Tatum's 1st Birthday

While we had planned on a huge blow out for our sweet babies first birthday, as most parents do....we were stopped dead in our tracks by Covid-19. We wanted to have a zoo themed party and take him down to California and go to the San Diego Zoo and blah blah, but we ended up with a socially acceptable social distanced impromptu picnic at the park with a few family and friends.  Hoping this summer we can maybe do something a bit bigger for him.

St.Martin

For the 'beginning' of our international date night shenanigans, I let Louis choose the first country.  As many of you know, this entails us choosing a folded up piece of paper with a country name on it, out of a ziploc bag. As luck would have it, he chose St.Martin, which was a country we hadn't done before.  As luck would UN-have it...is that even a thing?!?!....we're in the middle of the world wide Covid-19 pandemic, so some of the supplies were a bit difficult to source, and of course, I coulnd't really go into any stores like World Market or anything to see f they had any cool goodies....I doubt they would have, but you never know.

BUT, without further ado, here is St.Martin

Facts about St.Martin:

• St. Martin is the smallest island in the world divided between two countries, France and the Netherlands. The island is 34 square miles in total size
• The northern French part of the island is known as St. Martin and is an overseas collectivity of France.  The southern Dutch part  is known as St. Maarten and is one of four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
• The land mass of St. Martin is split roughly 60/40 with the larger French side covering about 20 square miles.
• Slightly more people, however, live on the Dutch side of the island (where the estimated population is 39,689) while 31,754 people reside on the French side.  Philipsburg is the biggest city of the Dutch side while Marigot is the capital of the French side.
• The division of the island between the Netherlands and France dates to March 23, 1648, under the Treaty of Concordia. Local folklore indicates that the division of land began with walking contest between a Frenchman and a Dutchman. Before they started, the Frenchman drank wine while the Dutchman drank the stronger jenever (Dutch gin), allowing the Frenchman to cover more territory and claim more land. (The Dutch say he cheated.)
• Before the French or the Dutch arrived, Christopher Columbus claimed the island for Spain on November 11, 1493. Since that day was celebrated as St. Martin Day, he named it Isla de San Martín after Saint Martin of Tours. Spain did not make settling the island a priority.
• Wanting the island’s salt, the Dutch founded a settlement in 1631, erecting Fort Amsterdam as protection from invaders. Jan Claeszen Van Campen became its first governor, and the Dutch East India Company began their salt mining operations. French and British settlements sprang up on the island as well.
•  Peter Stuyvesant was a major figure in the early history of New York City. Before he came to New York, however, Stuyvesant (born in the Netherlands in 1612) was director of the Dutch West India Company’s colony of Curacao from 1642 to 1644. In 1644, Stuyvesant led an attack on the Spanish-held island of St. Martin. A cannonball injured Stuyvesant’s right leg, causing it to be amputated below the knee. When his leg was replaced with a wooden peg, and he became known as “Peg leg Pete.” A year later, in May 1645, Peg leg Pete Stuyvesant was selected by the Dutch West India Company as Director-General of the New Netherland colony, which became New York City.
• Despite its short runway that is located between a large hill and a beach, major airlines fly large jet aircraft into St. Martin’s Princess Juliana International Airport. 
• There is no physical border between the Dutch and French sides of the island but there are 37 white sandy beaches to enjoy.

Lolos are a roadside BBQ joint that serve various fare, but ribs seems to be a standard staple.  No one that I found online declares to have an a exact recipe, but i did find a recipe from a chef in St.Martin for BBQ ribs as well as johnny cakes which also seem to be an standard staple with most meals.

St.Martin Lolo style Ribs

Ingredients:

♦ 3lb barbecue ribs
♦ 2 tbsp garlic powder
♦ 3 tbsp cumin
♦ 1 tbsp pepper
♦ 1 tbsp paprika
♦ 1/3 cup soy sauce

Directions:

For the ribs:  With a sharp knife, remove the silver sinew on the underside of the meat (or ask your butcher to do it). Next, combine the dry ingredients and soy sauce then rub on both sides of the ribs. Once the ribs have been evenly covered, place in glass dish, cover and refrigerate overnight. When you’re ready to start cooking, preheat the oven to 350F and pre-bake the ribs in the oven to tenderize, for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Afterwards, throw the ribs on the grill for 15 minutes each side. When there’s just a few minutes to go, slather the ribs in barbecue sauce. Chi Chi recommends combining a few dashes of brown sugar and garlic powder with Kraft barbecue sauce – it’s as easy as that!

Caribbean Coleslaw, via Immaculate bites

Ingredients:

• • 1-2 tablespoons Dijon mustard or to taste
  • 2-4 Tablespoons Combination Honey and/or Brown Sugar
  • ½ Jalapenos pepper minced about 1 Tablespoons or more adjust to taste
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, or freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon Caribbean hot sauce adjust to taste
  • 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 6 cups cored and shredded Napa Savoy, green and/or red cabbage
  • 1 Large Ripe Mango peeled , sliced or Julienne
  • 1 cup shredded carrots
  • 2-3 diced scallion more or less
  • White pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup minced parsley leaves
  • 1/2 cup nuts almonds, sun flower seeds more or less nut
  • Salt to taste

Directions:

• Combine all the dressing ingredients in a jar or bowl;  honey, the hot sauce, mustard, white pepper, garlic, vinegar, lemon, Jalapeños pepper, and olive oil : Shake like crazy -to emulsify for about 2 minutes. Set aside. Be sure to shake it before each use.
• Arrange Cabbage, Coleslaw, Carrots, scallons, mago in a bowl.
• Add dressing to salad and toss to coat right before serving.Sprinkle with parsley and almonds
• You may chill at this point. Serve when ready

St.Martin Johnny Cakes via St Maarten Nectar

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2-4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons room temperature butter
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and work in the butter with your fingers.
2. Add 1 cup of water to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
3. Sprinkle some extra flour onto a flat surface and knead the dough until smooth and elastic. Feel free to sprinkle additional flour on the surface as needed.
4. Allow the dough to sit in a clean bowl covered with a towel for at least 30 minutes.
5. After dough has rested, heat the oil in frying pan over medium heat.
6. Create small balls of dough and roll out the dough into circles on a lightly-floured surface with a rolling pin or the palm of your hand. Be sure to not make them too thin.
7. Pierce each piece with a fork or sharp knife several times and then drop in hot oil.
8. Fry on each side until golden brown.
9. Allow to cool and drain on paper towel or brown paper bag.

Rice and Peas via food.com

Ingredients:

• 8

  ounces small dried red beans or 8 ounces red kidney beans
• 1

  quart water
• 16

  16 ounces chicken stock or 16 ounces water
• 1⁄2

  cup coconut cream
• 2

  teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
• 1⁄2

  teaspoon ground allspice
• 2

  scallions, finely chopped
• 1⁄2

  cup white onion, chopped
• 2

  minced garlic cloves
• 1

  teaspoon black pepper
• 1 1⁄2

  teaspoons kosher salt
• 1

  scotch bonnet pepper(left whole)
• 1

  teaspoon brown sugar
• 2 1⁄4

  cups uncooked long grain rice

Directions:

•   Rinse and sort beans and place in a stockpot.
• Cover with several inches of water and soak overnight,-or- bring to a boil, boil gently for 3 minutes, then remove from heat, cover, and allow to sit undisturbed for 1 hour.
• Drain and rinse beans.
• Bring to a boil with chicken stock, water, and coconut cream.
• Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 1/2-2 hours or until beans are tender and creamy.
• Add the thyme, allspice, scallion, onion, garlic, scotch bonnet, brown sugar, uncooked rice, salt and pepper.
• Check the level of liquid over the rice and make sure there is at least one inch of liquid (if not, you may add water or broth to cover).
• Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until rice is tender.
• Serve hot as a side dish, with Jamaican hot sauce as a condiment, if desired.
• For Vegetarian use water not the chicken broth or stock.

Easter 2020

This Easter was a bit different than most due to Covid-19 and the quarantine issue.  While our celebration was far smaller than we were hoping for, just us three, we were able to make an Easter dinner and get it dropped off for everyone.

my lover got me some Easter flowers

Universal Yums: Scandinavia

We have decided to start over with all of our international date nights.  I would like to include the recipes this time around for the meal as well as try to watch a movie.  I know we did that at the very beginning, but kinda strayed away after awhile...I'm not even sure why.  It will be similar in concept, in where we just draw a random country, and I will try hard not to duplicate recipes, but I make no promises!!

We will also continue to get our monthly Universal Yums box, which we will also do in a similar fashion to those countries we randomly select, so you will probably definitely see some countries replicated.

Anyways- on to our destination!

This months box was Scandinavian themed.  There's a bit of debate as to what countries exactly make up the Scandinavian region, and for the purpose of our meal, we went with the original three: Sweden, Norway and Denmark.  The box included treats from Finland and Iceland as well.

We decided to do one dish from each of the three original regions: Swedish meatballs from Sweden, Burning Love - (Brændende Kærlighed)from Denmark, and skolebrod from Norway. 

Svenska Kottbullar (Swedish Meatballs)
 I used a recipe off allrecipes.com for this.  I cant guarantee they're 100% authentic, but from all my research and millions of Swedish meatball recipes I looked at, it seems to be pretty close- as they all vary a bit from family to family.

Ingredients:

• 2 slices day old bread, crushed into fine crumbs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 small onion, mined
• 2/3 pound ground beef
• 1/3 pound ground pork
• 1 egg
• 1 TBSP brown sugar, optional
• 1 tsp salt, pepper to taste
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger, optional
• 1 TBSP butter
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 3 TBSP flour
• 2 cups beef broth
• 4 oz sour cream

Directions:

1. preheat over to 350
2. Place the bread crumbs into a small bowl, and mix in the cream. Allow to stand until crumbs absorb the cream, about 10 minutes. While the bread is soaking, melt 1 teaspoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat, and cook and stir the onion until it turns light brown, about 10 minutes. Place onion into a mixing bowl; mix with the ground beef, ground pork, egg, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. Lightly mix in the bread crumbs and cream.
3. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Pinch off about 1 1/2 tablespoon of the meat mixture per meatball, and form into balls. Place the meatballs into the skillet, and cook just until the outsides are brown, about 5 minutes, turning the meatballs often. Insides of the meatballs will still be pink. Place browned meatballs into a baking dish, pour in chicken broth, and cover with foil.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the meatballs are tender, about 40 minutes. Remove meatballs to a serving dish.
5. To make brown gravy, pour pan drippings into a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk the flour into the pan drippings until smooth, and gradually whisk in enough beef broth to total about 2 1/2 cups of liquid. Bring the gravy to a simmer, whisking constantly until thick, about 5 minutes. Just before serving, whisk in the sour cream. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Serve the gravy with the meatballs.

braendende-kaerlighed (burning love)

I used a recipe from danishnet.com for this dish and it was fantastic....mashed potatoes with bacon and fried onion.....how could it be bad?!?!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound potatoes
• 2 onions
• 1/2 pound bacon, preferably Danish
• 2 TBSPs butter, preferably Danish
• 2 tsps chives or parsley
• salt and pepper

Directions:

• Peel or scrub potatoes, and boil them for 20-25 minutes in unsalted water or until tender enough to mash
• Cut bacon in small cubes
• Fry bacon on frying pan, and place on platter with paper towel when done
• Chop onions, and fry them in the bacon grease
• Mash the potatoes and mix with butter and salt
• Serve the mashed potatoes with a mix of onions and bacon on top
• Sprinkle the dish with chives or parsley before serving

Tip: To make this Danish dish even better and more authentic, serve with pickled beets on the side.

  

 skolleboller, Norwegian 'school bread', courtesy The Transplanted Baker
These buns are awesome....I absolutely love the cardamom in them.  It's not a spice we use frequently here in America, but it really makes these little dandies fantastic.

Ingredients:

• For the buns:
• 2 cups (5 dl) milk (preferably whole, but 1% or 2% will work too), luke warm
• 2 oz. (50 grams) fresh yeast, or 2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup (50 g) sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cardamom
• 6  - 7 cups (650- 750 grams) All-Purpose flour
• 
  
• For the vanilla custard:
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
• 1 3/4 cups (4 dl) whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla sugar
• 1 Tablespoons cornstarch
•  
• For the sugar glaze and topping:
• 1 cup (100 grams) powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
• 1 teaspoon water
• + desiccated coconut (sweetened or unsweetened) for topping

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the luke warm milk. Add the melted (and cooled) butter, the sugar, cardamom,  and 5 cups (550 grams) of the flour. Blend well.

2. Slowly add more flour until a smooth, slightly sticky dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and knead for a minute or two until a soft dough is formed. If needed,  add another tablespoon or two of flour to prevent sticking.

3. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic, and allow to rise to double its’ size, about 1 hour.

This would be a good time to make your vanilla custard (ingredients above and instructions at the bottom):

4. Punch the dough down, divide into small balls (12-14 will make the traditional, large skoleboller, while 22-24 will make nice, little kid portions).

5. Form each ball into an evenly round, flat bun. Place on a parchment-lined baking tray with at least an inch between each one. Cover with a clean dishcloth and allow to make a second rise for about 20 minutes. In the mean time, preheat oven to 400F (200C).

6. After the 20 minute rising period is up, use the back of a spoon to create a good-sized indentation in the center of each bun (about the size of a soup spoon).

7. Place a generous spoonful of the egg custard in the center of each indentation. Bake on the bottom rack for 10-12 minutes. Take your skoleboller out when they begin to slightly brown on the tops and the egg custard is just starting to set.

8. Allow to cool on a wire rack (The vanilla custard will set a bit once cooled down). Once your buns are cooled, you can drizzle on your confectioner’s sugar glaze – simply whisk the powdered sugar and water together. The glaze should be white, not translucent, and should be able to drizzle but not run, add more sugar or water, accordingly).

9. Once glazed, dip your buns into a bowl or plate full of the desiccated coconut and swirl around a bit until all of the glaze is sufficiently covered with the coconut- careful not to destroy your custard centers.

10. Serve with coffee and milk at home, at school, at the office, at social hour, at a birthday party,  on a picnic, on a hike, or anywhere else that seems fit.

To make the vanilla custard:

1. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together very well.

2. Bring the whole milk to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Slowly pour the egg yolk mixture into the milk, whisking briskly. Add the vanilla.

3. While your egg and milk mixture is still simmering, add the cornstarch, little-by-little, whisking briskly. Allow the cornstarch to fully dissolve and the custard to thicken while stirring the entire time. It will take about 3- 5 minutes for the custard to thicken enough.

4. Allow to cool on a ice water bath. 

Dinner was awesome! After dinner we dug into the box and tried some of the goodies from Scandinavia!

Once we were done with all that, it was time to kick back and watch a movie.  We chose Klown, a comedy from Denmark.