Life in Guatemala A to Z: Kitchen

I had a gourmet kitchen in my home in the States, fully equipped, because for a time I was running my cookie business out of it, making 80 dozen chocolate chip cookies a week. And it was where I tested all 100 recipes for my family cookbook last year.

Part of the preparation of moving to Guatemala was getting rid of stuff-- so much stuff! The hardest to let go of were all my kitchen utensils and pans and tools and mixers and serving dishes and knives and double ovens.... you get the idea.

I figured we'd find a studio apartment with a mini-fridge and a hot plate. My cooking days were over!

And then we happened upon a two bedroom house with a full kitchen-- oven, regular-sized refrigerator, hot water in the sink faucet, counter space-- in Panachel real estate lingo, a "gourmet kitchen."

And now that we're settled in, I'm back to enjoying cooking. We eat simple, healthy meals, prepared fairly quickly and then we clean up.

I wash the dishes (no dishwasher!) and my husband dries and puts them away. It's rather sweet, because he never did much to help out in the kitchen ever before. But we've found it a very warm and homey and comforting routine, this simple meal prep in our "gourmet kitchen" in Panachel.