Slices of Life from Belize: September 16, 2013

Don't Know Why, There's No Sun Up In The Sky -- Stormy Weather

Well, it seems my Open Letter to Invest 93L produced results, just not the ones I was hoping for. The storm made a name for herself, now known as Tropical Storm Ingrid, and it has been pounding Mexico, along with her brother, Tropical Storm Manual. And here in Corozal? It's still been raining. Matter of fact, as I write this there is a rather large cell hovering over us, and we're just waiting for the skies to open up...again. And unfortunately, the forecast doesn't look too promising for the next couple of days either. Rumblings of ark building are starting to take over many a Facebook chat. A number of people who have lived here far longer than we have say they can't remember it being this rainy for so many consecutive days. 

And if you recall from my note to Invest 93L, I posted some pictures of the road in front of Dave and Dianna Rider's house. If you want to find out more about what it's been like having a quagmire at your doorstep, then pop on over to their blog and read the latest entry, "Stuck in the Muck Again." 

Photo courtesy of Lynn Nichiporowich 

All I know is that this weather has gotten really old and my laundry pile is almost out of control.

Art In The Park

On Saturday night David and I decided that no matter what kind of weather we might have, we were going to check out the Art In The Park Festival in downtown Corozal. Specifically, we wanted to see the latest paintings from Ashani and see what other vendors might have to offer.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a bust. The rains put more than a damper on the turnout, and it wasn't the best weather to display water-based paintings. 

But I thought I would share a painting I bought from Ashani last month:

David made the frame and we have it hanging out in our porch. Of course, he had some help with the installation.

Miss Bronte (a.k.a. KitKat, a.k.a. #$%&^&% when she is really bad, which is frequently) found out that ladders can be great playthings. However, it does make it a bit more of a challenge to do anything while she's on it.

Temporary Guests

As a result of the rain we've been having, we had an unexpected visitor on the outside of our screen door:

And yes, it is a tarantula. I named her Clarice, and she hung out with us, shielded from most of the rain, for the entire day and part of the evening. Bronte showed some initial interest in her, but quickly tired of that game and left Clarice in peace.

The other visitor we had was...

...this incredible moth. With no exaggeration, its wingspan was at least six or seven inches and it's coloring was exactly like tree bark. 

Thanks to my fellow blogger and Facebook friend, Papi Thomas, he enlightened me on what it was: "We've been visited as well. I think it's called the Black Witch Moth. "Mariposa de la muerte"...in Mexican folklore, a harbinger of death. But in Yucatek Maya it is X-mahan-nah which means "borrow house". Ours just borrowed the bathroom for a few hours before we released him."

And hey, speaking of Facebook, feel free to send me a friend request so you can find out some of the whacky and not-so-whacky stuff that goes in our lives here in Belize between blog posts.

Quick Bites

I had fun in the kitchen last week making some old favorites and trying a couple of new recipes. Here are some of the things that appeared on our dinner table:

Asian Chicken Burgers with Cabbage Slaw - the burger is a riff on a recipe from Sara Moulton. It's nice change of pace from a beef burger, and the soy sauce, ginger, and sesame oil add amazing flavor. For the slaw, I used the leftover cabbage from the burger, julienned some carrots, and made a cooked dressing that included eggs, apple cider vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt, pepper, and a bit of crema.

Black beans, Tomatoes, Italian sausage with white rice - One of the things I love about this dish is that it is incredibly versatile. Have leftover chicken bits or ground beef? Substitute it for the sausage. Want a veggie version? Skip the protein altogether. If I'm feeling ambitious, I'll soak and cook dried black beans. But if you're looking for a quicker method, canned beans work just fine. Saute some onions, stir in some cumin, a touch of cayenne pepper, the beans with a bit of their juice, tomatoes, and browned sausage, and you've got dinner! If David had his way, we would have this once a week, every week.

BLT with Fried Egg served on Homemade Cuban Bread and Pan Fried Potatoes - These are all my favorite foods right on one plate. Swoon! This is the dish I would eat at least once a week, every week. I want to send a shout-out to Mardi and Mike Rathbun for sharing this sandwich recipe with me on Facebook.

Garlic Roasted Shrimp with Sherry-Tomato Sauce served over Homemade Pasta - I often make garlic roasted shrimp. Super simple to do, too. Just smash up about four cloves of garlic, throw them into about 2/3 cup of olive oil, and saute until the garlic starts to brown. Discard the garlic, then pour the garlic olive oil over the shrimp and pop into a pre-heated 425-degree oven for 8 minutes. But this time, I wanted to try a different direction. I made the shrimp as noted above, but also put together a sherry vinegar and tomato sauce that we had in another fish recipe not too long ago. For that, I put some chopped tomatoes, onions,  sherry vinegar, salt, and pepper into the food processor. Whizzed it around for a bit, then added about 1/2 cup of the garlic olive oil the shrimp cooked in. After cooking the homemade pasta, I piled on the garlic shrimp and drizzled the sherry-tomato sauce over everything. Very tasty! Next time, I'll try to remember to sprinkle some chopped parsley over the top to add some color contrast to the plate and be able to say in all honesty that there are greens in the meal.

  
 Pan Grilled Fish Fillet Sandwiches with Onion Strings - That sherry tomato sauce I used in the pasta dish? Well the leftovers got used on this fish sandwich. And please don't ask me what kind of fish it is. None of it is labeled in the stores, and when I've asked the most common reply after, "I don't know" is "It's seafish." But whatever it is, it tastes great and only takes about seven minutes of cooking per side on medium(ish) heat. However, the real star on the plate, in my humble opinion, are these onion strings. They are so seriously good that you can't stop eating them and may not want regular ole' onion rings again.

Chicken Pot Pie

While today dawned sunny and bright, yesterday was anything but:

It was dreary, rainy, and the kind of day where you find yourself casting around for something, anything to do indoors to keep your mind off the fact that it was so yucky outside.

In other words, it was the perfect day to cook; especially something like comfort food. 

And what could be better than some chicken pot pie? I dug out this recipe from Anne Burrell and set to work. Now I realize I could have searched out something that could be made in the slow cooker, but quite frankly, I needed some quality bonding time with my stove. This dish was the perfect solution.

The first thing that needed to be done was to make the pastry for the pot pies.

First I cut up a stick of butter and 8 ounces of cream cheese.

That got added to the 1 1/2 cups of flour and a pinch of salt standing by in the food processor.

Everything got pulsed together until the dough started coming together. I added a couple of tablespoons of cold water and one egg yolk, and pulsed some more.

The dough got turned out on some flour, was kneaded briefly and formed into a ball.

I covered it with plastic wrap and popped it into the fridge until I was ready to use it later in the day.

Next it was time to work on the pot pie filling. The recipe calls for chicken legs and thighs, but I used only thighs because...well, I could, and I think they taste better than legs. But hey, use whatever parts of the chicken that float your boat.

  
Then it was on to prepping the veggies.

Carrots, onions, and celery all got a good chop, and some garlic was minced too.

All but the garlic was tossed into a large pot, seasoned with some salt, and left to saute over medium heat for about 7 minutes.

The house was starting to smell wonderful. 

Once the veggies had softened, I added the garlic and let that do its thing for a couple of minutes. Then I nestled the thighs on top and poured some chicken stock, which I had made the day before, over everything.

The stock was brought up to a boil, then reduced to a simmer and was left to bubble gently away for 30 minutes.

At this point in Anne's recipe, it calls to roast off some butternut squash. However, I gave this step a pass because (a) we're not particularly fond of butternut squash, and (b) there wasn't any at the market even if we did like it. That being said, I have roasted off potatoes to add when making this dish before and it adds a nice component. But this time, I just skipped this element altogether.

Anyway, back to the chicken that had been simmering away. Now that it was done, I removed the chicken and veggies to separate bowls and set the stock aside.

When the chicken was cool enough to handle, I took the meat off the bones and added it into the veggie mixture. Now at this point, you're supposed to add some chopped haricots verts. And as lovely as those might be, I went with their pedestrian cousin, the regular old green bean.

Time now to make the gravy. I love gravy of just about any sort, but this one is one of my favorites.

Step One: make a roux.

After whisking together 4 tablespoons of melted butter and 4 tablespoons of flour, it was time for Step Two -- adding the reserved stock. This got ladled in a bit at a time, until everything was incorporated and smooth.

The gravy was brought up to a boil, then reduced to a simmer, and left to bubble away for about 20 minutes. You want to be sure to stir it on a regular basis, otherwise an icky film will develop on the top.

With the gravy done, I added the chicken/veggie mix into it and let it all warm together over low heat.

We're into the final stretch!

While the gravy was simmering away, I had removed the pastry dough from the fridge to let it come to room temperature.

As I was only going to be making two pot pies for this go round, I cut the dough in half and put the portion I didn't need back in the fridge. I'll use it later in the week when we have leftovers.

I rolled the dough out on a floured surface...

...and cut out two lids for the ramekins I was using for the filling. The edges of the ramekins got brushed with an egg wash, then the lids got put on top, some vents were made, and the lids were brushed with more of the egg wash.

The pot pies were popped into a pre-heated 375 degree oven and left to bake for about 30 minutes.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a nice warm hug in a bowl and the perfect thing to chase away the blues of a bunch of rainy days. As soon as you dip your fork or spoon into the crust, it flakes oh-so-nicely and bits get worked into the chicken and gravy. And the filling? Oh my. It's sooooo good. The dark meat of the thighs adds an element of richness to the gravy that makes you want to gobble it all up. Actually, the filling would stand fine all on its own as a stew, if you aren't inclined to make the pastry.

So the next time a batch of yucky weather comes your way, this might be something to try. In the meantime, we're back to having the kind of weather we love here in Belize -- blue skies, a great breeze, and lots of sun. Now if we could only do something about those pesky mosquitoes...

Property Taxes are Paid! (Finally)

You might recall that back in April I had a post about our first attempt to pay our property taxes. It was on that initial visit to the Lands Department when we found out that even though our Land Certificates (a.k.a. deeds) had been officially ours for a year, there was no record of them in the system.

We went back multiple times in the last few months to get an update. The time before last, progress had been made. We were in the system, but the calculations of what we owed hadn't been figured out.

So we waited another couple of weeks and tried again. And, EUREKA! We finally found out what we owed. But, of course, making the payment wasn't quite as quick as one might have hoped.

After we handed our certificates to the clerk, she oh-so-slowly tapped one key at a time on her computer keyboard.

She found our records.

With the first certificate in her hands, she oh-so-slowly reached for a sticky note.

The sticky note was affixed to the certificate.

Then secured with a paper clip.

Another set of keystrokes.

Then she carefully wrote the parcel number down on the sticky note.

Then the tax year.

Then the amount of taxes owed for that lot.

This routine was repeated three more times for the remaining certificates. All told, it probably took about 20 minutes for her to complete the task. It was as much fun as watching paint dry.

But it wasn't over yet.

She then needed to print out a receipt. I thought there would be one receipt for all four certificates. But no -- a separate receipt was required for each one.

So after picking up the first certificate, she oh-so-slowly removed the paper clip.

Then she removed the sticky note.

A few keystrokes later, the receipt details were sent to the dot matrix printer that had the spindle-fed receipt forms.

Finally the first receipt was ready.

Then after the clerk oh-so-slowly ripped the first receipt at the perforation, she then very carefully removed the spindle feed bits on either side. Oh mercy.

After finally locating her stamp, she pressed it slowly, but firmly to the top copy. Then after a short pause, initialled the receipt.

This whole process was repeated another three times. It was at this point we remembered that it's possible to pay your property taxes for 2-3 years versus just one. But we were soooooo close to having all our paperwork that we decided to just forget about it until next year.

Approximately 45 minutes after initially handing over our stuff, we found out how much we owed: a whopping $10.40 BZD for each parcel to make a grand total of $41.60 BZD or $20.80 USD.

We thought it a bit odd that all four parcels were taxed for the same amount, as each are slightly different in size. But you go with the flow, and for what little needed to be paid, I just wrote this whole process off as another exercise in patience.

Slow Cooking with Grace

I have never owned a slow cooker (a.k.a. crock pot). Why? I'm not really sure, but it may have had something to do with the fact that I seriously love puttering in the kitchen, playing with seasonings, and generally babysitting whatever is on the stove.

But then some of my Facebook friends starting posting recipes intended for slow cookers. The dishes looked fabulous, and I knew I could probably adapt them to the stove top. But then another thing happened: the heat of July and August in Corozal.

I'm not going to sugarcoat the facts -- it can get beastly hot and humid. You will sweat from places you didn't even know you could. The prospect of having something simmering on the stove or baking in the oven for hours wasn't looking too appealing.

So I caved in and bought a slow cooker for my very own. 

Isn't she pretty?

I picked it up at our local Court's store and was told we had three days to test it out. If anything seemed wrong during that time, we could bring it back for a full refund or replacement.

Adopting the mindset of "go big or go home", I decided my first dish would be this short rib recipe, courtesy of Papi Thomas. If the cooker didn't melt down in the 7-9 hour cooking time, I figured I was golden.

Once the prep work was done -- browning the meat and veggies, reducing the wine sauce -- everything was in the cooker and that was that. It was rather nice as the day went by knowing that dinner was pretty much done. Plus the big bonus was that the kitchen wasn't a sauna. 

And the end result? 

Amazingly good. Quite frankly, this was the most tender beef we've had since moving here. And the sauce? Oh my goodness. It had just the right amount of richness from the wine and balanced perfectly with the beef.

The bottom line was that I was hooked on this new toy. So much so that I decided to make another slow cooker meal the next night. This one was for balsamic chicken. 

After getting all the ingredients in the pot, I was free to go play in the pool.

A few hours went by, and I got started prepping the potatoes we would have with the chicken, while David worked on the green beans. Everything was on the stove, ready to be cooked when the "Grace" part of the evening commenced.

The five-gallon water jug was empty so, trying to be helpful, I decided to bring in a full jug from the spare room where we store them. Just as I came into the kitchen, hauling the full jug, I tripped over my flip-flop. And just so we're clear, my flip-flop was not strewn on the floor, but on my foot.

Now anyone who knows me well will not be surprised by this. I have been a klutz forever. I have been known to trip on a perfectly smooth floor. This is the same woman who, dressed to the nines for dinner at a top-of-the-line restaurant on Grand Cayman that had outside dining on a deck, caught her heel on said deck and literally brought conversation to a standstill after hearing a collective gasp from the crowd. Tripping over a flip-flop is just par for the course for me. However, I usually am not toting a five-gallon jug of water.

Needless to say, I went sailing -- with the jug -- right into the corner of our island. I'm sure it was a move to make ballerinas around the world jealous. That's just how graceful I am. 

David was immediately at my side trying to assess just what I managed to do to myself this time. After the chirping birds and stars disappeared from my view, I got up. There was a cut on my hand, which he took care of, and I felt a bit bruised. Discretion being the better part of valor, I decided maybe it would be better for David to finish making the meal. Actually, I don't think he would have let me near the stove if I wanted to.

Turns out that I ended up not feeling that hungry and decided instead to treat myself to an ice pack and moist heating pad. As a result, I didn't take a picture of the final plating and didn't think to ask David to do it. But he said the chicken was great and would definitely want to have the dish again. 

The next day, I happened to glance at the cabinet door I had the encounter with. It looked a bit off center. When David investigated, it turns out that I ended up bending one of the hinges and popped out a screw. But you will be happy to know that the water jug sustained no discernible injuries.

Hey, as I mentioned before -- go big or go home.

P.S. Before our Moms even ask: Other than a couple of cuts and a variety of bruises, I am fine. You both have seen me pull similar graceful moves like this in the past, so this one should be no surprise.

P.P.S. Anyone have some great slow cooker recipes to share? If so, post them in the comments section below or shoot me an email.