At the Market

May 12, 2010
A Nevis fisherman and his catch

Grocery shopping on a small island can be hit or miss at times.  I learned long ago that menus and shopping lists are only rough drafts.  Keep your plans flexible until you hit the shops and see what’s on offer.  Otherwise, disappointment looms.  Instead of planning for tagliatelle with a pork and mushroom ragu, try for pasta with [...]

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My Brother, His Bride and a Beach

May 6, 2010
Bragg and Erin

The bride wore flip flops.  So did the groom and the Registrar.   There were in fact no proper shoes at all on display when my youngest brother, Bragg, and his fiance, Erin, became husband and wife Saturday on the beach at Mango Bay, Virgin Gorda.  I do love a beach wedding.

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Feast or Fetish

April 23, 2010
Thumbnail image for Feast or Fetish

I’ve been using my little break from technology to catch up on my reading.  Or more correctly, my re-reading.  Like any book lover, I love finding new writers.  But I get just as much pleasure visiting with old friends.  Recently I’ve spent time with Pat Conroy, Michael Lee West, Clyde Edgerton, and Cassandra King, all authors with a decided Southern [...]

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Sugar Apple Unplugged

April 20, 2010
Shakshuka

You may have noticed a distinct lack of activity recently here at Sugar Apple.  I haven’t been on vacation or anything exciting like that.  I’ve just been taking a little break from technology.  I can’t remember the last time I unplugged, went for days without turning on the computer.  It’s pretty refreshing and I highly recommend it.  I must admit [...]

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Behind the Camera

April 7, 2010
Audrey

Looks like Bones is not going to be the only photographer in the family.  Audrey managed to talk him out of a Nikon D100 and she spent much of the long Easter weekend photographing friends, family and food (that’s my girl!).  Like father, like daughter.

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When Life Gives You Limes…

March 26, 2010
Tropical Key Lime Pie

I don’t serve dessert on a regular basis and tend to save the baking of pies and cakes for birthdays, holidays and miscellaneous festive occasions.  When a dinner guest asks what they can bring, my answer is usually “dessert.”  I’ve been known to make a quick cobbler or crumble when the urge strikes.  But a person with a [...]

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Cheesy Grits Casserole

March 23, 2010
Cheesy Grits Casserole

Bones and I have what you might call a mixed marriage.  I, being a born and bred Southerner, love grits.  Bones, being English, does not.  Sometimes a girl gets homesick and requires an infusion of grits and is willing to subject her husband to grits, no matter the outcome.  In such cases, I always break out [...]

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A Birthday Lasagna

March 21, 2010
Lasagna with Meat Sauce and Besciamella

I bought a book on etiquette shortly after Audrey was born, assuming that any great-grandchild of my gracious Southern grandmothers would naturally grow up to be extremely well-behaved, polite even.  Bones, on the other hand, declared loudly that he had no intention of raising a quiet, mousy, namby pamby, mealy-mouthed child with no mind of her own.  He [...]

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Bones and the Rainy Day

March 9, 2010
Bougainvillea

When you see a photograph here at Sugar Apple that makes you say “wow“, chances are it was taken by my husband, Bones.  I’m learning (slowly) to use a camera, primarily to capture the food I’m cooking.  Bones, on the other hand, is a professional.

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What’s In A Name?

March 3, 2010
Caribbean Ratatouille

Or to rephrase the question, when you’re making a “traditional” recipe, how far can you stray from the original and still call a dish by name?  Like most cooks, I set my own (often shifting) parameters.  And my parameters may waver more than yours because of my location and the unavailability of certain ingredients and equipment.  I’ve run across more [...]

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Kitchen Doodads, Gadgets and Gizmos

February 26, 2010
Kitchen gadgets

Do we really need lots of specialized equipment and gadgets to be good cooks?  I find the more time I spend in the kitchen, the less of my clever gewgaws I actually use.  I sometimes open the utensil drawer in the kitchen and wonder what I was thinking.  What compelled me to buy these things?  I have not one, but two of those weird claw-like [...]

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Jamaican Pot Roast

February 24, 2010
Jamaican Pot Roast

My last post on why I cook has me has thrown me into a fit of kitchen nostalgia.  I feel like the kid in The Sixth Sense, only instead of dead people, I see fried chicken, biscuits, and pork chops smothered in cream gravy.  And I see Grandmother’s pot roast.    Her pot roast was a glorious paradigm of simple home [...]

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Why I Cook

February 22, 2010
Why I Cook

Michael Ruhlman, a fantastic writer and collaborator on the best cookbook we received this Christmas, posted a challenge to bloggers to write about why we cook.  You can read it here.  Never one to back away from a challenge, at least where food is concerned, here I go.  Though the more I think about it, the more I [...]

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Spicy Caribbean Gumbo

February 20, 2010
Spicy Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

The Caribbean, land of perpetual summer.  But we do have seasons – and not just hurricane season and tourist season (which reminds me of a fridge magnet someone once sent us…”why is it called tourist season if we can’t shoot at ‘em?”)  This time of year, the heat of the day is tempered by wonderfully cool nights when [...]

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Mystery Gourd

February 14, 2010
Snake gourd

Bones bought these pretty gourds from one of the farmers exhibiting at BVI Farmers’ Week last Saturday.  The farmer called them snake gourds but didn’t offer any direction on how to prepare them (assuming they are indeed edible).

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