Rastaman Russell

Russell stopped by last night to have waaaa lee chat. He was telling me about how he eats grass and leaf and stick and tings. He told me that most fat girls with big belly comes from backway batty. I wonder what he meant.
I asked Bigness if Russell eats grass and leaf and stick an tings, he said yeeeessss mon, he see Russell graze like cow and enjoy it.
I'm still puzzling over what he meant by back way.

Price List for Answers

The tourists are coming, we're getting traveling refugees from all over Central America and the Yucatan because so far... we've been lucky with the weather. Its like a wave of foreigners hit the island yesterday. This year I've made up my new price list.
I get asked the same questions over and over.

Where are you from? $1

How long have you lived here? $2

Do you like living here? Dinner and drinks

Think anyone will be offended if I add this to the bottom of the menu right after the desserts?

The electrician was in the store working on the lights. His name is Birdegg or sometimes he's called Dirty Cash. His real name is Eggbert, I think. But you see where I'm going, things get reversed, like poles. He's getting better at his work though, this time we only have 1 mystery switch, 1 light dangling with no apparent way to turn it on and 1 zzzzzssssshhhhhttttt sounding light cracking and popping like a special effect in a horror movie.

I have Tiger Eyes. I found this quiz on Caroline's blog


TIGER EYES

Positive Traits:
Determined, Passionate, Loyal, Strong,
Courageous
Negative Traits:
Aggressive, Ambitious, Domineering, Possessive,
Vengeful

Your eyes are the windows to your soul. What type of eyes do you have?

Halloween 2004

This is what happened to me last year when I lost count of my drinks at Popeye's Beach Halloween Party. The thought of going through this again is really repugnant. File this one in "Most Embarrassing Moments" I lernt my lesssson.

Illustration Friday - Broken - Oct. 28

Photo Friday - Oct. 28 - Delicate

Photo Friday submission for Oct. 28. This photo was shot in Southern Belize, west of Punta Gorda, near the Maya site Lubantum. We were at a butterfly farm where they breed blue morpho butterflies and others (can't remember the name of this one) for export to England. My friend's 4 year old daughter held perfecly still while butterflies landed on her and the red hibiscus. It was one of those magical experiences. Photographed with an old Olympus Comedia.

Bread Baking, Pasta Salad Making and Impossible Spinach Quiche Pie

A big thank you to Google, without it I would be lost. I can't believe I'm in the food business - again.
I grew up in the food business, when I was a child and young teen my parents had a catering company. Weekends were spent with my brothers (Einstein and Charles Manson) peeling 100 lbs. of potatoes and serving coffee to blue haired ladies at wedding showers. When I was a teenager my parents actually bought a turn of the century hotel and restored it into its original elegance and had a very nice family style restaurant and old fashioned hotel. I was mad though, because we had to move from Detroit to rural Grand Rapids, Michigan, away from the crime and smog and congestion. What I was really mad about was I had to move away from this boy...
Oldest daughter remembers grandma's Olde Kent Inn located in Kent City, Michigan - a business that they worked with my mother's parents. Grandpa was a Mr. Fixit and grandma made the peach and apple pies. Oldest daughter was about 7 when my parents sold the place in 1986, ready to "retire". My Dad went back to work in automotive and my Mom came to work for me in publishing - as my bookkeeper - which was no retirement at all. When I left home I swore I would never be in the food business, but here I am. Everything comes full circle. My mom is one of those recipe encyclopedias. She's the person I email when something's not turning out right or we can't get the ingredients here. When I lamented that Brodies in Belize City wasn't carrying the Java Ice syrup anymore for our cafe mocha drinks she said to me "Well, just make it... here's how: equal parts of espresso and sugar, for every ounce of syrup add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder" Easy. Well, easy for her because she's one of those food geniouses. I got the "Art" gene. Bigness got the "Boss" gene.

I have a lawyer friend who says "Smart people don't make the same mistake 3 times" She also says "Libel is written, slander is spoken, but its only libel or slander - if its NOT true" So those of you waiting for stories about Dreadlock Pizza, keep the faith, they are coming. But back to the bread. First try: Bigness thought the bread was finished but it was in the final rise when he poked it (not so gently) with his (very clean) finger, and plop. The second try was better, but still I had 2 kilo brick, although it was a very tasty brick, bread shouldn't make you lose a capped tooth. So, I added more yeast and cut the whole wheat flour with some of our very dense white flour and... perfection. Wow, I really feel like supergirl now because I also fixed the espresso machine - sort of. Let's say, it functions. Back to the sandwich. One giant thick slice of whole wheat honey bread, smear it with cream cheese, layer sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumber, onion, green pepper, grated carrotts and topped with white cheddar. Broil and serve open face.

Recipe for Impossible Quiche Pie
Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 sweet green pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb of fresh spinach
2 tbl. real butter
1/2 cup of media crema or half and half
1 cup grated white cheddar cheese
1 cup milk
6 eggs
1 cup baking mix - like Bisquick or Jiffy
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese - or Dutch cheese like Gouda or Edam
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
dash of salt
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 12 baking pan.
Wash, chop and drain spinach, sautee it in real butter for about 2 minutes with the onion, garlic and sweet pepper, add a dash of salt. Sautee it just long enough to take the crunch out of the veggies. Do not use the liquid from the pan, just the sauateed veggies. Put spinach mixture in the bottom of the baking pan, top with cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese. In a blender mix the eggs, media crema or half and half, milk, salt pepper nutmeg and baking mix. Pour on top. Bake uncovered in the oven for about 30-35 minutes. You'll know its done when a knife inserted in comes out clean.
I added 1/2 tsp more of baking powder, since we are at sea level and the air is so thick, we need extra levening to avoid brick-like food, but for anywhere else in the world you probably wouldn't have to do that.

Secrets of the Jaguar Woman

I'm not into words today, just pictures and captions.

This is a new release. The original art is created on hand-painted silk. I started by tye dying silk and hanging it out to dry, then I stretched the silk on a stretcher frame using a staplegun and the drew the mask using something called gutta. This style of silk painting originated in France and is called Serti technique which roughly translates to building fences around the areas you are defining.












Influences: stragely enough, this giant moth on my front door. The mask is roughly based on a famous Benin mask from Africa. Look how furry the moth is.


Its amazing how 1 day can make a difference. Remember the photos of the water whipping up onto our beach? Well, hurricane Wilma moved off and took the storm surge with her (and dumping 5 feet of rain on Cancun), leaving us with low low tides, so low you can see the seagrass flats right in front of our place. Bigness told me that when he was a young man, lobster was so plentiful that his father would send him out to the sea, and he would just lift up the edge of the seagrass and pull out lobster that his mother would grill up for dinner. Amazing.

I'm in hog heaven

MB was here and brought me stacks of New Yorkers and Vogue magazines. She had an exciting time with dodging hurricane Wilma

The store opened yesterday, we were sort of ready, lots of stuff to put away still, but its clean and mostly functioning. We needed to open anyway because people were beating the door down to get in. Well, not really, mostly they were asking in a polite way, when are you going to open? Awe shucks... they missed me. Well maybe they missed the coffee more than me, but I'll take the implied compliment anyway.

We're going to the city today to shop and restock the freezers and refridge and to buy bread machines. Bigness has decided that we need to sell deli sandwiches, salads and cow foot soup. I reminded him that I don't eat the foot, balls, eye or tongue of anything.

De Rain She Come

Wilma has reared her ugly head in Belize. We're getting storm surge and rain. If you look at the satelite images, the little point coming off Mexico on the southeast side, we are about 10 miles below that. From the beach to our first street on the east side of the island it is flodded. We have about 3 feet of elevation, so a little bit of a wave goes a long way. I sandbagged the street entrance to the store, we're still cleaning and arranging things, and all I need now is a flood. Fortunately we're at one of the high points of the island. In the picture on the left you can see the reef, about 1/2 mile away, with wave action about 30 feet high behind it. Its spectacular. We usually see just a thin white line.

The picture on the right is the police yard, the waves roll up our nearly flat beach and get trapped in yards

Today was one of those doomed days, no matter what I did I was stepping in warm yellow dog poo, or falling off my bike as I rode the motocross course we used to call a beach. It makes for some really interesting beachcombing though. All the brown stuff on the road in the picture to the left is seaweed that has washed over the road.

The photo on the right is our entrance to the beach which has wave action rolling through it. I'm standing at my back door, and the water is coming right up to the steps. Normally the high tide is about 30 feet away.

The photos on the left is a water-side bar (Popeyes) and peir that's been broken up by the wave action.

I'm tired of Watching the Weather Channel. For kicks, I watch Spanish TV just to see if I can understand what they were saying and to learn new words. The Belizean Spanish that I have, sort of learned, is with a different accent and I noh understand she and she noh understand we da Mexico. God forbid, if I should have to speak to a Cuban doctor, in spanish, I would probably bleed to death first. Its like the time I went to the movies in Chetumal Mexico and thought I was going to see the new Russell Crowe movie about the boxer, but instead somehow saw The Coach with Samuel Jackson, but it took me about 10 minutes into the movie to realize I was in the wrong theatre (big DUUUUHHHH there). Actually I was in the right theatre, because when I checked my ticket I had actually BOUGHT the wrong ticket. It seems too much like work to learn Spanish, and you know how much I hate work. Bigness is getting tired of being my translator. I thought having a Spanish boyfriend would help me learn more, and faster. My brain gets tired always having to process and process and really really listen to the words to comprehend.

20 Random Things About Me

I'm going to ignore the storm, and it WILL go away. Its getting really dark out.
I was just tagged by Vitrolica so here goes:
1. I want to learn how to play the steel drums
2. My favorite color is turquoise
3. I don't like swimming in the ocean as much as I like looking at it.
4. I don't care if I ever drive a car again.
5. I have a fear of poverty.
6. I like to cook, but not to clean up. I am a terminal slob.
7. I have so many art supplies I could open up my own store.
8. I'm a morning person.
9. I don't like to work.
10. I'm addicted to reading, I usually have to read myself to sleep.
11. I hate margarine and refuse to eat it.
12. I also hate chemical sweetners and only use sugar... maybe that's why I'm fat. No, its the fat jeans, I mean gene. I have the opposite of anorexia, I look at myself and I think I'm thin.
13. I'll give money to children that are begging on the street, but not to adults.
14. I hate to shop, but love fabric stores, and of course art supply stores.
15 I pretend (to anyone I'm in a relationship with) I have to spend so much time on the internet, to market my business, but I'm really farting around most of the time, or in chat rooms.
16. When I stop liking someone, I never like them again. (I bear grudges)
17. Like Vit, I hate having long hair and I only have it because Bigness wants it.
18. Favorite fruit: strawberries - which we can't get here. 2nd favorites: mango, watermelon, grapes
19. I could live without meat, but its not possible here, there's not enough variety of fresh foods. I make oldest daughter take me to Outback Steakhouse whenever I visit. (Hypocrite)
20. I would never go back to the U.S. if my family would come and see me. I would shop on the internet and they could bring it in their suitcase. I would even pay for the plane tickets (hint hint)