Spouses' Kitchen

My good friend Clare started a recipe blog called Spouses' Kitchen.  The cool thing is it's collaborative!  Anyone who she adds as a writer can post to the blog.  You can view my first post here.  I'm making Beef with Peppers for dinner tomorrow!  Why tomorrow?  Go check it out at Spouses' Kitchen!

Courtesy of Ree at The Pioneer Woman

Birthday in Dominica

  I've celebrated my birthday in many places at this point: Atwater, Azusa, England, Claremont, La Habra, Orange, and now Dominica! This was definitely the wettest birthday on record.  Actually, I can't recall any other birthday where rain was involved at all.  But it was also my first birthday in years where I haven't had to work!  Last year, I was pretty much at school until 9 pm becuase of Back-to-School Night.  No fun!  My first order of business was.. Iced Coffee!  Without a coffee maker, it's been a luxury to have a coffee these days.

  Half way to the university, there is a wanna-be coffee shop called Rituals.  It even has the green starbucks-esque font lettering on the front sign.  When I got home, the maid was just going into my apartment.  So, while the maid mopped, scrubbed, and cleaned, I Skyped with Kristen in Egypt.  (If anyone wants to ever Skype me, my name is: katieolsonprice.)  I enjoyed my afternoon reading all the wonderful birthday wishes.  Then it was time to get ready for Chris's White Coat Ceremony.  Knowing there is NO shopping on the island, I had picked and brought a new birthday shirt with me.

  We headed off into the rain for his ceremony.  The White Coat Ceremony is when the medical students get their first official white coat, which symbolizes the professional aspects of becoming a doctor.  The students read an Honor Code, which is basically an oath to do no harm, and are pinned.

  I kid you not, they played "We are The Champions" while the students were going up to be pinned!  It was a true Laugh Out Loud moment.  The Prime Minister of Dominica was there, and gave a short speech.  Apparently, he is the youngest head of state anywhere in the world right now.  We had a few snacks, ducked out of the rain for a while, and as soon as it cleared we headed home.

  We had to pop in to Rituals on the way home to wait out the rain again.  By the time we got home, I was done with walking in the mud for the day.  We ordered in from The Tomato, which is one of the more expensive, but really yummy restaurants here.  All restaurants deliver in Dominica, even the coffee shop!  I had penne pesto for dinner, and Orlando Bloom Chocolate WOW Cake for dessert.  Supposedly, while they were filming Pirates of the Caribbean here, the crew would frequent The Tomato and this was Orlando's favorite cake.  All in all, it was a good birthday.  Not quite as extravagant as in years past, but I'm learning that sometimes simple is just as satisfying.  :)

Rainy day in Dominica

  What a lazy, rainy Sunday here in Dominica.  I spent most of the day catching up on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, and then reading.  That show cracks me up.  I don't know who annoys me more, Danielle from NJ or Kelly from NY.  It rained on and off all day.. but that doesn't mean it was much cooler.  I tried to take a video of the rain... but it might be too small for you to really see.

  The good news is that I finally made a decent dinner!  Homemade mac and cheese, Katie-style.  Milk here is either powdered, or boxed.  I went with the boxed milk that has probably been sitting on the shelf for months, but it worked!  I cooked the mac and drained it.  Then I used the same pan to saute some onions and hot dogs in butter.  I know what you're thinking, does she put hot dogs in everything?  And the answer is: only when it's the only meat available.  Although, I do think hot dogs and mac really do go together.  Once they were nice and browned I added the flour to make my roux and added the weird warm boxed milk.  When it started simmering I threw in my crumbled cheddar cheese, added the mac and stirred.  Viola!  Served with a little fresh onion on top, it was the best meal I've had in Dominica yet! 

  Tomorrow is Chris's first official day of school.  I don't think either of us are quite prepared for what's ahead.. but that's part of the adventure!

Dinners in Dominica

  The food in Dominica is what you make of it, and I've been having trouble. I've tried to make several meals, most have been disasters. The first meal, spaghetti with sausage and marinara sauce, had potential until the propane tank ran out half way through cooking the pasta. I ended up dumping it all in a bowl and microwaving it. Bleh.
  Then we moved and got a new stove! For my first meal here I very unsuccessfully made a stir fry. There were several problems. With rice, it's a 2 to 1 ration rice to water. Of course, I did a 1 to 1 ratio until halfway through when I realized my mistake and added the other cups of water, only to have the rice turn out mushy. Also, it didn't occur to me to thaw the stir fry veggies beforehand. I was lcuky enough to find them at Tina's grocery store. The result was a very watery mess of veggies in the pan, to which I mistakenly just added some soy sauce and the rice and called it done. Needless to say, it was not good.
  Thinking I needed a break from cooking, the next night we ate out at a place called Riverside, which you guessed it, is by the riverside! haha.. I had a yummy plate of Chicken Pad Thai which tasted great but ended up turning my stomach by the nights end. Next was the Ross Welcome BBQ dinner, which was decent. It was a hamburger, with onions, ketchup, and mayo but no where near the ballpark of a good In-N-Out. Sadly, there were no side dishes left for us at the end of the line.
  Last night I was really craving Mexican. I found a can of real refried beans at Tina's Grocery (!) for 7.95EC, which works out to be $3.06 American. No, this is not one of those double sized cans.

  So I made up some ground beef with onions, garlic, cumin, chili.. you know, taco spices.  And feeling lazy because I'm literally dripping with sweat at this point, I tossed the can of beans in too and dubbed it mexican chili!  I served it with flour tortillas for dipping or rolling burritos with.  I bought the tortillas frozen an hour and a half away in the city of Rosseau, the capital of Dominica.  Imagine having to go to the capital city just for tortillas! There is more to that story, but I'll do a shopping post some other time.  Like I was saying, I called it dinner.

  Looks kinda gross, but it was pretty good.  Tonight though Chris tells me that his stomach was upset all day.  Now, who knows if it was the mexican chili from last night, or any number of other reasons.  Not to mention that he starts medical school on Monday.  I'm hoping it was some reason other than my dinner.
  Tonight was twisty pasta with hot dogs, onions, garlic, cheese and marina.  Kinda odd combination, but it was the best I could do with what I had.  It turned out... alright.  *Sigh* Generally, I consider myself to be a better than average cook.  Dominica has made me lose my groove.  Super expensive groceries, boiling temperatures, propane stoves, and lack of ingredients are my excuse.  But that's not going to fly for much longer.