Mini cheesecakes

The other night, that itch came upon me, you know, the it h to bake something… It was nighttime, after 6pm I’m sure, so I procrastinated, hoping the itch would die, or that no ideas would come to me….no such luck..I realized I had no flour and not enough butter for a cake, so I thought all was well….wrong again.

As my brain ran over the contents of my fridge, from the comfort of my chaise..it came to me, I had a packet of cream cheese in the fridge, and chocolate ganache in the freezer..yes I keep it in the freeze, I made way too much, and it keeps well in there, plus I get to scrape off bits to make hot chocolate when the mood takes hold.

Ok I have never used a recipe for cheesecake, I generally stick to 1 egg per packet of cream cheese, add a bit of sugar, taste, add more if I need to, add citrus if I need less. That’s pretty much it. I also had a pack of digestive biscuits, so all was well.

Did I mention that it wasn’t a full pack of cream cheese…yep, but that didn’t stop me. So how was I to make this, it’s not like you can halve an egg… Ding ding ding, just use the whites..and even so I didn’t use the entire egg white, the rest I put in the fridge, and used to make French toast the next day.

So anyway, this is what happened:

 

Put yourself in his shoes

In light of some responses to recent arrest of my country’s UN Ambassador, I just felt the need to say a little something. I’m tired of people making this a party thing, this is a Vincentian thing. It affects us all, not just the ULP. More importantly it affects the person experiencing it first hand.

Let’s take party politics out of it for a minute shall we…. Let’s say, you, a person of colour is minding your own business, going along your daily routine, as normal, when you hear someone shout in a manner that makes you believe could have nothing to do with you, so you continue on. The next thing you know, you’re grabbed by the neck and shoulder and spun around. Facing you is a police officer, who them demands to know why you didn’t stop at his shout. Yes I said demand. As far as I know, and please feel free to correct me if I’m incorrect, there is no law that states you have to identify yourself to a police officer if you are not under arrest (I’m not talking about being pulled over people) but in saying that, before he was even able to identify himself he was arrested. So when the officer is in your face, with a hostile tone asking you questions, like ‘didn’t you hear me talking to you’ and ‘show me some ID now’ tell me, put there, would you answer, knowing full well you have done nothing wrong and the officer has no right to speak to you in the tone he did, or to place hands on you? Well the ambassador did in fact reply, in a calm manner, he replied to the question with one of his own, ‘am I under arrest’ to which the officer stated ‘you are now’.

ok so let’s get this right. You are going about your daily business as normal, you hear an angry shout which you ignore, you enter your office building and you are grabbed from behind by a seemingly hostile police officer. How the hell are you going to react? Step away from red and yellow, how would you react? To tell you the truth, because of longstanding grievances with the police, specifically that particular force, which have to do with racial profiling, as a person of colour ( what little I do have) I would probably either react out of fear or defiance. That’s just me, put yourself there.

what makes this worse, is that he wasn’t accosted outside of the building, but inside of the building that houses our Mission.I wasn’t aware that the NYPD had jurisdiction there, that seems to be tantamount to the officer coming to this actual island and arresting someone. No jurisdiction!
*please note the comment about jurisdiction, under this post, she knows a thing or two!*

Oh did I forget to mention that the officer was overheard telling another officer, that he thought he [the ambassador] looked like a terrorist? Yeah, about that! Well hey, at least he wasn’t wearing a hoodie…we all know where that leads…..

let’s try this again. You own/work at a business, you walk into said business, in runs someone, who grabs you from behind and tries to engage you with hostility. I really don’t see that ending well.

Ok let’s try this with party politics. Let us say that opposition senator x is walking into parliament one morning, he walks through some stacked up metal barricades, someone shouts at him, in a manner not deemed friendly, asking a rhetorical question about knowing why the barricades are placed there. He continues walking, assuming the shouts have nothing to do with him. He walks into the building only to be grabbed and spun around to face an officer who is demanding to know why he was ignored. He is later arrested and detained. Ok.

Let me be very plain… Opposition members, and supporters would be on their party station and every media outlet they could find, crying out about human rights, police brutality, partisan politics, making a case for the office to be fired and the government to be charged with instigating the brutality. They would have pictures to show injuries, they would never let this rest.

So can someone please explain to me, because I am thoroughly confused, by the people who keep saying, that the ambassador has the ULP attitude and he has a bad attitude and that is the only reason that he was arrested and detained by the NYPD.

Excuse me while I say WTF?

The ambassador released an official statement.

Remember, my page, my view, this is all my opinion.

 

I’m back

Hi all, I’ve been away for a while, my computer and Internet have both been down. But fingers crossed, technology will start loving me again and I’ll be around for a while. I haven’t been making a lot because I’ve been trying to be on a diet…..that’s s big TRYING.

I did have a blueberry pancake craving the other day, and once this iPad allows me to upload pictures, I shall update you on my pancake making.

looking forward to catching up on your blogs

 

Molten-ish chocolate cake

Since I’m back on my diet as of tomorrow, I thought I’d get rid of all temptation, and use up the chocolate I had in the house, by trying Miss Tia’s Molten Chocolate Lava Cake Let’s just say that between my very well used stove, whose numbers (degrees) have rubbed off over time, so I don’t know what heat I’m setting, and me twiddling my thumbs doing other things, it didn’t work out so well. What I ended up with was very yummy, moist with a slightly liquid center.

I thought I’d share my not so successful, yet still yummy experiment with you.

melt butter and chocolate over simmering water

2 eggs and 2 yolks, frenzied whipping will bring you to this (perhaps I over whipped)

mmmmmmmmmm melty chocolate

add the eggs to this, whisking all the while, lest you end up with chocolate scrambled eggs.

i had enough for 2 ramekins and 2 individual cupcake sections in a wilton silicone cupcake tray. bake for 10 minutes….. i ended up with this looks souffle-ish right….can I just say it was meant to be this? la la la…. so it’s a little liquid..just not lava liquid ….when i have reversed the chubby lumpkinsness, i will revisit this

 

Chocolate rummy cupcakes

Hi, I know it’s been a while, My computer is not behaving itself, so I just have to get on when I can before it gives up completely…Anyone who can tell me when the rain of ipads is coming to my region, please let me know..I’ll be ready to go outside with my umbrella turned upside down.

Anyway, on to the topic at hand. Two friends and and I decided to have a little recipe type club,( one friend you can find here  the other, we haven’t convinced to join the world of online food porn) we pick a recipe and we each do our take on it, some ingredients change, etc etc etc. Since this is the month of love and all things chocolate it was decided that we take a stab at this recipe of Martha’s

I did cupcakes. You know how I do, here we go with the photos. Have a look see, hope you enjoy

I used Golden Syrup instead of Molasses, no great reason, I just didn’t have molasses. Golden Syrup, butter, brown sugar and water. Melt everything together over medium heat The recipe calls for 2 large eggs, I used 3 little ones. coco powder, flour, etc mix the all together. Mix the eggs and milk into sugary butter mixture (after it’s a little cool of course dry ingredients into wet, mix until just combined.  whatever you do, make sure it’s not over mixing. the batter will be lumpy, do not attempt to smooth it out, all that will happen is over mixing and you don’t want any part of that. pour into your pan, since I was making cupcakes….i of course used a muffin tin . pop into oven for specified time, or until they are done. take them out and allow to cool for a few minutes never mind that they don’t look all that pretty, we are not entering a beauty pageant. while they are cooling on a rack somewhere and you have done a taste test..oh was that just me then…… an egg yolk, some butter and sugar and RUM in a pan over simmering water..(I halved the recipe) Instead of the bourbon I used this dark rum. continuously whisk until all combined. you don’t want that raw alcohol taste, so have a little taste and see if it’s enough for you, add more and keep whisking if you like. I thought i’d try to be fancy so I tried filling them with the sauce popped the piece i cut out back on, dusted some icing sugar and drizzled some of the sauce over them…it may slide off…just drizzle more. lol. what you can’t see, is the sauce..because it’s not a frosting or ganache it soaked into the cake..which is fine with me, but not that this will happen to what you’ve drizzled on top too, so eat as soon as possible…but that’s just me

enjoy!

 

Aloe Vera and citrus

Hi there,

as you know, chubby lumpkins (me) is trying to drop a few lbs. How can I do this without strenuous exercise????? When you find out, please tell me. Thank you. Oh I need whatever it is to also tone my body.

My lovely friend Kim posted something about aloe and coconut water, someone told her it was good to drink. I was horrified that anyone would desecrate coconut water with that bitter thing. Ignorant as I was about the aloe plant. I know it’s good on burns (sunburn too) and good for the skin, because when I have the ingredients I whip up a batch of Shealoe and slather my skin in it (a combination of shea butter, aloe gel and whatever essential oils take my fancy)….I was also aware of people drinking “aloes” but i always knew it to be bitter, and used when people wanted to ..’purge’ or have an inner cleanse.

this stuff is the aloe (bitter aloes) —–> the green liquid slime found directly under the leaves. It’s some sort of laxative. We will not be using this today.

I learnt all about the plant here Aloe info

So after all the information gathering and boosting metabolism excitement, died down, I made this a blended drink of aloe vera, orange and grapefruit. I’ve seen recipes for just orange and aloe but I suppose you can put in what you like.

here goes, this will be picture heavy:

As you might see from my featured image, one leaf is looking a bit sad, well that what I cut this morning. Here’s what to do with it. firstly please excuse my very stained and well used cutting board. Get your aloe, place it on the cutting board, cut the spiny thorny things on the sides, like so please be careful, that green liquid is what we do not want in our drink. Discard the bits you cut off and slice through the center, like so ,when you’re done you will have this: . Next you want to get the aloe vera gel out without the bitter aloes so scoop with a spoon . And there you have it. Pop the clear stuff into the blender and grab your citrus (or whatever fruit/vegetable you’re using) peel

greedily gnaw off whatever is left in the peel

I’d advise you to greedily extract anything left. see greedy pic above.

we’re good to go. into the blender, and Robert is your mother’s brother (It’s a Brit thing, …Bob’s your uncle) and here we have it enjoy.

 

let’s go coconutty!!

Soooo I packed on the lbs over the holidays (a little before the holidays too actually) and now I’m on some kind of hellcat/fire/ (whatever sounds most scary) mission to relieve myself of the chubby lumpkins -sorry Tia- I have become. This means healthy foods….still tasty just less fun than I’d like, no experimenting with cakes and pies and generally everything yummy, stuffed with butter and cellulite adding thingies. yes that was a very big SIGH you just heard. **SIGH**

Anyhoo I’ve been wanting to make granola for some time, mainly because I don’t know why everything and it’s mama has to be chock full of high fructose corn syrup (what did you people use before it was invented?????), also because granola can be expensive and I always have to pick out the *shudders* dried fruit. Granola ingredients here in this little island paradise, can set you back a pretty penny…… and a few ugly bill denominations too. But I had oats, I had sliced almonds and I had a coconut…. sounded like a plan to me.

I found this recipe Almond Crunch Granola

ok here goes

please forgive the pictures, some were taken last night (when I made this) and my phone doesn’t have a flash ( I know this is infamy/blasphemy and all other types of a/emies you can come up with)

I had a coconut I said, as in an actual coconut, not the flaked thing you get in the supermarket, and i assumed that the recipe maker didn’t mean a real -have to be broken open and grated- coconut, so I grated and toasted it in the oven.

Just Lightly, to dry out some of the liquid and fat. Just coconut, ooh and a little nutmeg. When it finished I popped it into a container to relax, while I gave the same treatment to the almonds, just on the stove top this time. Just a light toast, so it’s a little crisp but not really brown. mixed it with the coconut ,oats and  some cinnamon, left it alone for a bit.

I mixed  oil with of honey, and  (i used the recipe specifics I think next time i’ll actually use less oil and maybe more honey, it’s not greasy tasting but i’d prefer it to be a little sweeter) PS: Vincy honey is best!!!!! (that is my opinion, this is my blog so there)

I dumped the wet mixture on the dry and went in with my hands and smushed it up so every little grain was covered….. you can use a utensil, I just prefer to get dirty with the food, plus I washed my hands before, it was safe) . The oven was still on from the toasting of the coconut so all i had to do was dump the mixture into a baking dish/cookie sheet..whatever you have on hand just make sure you so one layer…I’m sure you can just dump it in and keep mixing it a bit now and then, but I didn’t need a lot so one layer was enough for me and it toasted everything quicker.

here’s what it looks like before the oven: little bit sad.

YAY BETTER PICTURES.

and here we have the final product:

I just had some on 3 tablespoons ( no really I’m serious) of coconut Gelato I found lurking in the freezer.. it was yum, it’s also yum on it’s own, I can attest to that, I keep nibbling it every time I find myself in the kitchen (which is a lot because I drink a lot of water)

ps: it’s a lot, I have the rest in the fridge in a ziploc bag, until i need to toast up a fresh batch.

 

How to prevent rape..according to a prominent member of society

“I want to ask our young women, in particular to dress themselves properly. I know that sometimes, their mode of dress is not good at all and it is important that they dress themselves and do not give temptation to our men,” Girlyn Miguel… Minister of Education and deputy PM of St.Vincent and the Grenadines…she was speaking on the abuse women suffer at the hands of men..

 

Stop the presses:  women who are sexually abused/harassed or raped have no one but themselves to blame, seeing that their mode of dress was a temptation to the man who violated them.

Thank you Mrs Miguel!! Oh thank you thank you thank you!!!! Now I know. *crickets*

Can someone please explain this to me? How is it that in this day and age such archaic thoughts can roam freely in someone’s head and be allowed out of their lips? There’s a funny quote that goes.. “your mind is much to small to be allowed out alone”. I think many of us need to remember this before we speak.

This woman is the deputy prime minister of an island nation, she also has daughters. Heaven forbid something happens to any of them, will she be turning to them and saying “well darling if your ankles, mammary glands, neck, nose eye..(you get my drift) , were not on display, you wouldn’t be in this situation?

Women and their “slutty” clothing are not the problem, men with power, and control issues are. Rape and sexual harassment have nothing to do with what a woman wears, and a lot more to do with a man trying to exert power ‘I am man hear me roar’. The argument for sexy provocative clothing falls flat on it’s face like a souffle not done correctly… let’s ask female rape victims serving in the military just how provocative their fatigues were at the time of their assault. Wait let’s put that same question to the woman in her power suit and sneakers waiting for the train or bus after a long day in an office. Hold on, how about the girl raped by her boyfriend, family member, mother’s boyfriend…friend? Oh wait, no no the woman in her bed fast asleep under her covers, definitely her fault right..damn those provocative sheets you have covering your entire body. Come to think of it, the toddler in running around in only her diaper was definitely asking for it.

Let’s keep on giving men excuses, and let them be able to say that they can’t be wrong because a woman, a woman in a powerful position also thinks they were provoked and just unable to resist.

 

For those of you who want to say, oh she was really speaking about the lost values, self respect and morals in our society…fix your minds. You do not put those 2 things in the same statement. Those are very separate conversations. The same set of you saying that, have no problem watching women play mas and running to wine up on them, you same set get annoyed when that woman playing mas turns to you and says that she would rather you stop trying to dance with her..and you same set use this argument “but is carnival” . Just like carnival is not an excuse to wine and gyrate on someone who would rather you not do it, clothing type is not an argument or excuse for sexual assault.

And on that note, not every woman who wears tight clothing, short clothing “provocative” clothing, has loose morals, and low self esteem or self worth.

But to be on the safe safe…women, button up, wear a balaclava (full on face mask) and stockings, boots, petticoats, slips…you know what, just wear your entire wardrobe at all times. You should be safe.

 

And women please remember: ” there are two good reasons why we were given these [mammary] glands, one is to suckle the young and the next one is to comfort her husband”  (another little tidbit from the learned Deputy PM) all you single barren women out there, you know what you have to do….. for the rest of you…put those puppies away

ps: what does this men  for guys who have moobs (mam boobs) ?

 

welcome to 2012

welcome to 2012.

 

welcome to 2012

Hi all, I hope that the holiday season treated you well.

I spent my Christmas and New/old years very quietly.Christmas was a peaceful day at home …alone..then on to a friend’s house to make a lime (hang out) in the afternoon. I love being at their house around that time of year, because their mom is Christmas crazy and goes all out with decorations…though it’s the food and alcohol and company that interests me.

In the West Indies we have a very strange tradition of buying all new EVERYTHING for Christmas. I’m not one of those people. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!! And if it breaks, try to fix it first.

Old years day (Dec 31st) is usually spent in Bequia ….well my friends and I generally spend it in Bequia. There’s dinner and parties, warm weather, and white sandy beaches..a good time is usually had by all. Bequia is one of the most relaxing places I’ve ever been to, it’s like a whole other little world in itself.

This year however ( as well as last year actually) i spent old years day and night, on mainland. I like to think that that moment when the clock strikes midnight, it the time for lovers young and old to welcome the new year together, and I’m not skillful enough to kiss my own lips, so I opted out. I stayed in and watched the Dick Clarke special, drank some wine and read a book….oh Kindle I do love you.

On New years day I slept and ate, then it was off to a Cooler fete..you pretty much pack a cooler with what you want to eat and drink, pay your entry fee and hang out with friends having a merry old time. The next day was a holiday, and as we usually do, we jumped in a speedboat and headed to one of the black sand beaches (unique to volcanic islands) and had a cook out with friends. In St.Vincent a goat cook is a normal public holiday ritual. January 2nd was no different. We saw groups of people on beaches along the coast doing that very thing. We joined another boat and anchored on Mt. Wynne beach, on the Leeward side of mainland St.vincent.

The men, let me repeat that, THE MEN generally do the cooking. Oh happy day!! And the men we lime with, can cook. They did the goat 3 ways, curried, stewed and in a broth (aka, mannish water, or boil up). Please let it be known that I am impatiently awaiting the next holiday, and hoping for good weather so we can once again made a road trip (on the seas) to some destination, to relax in the sun and water while eating good food, drinking good alcohol and just basking in the glow of good friends.