When Life Gives You Limes...

While working in Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic on the M/V Caribbean Mercy we had some locals working on board.  Samuel was a young guy (15) who was brought on in the galley (kitchen) because he came to work with his mom who worked in housekeeping and we could use the help and they could use the extra income.

Samuel's English was limited and so was my Spanish (although it was a lot better then than it is now) but we got along fine finding him tasks to do in the galley.

One day we got these tiny limes locally grown that were only about as round and big as golf balls, with many of them smaller in size.  About 100 or more came to us and I definitely wanted to use them but was concerned with the amount of time it was going to take to squeeze or 'juice' them.

Quick @ Home Fraps/Smoothies (blender needed)

Fraps:
The Basics- Use cold coffee, put 10 regular ice cubes into the blender, pour milk & cold coffee in to just below the top of the highest ice cube (adjust the ratio for your tastes), at this point I use caramel, chocolate, or some other flavored syrup to both flavor & sweeten pulse blend & listen for no more ice cubes bouncing around (time in between pulses allows 4 remaining chunks to sink back down), at the end give it about a 3 to 5 second 'on' blend...if it's too liquidy use less 'liquids' next time. But if you don't get enough liquids in the blender it's harder to get ice cubes blended. These make about 12 oz glasses of Frap.

Or find big cans of Cafe D'Vitta at Sam's or Costco (they have caramel, chocolate,...flavors) same directions as coffee drink except add 1 scoop (scoop that comes with it) and then add milk, blend (only use mix, ice, and milk. no reason to add flavors or coffee, unless of course, you want to). They are great 4lb canisters of the mix.  By the time you figure out how many Fraps this $10 canister of powder mix makes, it is WELL WORTH IT!

Additional things I do: Add more caramel sauce to it, Mexican or regular chocolate sauce, a few coffee beans to the blender for speckled look, add peanut butter, find the Dulce De Leche sauce in 'select' grocery stores...yum.

In my professional 'making and drinking' opinion, powders work better than flavored syrups to thicken Fraps and improve taste...Using powdered creamer IS NOT A GOOD IDEA, you will soon become tired of the 'taste' that comes from powdered creamer, try using some powdered milk.



Smoothies:
For quick smoothies use the same amount of ice cubes and 8 to 12 ounces of flavored yogurt.  Use vanilla or plain yogurt and add fresh fruits for a more customized taste.

Steal lots of BIG STRAWS - (McD's or Coffee Shop straws) haven't found that they sell the big ones in any stores yet so I just get a few each time I am at Starb*cks, Pete's, or McD's

This is not definitive...just a quick guide for my friends who asked. If you have a coffee shop friend get him to let you 'have' big buckets of Big Train powder mix.

Do you like to Pickle Things?

Do you like to pickles things? This is an easy experiment I think you will like.  If you have a certain favorite pickle or pickled vegetable that you buy at the store then after eating all the contents inside the jar save the 'pickling' juice or liquid.

You can then experiment by adding more cucumber or other vegetables back to the liquid and give it a good 5 to 7 days back in the refrigerator before trying/eating your newest pickled treat.

Additional things you can do:

1. add more herb/spices or hot pepper or two


2. use a 'shot' of a different kind of vinegar to enhance the taste; cider, wine, balsamic, rice, seasoned vinegar.  But be prepared to accept that it may just make it taste worse!


3. add some MORE garlic or shallots (or another vegetable) to increase a certain taste you like


4. add sugar (honey, brown, cane...) of some sort to make it a bit sweeter

I can't guarantee to do all of this will make it taste better, that's up to you to figure out.  Usually, we (my wife and I) only refill the jar once after the original purchase, water does come out of the new ingredient(s) so the concentration of pickling gets diluted.  It also works better when the cucumbers are cut or sliced.

Just thought I might give you a new idea to play around with without getting too scientific about it!  And yes this is the cheater version of the already easy Refrigerator Pickles.

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My Top 5 Eating Out Tips (@Home & Vacation)

Lets talk a bit about accommodations while on vacation, then we will get right back to the food!  If you are wavering between paying for a vacation rental or hotel, I suggest a rental.  I have found from online research that nice rentals from beach-side homes to inner city condominiums are usually cheaper or at least comparable to hotel/motel/resort accommodations.  And usually come with some of the same extras: pool, free WiFi, cable or satellite, free movie channels, local calls...You get the point.

Why does this come into play?  You can cook your dinners at the rental.  And by that I mean the evening meals (evening meals cost more at restaurants).  Also (non food related) if you have kids and/or babies you can put them to bed in a separate room!  With families it seems that hotels only REALLY provide a place to sleep, then you need to get out and about before someone gets hurt! ~ But let me get back to the eating part...

Grill your pizza!

Love that pizza oven pizza? Want to cook great 7 minute pizzas at 600 plus degrees(F) and not heat up your home?

I certainly didn't originate the idea but I do use the concept to the fullest!

Buy a pizza stone. I use the square one. Probably the best price is on sale at your local Walmart, Target, or Bed Bath & Beyond. Sometimes Pampered Chef has good sales on them.

Deep Fried Macaroni and Cheese

Terrible. I know its just terrible to make something so good and fattening and deep fry it for even more flavor. But what was also terrible is the recipes that I found when I googled deep fried macaroni and cheese. Some wrote about frying it in a skillet and adding ingredients and some wrote recipes that I believe they never tried like; use (a national known brand of) frozen macaroni and cheese and scoop it out of the foil package and bread it with white bread crumbs? How do you 'scoop' frozen macaroni and cheese? And just how did they bread it without a binder and being frozen? Terrible.

The recipes that sound good give you no pictures. And one recipe goes so far as to add meat, tomato, and...now how is that macaroni and cheese?

Train Birthday Cake (Estevam turns ONE!)

Recently I was talking with a friend about cakes and using fondant and it reminded me of a time in West Africa that I had to make my own...

Friends of mine, Tatyana & Rodrigo, had their sons’ first birthday while we were working with Mercy Ships aboard the Africa Mercy and Tatyana asked me to help with the cake.  Well I looked at some of the illustrations that she sent me by email from Internet pictures and I said, ‘Is this all you want?  You want me to do the whole cake?  I got a bigger idea…’

Of course Tatyana probably had so much more to worry about getting her child’s first party together so she freely gave up that project.

Joy of Coffee

This coffee shop in Dublin Ireland (not to far from the famed Temple Bar) was a great little 'hole-n-wall' place to take a break and have some lunch.

Sandwiches, soups, and various other offerings.  Besides coffee there were plenty of tea choices...One that I remember right away was a green tea with mint and coconut.  That hit the spot as we were there during winter time.  Warming the cold body!

I  posted the picture to simply say the name of this place says it all for people like me~ Joy of Coffee!

What are some of your 'hole-n-wall' coffee places, joints that you like?  What makes them special?  And lets steer clear of the ones in Amsterdam!

Risky Business!

One the first things people tell you when leaving the country for developing or Third World countries is, "don't drink the water!", "don't eat raw foods" (like salads), and/or "make sure everything is cooked all the way!".  All this is good advice but sometimes you just can't be bothered.

When I sat foot on land after sailing on a ship to Central America (my first time out of the U.S. many years ago) I was so eager to go eat anything new and different that accepting a few days of diarrhea "in the name of culinary research and experience" was worth it!

Over the years I have ate quite a few things outside of the 'box' 

Where are the Mexican Bakeries?!

I was talking with Juan last week about Mexican food and Mexican stores in the Huntsville/Madison area (in Alabama) and he brought up a very interesting question, "Where are the Mexican Bakeries?".  Juan is a young guy about 21 and his family is from Mexico.

Juan was right, where are they?  We have restaurants and even small stores...But where are the bakeries?

I had a favorite bakery when I was living in Tyler TX working with a catering company.  I knew which days to go and when to get there so I could pick my still

Watermelon Carving

Have you ever carved something? This past week I carved 2 watermelons for a July 4th BBQ at Church. A lady that knows my wife figured out that I know how to carve watermelons. She then emailed me to see would I be willing to do them with the church logo, and the summer nights logo they use. I said sure. 

It had been over a year since I last carved one. There's not much high demand for carved watermelons in Monrovia Liberia, West Africa (where I was all last year). So as you can imagine I was a bit rusty...but things still seemed to go well. The pictures in this post were taken by one of there photographers then posted on Facebook at Westgate Church. 

Here is a link to an old Chef article that I wrote about watermelon carving. --> Watermelon Carving 

Not much has changed since I wrote that article. I bought some 'special' fruit carving tools from a site that are currently collecting dust. It took too much force to make cuts or work right. This is not the way to make precision graphics or any work you want to do on a fruit.

Moving on...Click on pictures to see them bigger.
  

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The Humorous Herb Garden (a fun idea)

The day I decided to start my herb garden I found a box of children's plastic yard, garden, or beach toys next to the recycle bin. I looked at them and decided that it would be fun to use the toys as ‘pots’ for growing my plants. So I took them back to the apartment and made holes in the bottom of them for water drainage like a proper planting pot.

I originally bought 2 pots and a rectangle planter with a bag of organic potting soil.  But now I have a wheelbarrow, a ship, a bucket, and a small plastic garden watering toy.

To make a long story short I planted mint in the ship by itself because supposedly I got to watch out for that thing going wild.  The rosemary has the same problem, growing out of control.  But I decided to plant it with garlic chives and Italian flat-leaf parsley in the wheelbarrow.  And in my rectangle planter, I have (from left to right) basil, cilantro, lemon thyme, and Greek oregano.  Now according to the ‘instructions/direction’ of the herb plant cards they all like direct sunlight.

Remember me saying I don’t particularly have a ‘green thumb’? At all? Yeah, so now the sun has been literally cooking some of my herbs in the pot, and no, that's not a food cooking pot. Although there has got to be all kinds of puns in that last sentence. I didn’t want to show the updated pictures till I have more time to redeem my plants so the pictures on this page are when I first got everything started. It now looks like my mint, cilantro, and half of the lemon thyme was cooked till the herbs dried out or got crispy on the vine!

And remember the BLT contest due by the end of August 28th? The other two pots that I started my heirloom tomatoes and lettuce in…haven’t seen them yet.  It's not looking good for me to be a contestant in the competition, but we’ll see what happens.  I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.

Once again, Green Thumb FAIL! 

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A tasty trip to San Francisco

We took one more trip to San Francisco to try a couple of places and visit an old favorite before the baby comes.  We visited Dynamo Donuts & Coffee, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and for lunch, we went to Rocco's...in the video, you may need to increase the sound to hear my voice sometimes.  It's a work in progress, I am an amateur at any kind of video making.  Enjoy!