Summer Birthdays

I know, I know, I haven't been posting as much as I used to.  And I REALLY do want to get back to it.  I've just been having too much fun!!  :)  

Most notably,  I just came off of a week/end of delightful birthday festivities.  But before we talk about that, I'll fill you in on the biggest birthday bash of the summer . . .

Beau turned 50!  In the midst of a hectic time, we threw a weekend-long party last month.  As you know, our tiny island is home to fewer than 100 full-timers, plus the many visitors that travel through on boats and in rental cottages.  But for this weekend, close to 300 people converged at the parties - all the locals, friends from neighboring islands, family and friends from Nassau and elsewhere!

Family started to arrive on that Thursday while Beau and the guys were out diving (free-diving and spear-fishing) to get fish for the parties.  By Friday, all of us were in full party-prepping mode:  cleaning fish, seasoning fish/chicken/mutton, making a variety of salads and side dishes, etc.  

A friend in my kitchen making conch chowder.

Beau's family at his dock, cleaning fish.

Friday evening, the party kicked off at the main dock in the center of town.  It was a low-key, very native-style cookout.  The buffet-style menu included -- all home-caught and home-made -- conch chowder, mutton souse, chicken souse, boiled wilks and fried fish.  Beau had a bar set-up, and friends and family mingled over drinks and good island food.

Bellies full, the crowd mingles.

Birthday Beau and I with friends.

Saturday brought the next phase of party/food prep.  It was a lot of work - no catering in these parts, all DIY! - but we had so many family and friends pitching in.  One person made conch salad, another green salad, another lobster salad, another macaroni-n-cheese, another conch fritters, another deviled eggs, another seasoned and slow-roasted the pork, etc.  I made multiple runs to the little food stores for last minute items people needed, helped coordinate it all, made rum punch with Beau, and worked on cleaning up the party area, setting up chairs and tables and decorating.

Finally, after a really quick rainshower that gave us a momentary scare, but amounted to nothing more, the party began!  And oh. what fun it was!

Friends and family volunteering as servers to the giant buffet line.  Great food!

After a truly scrumptious meal, we surprised Beau with a presentation that the local children and I had been planning.  I recited a poem I'd written, the children performed hand motions along with it, and then - one by one - each child went up to Beau with a handmade card, a hug and proclaimed to the crowd the reason why they loved him.  It was so heartfelt and moving - love those kids!

The children and I on the platform, about to start the presentation.

After that, the band played good ol' Bahamian rake-n-scrape music all night, people danced, we ate cake and cupcakes, the kids played down on the beach and away from the "adult party," and a great time was had by all!

The band came in from Nassau for the party.

The bar.

 

The dancing begins!

Birthday Beau and I with good friends, having fun!

After that big bash, and a whirlwind trip to the States that included a friend's birthday bash, I was happy to be home on the island during this quieter end-of-summer time.  (Well, quiet except for the occasional tropical storm, that is!)

So imagine my delighted surprise when Beau mentioned in passing that he was putting together a little birthday BBQ for me!  We had dinner out for my actual birthday during the week, and then we celebrated with island friends this past weekend with a BBQ on the beach Saturday evening.  It was low-key, relaxed and simply perfect.

With my beautiful neighbor and friend.

With friends, against the backdrop of a pink sunset sky.

Our dear cousin/friend mans the grill.

Beau and the grill masters:  chicken, ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs.

Milo hanging out with us.  Angel happily ensconced at home, away from the crowd.

I enjoyed a happy, happy, happy birthday!

And that gives you a peek into our parties - island style!  This birthday season, I remain so incredibly thankful for a wonderful year and my own Better Life!

Have a wonderful week, and Happy Labor Day to all of you American readers!

What's So Special About French Toast?

What's so special about French Toast?  Well, nothing really.  It's delicious, but it's not particularly unique, nor is it difficult to make.  So why write about it?  

I dunno, just because I feel like it.

Okay, but that's kind of a weak answer.  WHY do I feel like writing about it?  Perhaps because some of you are curious about what I do in the course of any given day on the island.  Others of you are interested in the concept of choosing a better life for yourselves and are searching for clues in the experience of others.  And some of you, like me, just like food!

So today's post is simply about French Toast.  And it's the "simply" part that's most important to me and part of my Better Life.

So, let's talk.

Yesterday, my beau was visiting a neighboring island after work, and one of the women sent him home with a loaf of fresh-baked bread for me - cinnamon raisin, mmmmm.

Fresh, homemade cinnamon raisin bread.

Many of the women in the islands bake their own bread.  My mother even baked bread with a bread-maker machine in years past.  My darling ex-pat neighbor, normally a fantastic cook, even called me one day to tell me not to worry if I saw smoke pouring out of her kitchen window - her bread-maker was having a bad day!

Many of the Bahamian women bake the oh-so-delicious "Bahamian Bread."  One of these days, I'd like to tackle that.  For now, I enjoy the fruits, errr breads, of their labors.  The classic Bahamian bread is white, thick, dense and sweet.  In this health era, women bake whole wheat, too.  Coconut bread is a local favorite which, as you may suspect, has grated coconut in the bread for a scrumptious flavor.  Cinnamon bread, pictured above, is the last of the four standard varieties.

Many of the women bake for their own families.  Others have turned it into a business.  Local bakeries, often selling out of their own homes, are delightful places to visit with the warm sweet scents emanating from the kitchen.  Generally, Bahamian Bread (white) sells for $5 per loaf, and the other varieties sell for $6 per loaf.

So, yesterday, I was delighted at our friend's thoughtfulness in sending bread to me, and I immediately thought how tasty the cinnamon raisin bread would be as french toast.  This morning, those thoughts were still on my mind.

It is another hot day, with a slight breeze, but it still feels like a warm damp blanket wrapped around me and everything in the house.  I do have A/C units in each room, but electricity is expensive, and I don't want to get so used to the A/C that I can no longer function in the ever-present heat!  Summer is just beginning, after all.  So most days, I sweat it out until late afternoon or early evening, then indulge in cooling off the main room for dinner and evening relaxation, and the bedroom for sleeping.

But I digress.

On this hot morning, I just felt like taking a break from the usual busy pace of cleaning, prepping lunch and dinner, running errands, dealing with online stuff, and all the usual details of the day.  Nope, today I felt like treating myself a little bit - and French Toast was the way to go.

I laid out everything I would need and threw together the egg/milk batter.  I pulled out my all-time favorite Mrs. Butterworth's syrup.  Funny the things we like.  My beau and I have friends from New England who brought us The Real Deal in the form of Vermont maple syrup.  While all-natural and absolutely delicious, sometimes I just want Mrs. Butterworth's.

Side note: the little red-topped container that lives on my counter contains pure rock salt, hand-gathered locally by a friend!

Let the cooking commence!  I won't even attempt to frame this as a "recipe" since I can tell you nothing about French Toast that you haven't already learned from your own family or the almighty internet.  Approximately one egg with 1/4 cup milk or so, sprinkles of cinnamon powder, stir together, dunk the bread on each side and plop onto a hot griddle, flipping to cook each side until done to your liking.

French toast in process.

Not having made it with cinnamon bread before, it didn't occur to me that it might brown faster or burn around the raisins.  Whatever.  I'm not claiming excellence - it tasted better than it looks!  Same goes for the egg yolk that broke when I flipped it, but it still ended up over medium, as I was hoping.

Final touch - fresh strawberries purchased on a day-run to Nassau yesterday for errands and groceries.  Occasionally, fresh strawberries will come through our local stores, but it's a treat, so I grabbed a box of pretty-looking ones in Nassau.

Breakfast is served.

As always, Angel maintained an alert post beside me while I ate, anxious for accidental droppings or not-so-accidental handouts.

Anything for me?

And this pic just because she's so doggone cute.

I wasn't giving her any handouts, but - with the camera taking her picture and all - she knew I was still paying attention to her.  So she diligently held her "sit" position to show me what a good girl deserving of treats she must be.  In fact, she was so intent on holding her pose that her back legs were slowly sliding out from underneath her!  Cracks me up . . .

Still waiting - and slowly spread-eagling.

Eventually, she gave up on the pose, got more comfortable, but still stayed right beside me - just in case.

I'm right here if you change your mind.

I didn't change my mind, and I polished off the whole plate.

Mmmmmmm.

So, that's been my morning so far.  Well, that plus the dishes and blogging about it all.

It just made me HAPPY this morning to make French Toast.  Temporary, fleeting, minor, low-key, whatever.  But every little bit of happiness must surely be a good thing.  Today, for me, I found happiness in "treating" myself to postpone laundry and computer errands.  I found happiness in a friend's generosity of gifting me bread.  I found happiness in the fresh homemade goodness itself.  I found happiness in satisfying a craving for French Toast.  I found happiness in a childhood favorite syrup.  I found happiness in fresh berries.  I found happiness in Angel's antics.  I found happiness in the view of the sea as I cooked.  I found happiness in the contentment of a full belly.  

Realizing that I couldn't remember a single day of making mid-week French Toast for myself in more than a decade of lawyering, I found appreciation and happiness in simply having the time to putter with all of this today.

The "big" things in life are momentous, important and sometimes life-changing.  But it's the little things in every single day that give shape to how we feel on that particular day.  Those little moments accumulate into the whole of the day.  Mine is off to a good start!  I hope you find some little pleasures in your day, too.  Cheers, friends!

A Perfect Day (Fishing, Snorkeling, Conch Salad)

A few weekends ago, I enjoyed A Perfect Day.

It was a weekend morning and absolutely beautiful!

Morning sky.

Delicious Fish Dinner

Good morning!  I was thinking of you all as I cooked dinner last evening, so I decided to snap some pics and share my delicious fish dinner with you.  Now, I’m no chef, and this is not a food blog.  BUT this fish makes me happy, so here you go.  :)

The real dinner process starts in the sea, when my beau and his buddies spear-fish hogfish or grouper, or when we catch mahi mahi with a rod-n-reel. After they clean everything, I help package the fish fillets in gallon-sized Ziplock bags and seal them tight.  The best seal is to simply dunk each bag in a bucket of clean seawater all the way up to the zipper; the saltwater helps suck the air out and create a real tight seal.  (I know that's not the most scientific explanation, but all that matters is that it works!)  

I happily take our portion home, label the bags with a Sharpie marker, and stock the freezer - except for the fish I usually cook fresh that evening!  It is so wonderful (and I am grateful for how fortunate I am) to have fish readily available.

So yesterday afternoon, I went to the freezer and pulled out my very favorite kind of fish, hogfish.  Just out of the sea it looks like:

See the large, pinkish one with the pig-like snout?  That's a freshly speared hogfish.

Just out of my freezer yesterday, it looked like:

I rested the bag on a paper towel on the counter until the fish thawed.  (I know, I know, that’s not the safest practice, but I’m doing things island style.)  Later, I put the thawed fillets into a glass pan.  Metal pans work fine, too, but I like glass for microwave ease if we have any leftovers.

 

I gathered the rest of the ingredients for this simple dish:  lime, seasoned salt, black pepper, garlic powder (optional), tomato, onion, butter.

Yesterday, I was out of butter and didn’t feel like running to the store just for that, so I substituted extra virgin olive oil.  It works just fine, too, though I prefer the subtle taste difference with butter.  None of it matters too much except for the lime.  Real lime, people, not out of a bottle!

I seasoned the fish by squeezing one lime over the two fillets, drizzling a little olive oil (or a few pats of butter if I’d had it handy) and lightly covering them with a dusting of seasoned salt, black pepper and garlic powder.  If you keep your limes in the refrigerator, you’ll get more juice out of them by zapping them in the microwave for 7 seconds before you cut them open.  (That’s a little trick I learned a while back from the almighty Rachel Ray.)   

Then I sliced an onion as thinly as possible and layered it over the fillet, repeating this with a thinly sliced tomato.  You don’t need to use the whole onion or the whole tomato – just cover the fillets.  Also, even if you or the people you’re feeding don’t like tomatoes or onions, use them for the flavor and juice during cooking; you can skip eating them later.

All prepped.

I covered the pan tightly with foil and put it in the fridge until closer to cooking time.  

Island girl note:  I try to prep as much dinner as possible during the day to be ready for last-minute happy hour or social opportunities which frequently arise.  :)

When it was time to think about dinner, I pulled the fish out to come to room temperature and pre-heated the oven to 375 degrees.  (And sure enough, I ran out to meet some friends for a beer while my very slow oven heated.)  Back home, I slid the covered pan of fish into the hot oven, then checked it at 20 minutes.  To check:  stick a fork into the center of the thickest portion of fish.  The fork should go right in and not feel firm or resistant.  The fish should easily flake off of the fork and be white, not translucent.  If it's not ready, pop it back in the oven for a few minutes and check again.

I didn't get a picture of it flaking off of the fork for you because it was all I could do to manage a large flashlight and a camera at the same time.  Yup, the power went out, not at all uncommon in island living.  Sigh.  But, we're used to it and make the most of it!  I'd already cooked most of the meal.  Plus, my stove/oven is propane-fueled so it still functions even when the electricity goes off.  I am well-versed at cooking in the dark!

Ahh, power came back on just as I was about to serve dinner.  It was only off for about 20 minutes - not long at all!  :)  So, I snapped a better picture for you:

Meanwhile, I had cooked brown rice and sauteed fresh baby spinach with onion, broccoli, garlic and basil.  To serve, I put the fish on the rice and covered it all with the “gravy,” as Bahamians call it, or the broth which was created while the fish steamed.  Mmmm, dinner is served!

This makes a delicious and very healthful meal.  It is also a great basis for a kajillion variations of seasonings, steaming vegetables in the pan with the fish, etc.  With the endless options, I wrote this as a narrative, rather than recipe-card style, because it’s more of a method than an actual recipe.  (And because I learned from someone showing me, rather than my usual Epicurious-recipe-hunt.)  You can use this method with fish you buy in your local grocery store and doctor it up however you like!  In my opinion, the keys to success are simply to season the fish well with lime and to not overcook it.  That’s it!

And for the grill masters out there, a favorite variation – and how I originally learned this method – is to make the fish in foil packets instead of a pan and it will steam on a hot grill in 10 minutes.  Delish!