#shuckingcorn

Those babies had to work for their supper today 😂. #freshproduce #instakids #shuckingcorn #vegetarian #mealprep @joshbailey08 @jdnorman22 @jaida_norman https://www.instagram.com/p/B1cjQPyFVvm/?igshid=1lu4j6chp5uts

Being homesick is a normal part of a volunteer’s life during service, especially during the first few months at site, but I don’t know if how I feel is something you’d call being homesick. I of course miss my friends and family, but honestly, and most importantly, I miss food! It sounds ridiculous, and maybe you won’t understand unless you've spent an extensive time out of the country, but right now I am craving all types of food and restaurants offered in the states. I miss going to restaurants the most. I don’t know what it is, and if you know me, you’d know that I love eating out, but there’s something nice about going to restaurants with friends and family. When people ask me how I like to spend my free time I usually respond by saying hanging out with my friends or going out to eat. I miss coffee shops, applebees, taco bell, smoothie places, jimmy johns, casa blanca, noodles and company, olive garden, and most definitely Mexican restaurants. I have a lot of free time right now to think because the schools are in a long break, which leaves a lot of time for me to think. And a lot of the time I’m thinking about food. I imagine myself visiting the states and picturing all of the restaurants I would visit. I picture myself in Walmart buying all of the food that I don’t usually have access to here (or if I do, the food that’s too expensive to buy). And I especially think about what it would be like to buy a custard from Andy's. It’s almost a constant, ridiculous craving of mine. I try to remedy it by thinking of new recipes I can try out here. And I also try to remember that there’s all types of amazing food here that my friends and family back home do not have access to! I really love the different types of cheese here. I am definitely not usually a cheese person, and I don’t know why, but certain types of cheeses freak my out. Especially when they resemble mold. But here in Nicaragua I’ve really taken a liking to all of the cheeses I’ve tried. Back in Catarina I usually ate a crumbly hard white cheese that was really salty. A lot of people didn’t like it, but I actually didn’t mind it. Here there’s a few types of cheeses. My host mom actually sells queso (cheese) and cuajada. They are both white and smooth. I don’t know how to explain the difference, but I like them both. A really cool thing about the cheese here is that you can fry them. I don’t know if you’ve ever had fried cheese, but it’s really an amazing thing. Since being in my new site I’ve actually had the pleasure of watching and learning how to make a lot of Nicaraguan food. My family has made tortillas, tamales, atol, buñuelos, elotes, güirilas , and of course beans and rice. Tortillas, tamales, atol, güirilas, and elotes are all types of different food made from the same product, corn. My host mom makes tortillas every day from scratch and sells them. It’s a long and difficult process to make tortillas. Every night she boils her corn, and the morning after she makes the tortillas. In the mornings she has to go to another house where there’s a machine that can grind things so she can grind the corn into a sticky, dough-like mixture. Then she has to flatten the pieces of dough into tortilla shapes (which is harder than it sounds) and then she cooks them over the fire. One day I am going to video tape the process so everyone can see. Tamales are like a corn and slightly sugary mixture that’s been cooked in boiling water, and atol is similar but it’s not as solid and it’s more similar to a pudding. Güirilas are very similar to tortillas, but instead of a dry corn they are made from elotes, which are literally corn on the cob :)  Buñuelos are a whole different thing entirely. It’s made by cooking yucca, and then grinding yucca with cheese and a little bit of corn. After that you fry them, and then the last step is adding an amazing sugary glaze. These are one of my new favorite desserts. I do miss a lot of food, but Nicaragua has a lot to offer in terms of traditional Nicaraguan dishes, and honestly there are days when I really crave the usual Nica dish of gallo pinto (rice and beans), fried cheese, and a homemade tortilla. And I do have an out when I really want certain types of food, because bigger cities offer just about anything I could want, for example I visited Esteli the other day and was able to buy a hummus sandwich and donuts! So even though daily I don’t have access to these types of food, they can be found. The first picture is a pile of corn on the floor, ready to be used! The second picture is corn on the cob cooking. The third picture is my host brother shucking corn. The 4th is me eating buñuelos. And the last picture is my host mom cutting up yucca.