¨ photos for another time :) ) Finally, when all the ingredients are milled together, it is time to give these crackers some shape!

We filled 10 trays with donught shaped cheez-its which we then carried a quarter of a mile hike up the mountain to bake! *** Note trays become heavy when hiking uphill in 85 degree weather!

Michelle and Rosita even help, carrying firewood!

Probably my favorite part of making rosquillas was baking them! Ovens here are best described as adobe domes. To heat the oven, a fire is started inside, and when the wood burns down, the ashes are swept out with leaf brooms. The food is put inside to cook and the ends of the oven are quickly closed to trap the heat inside. Because they are fairly expensive to make, only a few people in the community have ovens and often share with their neighbors.

Heating up the oven

La dueña of this oven is a kind woman who joked around and fed us melon while we waited for the oven to be ready and the rosquillas to bake.

La dueña of the oven

Within 15 minutes of putting them in the oven, the rosquillas were done! One by one, we removed the trays with a long pole and the crackers were transferred into a plastic pila to cool. The result: my Catracho cheez-its turned out fantastic! We shared a bin with la Doña and her family and headed home to enjoy our hard work with coffee!

They`re ready!

All in all, it took us 7 hours to make approx. 250 rosquillas... meanwhile, most women who sell these national snacks make at least triple that amount by 12pm to sell on the buses and in the markets. I now have a much greater appreciation for those who make and sell rosquillas!

Ready to be eaten!

Just like cookies, a few came out stuck together ;)

Later that afternoon we headed to Ally`s house to share rosquillas and visit. She armed us each

with a plastic bag and sent us out into the backyard to collect

ocotes to bring home.Unfortunately for the U.S., ocotes don`t make it to the states. These little, acidic fruits are a great snack and are especially good when they are cooked in brown sugar! I also got the chance to try

cashew fruit for the first time. Growing in trees, the fruit looks very much like a red bell pepper with the cashew nut attached below. The fruit was... interesting! While I am not sure I would eat it again on its own, I bought a bag yesterday at the market to make refresco.

We got home just in time for sunset and I headed off to find a good spot on the edge of the mountain to watch the show. Work has been extremely trying these past few weeks, and for the first time in a long time, I have found myself doubting my work and my role here. Being able to get away, reconnect with people, and be in nature has helped me put things into perspective and return to work refreshed and motivated. It also reminds me that I am not only here to help create change in Honduran communities, but I am here to create change within myself.