October's Randoms...

It’s Monday. And I am trying my hardest to get motivated to get ready for the holidays; because you know the holidays are literally here. Where has the year gone?

My bumper sticker!

My niece is behind The President of the United States

Last debate tonight. And the election can’t come soon enough. For those living in Alabama, your last day to register to vote is Friday. We do not, let me repeat, do not have online registration. If you haven’t registered to vote I am going to need you to get to the probate office and fill out your forms. Doesn’t take but a few minutes to do. I remember registering on the campus of AUM right after I turned 18, because I was determined to be able to vote. I have been voting ever since.

It is even better two days later!

No Creative Cooking for this week. I have slowed down my cooking because the holidays are coming so I am trying to plan and budget appropriately. I did fix a pot of chili though. Seems it is cooler here especially in the morning and late nights so chili for lunch all week. Because you know I do not cook during the week.

My sister is a Gold Canyon candle representative. She ain’t serious about selling it though. I was using her as a barometer on whether I would try to do it as a side hustle, but her enthusiasm pretty much squashed that idea.

We had book club Saturday. The host had a meal of lasagna, grilled asparagus, spinach salad, garlic bread, punch, Rosacoto, and brownies with ice cream and chocolate syrup. Um, we killed it. There wasn’t anything left. We like to eat, I think…

My cousin isn’t monitoring her grandchildren on FB. I am funny about what appears on my timeline. And shyte that looks remotely salacious is offensive to me. Her grandson liked some picture from some equally offensive site where there were some near naked women talking about 2 Chainz. I was livid and called her immediately. Of course the grandson said a friend sent it to him, but it doesn’t matter he isn’t but 10 years old and really shouldn’t have a FB account and this is why. It is bad enough I saw his mother’s cover picture and was so outdone and offended I kinda shut down for a minute. I will not even describe the picture, but anyone who works in the health field would be offended.

Sighing...I am so over the gardening thing...

My peppers are over because frankly I haven’t felt like watering a flower in I don’t know when. So sad. I am going to take these peppers and make pepper sauce. I will let you know how it goes.

I can’t seem to find a DIY project for Christmas gifts for my book club members. I could always bake cookies, but after last year’s marathon of cookie baking I really don’t want to do that. I looked at etching our logo on wine glasses, but it is too tedious for me to attempt with such a detail logo. I looked at candle making but that looks a bit too dangerous for me and the fear I will have wax everywhere seems to make me nervous and send my OCD into overdrive. I thought about a wall calendar, but we haven’t taken many pictures this year so that is out. What am I to do?

This is ridiculous.  And the black and red item you see is a dayum toy!

I need to do a PSA about people and their children when dining in a restaurant. Recently, one of my cashiers came to the office and said, “Ms. Cashana, please come look at what these folks have done to the floor.” Uh, oh! As I walked out of the office, I could see the mess from the front counter. These folks were sitting in a corner booth and the food, trash, ranch dressing and toys were spread out past a normal area you would expect mess to be. They left a huge mess. After all the workers made their way to see the disaster, the mother tells the kids to apologize and said she was so embarrassed the “workers” had to witness the mess. My thoughts were, “Ma’am please, you have allowed your tyrant kids to throw food and crap all over our dining room and your too big ass kids are walking along the back of the booth, which means you could care less about what we thought or the safety of your bad ass kids.” People control your children. I am two more visits from having a conversation on decorum in a restaurant.

Also, parents I really need to you not place your pamper and diaper wearing kids on the counter. Food must cross the counter and placing your child who should already be potty trained on my counter is like you sitting your adult ass on the counter. It is unsanitary. Please and thank you.

My book club member’s daughter won homecoming queen. And let me tell you she had on some Louboutin shoes that had me mad for a few hours. I mean I work two jobs and I can’t afford those damn shoes. But I am happy she won and she worked those shoes!

My brother is doing well in culinary school. He has his drivers’ license and a vehicle. He just got a new job where he has more responsibilities in the kitchen and he seems quite happy. I guess that is all that matters. Do you remember when I wrote my brother is home? I am so proud of his accomplishments and even though I do not always agree with his decisions I realize he is an adult and they are his decisions to make.

My niece and Durand, who is performing with Erykah Badu

My niece got to see her musical idol this past weekend. I am glad she did because this past week she was sad because I guess with so much going on she was having a difficult time adjusting. I told her mama she is going to have to man up, because this time next year she will not be able to catch a flight home because she is missing her family and is homesick. Why is she applying for schools in the VA area? Damn lie, she has to go away to college is a must and it is deemed necessary.

The other night while I was at my second job, I was texting The Guy and he said he finally beat his son in basketball. I told him to remember to soak in some Epsom salt and rub down in Bengay and as soon as I typed it I said, “Oh hell, are you gaming? If you are, none of this matters.” Yes, they were gaming. The only injury and soreness he was going to incur was to his fingers.

My sleeping is off again. I hate that because I am waking up at 3 am and not going back to sleep until is literally time to wake up. Insomnia is not fun.

My workout mojo was not in effect last week, but this week I am going to act like it is.

Your Australian tour guide trying to scare Lala!

My middle niece has decided she wants to be an Australian tour guide for her birthday. Yeah, marinate on that for a minute. She is brilliant.

Lala and her dimple.  My sister posted a video of her saying words, but lawdy this child is busy.  Made my nerves bad!

Other than trying not to lose my mind from the after effects of the break in and trying to live as peacefully as possible, my life has been quite boring. As much as I would love for things to be absolutely perfect with no complications that is not how life is meant to be lived. I have to take the good with the bad and push on. My life may not be perfect, but it is a blessing to live in this life God has deemed for me. Have a wonderful week!

Didn't want to leave you without a picture of my clubbing partner, Carson!

P. S. If you have any ideas for a DIY gift for my book club members, please let me know.

Now you know I had to post some hair pics.  Flexi Rods which I put the curls up in a bun for 2 weeks.

I am so cute and vain!

My sultry look, pulled it off too!

Creative Cooking...Mini Salted Caramel Apple Pies

Mini Salted Caramel Apple Pies (The one in the back is bigger the most becaue I had a lot of leftover dough after the first test)

As I was wasting time on Pinterest, and my goodness I know time will go fast when I am on that thing especially since I have the app on my cell phone, I came across this little gem. Mini Salted Caramel Apple Pies. I was excited about making them and was grateful I didn’t have to learn to make pie dough. I just ain’t ready for that type of commitment. I also made the mistake of allowing my kids on my second job see me reading the recipe online and of course they wanted to try them. They are quite simple to make and quite tasty to boot. Let me warn you, they are “minis” so keep that in mind. When the kids saw them, they were like they could eat at least two or four a piece (these are girls mind you) and I was saying one should be sufficient. Well, when I made the first batch, I had to bite my words because serious they are a two bite dessert, minis. Really.


The recipe comes from Jersey Girl Cooks with a few tweaks.

The Ingredients

Ingredients:

2 or 3 medium apples cored, sliced and diced thinly

¼ cup of Caramel sauce with a teaspoon sea salt added

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

1 9 in prepared pie dough

2 tablespoons of butter

Sugar

Thinly diced and sliced

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Slice and dice your apples. Then add salt to your caramel and your cinnamon and mix together until incorporated. Taste your caramel and add more caramel or salt depending on your taste.

Salting my caramel

Apples and salted caramel mixed together

On a piece of wax paper roll out your prepared pie dough. And using a biscuit or in my case a juice glass cut out round circles. I was able to get 10 circles per round. When you finish you will have some scraps left to roll out to use as your lattice work on top of the mini pies.

Patted rounds in muffin pan

Stop laughing at my lattice work.  I know I need to make them even and you just lay them across each other.  LOL!

In a greased muffin pan place your pie rounds in the pan and insure the bottoms are flat and you bring the dough up on the sides. Now fill your mini crust with the apple mixture. Do not overfill or add extra liquid to the pies. If you read Jersey Girl’s comments she insists you not do it because it will make getting your pies out of the pan an adventure. However, I sprayed my pans to avoid this problem and it worked all three times I made these pies. What? I really liked them. Then with the rolled scraps make some strips about four or so for each mini and place on over the filled mixture. Then using your melted butter or margarine, brush each mini pie and then sprinkle with sugar.

Fresh from the oven

Bake in the oven for about 20 – 25 minutes until they are golden and bubbly. Allow them to cool for about 20 minutes and using a knife I gently went around all the minis and they easily lifted out of the pan.

Looking scrumptious!

VERDICT: Um, I made them three times. The first time was to see if they were easy enough to make before I promise to take them to the kids on my second job. And they were. It takes about 20 minutes of prep work before they go in the oven. They are absolutely tasty and those are the best two bites of apple pie you can imagine. I imagine serving it was homemade vanilla bean ice cream. (I need to go workout right now!) The crust tastes like homemade flaky and buttery and I use Pillsbury by the way. (FYI – read my disclaimer) The caramel with the salt is a wonderful blend with the tartness of the Granny smith apples I used. Amazing. The kids on my job thanked me profusely for making them and are constantly asking me to make them again, but a batch for each person. Um, that is a no. One of the cooks was eating them like a foodie, taking bites to discern the ingredients and savoring the flavors. I had to laugh at that. I plan to make them for Thanksgiving because they are so simple and easy. If you make these you will not be sorry!

Delicious!

Creative Cooking..."Spaghetti Steak"

Look at this yummy goodness!



This is my ode to the tasty “Spaghetti Steak” we were served on Air Jamaica back in 2001. We had the choice of Steak or chicken so we all ordered the steak, not knowing it wasn’t what we expected but exceeded our expectations. Although my recipe isn’t exactly like the original one, it is just as tasty. I don’t make it a lot because it is labor intensive in the beginning, but really it doesn’t take long and it is worth all the cutting and dicing.

Basil and green onions are from my garden.

Ingredients:  “Spaghetti Steak”

1 lb of sandwich steaks, or chuck roast or any easily sliced beef (you want a little fat) sliced into thin strips and seasoned with Tony’s and cracked black pepper

1 lb Angel Hair pasta (I used whole grain)

1 lg tomato diced

1 medium red onion diced

2 large green onions or 4 small green onions

1 lb of sliced mushrooms

1 small can of sliced black olives

1 tbsp of tomato paste

1 jar of Bertolli’s Marinara Burgundy Wine sauce (or any Marinara sauce you prefer even your own)

Worcestshire sauce

2 tbsp of olive oil

3 garlic cloves chopped

5 Basil leaves chopped (adjust to taste)

1 tsp of sugar

Parmesan cheese

The first thing I do is get my pasta boiling. Cook according to the directions on the package. I always add a bit of olive oil to the water. When finished and rinsed and strained put aside.

Then I begin the arduous task of dicing the vegetables: red onions, green onions, rough chop the mushrooms, garlic, basil leaves and the tomato.

Then I slice my beef. Thin strips are preferable.

Tomatoes, olives, sugar and tomato paste

Simmering sauce w/basil added

In a medium sauce pan add your Bertolli with a half a jar of water, tomato paste, olives and your sugar and heat over medium heat bring to a slow boil and then let it simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Stirring as needed. Right before you add to your pasta throw in your basil

In a large skillet heat olive oil over medium heat and add your garlic, half of your red onions, and a 1/3 of your green onions and finally add your sliced and chopped mushrooms and add a bit of your Worcestshire sauce. Cook until the mushrooms start to break down. In batches, add your sliced beef to the mixture with a dollop of worcestshire sauce. Once the beef is done add to the pasta and transferring the vegetable as well. Once you are done with your beef you will have yummy bits in your skillet just add a little water and turn up the heat to make a little more sauce to add to the pasta. As it thickens it will have the best flavor and once you like the consistence add to your pasta.

Mushrooms, green onions, garlic and red onions 

Browning my steak

Mixing the steak, sauce from the steak and pasta

Toss the pasta, veggies and meat together so everything is well mixed. Then add your sauce a little at a time and get everything coated until you have added it all. Then add your leftover red onions and green onions. The colors are so vibrant and amazing. And the smell will have your mouth watering. When the entire dish is mixed together, you are done. Just plate and put a little parmesan cheese on top and you have a filling and delicious dish.

Looks amazing.  The colors are so vibrant!

I have made this for folks and they love it. My aunt made sure to get her some when I made it. Although I consider this dish labor intensive, it is well worth it because it tastes so good.

So good and tasty!

Jamaica Story - Part Two: Things To Know

Things to know about Jamaica:


• The resorts and areas immediately surrounding the resorts are immaculate. But areas not associated with the resort are rural and uncultivated.

• Folks are still living in shanties.

• Folks are living on the beach in tents.

• Animals of all kinds walk in the middle of the road and your driver barely slows down to miss them.

• You will see the have nots as you travel to your resort.

• It is hot in Jamaica. And they don’t really believe in air conditioning. I could be rich if I had been given money every time I said I was American and I had to have air conditioning.

• You will fall even if no alcohol is involved.

• You will find the locals and the workers at your resort to be very friendly. No really friendly. So friendly they just walk into your suite like they live there.

• You will develop a reputation if you are single and only come out during the evening hours at the resort.

• All the good looking Jamaicans are in America.

• The sodas there are incredibly sweet. Thank goodness I brought my own.

• Even the liquor was too sweet for me to stomach. They like stuff way too syrupy for me.

• I drank Red Stripe beer with a straw. Yes, I got looks.

• The landscape of our hotel was marvelous, too bad they had a lot of damn lizards and you all know how well I deal with lizards.

• Curry goat tastes better than it sounds.

• Ackee and saltfish are delicious. Since I am allergic to eggs, Ackee tastes just like scrambled eggs to me.

• I enjoyed every single meal I had in Jamaica to the consternation of my sister.

• The activities coordinator will be your nurse as well.

• Nothing compares to a good, relaxing massage.

• I have friends whose sense of direction is challenged.

• It is best to warn your sister and best friend that you and Mary fight like dogs all the time and don’t be alarmed it is only temporary. Otherwise, your sister and her best friend will be shaking uncontrollably by your arguments.

• Doing Dunn’s River Falls at the same time as the Tom Joyner cruise made me realize I wasn’t old enough for the Fantastic Voyage. All I am saying is a lot of folks reminded me of my uncles.

• Some folks will find a way to gamble when they are on vacation.

• A sprained ankle doesn’t ruin your vacation, but it sure does slow you down.

• I really wanted to go to Kingston, but when your driver tells you point blank do not go, you figure you better heed his advice. He said the crime was too much for us to handle. All I wanted to do was see Bob Marley’s statute.

• Seemingly, our driver didn’t understand the need for soap and water. I made sure not to sit up front in the van.

• You will learn a lot about yourself when you go on vacation where some parts are built up by corporations, but the rest isn’t shown the same love. That my people bothered me most. If you come to a country set up these lavish resorts, why aren’t you assisting the rest of the country in improving their way of life?

• I am a spoiled American, who must have air conditioning.

• The group that was singing in the airport upon your arrival will not be singing when you leave.

• First class service is 100 x’s better than in coach. I am just saying…



This is what I wrote in my book club’s newsletter after the trip:

Even through the beauty of the resorts and the landscape of the Jamaican island, one could not deny the poverty and the filthiness of Jamaica. Don’t get me wrong, I had a wonderful and blessed time, but I was disappointed. People always return from Jamaica with these wonderful stories of how beautiful Jamaica is and they cannot wait to go again. However, they do not paint a true picture of Jamaica. Even when I spoke with those born in Jamaica, I too, dismissed their picture of dirtiness. I should have listened because they really knew what they were talking about. Resorts are all over the island and some of the resorts are truly beautiful as well as outlandish. Yet, once you pass through their gates the grounds become dirty. People are living in tents and shanties. It’s shameful that companies can build their beautiful resorts, on an island that is not their own and not help the people who live there. Children in the airport begging tourist for change because they are hungry. It is not right…

*The resort we stayed in while in Ocho Rios is no longer an all-inclusive resort and seemingly is only open for tours of the grounds.  Seriously, the grounds were gorgeous!

The Jamaican Story...Part 1

(Um, Blogger and Photobucket are on something, because trying to get the pictures on this thing and get this posted has taken every bit of strength and tenacity I could muster up, because I was going to either cry in utter defeat or delete all my accounts!)  Whoosah!

Main picture (My sister, me, bestie)  2nd picture from top is Mary!

I do have a recipe for you. This is one of my very own recipes. Really. But first, I want to tell you the story of my Jamaica vacation. I went to Jamaica in 2001 as a graduation gift to myself after finishing law school. In fact, I returned on a Wednesday and graduated that following Sunday, with a sprained ankle.


This trip had been planned in advance and me, my friend Mary, my sister and her best friend saved our money and were excited about going to Jamaica and getting our groove back. My sister and her best friend were meeting us in Atlanta and we were driving from Montgomery to Atlanta. No problem. When we got to check in, we had to stand in a massive line. Ridiculous and this was before the security changes. When we got to the desk, they were saying they were tremendously overbooked. What the hell? The plane held only 150 passengers, but it was booked for 300 passengers, true story. My sister was waiting for us at the gate and we were still in check in trying to get our tickets for a flight that was overbooked. The agents were too laid back for me and if one more of them had said “no worries” it was going to be cosmic. I was like, “Look, my sister and her best friend are waiting for me. I have the tickets and transportation and hotel information. They can’t get on the plane without me and this overbook shit ain’t gonna work. So figure it out.” We were sent to the gate, but when we got there we weren’t able to go on our original flight we had to get the next plane. And my goodness, if you haven’t seen folks have meltdowns and temper tantrums in the airport, believe me it is a sight that you will not soon forget. The supervisor was like I should have made everyone responsible for their own tickets and such. I blank stared her ass. My sister would lose her name if she didn’t know it already. They were trying to get us not to travel all together. No ma’am. You all f’ed up. Anyway, we all got on the 1 pm flight, but what was sad was a soon-to-be-bride had to get off the plane with her dress and take a later flight. I remember thinking, “I know they didn’t ask the bride to get off the plane for our asses.” They did. (It wasn’t our fault!)

We were all put in 1st class on Air Jamaica. Yes, we took the poor bride’s seat and we were bumped up to 1st class. I guess I did raise a lot of hell. Anyway, first class was amazing. We had drinks before folks boarded. Warm towels to wash our hands. And after take-off, we had the best meal. It was angel hair pasta with steak and a mixed green salad with Olive Oil vinaigrette and I had a slice of apple pie. But it was the “spaghetti steak” that haunted me long after I had returned home. (And I promise to post the recipe this week, but this Jamaica story must be told).

If you have ever been to Jamaica and your flight takes you to Montego Bay, you have to drive to the other parts of the island, the further out you are the longer the car ride is. We were in Ocho Rios, which was a two hour car ride. Several folks gave up their seats to fly that day because by the time they got to their destination they had already lost a day. We got to Montego Bay quickly and then I realized their airport wasn’t like Atlanta’s airport. Where was the tunnel thingy? Why we got to walk down stairs? Omygoodness! It is hot as hell. You cannot be cute sweating. Going through customs was long and hot. Seriously, I was almost really over this vacation. Then we had to go outside and look for our transportation folks and their sign. Did I mention someone had left the gates of Hell open in Montego Bay? When we saw our transportation, it was a mini-van and we had to share it with another couple. For my friend, Mary, this was her first flight anywhere and first time out of the country. So, she was suffering from stuffed ears. So I was constantly yelling at her to pop her damn ears. “Pop your ears, Mary! Shit!” I was tired of folks repeating things over and over to her. She would get all indignant because she didn’t understand what folks were saying. Our driver seemed to not care about doing sharp curves or anything but trying to get us to our respective destinations. Halfway though, we had to make a mandatory stop so folks could use the restroom and get food. Seemingly, all drivers stop here. We didn’t eat and frankly we were just ready to get to the hotel. As my sister continues to remind me, I spent the trip talking to the guy half of the couple who was traveling with us. We talked and talked. Hell, I forgot ole girl was even in the vehicle. Oh well. They soon were dropped off at their neighboring hotel and we were taken to ours.

We stayed at a resort that wasn’t on the beach, but was all inclusive and had lush gardens. The view driving to the resort was beautiful. Check-in was unremarkable, but we had to have transport to our suite. Which was a one bedroom, two story townhouse with a wading pool. We had a living room, kitchen, dining room and a large kingsize bedroom with shower. We had a rollaway bed also in the bedroom because um, that is where the air conditioning was and 3 of us piled into that king size bed and Mary had her own rollaway bed. Cozy. Seriously, we felt duped about the air conditioning, but the space was immense and we sucked it up. Only thing I truly despised about the room was the workers routinely just walked the hell into the suite, whether we had a do not disturb sign out or not. Ugh! I did go off one morning, because we weren’t early birds and them coming in was messing with my sleep.

The first night we were determined to get a good dinner and rest so we could enjoy the next day. So off to dinner we went. We had a choice of several different restaurants at the resort, but we chose an Asian restaurant for our first dinner in Jamaica. The food was okay. We discovered what they considered a salad was actually cabbage, but the balsamic dressing was amazing. My sister loved the ice cream for dessert; she loved it so she had it every night at the different restaurants. The rest of us couldn’t deal with the “ice cream” because to me, it tasted like frozen sour milk. Ugh! My sister and her bestie had made friends so they were already making plans for the evening. However, Mary and I headed to bed, because we were tired and were ready for tomorrow, which was a Sunday. The hotel had this mandatory meeting guests were to attend and of course I nominated my sister and her bestie to attend. Why did I wake them up too early? It was hilarious they were like I had bumped my damn head waking them up when it was still dark and scaring them awake at that. I blame the fact we were in the master bedroom with the door closed and no real windows. What? But what was truly hilarious was Mary was up watching television and it was on some Cine.max channel and at that time of the morning you know the sex stuff was on and we stopped laughing about me waking them up, but we were like, “Mary, what the hell you watching? You watching po.rn up in here?” She was like I don’t even know what the hell was on television. Yeah, right. We still laugh about that night.

The next morning my sister and her bestie went to the meeting and then we all headed to breakfast. And this is where I fell in love with Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. It was hotter than hades outside, but the smooth, fragrant and full bodied coffee was magnificent and I had it every morning I was in Jamaica. We decided to make Sunday a recuperating day and not plan too much. Plus, it was hot. No really it was hot. The air conditioning was not part of the dining experience or social areas, so we tended to stay in our room until the sun went down. For lunch, we all went to the grill near the swim up pool. My sister’s bestie went first and she came back all upset. You see, our hotel had a lot of steps and you had to walk to get anywhere. Poor Mary got lost several times. But the Bestie fell on the way back to the room with her food. She managed to save her hamburger. All of us laughed. Just for the record all of us fell at least once while there. I managed to get my food and not fall on the way back. However, later I decided to explore the grounds, because it really was beautiful. On my way back to get a nap I fell. I didn’t trip on anything, literally I just fell. One minute I was walking and thinking I look cute in my long form fitting dress and in a flash of light, I was on my damn hands and knees. And what is really crazy is I wasn’t worried about whether I had hurt myself, I was more concerned about whether I had ruined my damn dress falling. So I jumped back up quickly, looked around to see if anyone saw my tumble and realized my dress was just fine. However, my ankle felt like shyte. Literally, I was 20 feet from the entrance to our suite. I immediately went up to the bedroom and took a nap. My sister and the bestie came back from the beach. They seemed to have had a great time except my sister was walking and somehow or other she walked right into a damn pole. The vision still makes me laugh, because you can’t be cute if you walk right into a pole.

I told them about me falling and then we got ready for the night of dinner and then we were going to a Jamaican club. My sister and the bestie had met guys to hang with and me and Mary just wanted to go and dance. Only problem was my damn ankle. I looked down at the thing and it was huge and I knew shit was going downhill. I pushed on and helped with hair and make-up and then off to dinner we went. No one in my party believed I really hurt my ankle that bad until it was time for me to put on some shoes and I couldn’t. That is when shyte got real. When we got to the dining room, the Maître D told me I needed to put on shoes and I said, “How? Look at my damn ankle?” I managed to eat and go to Karaoke. But after that, the pain set in and there was no way I was going to the club. Mary was happy we didn’t have to go, but I was disappointed. When I got to the room, which took forever with my ankle, I had to call for the nurse. The nurse was the activities coordinator during the day and nurse at night, so it is true about Jamaicans having several jobs. She said they didn’t have a wrap for my ankle but would order one and she gave me some 800 milligram ibuprofen to take for the pain. Lordy, I just knew my vacation was ruined.

So imagine 3 grown women in a king size bed with me having to elevate my ankle. A mess. However, I didn’t let it ruin my vacation. I got up the next morning went to the infirmary got my wrap and then went and got a massage before heading to Dunn’s River Falls. I was upset I couldn’t do the climb, but I did put that damn ankle in the cooling waters and it felt great. My sister and her bestie had me laughing about the folks slipping and falling as they were climbing the falls and if I had the picture that was taken of those two on the fall…let’s just say it is good for blackmail purposes.

The rest of our vacation was pretty uneventful. My sister got us bags on top of bags of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee to take home. You know I had some Appleton rum to take back and silly souvenirs. Our return trip home was pretty uneventful. There were no delays, just a lot of waiting at the airport that should have been called hellport because it was so hot. As much as I enjoyed the vacation nothing felt sweeter to my ears than when the customs agent welcomed me back to America. Really. Sometimes we as American’s are jaded and take a lot of things for granted, but being on a Caribbean island where you see the disparity you realized how truly blessed you are.

I am still here...

I am still alive. Just haven’t had much to blog about because some stuff is just too dang personal and I have to protect the innocent and so forth. I always feel guilty when I fail to blog, but I haven’t been doing much lately. And since it is October…it is time to do a deep cleaning of the house and get ready for…you guessed it…the holidays. And since my sister has plans to be here this year with all her children and I am hoping my brother will at least make an effort to see his family after such a long absence.  I need to make sure all the rooms are ready for guests. You know wash linens, spruce up the rooms and get the guest suite immaculate. Only problem, no one wants to sleep in there. Sighing…someone will have to. Anyway…


Today will make 2 years since my aunt passed away. I approached it this year different from last year. Last year I had a mini breakdown, this year the sadness is still there, but it is coupled with knowledge she is in a better place and as difficult as it seemed to move on, we have been able to. I think about her all the time and miss her tremendously, but knowing she is no longer suffering gives me understanding and peace.

I will be back this week with a long Jamaican story and a recipe…Until…