When Inspiration Strikes....

...then you simply must answer the call.

I love Saturdays. Why Saturdays? I mean, every day is a weekend around here right? Josh is gone studying everyday of the week, so why that one day? Because that is my day to watch TV. The rest of the week I am subject to Curious George, The Cat in the Hat, Sponge Bob, and some crazy cartoon in Spanish involving a talking fish and a dancing ball (truly I have no idea what is going on since it's in Spanish, but the kids love that show).  Six days a week, I don't mind, really.

But on Saturdays, I hijack the TV and it stays parked on Food Network...all...day...long! I love it! It inspires me to make delicious food and pretend that I too, could be the next Food Network Star. Ok, not really, we all know that won't happen.

Of course my love of cooking may be fairly obvious: my dad was a chef when I was little. So the love of cooking runs in the family. I remember growing up watching PBS on the weekends enjoying such legends as Jacques Pepin. We also watched a lot of golf, but that's another story.

Luckily, I found Josh who also has a love of cooking. In fact, I remember the first meal he made me: Captain Crunch chicken with rice and a lovely sweet orange sauce. I was oh so impressed! And a bit relieved. I know there are men out there who cannot even hard boil an egg, so I got lucky. Josh and I have our favorite cooking shows too. Good Eats with Alton Brown is up there at the top, and I love The Pioneer Woman, Sandwich King, and Trisha Yearwood. I am warming up to Paula Dean, but I just can't add that much butter...no I can't...truly no one should. We both enjoy watching Chopped too. I find it very stressful, but I am impressed that someone could take the most random ingredients and make them taste good. "Here are some fish heads and cookie dough...good luck!" 

Anyway, last Saturday I felt inspired. I had some potatoes and okra so I knew what I wanted to do with sides, but needed a main dish. I had ground turkey, so meatloaf it is! The kids love my meatloaf because it's more like a giant meatball and I don't make it very thick.

I do have some staples of my own and fun things I've found here that I love.

 Any lettuce that travels here has a long journey and typically comes wilted and brown. Plus it's expensive, so I love the local lettuce. It's fluffy and gorgeous so much cheaper.

I hear that people have found frogs inside their lettuce so you have to wash it...ha ha...really? I want to see that sometime. I have not found any amphibians in my salad as of yet, but I'll let you know if I do.

 We have a starfruit tree in our front yard and right now they are plentiful. Analeigh loves them because when you are 3, any fruit shaped like a star is supposed to be eaten. Not sweet enough for you? Sprinkle with sugar or Splenda.

The mango is back in season!! Yum!! Usually I can get a bag of them at the farmer's market for $5 EC = $2 US and their are 5 - 7 in a bag. Great for smoothies.

 Local okra has become a favorite of ours. They need to be washed whole in the morning and let sit out to dry for a few hours. Then around lunchtime, cut them into about 1/2 inch slices and let dry until you are ready to cook. This process gets rid of the slime. Sautee some onions in olive oil and add the okra. Let cook for 20- 25 minutes until golden brown. The kids love them.

Here is my new handy dandy nutmeg grater. It's so cute because you can store the nutmeg inside it. Grenada is the Isle of Spice and nutmeg is grown here. A lot of the trees suffered and were destroyed during hurricane Ivan, but they are starting to come back. It will be another 4 or 5 years before production gets back to normal. However, I got a lifetime supply of nutmeg nuts for $5 EC or $2 US. There is nothing better than fresh nutmeg!

 Had to bring some spices from the US. The cinnamon in that jar is actually fresh ground Grenadian cinnamon. You cannot beat that either!

 Some of Grenada's goodies: ground ginger, cinnamon bark, and bay leaves. You can buy whole fresh ginger on any street corner, literally. I have a bunch that I plan to make candied ginger with. I get a giant bag of bay leaves for $2 EC or less than $1 US. I use them to keep the roaches away..and it works. I sewed small bags, filled them with bay leaves, sewed it closed and smashed the bags to crumble the leaves. Then I placed them around the house. No more cockroaches! It's great because I don't have to worry about Noelle getting a hold of them either (the bags or the roaches). And these suckers are huge and I hear they fly...super fun...

 Another item I was inspired to make: cupcakes. These are angel food cupcakes with a coconut frosting. The frosting is butter (just a little, I didn't say I hate the stuff), brown sugar, coconut, vanilla, and sugar. I will be making them again. You know what would make that combo better? Perhaps some cream cheese....cheese of the Gods....the best food to come in a box....ok, sorry, I'm drooling. I do have a love affair with cream cheese....apparently.

a token from home

Here's dinner. I sliced the potatoes and layered them with cheese and Hawaiian Haystack sauce. You can find the link HERE. I had some left over in the frig and the sauce is amazing! I cooked it in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes were soft. You may need more time depending on how thick your slices are.

My Amazing Meatloaf Recipe:
 
1 lb ground beef, chicken, turkey, whatever
1 small onion, chopped
1 small can of tomato sauce

You have to have a good meatloaf pan. This one is my favorite because it makes all of those tasty bits on the sides and I can't get enough of those. That's the best part of the meatloaf. If you use a bread pan, you miss out on tasty bits and your meatloaf just sits in fat....not tasty. 

1 egg
about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, may need to add more if too soupy
1 tsp Italian Seasoning (or a little oregano, basil, thyme mixed together; whatever you have on hand will work)
1/2 - 1 tsp garlic powder to taste

Put all ingredients together and combine with fingers. Add more breadcrumbs if it feels too loose and add more seasoning if you feel like it. I honestly made this up from bits and pieces so I just throw stuff together for this and it turns out great every time. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. Oh and I have to add a sauce on top. It is not the same without the sauce. For the sauce: 1/2 cup ketchup, a few shakes Worcestershire, a few shakes Soy sauce. I know I'm getting technical, but I seriously just threw this together. Add more or less of what you want until it tastes good to you. Be adventurous! Anyhow, put the sauce on top towards the beginning of the cooking time. If you get distracted and have to change a diaper or start laundry  don't worry. The meatloaf is quite forgiving.

A better look at those potatos. Those are chunks of chicken left over from the Hawaiian Haystack sauce I found in the freezer.

So that is my typical Saturday. I love cooking on the weekends and so does Josh. When he was off for Christmas he cooked almost every day. (I know, I'm lucky. ) Now, don't get me wrong, I love to cook, but I hated cooking on week nights when I was working full time. Who wants come home after a long day and cook? That is hard and I do not enjoy that nearly as much. Yeah, I'm normal after all.

Need some inspiration of your own? Check out Food Network....and get to work!

Bon Appetit!

Tarryn

2013 is Going to Be LEGEND... wait for it.....

DARY....that's right! Why? Because I get the spend the entire year on an island in the Caribbean and I DON'T have to pack the family up to move anywhere. That alone would make it a good year, but I plan on enjoying every minute of the fun here. I mean, a whole year in paradise, how did I get so lucky?!?

So here we are back to grind. My absence has been due to the fact that Josh has been home with us for an entire month. How nice! Now he is back to school starting his 2nd term and I'm back to you my friends. Here's what's been going on....

At the end of November, Josh and I had the opportunity to go on a catamaran boat to Gouyave on the northwest coast of the island. Gouyave is the home to Fish Friday, where locals cook up tasty fish treats, fried foods, and fresh homemade ice cream and sell it on the street every Friday night. The fish is very fresh, the prices are very reasonable, and you enjoy it all to the sounds of music and people on the streets.

Grand Anse beach at night

the catamaran - it took 2 hours to sail to Gouyave

ready to go!

fish kababs - some have fish and some have lobster or shrimp

Ok, so it's a little hard to tell from the picture just how narrow these streets are, but from the back of the tent to the light post on the right is how narrow the street actually is. It's not like the states where you have Taste of ________ (insert city name here) and there are big wide open streets. I found it to be quite cozy in fact.

lobster!! yes, even in Grenada they sell lobsta'

 The pictures did not do it justice. Next time we go I'll get some better ones. I wish I took a picture of the food. At first I thought, yeah it might be okay, but wow....the food is so so good! We had the fish kabobs first and we should have just shared one. It was big hunks of fish and really good. We also had the fish bake which is made up of a flat bread, cut open, and filled with a flat fish fritter of sorts. So good and only $4 EC or less than $2 US. Then there were the spring rolls...my favorite. It is a spring roll filled with  noodles and it was the size of a small burrito. I can't wait to go back again!

The ice cream was to die for!! You could tell it was fresh and homemade, yum!

Then in December,  we were lucky to have our 1st visitors: Josh's mom and stepdad! It gave us an excuse to go and do some touristy things on the island we hadn't done before. First stop: Prickly Bay Marina and Restaurant.

boats at the marina

Looking at the bar and restaurant. Oh yeah, all restaurants in Grenada are outside by the way. 

Little feet love going for a walk. 

Do you see the guy up there? I didn't when I took the picture...ha ha. 

The sun setting on Prickly Bay.

Checking out the boats at the marina. 

The sunsets here are amazing aren't they?

Next stop: Belmont for the chocolate plantation on the northeast side of the island. This was a long and bumpy trip. It took an hour to get there and we probably drove less than 20 miles.

That is a very old tamarind tree...around 300 years old. 

There were turtles....

.....and goats to feed. Don't worry, even though it says it's electrified, the fence was not obviously. 

Where they dry the cocoa pods. 

Analeigh was demonstrating how the ladies used to turn the cocoa pods to dry them. 

Of all the animals and things to see, the kids liked the spiral staircase the best. 

A raw cocoa pod. The fruit is very sweet and fruity...not what you'd expect. 

Ethan with the parrots. We saw monkeys too. 

The lunch there was very very good. I highly recommend it. 

Ethan was trying to pick up the cannon ball. The workers there were digging up a field to plant and found this cannon. 

The view from the restaurant...once again, open to the outside breezes. 

So then it was Christmas. Christmas this year was just not the same. When it's 85 degrees and you're sweating all the time, it's so hard to get into the Christmas spirit. I put up stockings, lights, and a little tree and we tried to make it as special and "normal" as possible for the kids. I think they enjoyed it and we had fun with Josh's parents there too. Our plan was to hit the beach that day, just because we could, but it rained all day long. For the dry season, we sure are getting a lot of rain.

We must have been good this year. Santa was nice to us. 

Eating the traditional Christmas Stollen that I make every year. It was outstanding this year!

The Christmas Stollen

ah....pure bliss

I don't know what we're going to do when the kids grow up and they don't let us put bows on their heads anymore. 

mmmmm....cookies!!

There you have it. A lovely break for all of us. Ethan had 3 weeks off from school and Josh was off for 4 weeks. He spoiled me by making dinner almost every night and we also switched off getting up with Noelle. She wakes up at 6:30, so Josh and I took turns sleeping in. Of course, sleeping in around here means 8:00, but still, it was nice to have Daddy home and big brother too. We were very excited to have Mary and Don here with us for 2 weeks and the kids had fun with their grandparents. Josh and I even got to go out...alone!

After they left, we had a few sightseeing trips of our own...but that will have to wait for another day. Until then, I hope you are having a lovely 2013. I know my friends back in Texas have been enjoying snow and even thunder snow (ahh Texas, how I miss the odd weather), but hopefully you are finding some way to keep warm. How about if I leave you with this:

Happy New Year!!

Tarryn