Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

Well, as you all know, I am home now, no longer in the Caribbean. Though I am still in a Caribbean frame of mind.

We’ve been home 2 weeks as of today. Last week, yes, just one week after returning home, we hosted a party for about 50 people. It was a celebration of life party for our friend Bryan, who almost passed away a few months ago, but with luck, lots of prayers and a few miracles, he is still here with us, still kicking around and still playing hockey. He had said if he survived, he wanted to throw a party. So we did. We told him to invite anyone he wanted and we would host it. We threw quite a party too, with lots of good food. I know. You are all stunned. 🙂

Larry smoked all the meat and I did all the rest. We had brisket, pulled pork, chicken and brats for the meat. I added potato salad, fruit salad, 2 kinds of cookies, brownies, chips, pico de gallo, guacamole, corn cobettes, and a Caribbean coleslaw. We had just a little bit of a feast. Everyone was in awe, and more than one of the guests asked if I had a background in the restaurant industry. UMMMM, yes, actually I do. Many, many years too. 🙂

Cole slaw is a classic dish that goes with so many things, but with everything, there are always many different variations. This is just one delicious new way to serve it up and to dress up an old classic.

Caribbean Coleslaw

This is a spicy-sweet version of coleslaw. It goes very well with burgers, ribs, pork and chicken. HMMMMM! Other than the burgers, that is exactly what we served it with too. Imagine that. 🙂

The Dressing

6 TBSP lime juice

1-2 TBSP green onions, sliced

3 TBSP honey

1 TBSP brown sugar

2 TBSP sesame oil

1 tsp soy sauce

1 jalapeno or scotch bonnet pepper, minced

1/2 cup coconut milk

dash of rum

Mix everything together well and set aside.

The Cole Slaw

2-3 cups shredded Napa or green cabbage

2-3 cups shredded red cabbage

1-2 shredded carrots

1/2 red bell pepper, cut into thin matchsticks

1/2 cup green bell pepper, cut into thin matchsticks

1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, cut into thin matchsticks

1/2 red onion, sliced very thin

1/2 cup pineapple cut into small chunks

1/3 cup sliced green onions

1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup toasted coconut

You can also add some candied cashews too, if you like. I decided NOT to add nuts this time because so many people have nut allergies today. But I have made it with the cashews too. I love cashews. They are some of my favorite nuts.

Toss everything together well, then toss in enough dressing to coat everything without drowning it in sauce. Chill until ready to serve.

It was a big hit with everyone and went perfectly with what we served. It also brought a little bit of the Caribbean flavors to the party as well.

We were very happy to throw this party for Bryan. He does so much for us, and for everyone he knows. It was the least we could do for him. We are just so grateful that he is still with us, hopefully for quite a long time to come too.

Bryan and his family. He is with his wife Danette, their daughter Jenny, her husband Justin, and their son Keaton.

Hats off to Bryan. Hip, hip hooray!

This is my last post on our Barbados trip. We had a great time, and we did and saw so much. But, all good things must come to an end, and this too, has come to an end. It is my final post on our fantastic trip. This one is about the feathered friends and a few other critters we saw. You all know how I love my birds. 🙂

At first, I thought this dove was injured, but then after a bit, he got up and flew off. He was fine.

These are some different land crabs we saw out and about.

Geckos regrow their tails, and his is in the new growth phase.

This was the only little frog I saw. He was crawling up the wall. He didn’t stick around for long though. One minute he was there, the next minute he was gone.

These puppy dogs were having a blast playing in the water with their mommy. 🙂

We made friends with these two by giving them some leftover tuna we had.

Bye-bye Barbados. I hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did. Back to the kitchen for me again, though I have already been busy cooking and hosting a big party since our return. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Yesterday, I shared my underwater views of Barbados. Barbados – Part 13 – Below Sea Level Today, I will share the views from above sea level. There were some pretty spectacular views all around.

The weather forecast called for clouds, sunshine and rain everyday. And this was what we got everyday too. One minute it would be cloudy, then a little rain, then sunshine. We got hit with a downpour on our last evening, but the rest of the time we were there, at most all we got were light showers that lasted about 5-10 minutes. Then it was back to clouds and sunshine.

The final view from above; this time. We will be back again. 🙂

The sand was like powder. It was so clean and soft. And as you can see, the water was bright turquoise and about 84* F or 29*C . The inland was green and lush, like a forest. Barbados is a beautiful island with lots to see and do. It is definitely a do-over, again and again. I am almost done with my Barbados series. Just a little more, then this one too will be done, for now.

This one is for my daddy. He was in the Merchant Marines his whole life and sailed the 7 seas his whole career. He loved the sea. I get my love of the ocean from him. When he passed away, we scattered his ashes at sea, with a sailors prayer. So now, every time I see a tanker ship, I wave. I know my daddy is there on deck, waving back at me. I know my daddy is right there with me, watching over me just like always.

As you all know scuba diving is my passion. Larry likes it, but it is NOT his passion. We hadn’t been diving for too long when Larry asked me why I loved it so much. My response was because EVERY time I go down into the ocean, my daddy is right there with me; he’s in all the fish, the sand, the water and the corals. I always feel loved and safe when under water, because my daddy is always right there with me, diving right by my side.

The foods of Barbados have influences from all over the world, including their Caribbean neighbors, like Jamaica. Irie Foods was a Jamaican restaurant we dined at one night. The food was very good an colorful, like you would expect with anything Caribbean and/or Jamaican.

We were the only in there at first, so as we were waiting for our food to come, I had plenty of time to take pictures.

A tribute to famous Jamaicans.

I ordered curried shrimp.

Larry had jerk chicken.

We enjoyed everything and had a pleasant meal and evening. The staff was very friendly and attentive.

And now for the diving. When I go to dive destinations, whether or not we go back is ALWAYS determined by the quality of the diving. Most of the time, my answer is “YES”, I will go back, though there a couple of places that the answer is “NO”. Barbados is a DEFINTE YES!!!!!! The diving was great. The water was the brightest turquoise I’ve ever seen. It was so clear and warm, and so full of life too. Always good signs. We saw large turtles, both green and hawksbills and southern stingrays on almost every dive, if not every dive. We even saw a bat ray flying at the surface one day. So yes, Barbados is a definite DO-OVER, again, and again and again. 🙂 🙂 🙂

We dived with Roger’s Scuba Shack all week. I highly recommend Roger’s too. Roger is a lot of fun and has a great personality. We immediately felt like family with Roger and Shanikah, our dive master. They were both fantastic. 🙂 Roger and Shanikah are on both ends.

Roger was having his front repainted while we were there, so this is all brand new, just for you.

This type of mask I will gladly wear at all times. 🙂

We did not dive with Seth, but next time I hope we get to dive with him as well. He too has a great personality and is a lot of fun, as well as being a wealth of knowledge and information.

Sean is a newbie dive master and still has a lot to learn, but he is a lot of fun. We dived with him a couple of times towards the end.

Roger and Sean hamming it up for the camera.

And now for the real stars of the trip …. Sadly, I don’t have an underwater camera at the moment, so none of these are my shots. They are much better than what I could take anyway though. 🙂

Green turtles

Hawksbills turtles. They tend to be a little friendlier to visitors than green turtles. Green turtles are little more shy and reserved.

Talk to the flipper.

Southern stingrays.

Bat rays.

I will dive anytime, all the time, every time given the opportunity to do so. Larry doesn’t dive as much as I do anymore, so I do cut back on SOME of my diving to do other things with Larry. My preference is definitely to dive, though I do also enjoy all the other activities and adventures on our trips as well. 🙂

We dined at our hotel’s restaurant one night. They offered a delicious buffet, and then followed it up with some local entertainment. First their was a guy playing the steel drums. Next came the fire dancer. WOW! Some of his moves were just amazing. I was scared just watching him, but he was fearless.

First the dinner, with an ocean view. Walking to the restaurant we noticed out hotel has a fountain that changes colors.

Tiki torches lit up the pathway.

We even splurged (calorie wise) and got a bread pudding to share for dessert. I have really been trying to not eat a lot of sweets, but every now and then I cheat. Sometimes, you just have to, right?! 🙂

And the evening’s entertainment.

He was good, but the real entertainment was the fire dancer. He was amazing!

I don’t know how he does it! He was very entertaining though.

It was yet another deliciously fun evening.

I know you you are thinking that I was above water for most of our trip since I have been posting about all the other things we did and saw. And we did do a lot too. But, you would be wrong. I am saving the best for later. 🙂

That being said, I do have some more views from above the water level to share with you. The views were spectacular and so many beautifully, brightly colored flowers too.

I’ll start with the flowers and plants. They are a lot of the same tropical flowers we see all over the place, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still beautiful. There were also some beautiful new flowers too. 🙂

I love bougainvillea. They come in so many different colors.

Look at these gianormous cacti!!!!!

This flower, that has been unofficially named “Pride and Industry” is the national flower of Barbados.

We had bottle brush like this, and many other tropical plants, in my backyard when I was growing up.

I have no idea what this fruit is, but it was too good of a picture to pass up. 🙂

These are sea grapes. Apparently when they are ripe, they are very good to eat.

These avocados were so good. They had a hint of sweetness to them too.

These succulents were growing out of the rocks.

Have a bright, colorful day and color your world beautiful.

My friend, and virtual dive buddy, over at ScubaHankNYC at https://scubahanknyc.com/ just informed me it is world manta day. I LOVE my rays, all of them. It doesn’t matter if they are southern stingrays, eagle rays, bat rays or mantas. They are so graceful and magical. But the BIG, graceful mantas are really special.

Southern Stingrays. I took these in Belize and Grand Cayman. This one, obviously our divemaster took for us.

Eagle Rays. We see so many eagle rays in Cozumel, particularly from November-March. I did not take these other pictures unfortunately. We have killed so many underwater cameras.

Bat Rays. We saw a bunch of these in Cabo San Lucas and we saw one in Barbados too.

Manta Rays. We dived with a whole bunch in Kona, Hawai’i. They are so beautiful, majestic and graceful.

I wish everyday was manta day. 🙂

One of the many pleasures of travel is finding new places to eat. There are always good restaurants and places to eat, everywhere we go Good food is appreciated all over the world, and comes in so many delicious opportunities and styles. be adventurous and dine like the locals do. One of our good restaurant finds was at The Harlequin in St. Lawrence Gap.

We were strolling around, looking for a place to dine, and the bright, colorful lights caught my eye. The food just deliciously spoke to us, and the staff was very friendly and fun. We took the long way to the restaurant, unbeknownst to us at the time. We drove around and found it, but in reality, we could have walked across the grounds of our hotel. We didn’t learn this until after the fact though. 🙂

The food was good Creole style food, just like what we would find in New Orleans. We did what we normally do when trying a new place. We ordered some appetizers and shared a meal between us. We started off with a dark and stormy rum drink. I love these. 🙂

Then came some fish cakes and chicken samosas.

Followed by some blackened kingfish. DELICIOUS!

As we were waiting for our food I was busy taking pictures of some of the nearby signs.

This one had me in stitches.

We loved Harlequin. I wish we had a chance to go back again. Next time.

I dived (yes, that is really the way it is said) almost everyday while in Barbados. Larry did not. I only took 2 days off from diving, and those are the days we did a lot of the driving and sightseeing for things that were further away from where we were staying and needed more time to explore. But I was done diving by about 1:30, then a quick shower and change, and we were off and running again. We did a lot of things after diving too. One of those activities was to visit the Barbados Museum, which ironically is located in the old military prison. We tend to visit a lot of military forts and prisons on our travels.

The museum was filled with interesting history and artifacts about Barbados history. We learned a lot and it was very informative. The only issue we had with it though, was that it was oppressively hot. It was hotter inside than it was outside, and believe me, that is saying a lot.

Life for early Barbadans.

The sea is obviously a very important part of the life for Barbadans, both then and now.

But there are so many other things that are significant to the Barbadans as well, like the wildlife and the birds.

And the lifestyles influenced by the Europeans.

We already know how important rum is to the island.

Rich mahogany is also an important product from the island. It was used to construct a lot of furniture and decorative additions.

Cricket is the national sport of Barbados.

But one of the most important aspects of life in Barbados, is the ongoing fight for their freedom.

This statue was not in the museum, but it is definitely a symbol of their fight for freedom. It was on the main highway going up north.

We signed the wall letting everyone know that we were there too.

The Barbados Museum, like everything else we experienced on the island, was well done, very interesting and very informative.