Outside the box

While the Corn Islands off of Nicaragua get torn up by Tropical Storm Ida, we had a dawn as subtle as the breeze barely moving leaves and water.


We've been incredibly fortunate this year as has the Caribbean as a whole, with seriously powerful storms being deflected by shear before they reached us. As isn't unusual for this point in the season, Ida formed to the west of us. But there are people there too, in Nicaragua and Honduras and their satellite islands, in conditions much like many of us in the island chain. Poorly built wooden homes that don't withstand much at all alongside well built homes and resort hotels and compounds.

When I first paid attention to the Corn Islands, I felt an affection for them as they sound much like the island I live on now. Like Culebra, they are jewels that are slowly being discovered, with small populations. Fifty miles offshore, they are as vulnerable as they are wonderfully isolated. While they have been through much worse than Ida, it just doesn't take much on small islands to make a mess. Keep the people of Central America in your thoughts today, Ida isn't done yet.

The moon this morning, while on the wane, was showing her potholes quite clearly.
I always have this urge to tip her up just a little bit more so I can see what I can't see.

One of the last of this batch of papayas, brighter than the sun

If you aren't familiar with M.F.K. Fisher, and you have any interest in food and reading and writing and life, you should get to know her. She wrapped a few dozen lives into one, but broadly, she was a culinary writer who considered food one facet of life's pleasures, one tine of the fork of a spaghetti twirl. I came across one of her quotes yesterday that brought me to word love anew. "Probably one of the most private things in the world is an egg before it is broken." As Gail used to do when hot on sharing a point of view, I must poke you hard in the arm and say, "Am I right? Am I right?" Does Ms. Fisher not nail it? I believe she does.

Start practicing; have a thankful Thursday.

A Papayic Confession

I can't keep this a secret any longer, nor operate under false pretenses, though I've sort of tried. As much as I hate to admit it, I really do NOT like eating papayas in their fresh cut open state. I love the color of them inside (some person is probably naming a paint Tropical Papaya as I type) and out. I love the health benefits, and there are many - the enzyme action of them - they are a great digestive and a fabulous marinade component as a tenderizer.

It's not the texture, which is somewhat akin to an avocado, a gently firm slipperiness. I love avocados. Hey, I love raw oysters and clams; texture is not my issue. I even use them (papayas, not oysters or clams) in my hot sauce, as it blends beautifully with mango. But all by its naked self? I just don't like the taste. There. I've admitted it. I feel so much better. I may be able to cancel my psycho appointment with...well, that had best remain private.

So when I picked my first beautiful papaya, I threw it in the fridge to stop the ripening and to give myself time to ponder its use. Sure, I could put it in the freezer for use in hot sauce, but it was my first! It was special. It deserved a better fate. I cut it open tonight with just such a brilliant purpose in mind. It would be part of a marinade for some pork chops (the can can style, with the long tail that is served at Dinghy Dock and that I found at Milka's...and it's a really good deal, in the freezer section - check it out!) I wanted to grill.

I took some little Goya cans of OJ and grapefruit juice (who cares if it's canned for this), some minced garlic, two kinds of basil, some tarragon, racao along with the peeled and cut up papaya and threw it all in the blender. Oh dear god! The chops marinaded a few hours and then to the grill. I think this marinade would work equally well with chicken or fish (I'm going to try it with tilapia - I might try it with eggs, or chips or ice cream - but not Ann's Paradise Gifts ice cream, that would be embarrassing). It's not a confession to admit I LOVE Goya products. And yes, if they'd pay me to say that, I'd take the money in a heartbeat, so anyone who would like to let them know my blog is riddled with Goya references, please have at it. In the meantime, yippie for Goya. Milka has actually started carrying some of their Mexico products (we don't get all of their products, what is THAT about?). Click on the picture. Check it out.

So this is how it turned out, tender and muy delicioso. Wanna bite?

And no, this isn't Free Range Friday on Wednesday...it's just a cooking sort of day. Wednesday, October 7th, 2009. Ann's birthday. Happy birthday dear Ann, happy birthday to you!

A bit of this and that Thursday

And it keeps on coming:

(from MC Hawking's Crib)

The stupidest thing the anti health care reformers have said yet.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The following quote is from the Investors Business Daily, a site that bills itself as "leading commentator on the key issues of our time," and claims that their editorials are "rigorously researched."

I assure you the quote below is not taken out of context. I encourage you to read the whole editorial for yourself here.

Here's the quote:

"People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

Apparently, in the course of their rigorous research no one uncovered the well known fact that Prof. Hawking was born, and has lived his entire life, in the U.K.

I found this lovely, mystical video while looking up information on the guy whose blog referenced above.
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Then there is the local version of an old joke (and lord knows we need one, it's getting nasty over on the big island) that was sent to me. This is the *translator* version, not grammatically correct but close enough to get it.

An Israeli doctor says:
Medicine in Israel is so advanced that we will remove the
testes to a person, we put another six weeks and is already
looking for work '.

A German doctor says:
That's nothing, in Germany we got him part of the brain of a person,
put it in another, and within four weeks and are looking for work.

A Russian doctor says:
That is also nothing in Russia medicine is so advanced that it
we got half the heart to a person is put to another and in two
weeks, both are looking for work.

To which the Puerto Rican physician answers:
Nothing to do, you all are far behind, look to us
in PUERTO RICO, grabbed a person with no brain, no heart, no eggs,
We made governor and now the whole country is looking for work!

[note: I know PR is not technically a country - I fight with suppliers all the time about it - but in local parlance to many, it IS a country. However, here on Culebra, we are our own country, and that's how THAT is]

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Out in the garden the papayas are getting their first color. Lustfully, I have seen papaya trees in yards that aren't 682 feet tall, but any I've grown before have been way out of my eager, albeit height challenged reach. At last I have a tree acknowledging that my reach does not exceed my grasp and I'll be able to pluck these off with fair ease!


When gardening in America it wasn't unusual to have volunteer plants grow from seeds fallen the year before. I could weed and happily pluck off juicy, tender cherry tomatoes as a snack while working. My very first volunteer plant has grown here, an aji cabellero. Obviously growing for awhile and escaping my notice by hiding among the wild oregano I saw it today, with glee. I won't be snagging them for munching like a cherry tomato, though.


Rumor has it our road is finally going to be paved. I don't know about ours, but the road in the abomination called Coronel behind Genesis got paved (why, when the project has been legally damned, as well it should be? Why ask why?) but maybe after two years, we might see a reprieve from the ka-bumps and ka-bongs of our daily drives, rattling us and our vehicles like dice in a cage being shaken by Koko the gorilla. Isn't the mayor just a wee bit ashamed of how Culebra looks, like walking into his home and finding empty pizza boxes and dirty glasses on the floor from two years ago? If we could only hire a maid to clean it up...oh wait! He can!