Profitable turnover.

As hundreds of small businesses closed up shop amid a recession, homemaker Miriam Rojas de Rivera began hatching a plan in her kitchen in San Pedro Sula, in northern Honduras. * The creative homemaker honed in on making pastelitos--turnovers similar to better-known empanadas--filled with meat, ham, chicken, pepperoni and cheese and other mouthwatering treats for her family. Then she overcame her doubts and started to offer her pastries to the public. Flush with success, the kitchen-table business grew from a small, struggling vendor to become a business icon for Hondurans. * Rojas never imagined that her pastries would be exported, selling in El Salvador, Guatemala and the United States. "North American tourists come here, Cuban doctors, business executives, university students, the media and other visitors who know about us by word of mouth," Rojas says. She is well aware of her good fortune and has reasons to be optimistic: Beginning with sales of just US$2,000 a year, hungry Hondurans and foreigners today gobble down $40,000 annually today. "The next step for us is to export to Central American supermarkets and to sell franchises," Rojas says. * This year, she hopes the town's tourism board will include her turnover shops in tour guides published about the city of San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest. * "This is one way foreigners and visitors from neighboring countries can get a taste of our national delicacies," she says.