Sugar Apple

Lobster Salad

by abigail on December 31, 2011

So you’re driving through town and there’s a guy by the roundabout with a wheelbarrow full of live lobsters. You’d stop, right? Even if you’ve just come from the dock where you bought a load of swordfish straight off the boat. And your fisherman friend was stopping by later to drop off a wahoo he’d caught that morning. An embarrassment of briny riches. Anyway, I firmly believe there’s no such thing as too much fresh seafood. [click to continue…]

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My Christmas Lights

December 25, 2011

Photo by Audrey Blake “It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags! And he puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more.” Dr. Seuss*

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Red Velvet Cupcakes

December 13, 2011

I’d love to know who gave home cooks the idea that scratch cakes are hard to make. If you’re new to baking, you might not want to start with génoise or angel food cake, but there’s certainly nothing difficult about devil’s food or that workhorse of the Southern kitchen, the pound cake. Just follow the instructions carefully [...]

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Vietnamese Turkey Noodle Soup

December 5, 2011

It is a truth universally acknowledged* that the best thing about Thanksgiving dinner is the leftovers. Turkey sandwiches, turkey pie, turkey hash, turkey burritos, turkey tetrazzini, turkey soup. Turkey, turkey, turkey….until we all beg for mercy and the cook of the house tries to convince the family that a nice leg of lamb would be just the ticket [...]

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Ode to the Green Bean Casserole

November 21, 2011

I think it’s time we show the lowly green bean casserole a little love. Like Mr. Dangerfield, it gets no respect. Even in our family it’s referred to as White Trash Casserole. This annoys our father greatly. Still, those who would sniff and turn their noses up at the simple little side just can’t seem to leave well enough alone.

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Italian-American Sunday Sauce

November 14, 2011

I collect recipes the way Lindsay Lohan collects DUIs. I sure don’t need another one but, next thing you know, there’s a flashing light in the rearview mirror and a new recipe for meat sauce in the binder. So what if I was a vegetarian at the time? No cook ever turns down a good recipe.

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Happy Halloween

October 29, 2011

All you witches and werewolves, ghouls and goblins, fairy princesses and flesh-eating zombies, get your scary self down to Nanny Cay this afternoon for Cedar International School’s annual Halloween Party and Costume Parade. Everyone is welcome and admission is only $1 (kids under 5 get in free). The party starts at 3:00 and the costume parade [...]

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Sweet Summer Corn

August 4, 2011

I’m still in North Carolina. Still eating perfectly fresh summer vegetables. Life is good. My dad and I dropped Audrey off at camp on Sunday and took the scenic route back home. A much lovlier drive than the freeway and we were on a mission. We were searching for barbecue. He’d read about a place in Shelby called Bridges [...]

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Southern Fried Chicken

July 25, 2011

I sometimes feel I’m going backwards, at least where food is concerned. The more time I spend in the kitchen (and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen), the more my cooking seems to be undergoing a process of distillation, simplification. I’ve almost totally lost interest in what the chefs are doing these days and taking [...]

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Mother-in-Law

July 13, 2011

There is a certain degree of risk involved in working with lots of hot peppers. No matter how well I wash my hands after preparing peppers, it seems there’s always a bit of heat left on my fingers that inevitably makes its way onto my face or, worse, in my eyes. Then there was the time we were living on [...]

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I’m Still Here…

July 4, 2011

…and eating well in the BVI. Alas, life sometimes intrudes on writing and this is one of those times. It started with a dead operating system on my computer (I fixed it all by myself, though I did misplace a lot of email so if I haven’t answered you, that’s why). Add final exams, graduation, house guests, visiting family, day [...]

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Caribbean Red Snapper, Part Two

June 10, 2011

So you stuffed and baked a massive whole snapper and you’re left with the head and carcass and hopefully some of the meat and stuffing. What now? As promised in my last post, here’s a recipe that will extract every last bit of flavor clinging to your leftover fish. After all, that snapper gave his life for your pleasure. Pay respect by utilizing him [...]

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Caribbean Red Snapper, Part One

June 2, 2011

It’s too hot to cook. It’s certainly too hot to turn on the oven. In this weather, it’s hard to consider eating anything much but chilled mangoes or a snowcone. The heat is oppressive and I now have a true understanding of what it is to swelter. It’s summer in the Caribbean…and it’s starting early this year.

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Easy Roasted Tomatoes

May 23, 2011

I’ve got plenty of recipes requiring advance planning, keen attention to detail, special ingredients or tools, lots of measuring, a certain amount of fiddling, perhaps even hard work. This isn’t one of them. In fact, it isn’t really a recipe at all, just a simple method for oven-roasting fresh summer tomatoes.

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Macerated Berries

May 9, 2011

If you’re located on Tortola and you love strawberries, I suggest you hightail it down to Riteway immediately. Fresh strawberries are down to $2.99 a pound! Go on, you can come back and finish reading this post later.

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