Need more plastic bags! Must have plastic bags!

The whopper
Finally finished!

So what do you think? Surprised? Trust me, theses bags are even more surprising in person.

I had what seemed like an endless supply of plastic bags. After making these two crocheted market bags, I am dangerously low on bag inventory and eager to make more and more and more plastic bag bags.

The Honduran special
These orange bags will be familiar to those in Honduras

Remember that I started with these?

Would you ever believe that the yellow bag at top is made from 95 (NINETY-FIVE!) plastic bags? Of course, it is quite large, plenty roomy for a beach bag, and larger than I intended. I didn't plan so well on this one. Apparently plastic is lighter than air, because even with 95 bags, it is still extremely light weight.

For the orange bag, I used these familiar striped bags.

The orange and white bag only took 25 large heavyweight plastic bags (18" x 24") and could have been made from fewer bags. I learned a lot from making this bag, which I'll be telling you about.

I took notes all through the process so I could give you the patterns. Of course, if you are smart, you'll probably want to make some changes, since you'll learn from my mistakes.

I have a ton of photos of the process so I'll have to split this up into a few articles. I also have some tips, most of which I haven't read elsewhere or at least I didn't pay enough attention if I did. ;-/

This plastic bag obsession is changing my personality. I find that I'm now very stingy with my plastic bags, reusing trashcan liners instead of throwing them out with the trash so I don't have to "waste" my bags. I also find myself deciding on where to shop based not on prices, but on what color bags they provide. Even more shameful, I've actually stooped to asking the carryout boy at the grocery store to double bag. Remember that I used to complain about how many bags they used every time I went to the store? Heheh. ;-)


If you are in La Ceiba, SAVE YOUR BAGS FOR ME! Anyone have any Diunsa bags laying around?


P.S. If you were inspired to make a plastic shopping bag from my sneak preview article, send me a photo and I'll post it here. I'd love to see what you've done!

Chicken soup on a cold day

La Gringa's homemade chicken soup

As Steve from San Pedro mentioned in in his nice comment, "OK, LG, it hasn't rained in over a week. Been sunny and comfortable so no excuses. We miss you." Yes, we did have a week of nice warm weather with the usual bright blue skies. The weather was especially nice as nights were still rather cool − good sleeping weather. I kept meaning to get a photo but now we have another "frente frio" (cold front). I stuck a 5-gallon bucket out in the rain on Saturday and we received 11 1/2 inches of rain (29 cm.) between Saturday and Monday night!

I used to laugh at those weather reports and say they should be called "frentes tibias" (tepid fronts) because the temperature was never below the mid 60's F (16-20 C). I would see people bundled up in sweaters and ski jackets while I was still wearing shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops. Apparently my blood has thinned, because lower 70's and upper 60's does seem cold to me now. I think part of it is because the humidity (95% or so lately during these cold fronts) makes it feel colder. Now El Jefe laughs at me, saying "Remember when you used to say...."

Anyway, the cooler weather is great soup weather. There is nothing like a steaming bowl of soup on a chilly day. Since we don't get many chilly days in La Ceiba, I took the opportunity to make this chicken soup yesterday along with some homemade rolls. Yummy.

There are a million and one chicken soup recipes so I'll just list the veggies that I put in this one. My soup always varies depending upon what vegetables are available and look good.

Carrots
Onions
Garlic
celery
Green beans
Snow peas
Zucchini
Mini corn on the cob
Red pepper
Parsley

I served this soup with wild rice for a change of pace. The slightly crunchy texture of the wild rice was a nice contrast. Of course, I boned the chicken before completing the soup. I hope the cold front will last for a couple of days because as you can see from the size of the pot, we'll be eating soup for a few days more.

Fresh fish

Home delivery

We bought some really fresh fish − probably caught the same morning − from a Garífuna lady who delivers to our neighborhood.

El Jefe saw her entering the colonia one day with a big tub of fish on her head. He asked to buy some but she said they were already spoken for. She delivers by order so J ordered some for a future date.

She showed up one day with a big tub of fish on her head. Drat! I didn't know or I would have gotten a photo. Just so you can picture it in your mind, she would have looked something like this photo. Hey. I've tried this and it hurts. I don't know how they do it. The towel rolled up into a circle helps to pad and balance the load.

Her husband is a fisherman and she delivers the fish to her customers by bus. I could see from the fish eyes that these were really fresh. It was about 14 pounds of fish for L.700 (about US $37).

The fish were cleaned but not scaled. ;-/ I would gladly pay extra to have them scaled or even filleted. I asked J to ask her if she would be interested in doing that for us next time. Fish is normally cooked whole with the head on here in La Ceiba. I don't much care for eating anything that looks back at me. I'm kind of a wuss that way. But people don't like to waste any meat, so they serve the whole thing.

I cooked one of the smaller ones whole (after cutting its head off so it would fit in the pan). The skin was incredibly tough. I didn't know that. So the next one, I filleted. What a job that was. It took me almost 30 minutes. I made kind of mess of it but the eating was much easier. I cut the heads off the larger ones and cut them into two or three meal-sized pieces. I guess I'll try to filet them or at least cut the skin off before I cook the others.

I'm terribly inexperienced with whole fish. I'm so spoiled by the serving-sized steaks and filets that we could get at Whole Foods in the U.S.

Does anyone know what kind of fish these are?