Belizean cheese dip

Guys, I am so conflicted about posting this recipe.  On the one hand, it is a food that is present at 99% of social functions in Belize.  Weddings, wakes, birthday parties, Quince Anos.... chances are good that if you've been to any sort of gathering here you have been served cheese dip along side your rice and beans. And probably scarfed it down as it is universally good, and perhaps want to recreate the goodness at home.  On the other hand, it is made from cheese so processed that it actually doesn't melt and has to be blended.  Although I have eaten this countless times, I have actually only made it twice because seriously? I don't want to think about the ingredients. I just want to enjoy.

 If you want to experience the non-gourmet but quite enjoyable cheese dip, here is the recipe.

1 small (220g) can of salsa.  La Costena is a Mexican brand and quite possibly the best salsa in existence
1 small can of condensed milk (unsweetened)
1/4 lb block of Happy Cow Cheese.  This is processed, shelf stable cheese that is available here in Belize, but I'm sure you can find an equivalent.  Look for a solid, processed cheese that doesn't need refrigeration.  Or use a block of American cheese.

Now prepare yourself for the complicated instructions.
Cut the cheese into small squares, and add to the blender.  Pour in the salsa, and about 2/3 of the can of condensed milk.

Blend until completely smooth.

Pour on tortilla chips, eat.
If you need it a bit more spicy, add a few drops of your favorite hot sauce.
Enjoy!

catch up

After a long process involving a new hard drive, new software, and a new card reader, the mac is finally able to work with my pictures.  These pictures are from as far back as April.  I love being surprised by what I download from my camera, I had forgotten about most of these.

Corozal town's blue sky and blue sea never fails to take my breath away.

Baby Buns!!

Stealth cow....

There he is!

Best thrifting find EVER-- $600 US Manolo Blahnik shoes found for $2.50.  The cat has claimed them.

Behind me, a pickup full of feed.  The Standoff begins.

We ended up baby-sitting some baby geese at the Agriculture show this year.  This guy kept falling asleep with his little legs stretched out-- SO cute!

My 5 yr old niece left me this message on the fridge.   I'm thinking I should be frightened.

Spring field burning + sunset.

shower of gold

Triumph!  You know what is so special about the small, rather blurry photo above?  I took it with my phone and then uploaded it to blogger!  I know this is not impressive to those of you who have iphones and whatever, but believe it or not the technology to do this has only been readily available in Belize for about 5 months.

Of course, things can never run super smoothly here, which resulted in this awesome email exchange with my mother:

What I thought my phone send my mom:  A picture of my cat, with the caption "peed on the floor this morning"

What my mom got: no picture, just the one sentence.

What my mom replied: ? Daniel???

yes mom, my husband peed on the floor this morning and I felt like I should let you know.

BTW the tree in the picture above is called Shower of Gold.  Isn't it gorgeous?

what I have been up to

• The computer problems have mostly been resolved.... except, of course, for my pictures. All 10,864 pictures (no exaggeration) have been transferred onto my new hard drive, but due to a software glitch I can't actually see them.  Hopefully I will have it sorted out soon.

• Daniel and I had a wonderful, short visit up to DC for Memorial day weekend.  We met up with my family, and I got to take Daniel to a few of the Smithsonians and the zoo.  We definitely need to go back and spend much, much more time there.  
• And now I have a new smart phone, courtesy of eBay, and I'd feel really smug about it if I could get the dang thing to actually do smart things, like take pictures and share them online.  Any fun app suggestions while I climb up the learning curve?
• Yesterday when Daniel came in for lunch I asked him what project he was working on.  He said he was building a chicken coop, which I thought was nice but rather overkill for our 3 chickens.  Then I went out to see it and discovered we now have 13 chickens.  And then we were obligated (no idea why) to go over to our neighbors last night and pick up 4 more chickens.  I'm still not quite sure how this happened....