keifel

love the salsa recipe, vic and i have seen the light and moved away from the store bought stuff

Or drink Jonestown Kool-Aid! don't even joke about that, i was 8 when it happened and guyana is near trinidad to date i haven't drunk anything that's purple.

glad to help. we didn't have trouble posting our pictures from safari but we were also hosting the pictures elsewhere. everything looks and sounds so delicious, even the stuff i can't eat. i'm deadly allergic to shellfish.

congrats on the pictures, you missed a link though, the steak picture. i'm enjoying being on the reading end of of the food blog thoroughly, i'm still fascinated by this turkey and curious as to how you're going to marinate it.

i was kind of hoping i wouldn't be excused. i quite enjoyed this past week. thank you all, i'm looking forward to hathor's blog and i'm really glad to be here.

now that vic has me hooked, i'm waiting with anticipation to hear about this turkey, i had a bad experience with a turkey about 16 years ago, but i think wild game is always interesting. happy mother's day to all.

balmagowry please, please post. if only to indulge my own vanity at having a cocktail named after me. today has been a long and tiring day and at the last possible moment when things seemed really bleak, the cheque showed up, albeit at our old address. following Mr. Snaffleburger's instructions we've Conformed, Consumed & Obeyed our way down to Cool Springs, primarily to visit le Target, but dinner at this point was a prerequisite as we were all crabby and hungry. in the brutal landscape that is StripMall™, AnyTown, America, your food choices are basically the best of a bad lot. Our dining choice tonight was Chili's, moderately priced; well at least in comparison to our other dining choices; and not fast food; really not fast. Even though we got there, at what we thought was early, we still had to wait 15 minutes to be seated. Vic's general complaint about Chili's ambience is the school cafeteria noise levels and i have to agree with her. i'm not one of absolutely silent dinners, but neither do i wish to shout my conversation across a two foot table. we started with the south-western eggrolls which were ok, but even hours later, i'm still pondering if the chicken that was supposed to be part of the eggrolls managed to make a break for it before it got to the table. for our main course, our dishes all diverged, the boychick going with the corn dog and fries, Vic having the lettuce wraps and myself, the ribs that Chili's was once famous for. the ribs were nothing to write home about and after the first mouthful of the accompanying apple sauce, it was quickly put aside. i had tasted Doris' apple sauce earlier in the week and i was spoilt for life. Vic has had a bad track record eating out, having the skill to prepare most of the dishes put before you, tends to make you a little sceptical about what crosses your palate. the lettuce leaves were old and bruise and i think hunger and trying not to look like a food snob and cause trouble on a busy Friday evening are the only reasons that the lettuce wraps weren't returned to the kitchen forthwith. We are off to Doris' [kitchen] for the weekend and we must awake and away early in the morning for we are being breakfasted and it is a three hour drive. anon, anon, anon. edited for grammar.

the fruit list as i recall; we haven't made cake in almost 15 years, another long story; included finely minced prunes, sultanas, raisins, currants and cherries. my job was slice the fruit and put into a large steel grinder and grind until my arms were numb. then my grandmother would put the fruits to soak in white rum in new bottles and then take the fruits from the previous year and mix in the batter. thus ensuring a well cured batch of fruit for each cake making venture. writing about it reminds me how much i've missed it. however, i've been given leave by my beautiful and talented wife to apprise everyone of our dinner adventures. it was a pot luck event with everyone finding their own satisfaction with the contents of the fridge. victoria addressed the baked beans by eating them, the boy chick had left over salmon patty and i had mashed potatoes and picked meat of what remained of the chicken; the carcass thereof is now residing in the freezer for use in making stock. and with that we bid you a fond so long, farewell, auf weidersein, good night. we were watching the sound of music tonight, so it's stuck in our head.

Pan & balmagowry, you are both right. i have quite a few tattoos and i have been published as well. i wrote for three of the daily newspapers in Trinidad at one point or another. at the last paper i had a tech column, as for food writing i've just started indulging my passions with Victoria, we're part of a group food journal hosted at Journalspace, it's linked in Vic's signature. as for the tale of the rum stock, Angostura acquired the rum stock of another company a few years ago, in deal that was quite fortuitous. rum like most alcohol gets better with age and the stock had been well aged. as for cooking with bitters, i'm just upholding a long standing Trinidadian tradition, almost everything can be done better with a dash of bitter. the flavouring it adds it quite subtle. bleudauvergne, that punch sounds lovely. it's one of the keys to my grandmother's black cake, we would use the fruits that had been soaking from the previous year. i think if we don't attempt the cake this year, we can at least soak the fruit for it.

thank you for all the compliments. i have a lot of ink, but that's another tale for another day. balmagowry, i'm not sure about the tequila and bitters, you know what they say about mixing your liquors. apparently the new, older rums, if that makes any sense are quite smooth and not as hard on the system as say the light rums that are sold with the express purpose of chasing with a cola of some variety. although closer to the season we will have use for some of the light rums as we attempt to reproduce my grandmother's famous caribbean christmas black cake. we will of course keep you all posted.

well balmagowry after the Christmas run to Trinidad we may arrange a rum sampling of some sort, my earlier post had a link which is supposed to provide a link to worldwide suppliers. Angostura recently, well two of three years ago acquired some the rum stock of a competitor and has produced a pair of very fine aged rums or so i've been told, i'm not much of rum drinker. off to help the good wife with tonight's simple repast.

trinidad is the home of angostura bitters and i grew up with it. i think part of the longevity is the whole air of secrecy they've maintained. angostura is also one of the largest bottlers/manufacturers of rum in trinidad, so the bitters is a sideline, a profitable one, but a sideline none the less. here is their website with some of their history and here is a picture of the cookbook:

thank you for the welcome. i intend to be around a lot more. as per request, here is the picture of the sugar, clockwise from top, white, caribbean washed grey and american brown:

i do in fact use angostura bitters on a regular basis. i' tend to have a bottle wherever i cook for any prolonged period. in trinidad it can be found in any kitchen. aside from the seasoning possibilities, it's well know as a curative. a well know folk remedy for upset stomach is a glass of warm milk and a dash of bitters. i've been trying to get a picture of the sugar to upload for the last two hours, all of them have the same problems with artefacts. i'll try again tomorrow, vic is fast asleep behind and the bed is calling to me.