My kitchen musings!

Ugh. So it’s Sunday afternoon. I’m chilling in the hammock.  With a very bad, bad pedicure (read: it’s been WEEKS since I did my nails) and I haven’t cooked since Thursday! GASP!

 
I don’t know what it is. We did the shrimps on the beach on Thursday and then fended for ourselves for dinner.  And then Friday was (awesome) sandwiches from a local place. And it just went downhill from there. 

Yesterday we roadtripped to the south end of the island to check out a sunflower farm and got some awesome pics of Gabriela. Albeit I have a defunct camera lens right now. Gggrrrr. We had lunch out there so by the time we got back home, fed Gabi, put her down for a nap, we were all wiped out so again, it was a fend for yourself night. 

   
 We started Sunday off with a (late) 6 mile bike ride, which knocked out the little one after we got home. My dad and I lounged watching the final stage of Le Tour De France (yea Froome!!) while the little one and the husband snoozed. 

And then it hit me: I haven’t thought of dinner for tonight! And what’s worse: I’m so not in the mood to do ANYTHING! So, while I lay in my hammock, I’m sorta kicking myself because I haven’t cooked a meal this. Whole. Weekend. Double ugh. 

And yet, that’s ok. As awful as I think I feel I have a great husband and dad (who lives with us) who really don’t expect much. And that’s not a dig. These are ‘I’ll have eggs or a PB&J’ bunch of guys so a home cooked meal is golden to them. I just get down on myself, which I’m sure is not a good thing. 

Gabriela still has her home cooked meals and us adults (over)indulge in other delights. Everyone needs a weekend off right , right? Right?? 

I’ll be back at it tomorrow so stay tuned for some actual food on the blog! In the meantime, this was our awesome lunch from Carlito’s yesterday in Guanica: camarones al ajillo and carne frito. YUM! And some more Gabi pics! Happy Sunday!

 

 
   
   
    

#3

What a difference a week makes! The winds are calm and the beach is CROWDED! Thankfully we get here early enough to 1. Avoid the bad sun time and 2. Snag the prime spot under the palms. 

 

 
Gabi is FINALLY snoozing away after being awake and cooperative for the last 4 hours. I think she’s finally getting the whole ‘I really can play by myself without having a breakdown ‘ thing. It is very much appreciated. 

So what’s cooking, you may ask? Today we are doing shrimps! Unbelievably it’s very hard to find not only fresh shrimp (or certain seafood) it’s usually pretty expensive. We do go to the local fish guy to get whole snapper and lobster when we feel like indulging but it’s not the same as the markets in the upper 50. When we find frozen shrimps on sale we stock up. Then go back for more. Right now I have about 9 bags of shrimp in the freezer chest. Score! 

I can’t just do regular grilled shrimp; I need to step it up a notch so I recently came across this recipe from Andrew Zimmern and I just had to try it. 

Here in PR there’s a special local cheese that is fried and served with a guava-style dip, which is amazing. I found some guava paste the other day so I thought this would be a perfect accompaniment . The recipe calls for a jelly but the paste actually worked pretty well and it thickened up just fine. 

 

   
Today was absolutely perfect. The weather and wind were cooperative; people loved smiling and cooing with Gabriela; Gabi had an amazing time floating in the ‘ocean’; our pinchos turned out great. Can anything be better? Life. Is. Good! 

 

Ps- I’ll be adding a ‘Beach Fare’ page to showcase all the yummy recipes I have used during our beach outings. Stay tuned! 
(Please excuse my fuzzy pics. I’ll be slowly making my way into taking much more professional pics since 99% of mine are from my iPhone. )

As you may have noticed, this blog is about food. And the beach. And Gabi. And our day to day. A smorgasbord of you will. So this post will be about two things near and dear to me: food and Gabi!

From before she was born I had already decided that I was going to be making a majority of her food. I wish I could go 100% homemade but realistically I don’t think it’s feasible. For me at least. And since she was around 7 months I’ve been pureeing, roasting, and preparing  her ‘meals’. 

I’m a little fanatical scouring pinterest and Instagram for new and exciting recipes and also seeing what momma’s and daddy’s are feeding their lil munchkins. And can I just say http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Toddler-On-Go-Cookbook/dp/1616284994WOW– this is going to be a generation of foodies! And can I also mention the fun gadgets/plates/mats/etc that are out there??!!?? 

So I’ve been using this cookbook now that she’s older for more substantial meals and also foods that are more portable. It’s pretty good and so far the food has been yummy and Gabi seems excited about all the new flavors. (I must note that she sometimes eats what I make for the whole family, too.) 

For some reason I’ve had croquettes on the brain and I’m sad to say that 1. I’ve never made them and 2. My toddler cookbook didn’t have a recipe for one. What? So off to the Internet I went. I didn’t use one specific recipe but rather a combo of a few with some modifications on my end. 

 

I try to add in as much flavor as possible while trying to utilize as little salt as possible. For these I added in fresh thyme and tarragon from our garden. I also added some potatoes to give them more bulk. The next batch I’ll definitely substitute a sweet potato and maybe add in some shredded veggies such as zucchini or squash. To make them more healthful I baked them rather than frying them. 

 

After forming the croquettes I refrigerated them for about 30 minutes to hold their shape better. I popped them in the oven for 45 minutes and then flipped on the broiler to give them a golden color. And they passed the Gabi (and my father’s) taste test! Success!
 
This definitely is going into our dinner rotation with new modifications!
Nothing gives me more pleasure than watching Gabriela eat yummy and healthy meals that I make for her. Happiness really can come from feeding people. 

Bon appetit! 

This week’s posts may get a little photo happy because my little baby girl is turning a year old on Friday! I know it’s very cliched, but it does really seem just like yesterday when she was my itty bitty newborn. These last (almost) 12 months have been one heck of a roller coaster that I can only imagine what the future will hold. But more on ‘looking back’ in a later post. But first, some newborn cuteness…

   

 

With her bday coming up my mind has been swirling on memories, Bday ideas, and making a smash cake. I’m not a baker. My sister, Natalie, is our resident baker, along with my niece, Maya, so I’m a little nervous about this whole thing. But I figure it’s sugar, sweet, creamy, and messy so Gabi won’t be too critical of how it looks or tastes. So more on that to come, too!

With my mind occupied I haven’t been as faithful blogging. Going-dad gave me some great advice in that I shouldn’t try to push it; to just let it flow otherwise it’ll become ‘work’. Over the weekend I felt like I was just trying to pull something out of the air to write about that I actually got frustrated. So I decided to step back and really evaluate what I’m capable of doing. While everyday would be amazing, I just don’t think that’s me. So look for me a few times a week! 

  

I am also slowly but surely going through my kitchen. Baby steps, right!?? I’ve decide, in an effort to maybe downsize my cookbook collection is pick a cookbook to cook for the week. If I find good things I’ll keep it. If I dont, then I’ll let it go. So I’m starting with Lucinda Scala Quinn’s Feeding men & boys. I figured I have two men to feed so this should be quite appropriate. So look forward to some recipes from here. But not tonight. 

  
 

 
Tonight…we’re trying out a portable grill. My dad, Gabi, and I go to the beach weekly and instead of buying food we figured we’d start grilling our own. The husband and I used to primitive camp in Dothan so we have a little propane grill that we’re going to try to utilize while beaching. So tonight is our trial run of some chicken pinchos (because no one wants to look like a fool trying to grill or set up a tent in 30 mph winds in the middle of the beach. People: practice at home!). So I recently received this link of Grilled chicken recipes and thought I’d try one a week. So tonight’s is a mix between a lemon and oregano marinade with the squash. 

Ps. Soak your skewers so they don’t catch on fire. 

Pss. One more.