Galley Notes: Cooking for $15 a Day...on a Sailboat!

Papaya Season

2012-01-14T06:27:00.000-08:00

I suspect it is always papaya season here in the Virgin Islands, but my neighbor's tree has been especially prolific lately. If you have never had papaya, it tastes like a sweet melon, but the texture is denser than a melon, almost like cooked squash. It is a bright orange color inside, similar to a mango, but not stringy.

One of our dinners this week was chicken and veggie stir fry with a pineapple teriyaki sauce. Our latest papaya was the perfect ripeness, so I chopped some up and added it after the other ingredients were cooked. I wasn't sure what to expect, but wow, it was delicious! With the rest of the papaya, I made a simple salsa with chopped red onions and a splash of papaya curry hot sauce. It was delicious on a grilled chicken sandwich, with scrambled eggs, and as a pierogi topping. I'd love to hear how anyone else has used papaya!

I have been terrible with keeping track of our budget the last few weeks, holidays and all, but I'm pretty sure I have been going over. I also haven't been keeping track of meals, but I'm hoping to get back on track this week!

Our Christmas was good; we spent Christmas Eve with some friends and cooked up a giant pot of bouillabaise. Husband caught a few lobsters to throw in the pot and other people donated fresh mahi and wahoo. Not very traditional, but delicious!

Christmas day we skipped the usual parties and took the boat out to our favorite uninhabited island, Happy Island, and spent a wonderful day relaxing in the sun and the sea. Hope everyone had a nice holiday season, and thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Winds

2011-12-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Winds are back here in the Virgin Islands, and they are driving me crazy! During the rest of the year, we see mild winds, but at the end of December we see tradewinds blowing 20-30 knots- constantly. They howl through the trees, toss the boat around, and bring very cool nights. In the South of France in the winter, they have the Mistral winds (rumored to actually drive people crazy) that blow a lot harder but only last for a few days. Ours last for a couple of weeks. I can't complain too much, though, at least there is no snow!

Our boat is decorated for the season, we don't do a tree but we wrap the inside part of the mast with garland and hang our ornaments- lots of divers and mermaids!

We also have an inflatable snow globe that sits on our awning over the cockpit and is quite impressive. You may think it would bother the neighbors, but the other liveaboards on our dock put similar inflatables up, too! Quite the carnival!

We did ok on the budget this week, $116, so $11 over budget, and this is what we ate:

Sunday: We had some friends over for a tapas party. I made flatbread, and served balsamic marinated watermelon, roasted almonds, warm olives and peppers, a cream cheese tourine with tomato and basil, and of course, lots of wine!

Monday: We made a pizza with leftover veggies

Tuesday: Husband made chicken breasts stuffed with ham and swiss, tomato soup on the side.

Wednesday: Pasta alfredo with veggies

Thursday was our softball game, and we grabbed burgers after.

Friday: Spinach salad with grilled chicken

Saurday: Burgers stuffed with Roquefort cheese and cajun seasoning, topped with red onions and tomatoes on Hawaiian buns. Yum- best meal of the week!

Hope everyone has agreat holiday week, and thanks for stopping by!T

Moonlight Cruise

2011-12-12T09:53:00.001-08:00

One of our favorite things to do in the evening is to take a sunset happy hour cruise in our dinghy...this time of year though the sun is almost set by 5:30, when we are getting home from work. We have had a lot of rain this week, but the other night the skies cleared to reveal a gorgeous full moon- so we did a moonlight cruise! We typically tool around the lagoon and look at boats, but it was such a nice night that we went far out into the bay, cut the engine, and just bobbed around for a while. Simple pleasures!

On the way back in we stopped at the lagoon bar. From the water it's mostly hidden by mangrove trees, so you have to know it's there, but you can pull your dinghy right in:

We did pretty well on the budget this week ($105), we spent $98, and this is what we ate:

Sunday was corn chowder in the slow cooker, with a tomato and cucumber salad on the side

Monday we roasted up a bunch of veggies with sausage on the side

Tuesday was another slow cooker meal, exactly the same ingredients as the day before: veggies with sausage stew and a little gravy on top

Wednesday we had pizza

Thursday we play softball, so had a quick BLT on English muffins before the game. After the game we were so hungry, but no place open and no food on the boat. BIG breakfast the next morning!

Friday we ate out at one of our favorite restaurants, Schnitzel Haus. The only thing on the menu is schnitzel

Saturday we finished off the week with a big salad: mixed greens, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, red onion, and turkey with a homemade mustard dressing.

As always, we resolve to eat more salad next week- we'll see!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

The Best Gravy...From the Weirdest Ingredients

2011-11-30T07:30:00.001-08:00

We such a small oven on the boat that cooking a turkey is out of the question, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I asked my husband to make his famous turkey and cranberry chili. He won’t tell me the recipe, but it involves turkey and dried cranberries. I set off for the ingedients, and rather than the dried cranberries, I bought fresh. They looked so good, and I have never actually eaten a fresh raw cranberry. Well, husband absolutely insisted that fresh wouldn’t work in the chili, so I had to find another recipe to use the cranberries. I stumbled upon Brisket with Cranberries, and the ingredients sounded so weird I knew I had to try it: brisket, a pack of dried onion soup mix, a bottle of catalina dressing, and a bag of cranberries. The recipe called for combining everything and roasting, but I did mine in the crockpot with some pork shoulder.

The shoulder was a little fatty, so I had to skim some grease off but the sauce tasted amazing! I made a gravy out of it, and it is my new favorite - fruity and meaty. We put the pork in bowls, topped with mashed potatoes and the gravy. I will definitely make this again, though maybe try chicken next time.

We came in $7 under budget for the week, and this is what else we ate for the week: Jerk Chicken, BLT’s with soup, Burritos with rice, Veggie Calzones, and a Mediterranean Tuna Salad. And Thanksgiving, of course. We went to a friend’s for dinner- no cooking, no cleaning, perfect!

We received this huge papaya from a friend's tree...I think I may make a salsa out of it!

Have a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

West Indian Jerk Chicken

2011-11-21T07:21:00.000-08:00

Despite living in the West Indies for nearly 10 years, we don’t often cook West Indian cuisine. My preferred meal is any kind of carb and lots of cheese (favorite food= fried mozzarella sticks). Not a lot of cheese in West Indian cooking. Curiously, goats are raised here and goat meat is popular, but I can’t find anyone making goat cheese, one of my favorites. One of my first jobs on island was working for a resort, whose employee cafeteria served local food. I got to try all of the favorites: oxtail stew, goat water, funji, saltfish, and callaloo. I was very appreciative of the salad bar.

I do, however, like a good jerk chicken, and husband found a recipe that sounded similar to one he likes at a local restaurant. Lots of ingredients, but fairly straightforward and easy to make, a gravy rather than a rub. He served it over a rotisserie chicken from the market ($6.99 while a similarly sized uncooked chicken can average $12. I have never understood that.) On the side were boiled sweet potatoes (actually U.S. yams. The local sweet potato has a similar taste, but a blue-grey color that just doesn’t appeal to me.) and pigeon peas in sauce over rice. This was my new food for the week, pigeon peas. They kind of look like a pea but taste like a bean, straight from the can in a sweetish sauce. Good in the context of the meal, but I’m not sure if I’ll try them again. The verdict on the jerk sauce: I loved it but T thinks it would make a better marinade, and that it was too vinegar-y.

We came in right on budget, $105 for the week, and this is what we ate:

Sunday: Ok- I hate to admit this, but my very favorite frozen pizza is Totino’s party pizza. I know all the ingredients are ultra processed, the crust is nothing but grease and air, and the ingredient list is as long as my arm with words I don’t know, BUT, a weakness and a splurge. The market had them on sale, so I bought a couple, added some pepperoni, and ate a whole one by myself.

Monday: Oh lasagna, how I loved having you in the freezer! This was the last of the 6 I made and froze earlier, and we have had at least one a week. I may be tired of lasagna for a while.

Tuesday: Falafel with cucumbers, red onions, and homemade tzatziki sauce on pitas. I used to make my own falafel from chick peas, but tried a box mix on the recommendation of a friend, and it was much better.

Wednesday: We had planned on eating out with friends, but that was cancelled at the last minute, and I hadn’t been to the market, and didn’t feel like going, so put together what I could with what I had. I ended up with toasted bread topped with a fake chicken patty, turkey bacon, a fried egg, cheddar cheese, and marinara sauce. I don’t know what to call it, but it was good!

Thursday: Polish sausage with pierogis and sauerkraut. Yum.

Friday: Rotisserie chicken with stuffing and Caesar salad. Stuffing is another weakness. I could make a whole meal out of nothing but stuffing.

Saturday: Husband dragged me to new Twilight movie, so it was popcorn, French fries, and a slice of veggie pizza.

Wow, I feel like we ate a lot of junk this week! I resolve to eat more fruits and veggies this week. Since I neglected to take any food photos, here’s the view from my window at my studio.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Tapas and Fondue!

2011-11-15T07:33:00.001-08:00

Our dinner highlights this week were definitely Tapas and Fondue! We love to have tapas dinners on the boat…small bites, small plates, small table! We usually eat in the cockpit of the sailboat, and our table is maybe a foot by two feet. Tapas nights are also a great way to use up random things in the fridge.

Husband prepared it all on Monday night, when I get home a little later from the studio. He made a homemade pate which was fantastic and maybe I’ll get him to guest blog about that. Also on the table were toast points, warmed marinated olives and red peppers, sliced apples and pears, roasted almonds, several kinds of cheese, and a great bottle of wine. Unfortunately, the lighting in the cockpit consists of a rope light which doesn’t make for great photos!

We house- sat for some friends a couple days this week, so we took the opportunity to have a fondue party with two other couples…one other couple is pretty much max for entertaining on the boat. We served a lot of the same things as the previous tapas night, plus a whole lot of melted cheese! For dipping we had lots of bread and fruits. Everyone brought wine, and I think my favorite part was the wine tasting! Husband had ordered a wine aerator several months ago (and it still hasn’t arrived!) so one friend brought hers. I have never used one before, but the difference was pretty amazing. We all tried several different wines, before and after aerating.

For the rest of the week, we had hot dogs and sliders at a football party, pizza, chicken Caesar salad, vegetable lasagna, and chicken and veggies with pasta. We spent $94, so $11 into vacation fund!

I have been trying to try one new food item each week, last week was the pizza yeast, and this week it was this Philly cream cheese sauce I found on sale. I used it with our chic/veg/pasta dish. It’s already seasoned, so you just stir it in for instant sauce. It was pretty good, but I wouldn’t pay the normal price of $4.99. I got it on sale for $1.99

I guess that’s it for the week! Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

Water, Water Everywhere...

2011-11-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

One of the best things about living in the Caribbean is the (usually) great weather. This week however was gray and rainy and almost cold at times. Though bad for the island visitors, most residents love it when it rains! The island does not have a fresh water source other than the rain- most people have cisterns that are filled by the rain, and this supplies the household water. On the boat we do not have a cistern, and we’ve never perfected a water-catching system, so we buy our water. Of course it is expensive, so conserving water is a way of life here. It always strikes me as ironic when I am paying to fill the water tanks while it’s raining and we’re surrounded by water.

Of course, we like to eat comfort food in cool rainy weather, and we did all week long! In the coming week I am really going to try for a salad or two.

First week back tracking the budget after taking a year off, and I’m definitely out of practice! We try to spend $15 a day, $105 a week (yep, my math was wrong in last week’s post!). This week we spent $123, and this is what we ate:

Sunday: Tortilla Stack. This is a great recipe that is basically lasagna with corn tortillas; seasoned ground beef, cheese, tomatoes, onions, etc. I splurged on cilantro ($2.99 for a small bunch). I usually do this in the slow cooker, but this time baked as a casserole.

Monday: Lasagne. A few weeks ago we were housesitting and had some room to spread out in the kitchen. I made 6 lasagnes ( they are each about 4x8 inches in disposable foil pans), with different combinations of sauces, meats, and veggies. I left one for the house, and froze the other 5 on our boat. Mondays I work late, so it’s perfect to pop in the oven with no fuss and no clean up.

Tuesday: Husband makes an amazing curry sauce with coconut cream, which he tossed with stir-fried veggies and served over rice. We also had some mini eggrolls that I made last week and froze in batches of ten. I think I made 60 egg rolls that day! Time consuming but very simple: cabbage, carrots, and onion.

Wednesday: We just joined a softball league, and we had a team meeting that night so we ate out. We will be playing Thursdays after work, so we will probably not be cooking that day.

Thursday: Sausage stew with sweet potatoes and apples .Husband is always asking for stew for dinner, but I really despise the beef stew/carrots/potatoes dish, an try to come up with alternatives. The flavors in this dish were fantastic!

Friday: Chicken Parmesan. We really love the veggie fake chicken patties, so we used these instead of real chicken. When I made all that lasagna, I had some leftover pasta that I froze and used it here. Homemade sauce and lots of mozzarella cheese!

Saturday: Pizza. I recently discovered pizza yeast! I was very excited to try it as the package says no rising is needed, and it doesn’t give dough that “spring back” quality when you are trying to stretch it into the pizza pan. However, I have now tried it twice with different pizza dough recipes, and I really don’t like it. It gives the crust more of a biscuit taste and texture.

You may remember that when I was writing last year, we were eating vegetarian. We were both kind of tiring of meat, and we stayed veg for about a year. Gradually we started eating meat again, and we are back to a few times a week now. I don’t know if makes a difference to the budget, since meats and veggies are equally expensive.

The sun finally came out again on Sunday, and I spent a great day at one of my favorite beaches.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

Still Floating

2011-10-31T11:11:00.000-07:00

Wow- a whole year has passed since my last blog post! No, we haven’t been off sailing around the world or swept away by a hurricane…still on a little island on our sailboat in the Caribbean. As you may know, my husband and I live in the Virgin Islands on our sailboat. It is very expensive to live here, so we give ourselves a menu challenge every week: a budget of $15 a day for breakfast, dinner, food and drink. Lunches are usually leftovers, and if we go out to dinner or happy hour, that comes out of husband’s money and not the grocery budget.

In addition to groceries being very expensive, ($9.99 for a quart of orange juice, for example), we have a few other cooking challenges living on a sailboat. We have a very small galley (kitchen) with little counter space or storage. Unless we are out sailing, we have the boat on a dock, so we do get shore power for our refrigerator, which is a small dorm room size. This means no stocking up on perishables, which perish very quickly here anyway! A head of lettuce bought on Monday is black and slimy by the end of the week. This is typical of all of our fruits and vegetables, as everything is shipped here from somewhere else and probably past-ripe when it gets to our stores.

Up until a few months ago, we didn't have a freezer (and we’ve lived without for over 7 years!); we didn’t want to buy one from the states as the shipping would be very expensive, and we had never seen one small enough to fit in the galley. Amazingly, we found a used one in the newspaper that was the perfect price and the perfect size (dorm room size). While it’s small, it’s been great to be able to make and freeze a few mini lasagnes or soup stocks, and a drink with ice cubes is now an option!

In theory, the addition of the freezer should help the grocery budget, but truthfully, in the last year I didn’t keep track at all. All of the sudden I just didn’t feel like planning, and tracking, and writing about it all- I don’t know why. So while I’m always careful, I do find that really keeping track helps to stay on budget. I shop every day, and it was becoming common to spend $30 in a day on random things and I’m sure we frequently went over the $115 weekly budget.

Of course, food prices have gone up in the last year, so I will see if it is still possible to keep to $115. If I spend less than that, the extra goes into vacation fund. Some weeks it has only been a few dollars, but it does really add up- since I started tracking the budget, vacation fund has paid for 2 trips to Europe and one to Mexico!

I will keep you posted next week on what we cooked and how much we spent, and with apologies to those getting snow, here’s a look at the view from our “backyard”.

Thanks for reading!

Beach BBQ Fish Tacos

2010-10-29T05:44:00.000-07:00

We had some wonderful, fresh-caught meals this week provided by husband T, who had one very successful fishing day! He never fails to bring back something, and it's the only time I eat fish. After two bouts of fish poisoning (think food poisoning 10 times worse) I gave up fish unless it was caught by him. This way I'm sure exactly where it was caught, which makes a big difference here on the island, and I can enjoy fish again!

This is the mahi mahi,

and he also caught a tuna and some mackeral. The mackeral was for the dog, as you normally wouldn't eat it unless it's smoked. He fried a little up for her, and we both tasted it...wow- it was good!

For dinner that night we had tuna bruschetta with cheese quesadillas. I know, kind of strange.

My plan for dinner was veggie quesadillas, and he surprised me with the fish. He marinated it and seared it, served it with some mango salsa on french bread. Mmm.
We put the mahi in the freezer at his work for a couple days, then took it to the beach for a fish taco bbq! We took our power boat, a couple friends, couple dogs, and went to one of our favorite uninhabited islands, Happy Island.

He grilled the mahi on our little Son of Hibachi grill (great for taking by car or by boat because of the snuffer bag it comes with...you can fold up the hot grill and put it right in the bag and take it with you!)

We had shredded cabbage and a wonderful cilantro cream sauce, along with a delicious black bean salad made by one of our friends...and in keeping with the theme, lots of margaritas! As always, a great day at the beach!
We went over budget this week by $14, and this is what we ate:

Wednesday: Homemade Falafel with tomato soup (thanks to Witchy Woman's post about falafel last week...we love it but never think to make it!)

Thursday: Pasta with mushrooms and asparagus and a white bean garlic sauce

Friday: Tuna Bruschetta

Saturday: Dinner out with a friend, I had Chile Rellenos

Sunday: Veggie Pizza with meatless pepperoni (pretty good!)

Monday: Chili Pot Pie...this was so yum
. I made a chili with tomato, onion, mushroom, and crumbled up veggie burgers. Cooked it for a while in veggie broth, then put it in the casserole topped with cornbread, cheese, and black olives.
Tuesday: Big salad with pesto pasta

Another effortless vegetarian week! When we started about a month ago, we weren't really trying to make it a thing, just not eat meat until we really felt like it...so far, not yet!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

Back to the Boat!

2010-10-20T05:45:00.000-07:00

We just spent two weeks housesitting for some friends, and were back on the sailboat this week...good to be home! Though our kitchen on the boat is tiny, it's so much easier to keep clean! The nice thing about a big kitchen every once in a while, is that we can "stretch out" and make things that take a little more elbow room...our pierogies last week, for example.

We stayed almost on budget this week, we spent $106 (one dollar over!) and this is what we ate:

Wednesday: Tostadas- we baked the corn tortillas until crispy, and topped them with pureed white beans that husband seasoned. He says "we'll never buy canned refried beans again!" They were really good. Lettuce, tomato, red onion, cheese, and salsa...fairly cheap and really easy.

Thursday: We had an event to go to in the evening, so we both had a late lunch (veggie burger for me) and no dinner.

Friday: We had tostadas again for breakfast, same as dinner but topped with a fried egg. For dinner we had veggie burgers and french fries.

Saturday: Used up the rest of the french fries (the market only sells ONE brand, it's a big bag, and costs $6.99) with sandwiches- roasted mushrooms, red peppers, and onions

Sunday: Pizza- ricotta was on sale, so we used that with a homemade sauce and various veggies (and anchovies for me!) on pita breads.

Monday: Stir fry vegetables with thai noodles

Tuesday: Stuffed sweet potatoes with ricotta, onions, fake bacon bits, and sour cream, with steamed asparagus on the side

Yep, did you notice it was another veggie week? We both agree we really aren't missing the meat!

Hope everyone has a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

Eat Less Meat, Spend More Money

2010-10-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

We just completed a meatless week...and we made some great meals! Last week we did 5 out of 7 meatless, and this week we decided to go for it every day! Husband generally likes meat meals more than I do, but he was totally on board this week. I admit, it definitely takes more planning...at the end of a long day it's easy to just grill up a chicken breast with some veggies. I wanted to incorporate some "fake meat" this week...definitely more expensive than real meat!

Ok, here on the island, everything is more expensive...including veggies! Two large portobellos will cost as much as a pound of ground beef, and nothing is ever in season! Do you pay $8 for one squash in September? We do! So, we did go a little over budget this week ($15 a day for food and drink, breakfast and dinner), but we would have gone a lot over budget...we are house sitting right now and they had some stuff that needed to be used up. We spent $109 this week, and this is what we ate!

Tuesday: Squash stuffed with mushrooms, onions, rice, broccoli

Wednesday: Tofu with teriyaki vegetables and rice

Thursday: Barbados Black Bean Cakes (from Vegetarian Times) with grilled sweet potatoes and mango salsa...really delicious!

Friday: Veggie Pizza...husband made the crust from scratch and we baked it on a pizza stone. As much as we make pizza, we don't own and have never used a pizza stone, but the place we are housesitting had one. I am sold!! The crust was amazing.

We topped it with mushrooms, onions, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, and some fake italian sausage. The sausage was really good, but at the regular market it goes for $9 for 4 links. I found it at the big box store for $5...still more expensive than pork sausage, $4 for 5 links.

Saturday: Grilled veggie kabobs with roasted rosemary potatoes

Sunday: Home made pierogies!

My very favorite! I had to work late, so T did it all...made the dough and a couple different fillings...potato and cheese, and fake ground beef ($6 for 12 ounces) with onions. Served with pickled beets and saurkraut...yum!

Monday: Enchiladas filled with leftovers...grilled veggies, black beans, fake meat, and served with a plum salsa.

At the end of the week, we both felt a little bit healthier, and a little bit lighter. The trend may continue!

Thanks for stopping by!

Flame-Kissed Chicken Skin

2010-09-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

My husband T, describes his perfect day at the beach as such: "Best girl, cold beer, and flame- kissed chicken skin". Not sure about the last one, but this is from the guy who lovingly described the texture of a tenderloin I once cooked as "Noodles of Beef". Last week was our wedding anniversary, and he kidnapped me from the studio for a beach BBQ to celebrate. We went to our favorite beach,

the day was beautiful, and he planned ahead and brought everything! I mean everything...food, drink, chairs, towels, sunblock, even the book I was reading. He takes his beach days very seriously.

He recently bought a little travel grill called the Son of Hibachi, which he was eager to try out. Apparently it gets the coals hot very fast due to it's stovepipe design

opens up for two grilling surfaces,

and the best part, comes with a snuffer bag! For those, like me, that don't know about grilling stuff, this is a special carry bag that you put the hot coals and hot grill into when you are finished, so you can transport it immediately. Very ideal if you take your grill in the car or on the boat.

He grilled some marinated chicken, and served it with coleslaw and chips...delicious!

We enjoyed lunch and some champagne, then it was off to meet some friends...indeed, we transported the hot grill in the snuffer bag without causing a fire or the car exploding...good purchase, T!

I have been terrible on the budget this week ($15 a day for food and drink, lunch and dinner)...I think we went a little over every day. I have been very busy at the studio and have not been taking the time to plan ahead too much...so lots of easy meat and potato meals, soups, and pasta.

Two highlights of the week were the corned beef I did in the slow cooker (which I paid $17 for! It was maybe a pound and a half) served with potatoes and sauerkraut,

and meatloaf served with roasted red potatoes and carrots.

I vow to be back on track this week, it really helps to save money when you are paying attention!

Stayed tuned for my next post...I am sharing a post with my studio blog, Water Candy, and making water candy sushi!

Thanks for stopping by, and you can follow me here, too!
http://www.watercandyglass.blogspot.com/

Budget: OVERBOARD!

2010-09-09T16:31:00.000-07:00

How ironic that my last post was about preparing for a hurricane...and then we had one! If you follow the weather, you know that last week Hurricane Earl hit us here in the Virgin Islands. We knew he was coming on Monday, and I started the day normally... showering, checking emails, etc...much to the irritation of husband who was busy securing lines on our sailboat (home) and powerboat (business). I didn't think that we would get weather so soon, then the rains came and the winds picked up and our boat was tossing and turning! One big gust threw the boat and stuff came crashing off the countertops! I packed my "ditch bag" as fast as I could and told T: "The dog and I are ready to go!"

We packed up and headed to our friend's house at 8 a.m. They have a great place (we stay there to watch their dogs when they are away)...huge TV with a million channels, (we have no TV) great hot shower, (boatyard shower for us!), big fridge and freezer with everything you'd want (tiny dorm fridge with no freezer for us!). We arrived, and much to our dismay, they had been out of power since 5 a.m! No TV, no shower, everything melting in the freezer. Sigh.

I was dying for an egg sandwich for breakfast, and thankfully they have a gas grill outside...so, grilled eggs

We sat through the rains all day, and cooked a pork tenderloin on the grill for dinner, along with some veggies...no complaints here!

We did have to scoop water off the deck with a dustpan to fill the toilet so that we could flush, but probably more than you want to know!

Hurricane Earl came down at a 3 or 4 strengh, and we were so worried about the boats! We wanted to check everything, but were trapped by fallen trees and a curfew. Finally we got home...everything OK! I was amazed. Home and business still floating, not a single thing amiss. BUT...Hurricane Fiona was supposed to hit that night! We stayed another night with the friends...skipped dinner because we all got ridiculous playing Happy Hour Trivial Pursuit (drink a shot everytime you miss a pie piece).

Next day we went home, everything still ok...and our power was back on. Some parts of the island were restored just a few days ago!

So -hurricanes done, and we were off to North Carolina for a family reunion...not sure that would happen because another hurricane was threatening. We made it, it was great...my brother smoked a pork for 12 hours with a homemade raspberry chipotle BBQ sauce that was amazing...so much good food all weekend!

Long story short, the budget was nowhere to be seen for about 2 weeks! Faced with an emergency, you buy whatever you need NOW, whatever the cost! There are actually laws here against stores price-gouging in an emergency...so no trouble there.

Whew! Crazy couple of weeks. One of our first meals back was gigantic smothered burritos...

tonight is chicken with corn and mash...needing some comfort food!

Thanks for stopping by!

Boatyard Stack-Up

2010-08-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

Nope- not a bunch of pancakes or a really big sandwich...this is our marina during hurricane season! We are in the Caribbean, and those of us with boats take extra precautions. Many people like to haul out (take the boat out of the water) for the season, and our marina is a popular and safe spot. Is is very strange to see layers and layers of boats stacked up on the jack stands, with the masts towering above. Just doesn't seem right to see boats like this out of the water! We do not haul our sailboat or our power boat...we stay in a lagoon that is a very safe spot ( not a lot of wind, not a lot of storm surge)...but if a big storm comes we will get off the boat and stay with friends.

Normally this time of year on the island is quiet, but husband and I have both been very busy...I just opened a store for my glass art, and T has been busy doing adventure charters on our powerboat...I regret that dinners have suffered a bit! We came in a little over budget this week ($110, should be $105), and this is what we had to eat!:

Thursday: NO DINNER! We were both so tired from long days and opted for liquid dinners (never a good idea when those liquids are beer and wine!)

Friday: T took me out to Randy's restaurant...we split fried mozzarella, caesar salads, linguine with a creamy pesto, and a reuben...we spent all afternoon boating and we were so hungry we had a bit of everything!

Saturday: Sweet and sour salmon with fried rice...really good!

Sunday: The island's annual Chili Cook-Off! About 50 booths set up on the beach and compete for the title of best chili...we definitely sampled them all, though I think T's Cranberry Chili is still the best I have ever had.

Monday: Lemon pepper pasta (from newest Vegetarian Times mag) with chicken soup

Tuesday: Green chile pork stew...all day in the slow cooker= yum!

Wednesday: Leftover stew with grilled cheese sandwiches

Thursday: Black bean and sweet potato enchiladas with a raspberry chipotle sauce (my invention...T was skeptical but loved it!)

Oh, also this week I tried my first star fruit! Our neighbor gave us one off of his tree...no need to peel, just slice it like a star. Tasted like a cross between a pear and a kiwi, with a little crunch. T served it over eggs with hash and bacon...wow!

Hope everyone has a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

Lobster Obsession

2010-08-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

Is there anything better than fresh-caught dinner? Especially when it's Caribbean lobster and crab!? The Sea was generous with husband yesterday when he set out to catch dinner...one huge crab, 4 Slipper lobsters, and 8 Caribbean lobsters!

He gave some to friends to chill until Sunday when we'll have a big lobster boil, and kept some for dinner- crab and lobster gumbo!

Let me tell you- as someone who used to live in New Orleans, his was the best gumbo I have ever tasted. He made the stock by boiling the crab and lobster shells, and that alone smelled delicious...I'm not sure what all he added because he was like a crazy man in the kitchen. Chopping veggies, cooking sausage, making roux. Oh, he must have been taking notes in the cooking class that we took in New Orleans on our last vacation! The color of the roux was a deep carmel with a nutty smell and was perfect with the sweet lobster and crab and spicy andouille sausage. Yum!

He set aside some meat from the legs that he cooked in the Lobster Popcorn method (see older post) and that went into omlettes this morning with spinach, cream cheese, onions, and peppers. Topped with a splash of Crystal hot sauce- perfect!

Aren't these gorgeous? The name of our power boat is Obsession, and here some of his catch rests on the dockbox. He does lobstering, freediving, and spearfishing charters with this boat, so if you'll be in the islands...

http://www.obsessionsportcharters.com/

Came under budget this week, spent $97 of the $105 budget, and this is what we ate:

Thursday: Burgers

Friday: Mini grilled cheeses with leftover white borscht

Saturday: Minestrone (here I used the first of sister's dried zucchini)

Sunday: Roasted pork tenderloin with rice and broccoli

Monday: Girls night out- cocktails and movie. Also boys night out-Hooters

Tuesday: Pasta Primavera (here I used the last of sister's dried zucchini)
I just added it to the sauce and let it cook for a while.

Wednesday: Pizza

And the week ended with the gumbo!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

My Sister's Garden

2010-08-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

I received the best surprise in the mail earlier in the week...a box full of good stuff from my sister's garden! She lives in North Carolina, and sent all kinds of things that I wouldn't even try to grow on the boat! There was a bunch of Chiogga beets (?), a bag of dried zucchini, and containers of ground red pepper and coriander seeds.

We used the red pepper first, adding it to a corn side dish that we had with chicken and mashed potatoes. She warned that it was hot, and it was! It tasted great, but both husband and I just love to smell it- so fresh and earthy.

There were a bunch of beets, so I decided to make borscht in the slow cooker. I had never heard of this particular beet, and was surprised when I began peeling them and they seemed pink. Once I cut them though- wow! Perfect stripes of red and white. Would the borscht be red, or pink, or white?

Turns out it was white, which was weird because it tasted just like borscht (beet soup) which should be red and which we make quite a bit. I added some sliced potatoes, onions, and sausage, and smoothed it all with the immersion blender then topped it with sour cream. Delicious!

The dried zucchini is also something new to me. She said we could freeze it (no freezer) so we will be adding it to some soup tomorrow. It tasted good as -is though!

We will have no trouble using all the crushed red pepper...but the corriander seeds will be an adventure. Have never bought them, and sister suggested Mexican or Indian dishes, so we will try that on the menu this week!

For the budget this week, we spent $108, which is three dollars over budget. Incase you are new, our budget is $105 for the week, and that includes breakfast and dinner (lunch is leftovers), food and drink. If we go under budget, it goes into Vacation Fund. Those few dollars really can add up...this year we spent 2 weeks doing a New Orleans vacation/Caribbean cruise, and last year we did a week in Paris and a week in Barcelona.

Anyway, this is what we ate this week:

Thursday: Homemade pizza

Friday: Fish and chips at the Toad and Tart restaurant. Friends were visiting and they graciously took us out (Thanks Deb and Mike!)

Saturday: Homemade veggie burgers (see last post)

Sunday: Grilled Kabobs (our neighbors have a grill and we joined them for dinner)

Monday: Chicken, mashed potatoes and corn (with sister's hot peppers)

Tuesday: Frozen Pot Stickers with steamed veggies and rice. I was tired and uninspired this day! But they were OK.

Wednesday: White Borscht with Polish pizzas. (Polish pizza is a thing our mom used to make for special occasions...we are Polish and from the midwest so make of this what you will...mini rye breads toasted and topped with cooked ground beef that has been mixed with processed cheese and then toasted again. I still love it.)

Thanks for stopping by, and hope everyone has a great week! (And call your sister!)

Veggie Burger: FAIL

2010-08-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

I am always looking for new recipes to make the perfect homemade veggie burger, so I was so excited to see the cover of my latest Vegetarian Times magazine promise "the best homemade veggie burger". Inside, they revealed the secret glue that holds the burgers together for even grilling!

I have tried many recipes, and have yet to find the perfect consistency that holds together even just for pan frying. So- their secret ingredient? Overcooked pasta! Ok, never tried that, but did have some leftover pasta that was to be pureed. I added leftover rice, a can of white beans, and the veggies that I had: sauteed mushrooms and onion, red peppers, kalamata olives, cayenne pepper. Salt and pepper, balsamic, and some grill seasoning. I chilled them for a while, but they still didn't seem like they'd stick together, so I floured them a bit before adding them to a pan with hot oil. I wish I could say success, but they were a FAIL. The flavor was great, but did not hold together. Anyway, we used the leftovers in wraps the next day.

Husband took a few days in the kitchen this week, and I have to say there were some weird dishes...sorry husband! First night was mac and cheese with an assortment of leftover cheeses and mushroom gravy in the bottom, served with toast points and tomatoes. Next night was pineapple meatballs served with hard boiled eggs and marinated beets. Everything really was great, but I never would have thought of the flavor combos! I had to work late, but he very sweetly texted me a photo of his menu board!

We went a little over budget for the week ($112, so we were $7 over) and this is what we had:

Thursday: Pork tacos

Friday: Salmon, rice and veggies

Saturday: Meatball pizza

Sunday: Big Salad

Monday: BLT's on rye

Tuesday: Mushroom mac and cheese

Wednesday: Meatballs, beets, and eggs

One last photo for those who have never seen a fresh-caught octopus!

Hope everyone has a great week!

His and Hers Grilling

2010-07-22T05:12:00.000-07:00

One of the few disadvantages of living on a sailboat is that we don't have a grill. We tried once, mounting a small one on the side of the cockpit, but flames so close to the fabric awning made me way too nervous! So whenever we get the opportunity to grill, we go a little nuts (ok, mostly husband goes a little nuts). Some friends recently took a long weekend off island, and we stayed at their place to babysit their dogs.

Husband T could eat meat or chicken every single meal, while I prefer once or twice a week, and the grill makes it so easy for each of us to have exactly what we want. Our first night we made grilled corn on the cob, grilled brussels sprouts, and he had a Delmonico steak and I had a portobello mushroom. You can hardly tell that mine isn't steak! I marinated it in oil and vinegar, some grill seasoning and a mini cube of cilantro. This is something I discovered at the market recently...it's a little cube of powdered cilantro that you crumble into whatever you would put regular cilantro into. Cilantro here is currently $2.99 for a small bunch, so I used the cube. Anyway, the mushroom was delicious! Anyone trying to eat less meat should really try this!

Another night we had grilled chicken salad, and everything went on to the grill...tomatoes, onions, red peppers, lettuce, and of course the chicken! T made a dressing out of raspberry jam and balsamic vinegar -the sweet/tart was perfect over all of that grilled goodness! We also topped it with feta and mint.

Grilled burgers were the next night...and after that I was meat-ed out! So the next night was Tofu Parm...one of my very favorite meals. I breaded the tofu in panko and parm and baked it in the oven until crisp and brown, and served it over pasta with some tomatoes, onions, and more cheese!

Other meals for the week were turkey meatloaf, pasta primavera, and dinner out with friends, and we spent about $100 for the week, which is $5 under budget.

This week we seem to be all about fish! We have had salmon and veggies twice (first salmon was teriakied and pan fried, the other was honey gingered and baked), and T caught a couple different fish speardiving, as well as an octopus which I will not be trying. (See old post "Octopus Brains").

Hope everyone has a great week!

Too Many Tomatoes!

2010-06-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

How many tomato plants can you grow on a sailboat? I'm not sure, but I have a lot! A few weeks ago I planted 2 full packages of tomato seeds in containers, one was a jelly bean variety and the other something larger. Well, every single seed grew! I have been busy transplanting them as they have grown, have given 12 plants away, and still I have a bunch. Since space is an issue here, I have always been interested in the upside down tomato planters, but they don't look very pretty to me. So, being a glass artist, I made my own! I cut the bottoms off of a couple of bottles and drilled some holes for the hangers. I very gently wrapped a tomato plant in a coffee filter and fed it through the bottle neck, then filled it with potting soil. So far, they are thriving...I will update as to whether they produce fruit or get too heavy. For now, they sure look pretty hanging on the boat!

We had nothing exciting enough to eat this week to photograph, but we did come in almost $23 under budget (budget is $105 for the week), and this is what we ate:

Sunday: Pork chops with stuffing and broccoli

Monday: Pork fried rice and stir fried vegetables

Tuesday: Tomato soup with loaded baked potatoes

Wednesday: Chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli

Thursday: BBQ chicken pizza

Friday: Flatbread sandwiches with chicken, bacon, avocado, and tomato

Saturday: Omelettes with bacon and tomato

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week!

Dog Food Sandwiches

2010-06-21T05:02:00.000-07:00

Don't worry! We are on a budget, but not that much of a budget! Dogfood sandwiches are just one of the many ways we are trying to trick our dog into eating. After some rapid weight loss, she was diagnosed with some liver damage resulting from a bout of tick fever she had years ago. The liver damage causes loss of appetite, so we are doing everything we can to get her to eat.

She is slightly more interested in people food than what's in her dish (won't even eat out of her dish anymore) so she gets lots of people food (raw liver, rice, any kind of leftovers) and lots of pretend people food. Hence the dog food sandwich. I heap some wet dog food in between 2 pieces of bread and pretend to eat it while she watches. After I am "full", I set it on the floor for her and she eats every bite!

I will also heat some canned food in the microwave and give it to husband, who pretends to take a few bites before he is full, and then makes the dog do a trick or two for her "treat".

Putting dog food in an empty take-out container and pretending we just brought it home? Yep- done that!

It's so important that she eats (besides, of course, to gain weight) because she has pills to take for her liver and pancreas, and she gets sick if they are taken on an empty stomach. She is quite good at eating all her food except for those two tiny pills! In this case they are massaged down her throat.

This has been going on for weeks and I hope she doesn't catch on to us! She looks like she may have gained a few pounds back. Oh, in case you are wondering, "give her anything she wants to eat" was recommended by the vet...our dog is almost 12 years old and it's more important that she eats than worrying about spoiling her on table scraps.

This is her when we were cat sitting at a friends house a few weeks ago. She is watching the cats eat. She loves catfood but neither T nor I can stand the smell, so she won't be getting that!

We did ok on the budget this week, came in $7 under, so that goes into Vacation Fund, and this is what we ate:

Sunday: Chicken with rice and red pepper/avocado salsa

Monday: Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup

Tuesday: Chili

Wednesday: Some visiting friends took us out to dinner. We went to the Schnitzel Haus and we had schnitzel

Thursday: Taco salad using leftover chili

Friday: Spaghetti and meatballs

Saturday: Pizza

I actually don't have any dinner photos this week, so here is breakfast from a few days ago. When T and I both have the morning off we like to go out for breakfast, but it gets so expensive. We easily spend $30 -not because we eat a lot but because it's expensive-, and if you throw a couple Bloody Mary's in, we easily spend upwards of $50. That's just wrong for breakfast! Anyway, we got bagels from the store and I made an herbed cream cheese with stuff from our garden. We found the perfect avocado and T made fried eggs. Yum!

Hope everyone has a great week!

From Catching to Cooking

2010-06-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

Another great dinner provided by my spearfisher extraordinaire husband- fish tacos! (And he did everything from catching to cooking!) A few days ago he caught a permit, which is a gorgeous, firm fish with a mild taste, and is excellent for any cooking method. He made two nice filets and seasoned them with chili lime powder, cumin, blackening seasoning, and salt and pepper. As he pan- fried them in olive oil, I made my very favorite sauce, Amy's Cilantro Cream Sauce, and chopped some cabbage. Neither of us had thought beyond the fish, cabbage, and sauce, so that's all we had on them!

When the fish was finished, he made the dough for his homemade tortillas..a cup of flour, a tablespoon of lard (yep), a bit of sugar, salt, and corn meal. We still have not replaced our tortilla maker with the broken handle, so he rolled them out (between pieces of waxed paper) and said he actually prefers it this way. The tortillas were excellent, and enough left over for lunch the next day for the both of us!

We ate more beets this week! This time I grated them raw into some cabbage with a little honey and vinegar and made a simple slaw, and served it with portobello mushroom stroganoff. I love portobellos! They are so meaty I could substitute them for beef anytime, but unfortunately they are more expensive than the cuts I would use in something like a stroganoff...$5.99 for two mushrooms!

T had two night dives this week and I was eating alone, so I made a few things he'd probably roll his eyes at. I've had polenta before, but I had never tried cooling it into a shape and then cutting it. I spooned it into a greased loaf pan and chilled for the afternoon. When it was nice and firm I cut it into squares. The first night I just pan fried it and served it with the beet slaw and the other portobello. The second night I gave it an egg wash and rolled it in panko, and then pan fried it. YUM! It made a great crispy side to my turkey burger. He would probably like polenta, but it's one of those things like tofu.

We still haven't had much breeze lately...when it's super hot in the evenings, we like to get in the dinghy with the dog and a couple of cocktails and have a sunset happy hour. A great way to end the day!

We did very well on the budget this week, only spent $83.06 of the allotted $105, the only meals not mentioned yet were Sunday night, which was the last night of our weekend in Ft Lauderdale (mexican restaurant and paid for by Vacation Fund), and a big salad on Monday.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Green Bean Tartine

2010-06-09T05:26:00.000-07:00

Isn't it great when suddenly you like a food that you thought you hated? For me- green beans. Yuck. I probably haven't touched them since...well, probably since I was a kid and couldn't leave the table until I finished all my veggies. Oh, I do eat green bean casserole at Thanksgiving, but mostly just the french fried onion top!

Husband has been asking for beans for dinner, so a couple weeks ago I picked up a few and roasted them with red potatoes. Amazingly, they tasted just like asparagus (which I love). This must have been a fluke though because I really hate green beans, right?

It has been about a million degrees with no breeze here on the island, so all I wanted for dinner last night was vegetables, and set out to find whatever was least expensive. I ended up with a bunch of green beans (and beets and a cabbage and mushrooms), so I made a green bean tartine. I made an asparagus and goat cheese tartine a couple weeks ago - it was delicious and easy and no cleanup because it is cooked in a foil packet! So this is what I did:

Start with a piece of foil maybe a foot long. Fold it in half and then unfold it, and make a little box with one half. Lightly oil with olive oil and place whatever bread you have on the bottom. I used leftover wheat for one and rye for the other.

Combine all your vegetables with about a cup of chicken (or vegetable) broth, along with a couple tablespoons balsamic and salt and pepper. I used green beans, cabbage, mushrooms, red onions, and beets. See my last post for how NOT to cook a beet. This time I boiled them.

Pile all the vegetables on top of the bread. Combine a couple eggs with about a quarter cup of your broth, and pour it on top. Sprinkle some panko and lay a sprig of rosemary on top.

Seal the packet and bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Top with goat cheese. Eat every last bite. Throw away the foil. Done!

My budget ($105 for the week) was a little off this week because we popped up to Ft Lauderdale for a long weekend, and I don't do the food budget while we are on vacation. (Whenever I come in under budget for the week I put the extra into Vacation Fund, so I feel ok about spending more while on vacation. So it all works out.)

Before we left we had to finish whatever was in the fridge, and I think the highlight was pulled pork made from a tenderloin, served with coleslaw. The tenderloin went into the slow cooker with a can of root beer and a little balsamic. I made a BBQ sauce with pureed mango, honey, and cayenne...I loved it, T thought it would be better on chicken since it wasn't a "real" BBQ sauce.

The highlight from our weekend away was a portobello bruschetta we had at a brick-oven pizza place. Really tasty and interesting because it wasn't served on bread which I always thought was necessary for bruschetta (am I uninformed?) I do have to say the size of the portions everywhere we ate were ridiculously huge (and our servers told us that yes, most people eat it all)...I guess no wonder so many Americans are overweight!

Ok, I just realized our tartines were ridiculously huge and we ate every bite (but veggies don't count, right?).

Anyway, hope everyone has a great week!

Smokin' Beets

2010-06-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

Well, my beets were smoking, and not in a good way! Confession: I have never prepared fresh beets. My impression was that they take forever to cook, are difficult to peel, and the canned ones are just fine!

A restaurant on the island used to serve a veggie burger with beets and goat cheese, but I didn't have a chance to try it before they took it off the menu...but it sounds so good I wanted to try at home, and with fresh beets. I looked at lots of recipes for roasted beets, and yes, they seemed to take forever. One recipe reviewer said she just did them in the microwave for 10 minutes, then ran them under water and the peel just rubs right off!

I had to give that a try. My beets were kind of small, so I put them in the microwave for only 8 minutes. The first couple minutes they smelled great- like beets! The next couple minutes they smelled like potatoes...and soon I was smelling burning popcorn. Hmmm, that's interesting.

Eight minutes up, I open the door and the paper plate I'd set them on was burned (popcorn smell) and my beets were shriveled and literally smoking. Black smoke was pouring out of the little holes I'd made so they wouldn't explode. Well. Luckily I had a few more beets! This time I put them on for less than 3 minutes, just until they smelled good (and on a glass plate this time), took them out and tented them with some foil til they were cool. I wasn't able to rub the skins off, so had to do it with a paring knife, which was a little tricky now that they were soft.

Instead of a veggie burger, I marinated 2 portobello mushrooms in balsamic and garlic, salt and pepper, then pan fried til golden. I had a taste for those little Hawaiian buns, so I made the sandwiches into sliders, stacking the beets, mushrooms, red onions, and goat cheese. WOW. Delicious! I have to say the fresh beets were tastier than canned (of course), and now that I have my method down I will try again!

I served these with what started as sweet potato fries, and ended up as a sweet potato hash brown. They never got crispy in the oven and were sticking and making a big mess, so I smushed them in a fry pan with some oil and cooked til crispy. Tasted great!

Came $1 under budget this week (it's $105 for breakfast and dinner, food and drink) and this is what we ate:

Sunday: Crispy Rosemary Chicken with roasted red potatoes and asparagus

Monday: Portobello Beet Goat Cheese Sliders

Tuesday: Lobster Feast (see last post!)

Wednesday: Soup and Beef Springrolls

Thursday: Leftovers with Basmati Rice

Friday: Date Night (T took us out for pizza)

Saturday: Chicken with roasted green beans and carrots

Thanks for stopping by, hope everyone has a great week!

Lobster vs. Lobster

2010-05-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yep, we had some dueling lobster dishes for dinner last night! T caught three gigantic lobsters the other day, and we invited some friends to the boat to share with us. I had bought some pie crusts on sale to make pot pie, so my dish was Lobster Pot Pie. Thanks to all on the recipe exchange who offered suggestions for the sauce. I ended up making a mornay, and mixed it with carrots, red potatoes, creamed corn, and leg meat from the lobster, which I think is the sweetest. Longtime readers may remember my old post "Lobster Popcorn", where I talk about the best way to get the meat from the legs...put them in a tupperware with a little water and put the lid on. Microwave maybe 30 seconds, the meat steams and ideally, bursts out of the shell like popcorn!
This is just a few legs from one of the lobsters...and this is the meat after it was steamed...

To think- before we learned the trick of the Lobster Popcorn, we just threw out the legs!
T wanted to make a more traditional lobster boil, with carrots, corn, and potatoes. Look at the size of these tails- with the beer bottle placed for scale!
We had an informal bet as to which dish was preferred by the guests. I was hoping to score some "awww..." points with my cut outs on the top crust!
We served the pie as an appetizer and T set the veggies to boil with a packet of Crab Boil seasoning
And the lobster is added last
Don't these veggies look great?
Though I hate to admit, I believe his lobster dish won crowd favorite...though I think mine was just forgotten about once the boil was served! Lots of leftover vegetables which went into the crockpot this morning for lobster bisque for dinner.
I love when T catches lobster or fish because it's free! We served 6 people two different dishes with leftovers for $13 !
Before I forget, here is a photo of my tortilla press as requested by witchy woman in my last post...however, the handle just broke off so we are on the lookout for a new one. A friend bought the same one and his handle broke of too, so I can't recommend this brand (Benecasa).
Thanks for stopping by, hope everyone has a great day!

Husband in the Kitchen

2010-05-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

I do most of the cooking in our household- husband is great at the meats/fish/lobster dishes, and I do pretty much everything else. This week though, he dominated the kitchen!

He started out the week with a tomato/egg/bagel stack...I bought this tiny egg pan that fits just one egg and cooks a perfectly round fried egg. The pan is so cute, the checkout ladies were actually cooing over it when I bought it. He sliced up a couple bagels very thin, toasted them, then stacked with fried eggs and tomatoes...a perfect summer dinner.

Monday was another light meal...I had baked bread during the day and we ate that with tomato, the most perfect avocado, and a very nice bottle of wine.

Tuesday he made a meal I am still thinking about! We had found some veal at a nice price, which he breaded and pan fried while roasting some vegetables...baby red potatoes, brussels sprouts, garlic, and onions, topped with rosemary. He made a white onion sauce that was amazing!

The vegetables were so perfect they were melting in our mouths!

Wednesday we went out to dinner for a friend's birthday...company was great but the food was a bit disappointing.

Thursday husband made tacos...a while ago we bought a tortilla press, and he has become a master of making fresh tortillas. I have tried (using his recipe) and it turned out to be a disaster. So he is our official tortilla maker. We served them with seasoned turkey, avocados, tomato, and cilantro. I don't think there is anything better than a fresh bread of any kind!

Friday we had cheese ravioli with "Amy's Cilantro Cream Sauce" to use up our cilantro. This is the best sauce for everything! I also roasted some onions and tomatoes and served them on top.

Saturday I tried my hand at veggie springrolls...have been craving them but haven't been able to find the rice paper until yesterday. I matchsticked carrots, apples, cucumbers, avocado, and picked some chives and lettuce from our container garden.

The last time I used our lettuce, it seemed a bit bitter to both of us, so I did some research trying to find a sweet lettuce. Didn't find anything, but did run across a tip that in temps over 65 degrees, lettuce does turn bitter (I am growing mine with an average temp of 85 degrees!) but if you pick it and put it in the fridge for a day it will sweeten up...and it sure did!

I also ran across a tip for making springrolls- I assumed you just pile up the ingredients and roll. Well, that doesn't work so well since the rice paper is so thin. So what you do is place your first ingredient along the edge, roll the paper over it, then place the next parallel, roll it all over that, and continue til the end when you tuck the ends in and make the final roll. Worked great! I served these with leftover cilantro cream sauce. Husband has actually never had rolls that were not baked or fried, but he said he loved them!

These were appetizers. For dinner I tried out a recipe from my last issue of "Vegetarian Times" called Asparagus and Mushroom Tartines.

These are made in foil packets. Place 2 pieces of bread on the bottom (I used leftover homemade bread from the other day), then add sliced mushrooms and asparagus that have been tossed in a bit of broth with salt and pepper. Mix an egg into a little more broth and pour on top. Seal the packets, bake 30 minutes at 350. Serve with a bit of goat cheese on top. Sooo good! And no pan to clean up!

This is the before photo...we ate too fast for an after photo!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Thanks Mr. Lettuce!

2010-05-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

For the best salad ever! Our lettuce was finally ready to eat this week...it only took 3 months! I wasn't sure we could grow lettuce here in the Caribbean, and I had a hard time keeping him cool and damp, but he grew up beautiful! We used one bunch and added some spinach, tomatoes from the neighbors, strawberries, red onions, goat cheese, and cashews, and topped it all with a raspberry vinaigrette. Delicious!

We did ok on the budget this week ($105 for breakfast and dinner, food and drink), and this is what we ate:

Sunday: Leftover pizza and pasta

Monday: Tamale Casserole in the slow cooker

Tuesday: Leftover tamale casserole

Wednesday: Tapas- three kinds of cheese, strawberries, tomatoes, olives, sausages, bread

Thursday: Salad

Friday: BBQ ribs with corn and coleslaw. We have been cat/tomato sitting a friend's house so were able to use their grill...no grilling on the boat! This is a photo of the view with a sailboat race going on.

Saturday: Chef's salad with all our leftovers

We had lots of leftovers and easy meals this week because we were both very busy...husband does charters on our power boat in addition to his diving job and was booked solid! And the artists' garden where I keep my studio had an Art Fair where all the artists open their studios and lots more artists come and set up tables. This happens a few times a year and is always lots of fun. I am normally a glass artist (jewelry, mosaics, etc) but I have been obsessed with making paper lamps, so that is what I showed. It was a great success, but very tiring days, so... easy meals!

Check them out here

http://www.etsy.com/listing/47454036/waer-candy-paper-lamp

Husband is making home made tortillas for dinner tonight, and we are having tostadas with more of the neighbor's delicious tomatoes and hot sauce made from our cayenne peppers...sounds like a great start to the menu week!

Hope everyone has a great week!

How to Make Caribbean Bouillabase

2010-04-21T05:03:00.000-07:00

Step One: Send your husband out to catch a lobster

Step Two: Have him grab a crab, too!

Step Three: Spear a big fish...

Step Four: Make a fish stock, add wine, potatoes, tomatoes, and

carrots. Throw in a packet of bouillabase seasoning (cheating? maybe...but he's worked hard enough!) When everything has boiled for a while, add the rest of the lobster, crab and fish. Don't forget all the meat in the legs! See my post "Lobster Popcorn" for an easy way to get it all. Let it simmer while the fresh bread finishes baking.

Step Five: Invite a couple neighbors over and enjoy!

For the rest of the week, we did great on the budget ($105) for the week...we only spent $70! This was in great part to our neighbors who left for the season and gave us what was left in their pantry- always appreciated, and this is what we ate:

Wednesday: Stir fry vegetables with rice

Thursday: Split pea soup

Friday: Lobster BBQ (next post maybe?)

Saturday: dinner out with a visiting friend...T had Wahoo and I had Beef Wellington

Sunday: Pasta with pesto made from basil out of our "garden"

Monday: Caribbean Bouillabaisse

Tuesday: Sandwiches with the last of our tomatoes from the garden, served with microwave potato chips (sounds weird but really good!)

Hope everyone has a great week!

A Food Vacation, Part Three

2010-03-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Part Three of my food vacation, back in New Orleans! So far, we flew to New Orleans from St Thomas and spent 4 days there. We then got on a cruise ship and went to stops in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, and I've been relating all the fun food and drink we had along the way! After 7 days on the cruise we are back in New Orleans for 3 more days before heading home. Can we squeeze everything else we want to eat into 3 days? We sure tried!

Part One in New Orleans we stayed in a high rise hotel on one corner of the French Quarter, and now we are staying at the opposite corner in a bed and breakfast, The Banana Court. It was built in the 1870's and happens to be a haunted former brothel. Our particular room was one half on the sitting room where the ladies would wait for their customers. We didn't see any ghosts, but we both saw some strange shadows moving where there shouldn't have been shadows.
We ate lots of fun food on part one, such as oysters, muffalettas, gumbo, and jambalaya, but we couldn't leave without trying a few more things:

T really wanted to try crawfish (I think they taste like dirty lobsters...yuck), so we went to the Crazy Lobster at the riverfront. He got a HUGE boiled seafood bucket...crawfish, shrimp, mussels, lobsters, clams, corn, potatoes. I think it took him an hour to eat it.

I had a fried oyster Po Boy which was DEEElicious!

Throughout oour stay we enjoyed lots of Abita beer, which is locally made. Purple Haze is a raspberry wheat beer.

We had hurricanes on a balcony
More Bloody Mary's a Pat O'Brien's
Absinthe at Good Friend's bar (no, we didn't see the green fairy!)
Lots of drinks at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, which is supposed to be one of the oldest continuous running bars in the states and a former hangout of pirate Jean Lafitte. Their only lighting is candlelight...this photo s during the day but we also went at night.
Some very excellent late night burgers at Buffa's
Some excellent late night pizza at...oops forgot!
Big fat oysters at Desire
And don't forget the beignets at Cafe du Monde!Whew!! The last thing on the list was roast beef po boys...T ran 10 blocks the morning before the flight to pick some up from Johnny's Po Boys and we took them to eat at the airport.
Overall, it was an excellent food vacation!!
I don't know where we are going next, but you can be sure there will be lots of good food involved (and maybe a cooking class or two!)
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

A Food Vacation, Part Two

2010-03-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Part Two of my food vacation, on board the cruise ship and ports of call! We left New Orleans in the evening, and had a full day at sea before landing in Costa Maya. Husband and I both had spa treatments during the day at sea (sea weed wrap for me!), and explored the ship. We had 12 different dining options and 8 bars. Of the 12 dining options, half were included in the cost of the cruise, and the other half were "specialty" and had a cover charge, from $10-25 per person. The dining options that were included were varied, from buffets to formal sit-downs with menus, and we tried them all, but the food was not as good as on some other cruise lines we've been on. We tried 2 specialty restaurants, an italian trattoria and a steakhouse. They were both worth the extra charge!

Costa Maya, Mexico, was beautiful! We didn't sign up for a shore excursion, instead we rented bikes on our own and rode a couple miles to a beach and got a nice shot of the ship!

On the way back we saw a little place advertising $1 beers, so of course we had to stop! We were pretty much the only customers, so we talked a while with the owner and his family, had lots of beers and fresh fish tacos, and met their pet- a Mexican parrot that snacks on tortillas rather than crackers!

Here we are having margaritas once back on the ship. The strange thing about this photo is there is no one else in it! We didn't realize it would be spring break...there were 500 spring breakers on the ship, all from Vanderbilt University! They definitely changed the vibe of the week.

Next stop was Guatemala...we did a Nature and Culture tour. We drove about a half hour to a textile museum that had a huge garden with all kinds of native plants. I don't think T was too excited about this tour, but it was my birthday so I got to pick! We also had lunch here, I had fresh tortillas with guacamole, and T had chicken with rice and fried plantains. Everything was delicious and we met some really nice people here.

The next day was Belize City, Belize. T did a zip line/cave tubing excursion, but that's not really my thing. I thought I would just walk around town and explore on my own. At this port, it is so shallow that the cruise ship has to anchor very far away and we took a little tender boat to shore, about a half hour ride. There was a little shopping area which was very crowded, as there were 5 ships in that day. Felt just like home! Outside of the shopping area, the locals were VERY aggressive trying to sell you tours and taxi rides and just about anything else. I explored about a block and headed back to the ship, which was blessedly empty, and spent the day by the pool.

Cozumel was the next day. We had signed up for a cooking class, so we headed to a resort with about 10 other people. The class was a lot of fun...more hands on than the one in New Orleans...and the chef was great! We made an appetizer, entree, and dessert, and drinks all day were also included. The appetizer was a grilled tortilla with chorizo and onions and peppers. It had a name but I can't remember...there were a lot of margaritas consumed that day!Our entree was a grilled chicken or fish wrapped in a banana leaf then topped with peppers, tomatoes, olives, and wine and then finished in the oven. (We also learned how to decorate or plates: a flour and food coloring mix for the entree, and a cream and strawberry mix for the dessert).For desset we made rice pudding and thin cookies. The pudding was layered between the cookies into sort of a tower...very good and very easy!

We had another day at sea, then arrived back in New Orleans. But I can't leave my cruise story without a cheesy sunset over the water photo, so here it is! Stay tuned for Part Three, back in New Orleans!

A Food Vacation, Part One

2010-03-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

When you live on a Caribbean island like we do, the first question we invariably get when meeting people on vacation is "Why would you need a vacation from there?" Well, as great as it is here, everyone gets a little Island Fever! And of course, we love to try the food in other places. Yes, I'll admit it, our vacations mostly revolve around food!

We just returned from a week in New Orleans and a week on a cruise to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. New Orleans was split into two parts, four days before the cruise and 3 days after. Our flight arrived after midnight, but it's no problem finding food and drink 24 hours a day. Our hotel on this leg was on the corner of Canal and Bourbon, so we wandered the French Quarter for a few hours checking out some of my favorite bars (I lived here about 10 years ago but haven't been back since. Husband had never been.) Our very late dinner was lots of Krystal burgers (kind of like White Castle) then back to the hotel about 3 am. This is riduculously late for us, but we were up and ready to go again in the morning!

First stop, Pat O'Brien's! I had a Bloody Mary that was the best I've ever had (with pickled green beans!) and breakfast in itself. T's breakfast was three Hurricanes and he was feeling fine!

We both love oysters, and there are some restaurants on the island that serve them, but since they are shipped in, they are NOT GOOD. I don't think you can go wrong finding good oysters in New Orleans. I have heard that there is really only one company that sells to all the restaurants, so it's not worth wasting hours in line at Acme Oyster House with all the other tourists. We decided on Crescent City Brewhouse, where they brew their own beer (and claim you'll never get a hangover from it since there are no preservatives), and sat at the oyster bar. The shucker asked if we would like small, medium, or large (we chose medium) then proceeded to open and choose the best oysters for us.

I like mine on a saltine cracker with cocktail sauce, and I like to chew them. T likes his with hot sauce and gulps them. Either way, they were fantastic!!

On to Muffulattas! The spelling can vary (muffaletta, muffelatta, etc etc), but this is a huge sandwich on a round italian bread with meats and cheeses, and topped with a marinated olive salad. Lots of places sell them and we got ours from Central Grocery, which claims to have invented them. We took it to go and ate in the park. For $13 we shared one sandwich and even had some left over!

We really loved our cooking class when we were in Paris and wanted to find one in New Orleans, but didn't want to take up the whole day, so we decided on a cooking demonstration at the New Orleans School of Cooking. It was about 3 hours long and cost only $25 per person, and included free beer and lunch! Our chef was great- he talked a lot about the history of cooking and food in New Orleans as he walked us through making gumbo, jambalaya, and bread pudding. Unfortunately, I am allergic to green peppers, so I couldn't eat either the gumbo or the jambalya, but they smelled fantastic and T had 2 helping of each! I did have the bread pudding and it was delicious.After lunch, we left the French Quarter, and I showed T around my old neighborhood in the Lower Garden District. We ended up at my favorite neighborhood bar, the Half Moon. The bartender turned out to be a guy I worked with at a different place 10 years ago, and we shared memories over many, many shots of Southern Comfort. This was at one in the afternoon and I will spare you the details of the rest of our day!

Stay tuned for Part Two, on the ship and ports of call!

Valentine's Day Pierogis

2010-02-16T07:09:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the first meal you ever cooked for your significant other? Mine was about 6 years ago, and my first meal for now-husband T was Pierogi's! I am 100% Polish, and I love to make the dishes that Grandma used to make. I don't make Pierogi's often, though, teeny kitchen on the boat, teeny cutting board for rolling out dough. I save them for a special occassion, and that's what I made for T for this Valentine's Day. I made three fillings: sauerkraut with onion, potato with onion, and mushroom with cheese, and halved the recipe so I made 18. Of course this took all afternoon, but it was worth it!

First you make the dough, roll it, and stuff it

Then you boil them a few at a time until they float

And then you pan fry them in butter! Serve with sour cream and applesauce...mmm just like Grandma used to make!

I also served them with a side of pickled beets.

The budget went REALLY well this week...we spent only $46, so we were able to put $59 into the vacation fund! We try to do a budget of $105 for the week, food and drink, and the extra goes for vacation! So this is what we ate:

Sunday: Superbowl party at friends, we brought chips and homemade salsa

Monday: Squash soup and Au Gratin potatoes

Tuesday: Visiting friends took us to dinner at Schnitzel House. We had schnitzel.

Wednesday: Made a pizza with goat cheese, olives, tomato, cilantro, and cheddar

Thursday: Baked Potatoes, I had mine with soup and T had his with steak

Friday: Asparagus and mushroom crepes

Saturday: Tapas- almonds, olives, bread

Our hanging tomato plant is doing great! We still have tons of blossoms and 8 tomatoes that I hope to be eating soon!

The Joy of...English Muffins!

2010-02-10T03:33:00.000-08:00

I just bought my very first Joy of Cooking!...what a funny book! (Did people really used to eat all those aspic recipes?) There is a thrift store on the island that is great for used books, and cookbooks go really fast- this was the first time I've actually seen any cookbook. And all 915 hardcover pages for $1!

Of course I am addicted to AR, but also love to flip through a good cookbook, and this has everything. The first recipe I tried was English Muffins, which I have never made, but always wanted to try. They cost almost $5 here, so I only buy them on sale. It was a pretty easy standard dough recipe, the surprise to me was that they are cooked on the stove top and not in the oven! I halved the recipe so only made 12. After the dough rose I rollled it out and cut circles to rise again, until about doubled

Unfortunately, when I touched them to place on the griddle, they fell flat! The muffins rose slightly while cooking, but not as high as they had been.

Time for the real test...would they have nooks and crannies? The recipe advised to fork-split them holding 2 forks back to back and gently pulling apart.

And they were perfect! I toasted up and ate 4 on the spot, and we have been enjoying them all week!

We were just under budget this week, which is $105 for food and drink. We spent $104.37 and this is what we ate:

Sunday: Taco Salad

Monday: Veggie ribs with mashed potatoes and corn

Tuesday: Turkey Chimichangas (baked in the oven not deep fried)

Wednesday: Steak salad with avocado

Thursday: Buffalo Chicken salad

Friday: Corn chowder and lobster bites (little chunks battered and fried from a lobster husband caught that day)

Saturday: Dinner at a friends, they cooked fillet tails, baked potatoes, and caprese salad

Seems like we ate a lot of meat this week! Will try to finish this week out veggie...hope eveyone has a great week!!

A Pancake Love Story

2010-02-01T14:33:00.000-08:00

Saturday was the end of our budget week, and we did so well all week that I didn't want to spend much for Saturday's dinner, though there wasn't much in the fridge. Husband felt like something Mexican, so I went to the trusty ingredient search here on AR. You wouldn't think I would find many recipes to use up half an avocado, pancake mix, and sour cream.

Well- Avocado Stuffed Yams and Jalepeno Pancakes sounded pretty good to me! I knew that husband wouldn't be thrilled, because he thinks I experiment on him too much. But it is kind of Mexican, right? He wasn't thrilled. He thought it was weird and would make ok side dishes but not a MEAL.

We were at happy hour not feeling very happy. I was feeling unappreciated and he was feeling underfed. We sulked for a few minutes, then both looked at each other.
"Skirt Steak", he said
"Rolled in the pancake!" I finished.
(This is why we can't play Trivial Pursuit AGAINST each other.)

Anyway, it was perfect! The Jalepeno Pancakes are just pancakes with about half a can of jalepenos... we grilled the skirt steak and added sour cream and cilantro, then rolled up the pancake. It was kind of like a thick crepe! The Avocado Stuffed Yams were also great...you wouldn't think the flavors would go together so well. Our avocado was a day old and slightly brown, so this dish would have been prettier with a new avocado. But we both agreed this was one of the best meals in a while.

We spent $90.63 this week, so about $15 into vacation fund, and this is what we ate:
Sunday- Chicken Sandwiches with Pesto from our garden
Monday- Salsa Meatloaf with Parmesan Potatoes
Tuesday- Soup and Salad
Wednesday- Jambalaya
Thursday- Pesto Pasta
Friday- Roasted Red Pepper and Artichoke Pizza
Saturday- Pancakes and Yams

Our tomato did fantastic this week! If you remember, here he was a week ago:

And here he is today! We actually have one little tomato, too!

Container Gardening

2010-01-25T05:53:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about living in the tropics is that you can garden all year round! Since we live on a boat, we have to container garden in a small space. Right now we are growing tomatoes, basil, and cilantro. The tomato seeds were from our neighbors, who call this type "50 day tomatoes". Supposedly they go from seed to fruit in 50 days. Here is our plant at about 40 days.

I think our plant is the runt of the litter...the neighbors is 5 times as big with 20 or so blooms, and will probably be bearing fruit very soon! These tomatoes are supposed to be great in a container as they are small and cascading.

I love to grow basil...fresh basil is so good on everything! We gave ours a haircut yesterday in order to make pesto sauce. I used about a half cup of almonds instead of pine nuts (too expensive!) that I blanched and peeled first, 4 cloves of garlic, half cup of parmesan, about 3 cups of basil. Enough olive oil to blend up nicely...wow it was good on our grilled chicken sandwiches on homemade bread!

We did great on the budget this week, spent only $79 so we put $26 into vacation fund, and this is what we ate:

Sunday: Fried Egg Tostadas with rice

Monday: Fish Tacos from a Mahi husband caught

Tuesday: Tourtiere (this is a French meat pie that is SO good...several different recipes on AR)

Wednesday: Taco Salad

Thursday: BLT sandwiches with tomato soup

Friday: Maple Bacon Pancake (from AR...GREAT!) with hashbrowns

Saturday: Tapas...we bought a nice bottle of Spanish wine and had 2 kinds of olives, fresh baked bread, tomato basil salad, French cheese (on sale), pate (on sale), sausages, and toasted almonds. Yum!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Lamb Stew...or Goat Water?

2010-01-13T05:52:00.000-08:00

We started off our menu week on Sunday having leftover lamb stew that I made on Saturday. I really liked it the first day, but by the following day it had become much more...flavorful. Normally when I eat lamb, it's just a little chop, a little bit of flavor, but this stew was slow cooked with a bunch of vegetables, and infused with lambiness. Husband T mentioned that it was probably because I bought goat meat in disguise.

Now, goat is a very popular dish here in the Virgin Islands. A lot of people raise them and if you eat at a cafeteria or from the hot line at the grocery, you will find Goat Water. Not a great name, but basically goat stew. Curiously, I have never found anyone making fresh goat cheese here. Anyway, the thought of goat stew kind of turned my taste buds off. But what is the difference between a goat and a lamb? Husband insists that they are the same, but I can tell you after a little internet research, they are different, and many say goat meat tastes a little more beefy. Well, I may be waiting a while before making another lamb dish.

We had quiche twice this week, what a great way to use up the random stuff in the fridge! We don't always keep eggs because they take up so much room in the tiny fridge that we have on the boat, but it's a really affordable main dish. Eggs here are about $2.99/dozen. For one of the meals I made "quichelettes" (is that a word?) in these little dishes that are single serving size, great if you are having a big salad to go with!

I baked more bread this week...am loving my new loaf pans! Almost embarassed to say, but I just discovered bread flour (it was on sale!). What a difference! The bread was amazing. We had it one night with salad, and the next to make pizza breads.

T tried his hand at pizza dough one night, turned out great with the bread flour. We made a deep dish Chicago style pizza, which we love with a layer of italian sausage. We had our veggie neighbors for dinner, so T made "sausage tofu" instead. He drained it forever, shredded it, mixed with spices like sage and fennel, then pan fried it. Really good. I am thinking about trying to make tofu meatballs this week.

Another highlight of the menu this week was Fire and Ice Pasta from AR...will definitely be making this one again! We spent $101.71 this week, just slightly under budget. We didn't spend too much on food, but did buy a couple of nice wines this week.

Hope everyone has a great week! (And is staying warm!!)

Noodles of Meat

2010-01-06T04:39:00.000-08:00

This week I tried out a few new recipes from a cookbook called "Tapas" that I got for Christmas. Husband and I have been to Barcelona twice and we LOVE the way they eat, especially the small plates. Tapas can be made entree sized too, intended to serve many people. I tried a Pork in Almond Sauce and Fried Garlic Mushrooms. The sauce for the pork was kind of labor intensive...blanch the almonds, fry them, puree them along with bread cubes, tomatoes, and onions, and garlic that have all been pan-fried. The sauce went into the crockpot (ok this was not in the recipe but I had stuff to do!) along with the pork tenderloin and I left it for about 8 hours. Perfect. Falling off the bone tender (if there was a bone!) Husband set to "shredding" it and remarked, "Now this is how I love my meat. Like ribbons. Like noodles. Noodles of meat." Well, that doesn't sound too appealing to me, but it was true. It didn't shred like pork normally does, it really looked like noodles of meat. Anyway, we served it on a bed of wilted spinach with the fried garlic mushrooms on the side. (Super easy...pan fry the mushrooms, then simmer them with a bunch of garlic in white wine.) Can't wait to try more recipes from this book!

We came in about $10 under budget for the week- we try to do $105 for the week, breakfast and lunch, food and drink- and this is what we ate:

Sunday was meatball and ricotta pizza

Monday was curried lentil soup with grilled ham and cheese sandwiches

Tuesday was the Almond Pork

Wednesday we snacked on olives and toasted almonds and had soup and sandwiches again

Thursday we had Chinese take out, our New Years Eve tradition

Friday we had dinner at a friends, they made smoked ribs and asian slaw, and we brought shrimp cocktail

Saturday I made a lamb stew and fresh bread. I got a couple bread pans for Christmas (I have always just made flat bread) so it was very exciting to make a loaf of bread. It was beautiful and delicious and quite photogenic! Unfortunately my laptop with photos is on the fritz...so this is my first post ever without photos!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Christmas Cove on Christmas Day

2009-12-29T04:07:00.000-08:00

It doesn't quite feel like Christmas when the weather is 85 and sunny, so husband and I usually celebrate island style. Go to the beach, take a swim, work on our tans. Shortly before Christmas this year, we added another boat to our "fleet". In addition to the sailboat that we live on, and the dinghy, we bought a 24-foot run-around power boat. This is mainly for T's spearfishing charters, but we've been having fun visiting neighboring islands a lot faster than on the sailboat!

One of these islands is Great St. James, with a cove named Christmas Cove. Supposedly Columbus stopped here on Christmas day while discovering the Virgin Islands. Is there a better place to christen the boat than at Christmas Cove on Christmas Day? We packed a light brunch, bread and cheese and fruit, and headed out early.

Dog must wear her lifejacket! Yes, she is mostly lab, but she's also 11 and not the most confident swimmer.

We had a pleasant ride out and found a nice place to anchor. Time to christen the boat! A little champagne for her...

and a little champagne for me!

We spent a very nice morning just relaxing and enjoying the scenery...then something hit our boat- hard! Turned out to be a someone...a snorkeler from another boat was so engrossed with the underwater view that he ran head first smack into our boat! Luckily he wasn't injured, but it sure was funny!

We decided to spend the whole day by ourselves, so we begged off the various invitations from friends and neighbors for lunch and dinner. What did I cook for Christmas dinner? T's favorite, blueberry pancakes!

We did pretty well on the budget for the week, $16 under, and this is what we ate:
Sunday I made a turkey breast in the slow cooker with sweet potatoes and stuffing
Monday we had homemade mushroom calzones
Tuesday was turkey meatloaf with mashed potatoes and carrots
Wednesday was leftovers
Thursday we had dinner with friends, I brought an appetizer tray- crab dip, cheeses, olives, and homemade focaccia bread
Friday was the pancakes, and
Saturday was stuffed squash

I hope everyone had as nice of a Christmas as we did, and see you in the New Year!

Christmas Tree on a Boat

2009-12-21T04:21:00.000-08:00

When you live on a boat like we do, there is not enough room for a Christmas tree...and you certainly don't want it tipping over when the boat rocks! So instead of a tree we decorate the part of our mast that comes into the boat. Doesn't take up any space at all!

My siblings and I have a tradition of exchanging Christmas ornaments every year...we get a lot of mermaid and diver ornaments!

We did pretty well on the budget this week- $105 for food and drink, breakfast and dinner- we were able to put $26 into vacation fund. I was so inspired by my homemade pita breads last week (see last post) that I tried hamburger buns this week. I used the Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns recipe from AR. It makes a ton of buns!

Actually, it makes 12, but I have never had luck with scaling bread recipes, so I made all twelve and gave some to the neighbors. They turned out really well, though a bit biscuit-tasting. I did the same thing I did to the pitas, after they came out of the oven I put them between damp paper towels, then between 2 paper plates, and the whole stack sealed in a plastic bag. This is to keep them soft- I ate the last one this morning, and it was still soft after 4 days!

So the menu for the week was: Sunday- Veggie Burgers with potato salad; Monday- Felafel on pitas with cucumber salad; Tuesday- Pasta with peas, goat cheese, and chicken; Wednesday- Fried egg and vegetable sandwiches ; Thursday we had dinner at a friend's house and I brought crackers and a garlic potato dip for an appetizer; Friday- Veggie burgers with french fries; Saturday- Pizza.
Hope everyone has a great week!

Magic Pita Bread

2009-12-16T03:59:00.000-08:00

I love to bake fresh bread, but one type I have never tried is pita bread. I had a taste for felafel for dinner the other night, but the flatbreads from the grocery all tend to have a freezer burn taste, so I figured I'd give pita bread a try! Husband took the laptop to work, so my only recipe available was from an actual cookbook (I'm so addicted to All Recipes, it's been a while!), the Moosewood Cookbook.

It was a pretty standard bread recipe, rise for an hour or so, then divide into 6 equal portions:

(I know there are only 5 portions here, the 6th is on the board!) They are rolled out very thin, the recipe says no more than an eighth of an inch. By this time I am making quite a mess, flour flying everywhere, including on the dog who is watching me attentively. Since we have VERY little counter space here on the boat, this is my least favorite part about baking. Elbows bumping into things as I am rolling out the dough.

They go into a 500 degree oven for 6-8 minutes, but my oven is not big enough to do more than one at a time, so it was about 45 minutes with the oven that hot...and it's 88 degrees outside! They got puffy and light brown, just like the recipe said! To keep them soft, you are supposed to put them between a damp tea towel and into a paper bag. I have neither, so they went between a damp paper towel, sandwiched between 2 paper plates, and the whole thing into a plastic bag.
Look how pretty!

To go into the pita, I made felafel, cucumber salad, tahini lemon sauce, and garlic dip, all from the Moosewood Coookbook. We had the neighbors over for dinner, and finally the moment of truth had come...would the pitas actualy have a pocket? I sliced the first one in half, and yes, it opened into two beautiful pockets! Everyone wanted to know how I got the pocket inside?! I honestly said I really don't know...just the magic of pita bread.

My Favorite Beach

2009-12-13T04:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we took the day off and headed to my favorite beach on St. Thomas, known as Lindqvist. The sand is soft and white, the water is warm, and it has a great view of of neighboring island, St. John. It's also one of the few beaches on our side of the island that doesn't have a resort or condo built on it. All beaches in the Virgin Islands are public though, so it's perfectly acceptable to go to the Ritz-Carlton and hang out on their beach. But we like Lindqvist better!

We packed a cooler full of ice, mixed up a jug of gin and tonics, and husband T whipped up a batch of guacamole and chips. The avocados were $2.49 a pound, but perfectly ripe and worth every penny! We met a few friends, including our boat neighbor L, who is back here for the winter. They live in Winconsin most of the year where temps are 22 below right now! We are sure glad they are back on island.

Every day on the beach is a good day, and yesterday was no exception. Came home a little tired and a little toasty, so T made an early dinner of cheese ravioli with a roasted butternut squash sauce (addded some great Wisconsin swiss cheese that the neighbors brought down), and some cheesy breadsticks. Yum.

We came in slightly under budget for the week (we try to do $105 for food and drink), and had $7 left to put into vacation fund. We don't have a freezer on the boat, but recently the dive shop where T works has made a little room in their freezer for us, so we were able to buy a few things for the next couple of weeks. What a difference a freezer makes! We bought a whole sleeve of veggie burgers from the big box store for $7, instead of paying $7 for a box of four at the regular grocery.

Our menu this week was: Sunday- Pork Gyros, Monday- Veggie Burgers, Tuesday- Whole Chicken in the slow cooker with carrots and potatoes, Wednesday- Pizza and salad, Thursday- Chicken Enchiladas with leftover chicken from Tuesday, Friday- Pizza (we could eat pizza every day!), and Saturday was the Pasta.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Squash Pasta Sauce

2009-12-03T11:07:00.000-08:00

Wow! High Season has hit the Virgin Islands...I have been so busy the last few weeks that I haven't had time to write my blog! I have been keeping track of my meals, though, and I think we have come in under budget every week. (Our goal is to spend $15/day on food and drink).

I wanted to take a quick moment to share a GREAT pasta sauce that husband made last night (yes we are still sharing the cooking!). We found this funny little squash at the market, I don't remember the name, but it was smaller than an acorn squash and orange and white striped. He cooked it in the microwave, scooped the seeds, and pureed it with a quarter cup of cream cheese, salt, pepper, and a splash of milk. (Enough to make it the consistency of pasta sauce). He heated it gently and served over cheese ravioli, with a side of grilled vegetables. Really good! I've never had a pasta sauce like this, and couldn't find a recipe here either, so I hope some of you will give it a try. I think it would have been good with a little sage or cinnamon, but we had neither. I forgot to take a photo, so here are some from our latest Sunset Happy Hour dinghy ride, and I apologize to those in the cold climates!

Have a great week everyone!

Food Fight

2009-11-01T06:04:00.000-08:00

In the 6 years that my husband and I have been together, the ONLY fight we have EVER had has been about food. I can remember our first fight as if it were yesterday. T was upset because I didn't dice the tomatoes, but left them in wedges for the salad. Apparently it makes a BIG difference in the taste and I was supposed to have already known this. (I never listen...) Did I mention this fight was probably after an extra long happy hour?

T and I have very different cooking styles. If he has a chicken, carrots, and potatoes, he will make chicken with a side of carrots and potatoes. I will make chicken pot pie. If we have beans he'll serve a side of beans. I will turn them into veggie burgers. He has told me many many times that all he ever wants for dinner is meat and a vegetable. (I never listen...) OK, I do listen but that is so boring!

I love to put every possible combination into the ingredient search! The more unusual the better! I see my cooking style as creative, T thinks I am experimenting on him. Well, last week was one "experiment" too many. Among my menu for the week was a Thai Coconut Curry (ok I know he really doesn't like tofu but I couldn't help myself), Veggie Burgers made with pinto beans from Vegetarian Times magazine, and Pasta Fagioli. For the record, I don't find any of these particularly exotic!

This last one, I thought I was being so nice...he'd been sick for a week and I thought a nice soup would be good, especially one with super veggies like tomatoes and spinach! We have not had this dish before, and guess what? He HATES hot spinach, which is something I should have known if I ever listen to him!!

I will spare you the actual fight, but in the end we agreed to disagree as to which of us was responsible for it, and I handed over all dinner duties to him. He is now planning, shopping, and cooking. This week he did great, came in a little under budget ($105 for the week), and made some great meals, and they were NOT all "meat and a vegetable"!

His meals this week were turkey breast with mashed carrots and stuffing; sausage and peppers; veggie lasagne; sausage pizza; veggie burgers (store bought); fish tacos. And there's actually a lot of ingredients left for meals next week.

I tell you I did miss planning and cooking this week! I do admit I like to take over in the kitchen, but from here on out we are going to try to share a little more. I like what T cooks, and he really is an amazing husband. As I like to remind him, if FOOD is all we have to fight about, we sure are lucky!!

Anyway- we are back living on the boat, and it is good to be home! Here is sunrise from the cockpit...

I think my wind chimes wake us more frequently than the alarm...I have eleven up right now!

Look at this gorgeous basil a friend just gave us!

Among other reasons, it's great to live in the Virgin Islands because today is November 1st, it's 84 degrees, and basil is always in season!
Have a great week everyone!

Head Rehab

2009-10-20T04:26:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, my husband and I live on a sailboat. The last 3 months, though, we have been house sitting at one place and dog sitting at another...it's about time to get back to the boat! While we've been on land we've used the opportunity to rehab our bathroom, also known as the Aft Head. (As opposed to the Forward Head- we actually do have 2 bathrooms on the boat!)

I am an artist and I work in glass, so we thought it would be appropriate to do a glass mosaic on the countertop. It took a LONG time to fit all the right pieces together...not to mention adhering and grouting...

The walls were kind of a band-aid color, and I really wanted to them paint cobalt to match the glass. T was hesitant..."don't darker colors make a space look smaller?" Well, the space is literally 3 feet by 4 feet, so we really aren't fooling anyone! Yes, our bathroom is 3 feet by 4 feet.

T has a little bit of wood work to finish up still, and a second coat of a neutral color in the bottom half, but so far a great improvement! Here's the before, bathroom totally stripped:

And after, almost finished!

Anyway, we went over budget this week for the first time in weeks! We spent $120.30, but the budget is $105/week, or $15/day. Monday was ravioli and ginger soup, Tuesday we had a pizza, Wednesday was soup and salad, Thursday was fish tacos (T caught a huge permit!), Friday some friends too us out to dinner to thank us for dog sitting. I had lamb lolipops, which were wrapped in a puff pastry and really delicious. Saturday, T made a deconstructed stuffed cabbage dish, and Sunday I made a Moroccan vegetable stew. The new budget week started yesterday, and I made a shepherd's pie with a side of beets and only spent $5, so the week starts out well!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Octopus Brains

2009-10-13T03:40:00.000-07:00

Well...that's one more thing that I don't need to try twice! Husband and I went out for happy hour a few days ago to our favorite restaurant, Craig and Sally's. They have great wines and a menu that changes everyday, but we like to sit at the bar and order tapas (which also change everyday). We ordered a couple different plates: chicken/pork pate with dijon mustard on a baguette, brie on crostini with honey and guava jelly, meatloaf sliders, and octopus salad.

Oh, the octopus salad. The bartender warned that it might be a little...intimidating...but we were game. I think I was expecting some sore of salad with rings of octopus legs, sort of like a calamari. What we got was a mound of bright red mini octopus. I sliced the legs off one for my first taste...as T put it, "rubber bands covered in hoisin sauce"...I thought the taste and texture was ok, but I couldn't get over what it looked like. Whole, two to three inch long, octopuses! My next bite was the round, grape-shape, which even though T reminded me is the body and not the head, I couldn't get "brain" out of my brain. I bit into it and the braininess squished around my tongue and that was it for me!

On a less adventurous note, we did great on the budget this week, mostly because I bought a whole chicken and we had that twice for dinner and twice for lunches. Buying the chicken whole costs about $6.50, and if I buy just a boneless breast it is about $5. On the boat, our fridge is not big enough to hold a whole chicken, but we are still house sitting this week. I spent $56.86 this week, so $48.14 into vacation fund!

Menu this week: Monday was a big salad and baked potatoes, Tuesday was steak with a salad and stuffed mushroooms, Wednesday was falafel with tomato soup, Thursday was Brick Chicken, a recipe from Bon Appetite that has become my new favorite. You remove the backbone so that it lays flat,

then cook it 45-60 at about 400 with a weight on it. You are supposed to use a brick wrapped in foil. Last time I used rocks, and this time I used a very heavy glass pan with a cast iron pan inside of it.
It is falling-off-the-bone tender when finished! It's cooked with a rub of grapeseed oil, lemon, and rosemary, but anything you used would be good.

Anyway, Friday was the octopus night (T paid so this does not come off my budget), Saturday was chicken wraps with tomato soup, and Sunday was stuffed squash with soup and salad.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Mahi Mahi Mahi

2009-10-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Yep! We had one BIG fish three times this week! Husband caught a gorgeous Mahi Mahi earlier in the week and we were able to get two dinners and a brunch out of it. We were also given an avocado from a neighbor's tree that was gigantic...we had avocado with almost every meal!

Quick note about the fish- I do not eat a lot of fish as I got fish poisoning a couple times in the last few years. I don't think I had the very severe ciguatera, which can be fatal...but it was bad enough. I have also heard that if you are poisoned by one type, say snapper, you can eat snapper again and your body thinks it's poisoned even if it's not! So, very hesitant on the fish eating. But since T caught this himself out in very deep water (reef fish tend to be more dangerous), I decided to brave it. And it was really good fish.

Monday was avocado tacos with black beans and rice, T added fish to his. Tuesday was avocado salad and sashimi mahi (raw sushi style), but I admit I couldn't get past the texture and spit mine out over the balcony. Wednesday was spinach salad with turkey bacon, tons of veggies, and avocado, of course! Thursday I made my very favorite Tofu Parmigiana from AR. Friday was mixed vegetable quesadillas, and Saturday was fish again. T grilled it with a black bean garlic sauce and we had steamed broccoli and peanut satay. Sunday brunch was one of T's favorites, fish and eggs. We had run out of stove propane so the fish was grilled and I made microwave scrambled eggs.

If you've never tried eggs in the microwave, they are very fluffy and very easy. Scramble up your eggs in a microwave safe bowl, add a splash of water and a pat of butter. Microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring the cooked edges in to the middle. I did 5 eggs and it took about 4 minutes total.

Sunday night I made turkey burgers sans buns, along with a broccoili pasta salad. Overall, a pretty healthy week and I only spent $69, so $36 into vacation fund!

Hope everyone has a great week!

New York City

2009-09-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

The beach bums are back from our mini vacation, a weekend in New York City for a friend's wedding! We traded in shorts and t shirts for dresses and suits (when is the last time I saw T in one of those?!)

My grungy flip flops suddenly
became killer heels!
(My feet still are not happy!)

We didn't have enough time to do too many touristy things, but we did have time to EAT! Our first night, Thursday, we went to a Russian restaurant -the Firebird- in the theater district that was recommended by some friends. We started with cold beet soup (I make borscht frequently, but this was different), a selection of cheeses with candied plums, and a plate of pickled herring and eggs. A passionfruit sorbet followed, then the entrees: T had venison with raspberry sauce, and I had a tea smoked duck breast. The duck was the best I've ever had, and I really enjoyed the venison, too. Never had it before, and assumed it was gamey, but not at all! Dessert was port wine and chocolate truffles, then off to check out Times Square!

This was my first time in NYC, and Times Square was a bit overwhelming. You could actually feel all the heat coming off the many, many lights!

Friday, I had to try some New York Pizza, so we headed to Famous Ray's in the Village. Pretty tasty, a close second to my favorite Chicago style pizza. Later we had hot dogs from Papaya Dogs...when was the last time I ate anything out that only cost $1.50?!

Friday evening we headed to Brooklyn to catch up with other wedding guests, but first we had dinner at the Black Mountain Wine House- I had caught a review on the Travel Channel and it looked really good. It was fantastic. The menu is all small plates, and each cost $10. We tried a plate of salamis with olives and apples, a warm beet/potato/goat cheese tart, a selection of cheeses, and a macaroni and cheese dish made with Gruyere, mushrooms, and truffle oil. Wow. Spent a few hours enjoying the cozy atmosphere, good food and good wine. Highly recommended!

Saturday lunch was burgers and fries from Five Brothers -greasy heaven-, and the wedding was in the evening. The chicken served for dinner was suspiciously -but deliciously- moist. I would love to know how it was prepared.

Sunday morning we were on our way back to the island! It was a great weekend, and a nice sampling of sit down food and street food. Of course, vacation fund is now empty, but it did get a nice boost beforehand by sticking to our budget ($15/day) for the last few months. If I go under budget I put the remainder in vacation fund. Time to start over! So, back to island food for dinner, tonight is avocado tacos with black beans and rice ($5.63). Hope everyone has a great week!

Birth Week

2009-09-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week was my husband's birthday (37), and our tradition is to celebrate Birth Week: for a week before the birthday you get to be ridiculously pampered, then on the actual birthday you have to celebrate by doing something you've never done before.

During Birth Week you don't have to walk the dog, or run any errands, you get to have whatever you want for dinner (but not cook it), and the other has to oblige with a smile.

Me: (All the way in the other room) "T, can you look in the freezer and tell me how long I'll have to cook those french fries?"
Him: (Standing by the freezer) "But it's my Birth Week!"
Me: Oh, yes dear, sorry! Let me look!

On the birthday, the "thing you've never done before doesn't have to be anything extraordinary, just something you've never done before! My first year on island I celebrated the day by bar hopping in bare feet, another year we went horseback riding on the beach. For T's birthday, he wanted to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant and have one of every taco on the menu: shrim taco, fish taco, pork taco, chicken taco, ground beef taco, shredded beef taco, and oh yes, veggie taco. I think he doubled up on some...don't know where he puts it all!

Because of Birth Week, I went WAY over budget, which is $105 for the week. Normally if we eat out, he pays, but not on Birth Week! I spent a little over $200 this week. In addition to Taco Night, we had pizza out twice, and I made some of his favorites at home: Veggie burgers in the style of a Big Mac (which if we had real ones would cost about $10, but to get everything to make them at home cost $25. Not right!), Veggie Lasagne, Split Pea Soup, and the absolute favorite- Pierogis!

Since we live on a boat with a very small galley, there is not enough room to stretch out and make these, so I only do when we are house sitting or dog sitting like we are right now. I am 100% Polish, and have made pierogis a million times, but this time I tried Josephine aka Spitfire's recipe for the dough. Everyone at the dinner party agreed they were fabulous! Thank you thank you Josephine!! I made three fillings, potato and onion, sauerkraut, and sweet cheese. It took about 5 hours to make them all, which is another reason I don't do it often!

At the end of the week, T thanked me for an excellent Birth Week, and I agreed he doesn't look a day over 25.

Yes Dear.

Tropical Storms

2009-09-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

We are a couple days into our 2 weeks of dog sitting, and this was a good week to not be on the boat...Tropical Storm Erika passed over us and we got a lot of rain- we get a few leaks on the boat when it rains hard and continuously. Of course, the tourists hate it, but those who live here actually love the rain. Since we are surrounded by salt water, all of our usable water comes from the sky. Rain is collected on every rooftop and stored in a cistern, usually under the building, then filtered as it comes out of the faucets. Everyone is very careful not to waste water- we turn the tap off while lathering in the shower, washing our hands, brushing our teeth, doing the dishes, etc. If you do run out of water you can buy it from the water truck, but it's very expensive.
Here's the view of a whole lotta rain!
One of my meals this week was Grape Stuffed Meatballs on Flat Bread with a warm broccoli salad, feta cheese, and Greek dressing. Husband tasted it and fell in love!
Quote: "If I died and could come back as a sandwich, this would be it!!"
I don't know. It was pretty good, but if I could come back as a sandwich it would probably be a Monte Cristo.

I also made a White Gazpacho this week (green grapes, cucumbers, garlic, onions, almonds, and cilantro). I keep running across recipes for it, so I thought I'd give it a try. Really good, perfect for a hot day.
Other meals this week were veggie lasagne ($0), broccoli quiche with lamb chops ($21), pesto pasta ($0) with wine ($12), carrot soup with cheese quesadillas ($13), and steak and baked potato ($0). We also went to a dinner party and brought a dip and beer ($15). So the total for the week was $61...that means $44 into vacation fund! I do admit we got lucky because the friends left a lot of food in the fridge.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Crab Dinner!

2009-09-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

Two gigantic crabs that will become dinner!

The claws were so big that we had to use a hammer and a rolling pin to open them...and they were delicious!
The dog agrees!
We ate lots of delicious meals this week, though we went slightly over budget ($105) for the week. Somehow we ended up with three dinner parties, and the wine/beer portion always breaks the budget. In addition to the crab dinner, which was served with a pork tenderloin that friends brought over, we had vegetable coconut curry one night, spinach salad with home made focaccia bread the next. I also made fried chicken with mashed potatoes, ch

Brick Chicken

2009-08-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

This week I stepped out on All Recipes and tried two new dishes from the recent issue of Bon Appetit magazine. The first was Chicken al Mattone, which is a whole chicken roasted under a foil wrapped brick. The trick is that you have to remove the backbone so it lays flat. I have never cut up a raw chicken before. It was gross! I didn't have a brick, so I used a cast iron pan filled with foil wrapped rocks for added weight.

We ran out of propane sometime during the roasting process- which I didn't realize until the cooking time was up! We hooked up a new tank and I had to guess at the rest of the cooking time, with the help of a meat thermometer. It was the best roasted chicken I have ever had!

The second recipe from the magazine was Schnitzel-wiches, which was really easy- a pork schnitzel on a bun with lettuce and tomato- plus it's really fun to say a bunch of times!

Other meals this week were Mexican Ravioli and Edamame Won Tons with mexican-asian stir fried vegetables on the side. (Thanks to all of the suggestions on the recipe exchange!!) I also made French Onion soup, Borscht, and finished with pizza night. T has been begging me to make a coconut cream pie, so we had that for dessert last night. I couldn't believe that it cost almmost $10 to make it home made! The grocery had frozen ones for about $8, but I think making it fresh was worth it! I spent a total of $72 this week, so $33 into vacation fund!!

I don't have meal phots this week, so I'm sharing the view again from the villa we are house sitting. This week Hurricane Bill passed about 400 miles from us, so we got some storm bands coming through.

Have a great week everyone!

Off the Boat and House Sitting

2009-08-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

What a relaxing week I have had! Husband T took over the menu challenge this week ($15/day, breakfast and dinner, food and drink), and planned, shopped , and cooked every day. We had some great meals- Sunday was pot roast and vegetables in the slow cooker, Monday spinach salad, Tuesday veggie lasagne (with an extra pan for the freezer!), Wednesday bbq beef sandwiches from the leftover roast with carmelized carrots, and Thursday was samosas made from the leftover slow cooker veggies- apples, sweet potatoes, onions, peppers, and peas. He bought crescent rolls on sale and stuffed them with the veggies, adding cumin and curry. He deep fried the first couple...SO GOOD. The dough was literally melting in our mouths. It was too decadent. He baked the remainder in the oven...so good, but being a grease freak I preferred the deep fried! He served the dueling samosas with a sauce made of sour cream, avocado, hummus,and hot peppers, along with seamed broccoli and jasmine rice.

Wow! T can take over the menu anytime! At this point he is about $20 under budget. We are having dinner out tonight, and he's bought some pork chops for dinner Saturday. He also bought some random items on sale that will set me up nicely for my menu next week...evn if I can beat his $$, nothing beats hubby in the kitchen for a week!

Assembling the veggie lasagne

Deep Fried Samosas (center) versus baked...I vote for fried!