Notes From Travel Day, Sacramento to Guatemala City

American Airlines SMF (Sacramento) to LAX ( Los Angeles) to Dallas / Fort Worth to GUA (Guatemala City). Eldin, my friend and driver, will be outside La Aurora Airport waiting to take me to Antigua. If all goes well I should be home at about 10:30 tonight. I paid to take extra luggage to Guatemala - no extra clothes - I actually left several pieces of clothing in my little storage unit  in California so I'll have some for next time I visit. No, three bags are filled with kitchen supplies and lots of craft materials for my Amigos del Arte group that meets every Wednesday morning. 

After this VERY busy five weeks I'm so looking forward to some relaxation time and time to digest all the changes taking place in my life with this elimination of so much STUFF.  Even though I'm not terrifically attached to houses, I have enjoyed my little 1250 square foot abode in Roseville. I took one last walk through this morning to make sure everything was out, and to say one last "goodbye" before flying off to continue my Guatemala adventure. 

I'll miss all my kids and grandkids; their lives all change almost from  minute to minute. It's still strange to say that my youngest grandkids, the twins and triplets, are all going to be 16-years old soon!  Wow!  All five of them are studying Spanish in high school so I'd love to have them visit me in Antigua. 

I say a little prayer for my dear Quinn, who is still suffering the effects of her cancelled wedding. She's strong and resilient and will, I'm sure, find happiness once again and go on bravely to live a successful life in whatever and with whom ever she chooses. 

Addison (23) and Holland (21) are sharing an apartment in downtown Sacramento, Addison teaching sixth grade and Holland pursuing her studies at Sac State University. Those two are going places and I love them mucho. 

Already landing in Los Angeles so I'll close for now. 

Part II:

On American Airlines flight from LAX to Dallas Fort Worth. Smooth flight.

Part III:

Landed in Dallas Fort Worth after a nice flight.  Took the sky shuttle to the international terminal for my flight from Texas to Guatemala City.  When I arrived at the gate I found that the flight departure was delayed - we finally took off almost two hours later than planned.   I had a chance to email Eldín, my Guatemalan friend and driver, to tell him not to go to Aurora Airport until a little later.  We finally got in almost two hours late.  Immigration and Customs were a breeze.  I'd smuggled 3 large rutabagas into the country for my cousin, Linda, to make her famous rutabaga pudding for Thanksgiving and was a little concerned that they may open my bags - but no such worry occurred.

And, speaking of recipes . . . 

I have a recipe request from Quinn:

Mimi's Chicken Wing Hors D'oeuvres

Ingrédients:

*1 pound chicken wings (about 14 wings), wing tips removed (save for making chicken broth). Then, separate into wingets by slicing through the connecting joint. So, for 14 chicken wings, you'll now have 28 wingets 

*½ cup regular Kikkoman soy sauce

*Garlic powder (not garlic salt) -I don't measure it - I guess it would be about 1 teaspoon in total if I did measure

Instructions:

*Turn oven on to Broil. Set an oven rack about four inches below the broiler heating flame or element. 

*Line an aluminum / metal baking pan (with at least one-inch sides) with heavy-duty aluminum foil, using enough foil to completely cover the bottom and all sides of the pan. Tuck the foil in over the lip of the pan on all sides. This prevents burned soy, sugar, garlic powder and chicken fat and juices from making the pan difficult to clean. 

*Arrange the wingets in the pan, trying not to overlap pieces

*Sprinkle the wingets with a little soy sauce, a generous sprinkle of garlic powder, and about a teaspoon of sugar. 

*Place the pan under the broiler and broil  the first side of the wingets for about 5 - 8 minutes, checking often to avoid burning the skin.

*Using tongs, turn wingets over, season the uncooked side with soy, garlic powder, and sugar, and broil second side for approximately the same amount of time. 

*Using tongs, turn wingets to expose first side again. At this time you can add more of the three sauce ingredients, or, if there's sufficient sauce collected in the pan you can collect it to spoon over wingets and broil for a couple of minutes, until the wingets are nicely browned on this side. Turn again and broil the second side until browned and the sauce in the pan has thickened.

Arrange wingets on a serving platter, lined with large lettuce leaves if you'd like, and spoon the syrupy sauce over them. Serve wingets hot or at room temperature to be eaten by hand with an available cocktail napkin to keep fingers clean. 

Enjoy 28 cocktail servings; but, beware, people usually eat four or five each!!!

So, it's 12:57am; I'm sitting up in bed with Lacy and Eleanor by my side.  Aaahh, it's good to be home.  I plan to do a lot of relaxing for the next few days.