My Sister's Dream Project!

I am publishing this little article for my sister, She wrote it, and wants to share with all of you, her wonderful little project!

The first time I came to Nicaragua I came to do market research for a business proyect I was thinking about. I spent about 7 months here and fell in-love with the country and its people and the way of life. It is not a touristy place like Costa Rica, or full of amazing ruins to climb like Guatemala, it is still vastly un-touched by modern comforts and this appealed to me.

The transition between ubber-geek-love-my-lap-top-what-will-I-do-with-out-Internet-chick into the person that now finds it part of daily life to cook with wood or deal with the fact the electricity went out or that we are going to stay somewhere without electric power or water, was challenging to say the least. However I have discovered that I amaze myself at what I never thought possible and how easy it was to adapt.

So making the decision to move here permanently and open and B&B was both the easiest and the hardest decision ever.  I thought it was going to be smooth, come with a marketing plan and lets get it done! NOT! From the moment I left I was presented with challenges, the hardest one was finding out at the airport on the way here that my business partner had to back out and I was on my own.  Sink or swim used to say a mentor I had and I decided to swim!

I landed in Managua with less then a ½ of the money planned and came straight to Leon. The first few days I thought I couldn´t catch my breath, was it stress or the heat? It was hard to tell. I have always been fortunate to have angels that come in different forms and this time it was in the form of my friend Rigo. Rigo helped me get organized, get out there and start looking at places to turn into our B&B, he argued with every local in town looking for the best pricing on everything, we made lists and checked them twice, slept on the floor when we found a place to save the hotel money for investing into our plans.

It blows my mind away what we accomplished in 4 weeks; we are now ready to start booking guests, we are still working on some projects but have 4 bedroom suites with private bathrooms available for weary travellers looking to hang out with locals and an ex-pat Canadian. Posada la Gordita as it is becoming know is open for business.

Located in the heart of the colonial Zaragoza district of central Leon, Nicaragua, Posada la Gordita offers a home away from home, with comfortable beds, clean rooms, private and shared bathrooms and breakfast included. 

We are close to everything, bars, restaurants, markets, supermarkets, parks, ice cream shops and within walking distance of all the tourist attractions. Our rates go from $25/night in a room with a shared bathroom including breakfast, free WIFI, coffee all day, linens and towels, use of fridge, TV, cable and much much more.

Check out our site at www.posadalagordita.com

Email us and enquire about our weekly rates.

Cheers,

Viviana

Working on being more domestic....ahahah!

A little slow in uploading the picture, but these are our waffles just before the freezer, I use just a little double waffle maker, perfect!

My son asked me why he's had to eat cereal for weeks (it's been a month and  it's healthy stuff with fruit and omega3-6 soy milk!) and no waffles or pancakes, or eggs and sausages.
I guess in my plight to eat healthy I stopped using any mixes that weren't homemade, and cutting back on the amount of meats we eat, I forgot that not everyone wants to eat muesli with ground flax everyday!
So I searched the web for a great recipe for waffles, overnight waffles to be exact...the yeasty kind, the kind that makes my mouth water when I think of how yummy they are topped with fruit and whipped cream.
I settled on The Pioneer Woman's Overnight Waffle Recipe, which looked easy and tasty too.
I didn't change much on it, except that I used half almond half soy milk at 1 cup of each (my son can't handle milk, but butter is ok) rather than regular cow's milk.
Here is the ingredients,

• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Yeast
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 2 cups Milk
• ½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1 whole Large Egg
• 6 Tablespoons Unsalted Melted Butter
• Nonstick Spray For Waffle Iron

I loved that you can mix and go to bed, and I got up at 6:30 rather than 6 to make them!

These are their instructions, super easy!
1. In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Whisk in milk and vanilla until blended. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature.
2. In the morning, heat the waffle iron. Beat the egg and melted butter into the batter, which will be quite thin. Spray hot waffle iron with nonstick spray. Add just enough batter to cover the cooking surface.
3. Cook waffles until crisp and brown, but not too dark, about 2-3 minutes each.
Makes 6-8 standard waffles, or 3-4 Belgian waffles.

Since there is only two of us (and he is 6) we only ate 3 waffles and froze the rest so we can pop them into the toaster later on in the week. Today I served them with banana slices and breakfast sausages, next time maybe we'll do a poached egg and berries. The texture is crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle, my son loved the cinnamon and asked if they were chocolate ; a true complement on the taste!

This is what we ate at Grandmas every morning, she has a huge raspberry patch!!

Tomorrow I shall make eggs, with tortillas (the homemade corn ones)...egg tacos perhaps, yum!
Onwards and forward with my domestic endeavours!

Cheers,
Viviana