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• I halved the recipe.
• I added an extra clove of garlic ... mosts recipes are written to be "safe" in the garlic range, so can be upped without overdoing it.
• I can't buy canned tomatoes here (all for the best, I think) so I peeled a pound of tomatoes, put half of them through the blender and mashed the other half with my potato masher.
• For serving, I topped the chili with yogurt and mozzarella cheese

•  4 cups chopped yellow onions (3 onions)
• 1/8 cup good olive oil, plus extra for chicken
• 1/8 cup minced garlic (2 cloves)
• 2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded and large-diced
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes, or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for chicken
• 2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled plum tomatoes in puree, undrained
• 1/4 cup minced fresh basil leaves
• 4 split chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
• Freshly ground black pepper

• Chopped onions, corn chips, grated cheddar, sour cream

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• I have no idea if the beans were French, but for sure they were not "string" beans ... 
• I didn't have yellow bell peppers (although I will soon ... I have a couple of plants of yellow bell peppers grown from some seeds that I took from a yellow pepper when I was visiting Mom in Canada, and there are a couple of ripening peppers already), so used only red.

• 1 pound French string beans
• Kosher salt
• 1 red onion, large, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, large diced
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, large diced
• Good olive oil
• Freshly grated black pepper

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• instead of linguini, I used a Tri-Color Vegetable Pasta
• I upped the garlic to 3 cloves ... I love garlic
• I used only 3/4 of a pound of shrimp, which I bought peeled, deveined and frozen.  I would have bought them with shells, if I could have found them, because I think that, even frozen, they retain more flavor if they are with shells.
• the white wine that I used was actually the last part of a bottle of cooking wine ... I can imagine that the dish would have been even better with a decent quality wine.
• asparagus is unheard of in Peten, however, I had just made a very tasty green bean recipe the day before, and had half of the beans left over, so decided to use them instead.
• I had no parsley, and don't actually like parsley all that much, so I used a mixture of half fresh chopped cilantro, and half fresh chopped basil.
• I had no cherry tomatoes, so I chopped up a couple of Roma tomatoes.

• 3/4 pound linguini
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 bunch asparagus stalks, trimmed
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 container cherry tomatoes, halved

Instructions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add the linguini and cook according to the directions on the box.  Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over a medium-high flame.  Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute

Add the shrimp and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the shrimp turn pink.  Remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside.

Add the lemon juice, white wine and the reserved cup of water to the skillet.  Let simmer until the liquid is reduced by about half.

Salt and saute the asparagus.  cut into 1-inch pieces.

Return the shrimp to the pan

and stir in the parsley.

Add the drained linguini to the shrimp mixture, tossing to combine.

Add asparagus and tomatoes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Verdict:

Delicious!  I never would have chosen to make a pasta with that combination of flavors.   However, I have learned that there are a lot of unlikely flavor combinations that are incredibly delicious.  This combination of garlic, lemon and wine are a perfect background for the shrimp.  The slightly crunchy (stringless) green beans were a perfect foil for the pasta, and also combined well with the lemony flavor.  I made one error in that I must have overcooked the shrimp a bit ... it turned out more chewy than I would have liked (or maybe it had been sitting frozen at Maxi-Bodega for way to long, its hard to say with shrimp here).  I made an interesting discovery when I didn't reheat the noodles before adding the sauce, and they were so cool that everything cooled right off.  E. said that he thought that it was a pasta salad (which would be okay, except that he doesn't really like salads).  I found out later, when we had it served hot, that that was not only because it was cold, but because the dressing reminded him of salad dressing.  And when I thought about it, I realized that yes, it is a dish that could quite easily be served cold with excellent results.

If I am lucky enough to have some fresh shrimp, I would definitely plan to make this recipe again.

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• I cooked a giant squash instead of using canned pumpkin .. it seems that pumpkin is not popular here ... canned pumpkin does not exist in Peten.  I did find some small fresh pumpkins at the Maxi-Bodega (Walmart) but they were too expensive.  In the end, I bought the giant squash at the market, thinking that the price would be better, and later that day, found the same size of sqash at the Maxi-Bodega for half the price.  Live and Learn.
• There is only one type of flour here .. white flour.  However, a few years ago, when I wanted to start making and selling bran muffins to local hotels, I managed to convince a local store to carry bran ... so when I want a whole wheat flour, I mix the bran back into the white flour, using the concentration I need to create the finished product that I want.  For this recipe, I used 1 3/4 cups of white flour, and 1/4 cup of bran.
• The brown sugar that I use is "panela".  Panela is the direct result of boiling down sugar cane juice until it goes past the molasses stage and actually hardens.  In effect, it is molasses that has been taken one step further in the refining process.
• I'm pretty sure that the molasses that I used was not unsulphered.  Molasses is another ingredient that is not sold in stores here.  About 5 years ago, I looked everywhere for molasses to use to make some of Mom's famous molasses cookies, and eventually I found a rich farmer who had brought in a tanker truck FULL of molasses to sell to other farmers in the area ... I discovered that this is one of the ways of providing extra fattening nourishment for cattle, and is not eaten by humans!  I explained to him that I was looking for molasses for cooking (he had never heard of such a thing) and asked if I could buy some.  He was selling by the barrel, and didn't have any containers for smaller sales, but he poured the last of the Coke out of his 2-liter bottle, washed it out and filled it up from a spigot in the side of the huge tanker truck.  He refused to take any money for it insisting that it was so little, that it didn't matter.  So, I have had this 2-litre bottle of PURE MOLASSES lying in the bottom drawer of my refrigerator for a long long time (like years).  I could never bring myself to use it, not only because I wouldn't not be able to replace it but I also thought that it would be too strong for my recipes.  Thanks to this recipe, I have finally opened the bottle and begun using it.
• Several comments mentioned that the spicing was nt strong enough so I used a liberal hand when measuring ... not doubling the amounts, but rounding up the measuring spoons.
• I used my own home made yogurt instead of buttermilk

Ingredients:

• Cooking Spray
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole-grain pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup raw unsalted pumpkin seeds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined.

Add the other egg and whisk well.

Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla.

Whisk in the flour mixture in two batches,

alternating with the buttermilk.

Whisk until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds.

Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes.  Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold.  Cool completely on the rack.

Verdict:

Delicious!  The molasses really boosted the flavor of the spices and added to the distinctive "pumpkin pie" flavor.  The crunch of the pumpkin seeds made for a perfect topping.  I must have used smaller muffin cups that was called for, because I ended up with 18 muffins.  I'm glad I did or I might not have had enough to photograph!

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