From the monthly archives:

December 2009

Tips on Cooking for a Crowd

December 28, 2009

Another Christmas has come and gone and I must admit I made it through the holiday season with a modicum of Christmas spirit. Not exactly Scrooge, but certainly not my usual self, overflowing with cheer, going overboard on the present buying, drinking gallons of egg nog and annoying Bones with an endless stream of carols on the [...]

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Merry Christmas from Sugar Apple

December 24, 2009

I should have known it was a bad sign when our local telephone company, Cable & Wireless, changed its name to Lime. It’s like AT&T renaming themselves Chill or Laze. For those of you not up on your Caribbean lingo, to lime is to basically hang out and do nothing. As in – “what are you doing tonight?”. [...]

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Vegetable Strata

December 16, 2009

I’ve always liked the idea of a breakfast strata – a hearty, cheesy, eggy breakfast casserole that I can assemble the day before I need it and bake the next day. Perfect for occasions when time is at a premium but I want to serve something a little special. Maybe I have friends coming for brunch. Or house guests. Or it’s Christmas morning [...]

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Stuffed Christophene

December 14, 2009

I call it christophene. But you can also call it christophine, mirliton, chayote, choko, chocho, chuchu, chow-chow, alligator pear, vegetable pear, sayote, tayota, Madeira marrow or xuxu. I’m sure there are a few I’m missing. If there’s ever an award for the vegetable with the most names, christophene is a sure contender.

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Spaghetti and Meatballs

December 10, 2009

My love for anything and everything Italian is well-known to regular readers of this blog. And eight years in New York instilled a similar affection for Italian-American cooking. A Sunday sauce (a.k.a. gravy) is a glorious thing. A New York slice is still the gold standard by which I judge any and all pizza, including that in [...]

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Trinidad Beef Curry

December 5, 2009

The Christmas winds have finally arrived, bringing cooler weather…though cool is a relative term in the Caribbean. I jump at any excuse to make a hearty, warming beef stew and thought I’d try my hand at a Trinidad-style beef curry (or curry beef as they sometimes say in Trinidad). Devica, being my resident expert on Trini cooking but [...]

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