Making A Menu (At Last!)

If you are looking for a bit of greeness in your life, one marvellous way to do so is to make a menu for the week (or two, or three, or even the month if you are that organised!) Not only do you get to save money shopping, as you know exactly what you need and buy that and that only, you also save time and shopping trips (and petrol if you drive to the shops!) because you have a list and can get everything on it, and you waste less, as you don't end up throwing away things you forgot to use etc.
Ok, I know all this off by heart and backwards, so why do I still not manage to achieve such a simple thing each week? Anyway, rather than rueing the past I am celebrating the fact that this week we actually have a menu! At present it is scruffily written on the back of an old envelope (more greeness!) but at least it is made.
One of my aims here has been to cook with local foods, and bit by bit I am trying. However, my other aim is to cook healthily and organically where possible. The two don't always go together... Then there is my desire to buy more local produce. But aside from some veg (and not all that much it would seem), the main thing the island produces is...sugar! Sugar, sugar and more sugar! I would actually like to try healthier alternatives to sugar, such as Sucanat, but then I feel bad at not buying the one local produce here! Oh, shopping is always such a mindfield! In fact, shopping locally here, seems to refer to buying produce from France!
I won't go into the further dilemma of trying to buy frugally - however, I have started lists of what costs what where and I will try and keep my shopping down to a trip to Carrefour every other Monday and then a trip to Leader Price on the other one and a trip to the market in the week, with a trip to the Biocoop (organic shop) thrown in every now and then.

I will be trying to cook extra each week, but my freezer is tiny and is already full of ice (I miss our no frost one!) and baby food for Baby JoJo, and unfortunately the big freezer has gone kaput downstairs, so it is not as easy to freeze things as I would like.

Back to the menu. Well, before that, I chuckled when Mum was over as she apparently told her vicar's wife that she would be eating pasta and tomato sauce and broccoli over here, as that is what I mostly cook - and lo and behold that is what I had planned for that day! How well she knows me... So another aim (and use of menu) is to cook with just a little bit more variety (though you must remember I have two rather fussy under 4s!). Oh, and another advantage is it allows you to soak and defrost things in time. If you remember to consult it!
Menu (and things to do)
Monday - colombo au poulet (defrost meat Sunday - I used a whole chicken as it is tastier, and cut off the breast meat for to make some meals for Baby JoJo. It made enough for another meal)
Tuesday - pasta carbonara - as I am out all morning it is my pasta day - quick and easy! The family loves it with croutons. If there is any leftover, my nephew always joins us, but unfortunately he was out of luck today!
Wednesday - sandwiches for lunch as we will be off to the beach.
Thursday - Chick pea curry and brown rice (soak the chick peas and the rice the day before. I've not made this before but am basing it on this recipe)
Friday - Minestrone soup (this is a recipe from my Gina Ford weaning book - need to soak beans)
Saturday - Bertie is out all morning so I keep it simple and make leftovers - I think we shall have tuna and potato pie that is in the freezer
Sunday - we eat with Mamie! saves cooking after church. She usually makes beef with rice and peas which is a traditional Sunday dish here

As Mum discovered, evenings are a lot more stressful, as Bertie is not back from teaching till 7pm or later, and I often have lots of tired, fractious or hyper children (not all mine!) running around the place! So it needs to be simple...It tends to be one of the following, but still needs a bit of work:
Salad and baguette
Omlette/scrambled egg (each time I hope the girls will start liking it, but they still don't!)
Pancakes (made with wholemeal flour and eggs from Mamie's hens!)
Soup

Oh, and breakfast is a choice of...
Bread and local jam (we are waiting for a new batch from Mamie!)
Porridge with cinammon and banana
Granola - this is my new discovery, based on this recipe here and with lots of grated coconut from Pika. It is most delicious and a big hit with Bertie!

If anyone has menu tips or suggestions for healthy meals with Caribbean ingredients I am all ears to hear!

Peeking At Pika

Tuesday (both 4 and 11 November)
You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl...after 40 years plus of city living, Mum showed she is still a country girl at heart by her appreciation and enjoyment of the Guadeloupean countryside - aka Pika!
We had two lovely mornings there and I think she tasted pretty much everything growing, and photographed almost every plant! Well, perhaps not quite....! So here are some selected highlights. (I have planned a separate post for the plants so I haven't included those here. They will come one of these days!)
Mum enjoying some sugar cane - chew, suck and spit it out! And a cuddle with her favourite Baby JoJo

Grandma and Papy in the midst of a tour of the newly ploughed field. This is the close up shot for Evs!

This is a rare one of Papy smiling - usually he looks sooo solemn!

A tender moment between Papy and Baby JoJo

I told you recently about the tractor ploughing the field and here it is in action. The part on the far left of the picture is Bertie's section and he went shopping at a garden centre last week for tomatoes, parsley and lettuce which he then hurriedly planted on Saturday. Why hurriedly? Because here they are great believers in planting according to the moon's cycle (which I referred to here) and as it was the full moon that weekend, that was the time to do it! I looked up a few websites about this, and various farmers testified to the validity of this claim, that their plants grew much more when planted as the moon waxed rather than when it waned.

The other "Gwada myth" Papy has shared with me is that women shouldn't touch certain trees at that time of the month. These include the avocado tree, lemon tree, orange tree and cherry tree, which he termed fragile, but not the goyave tree, mango tree or star fruit tree! I asked what would happen and he said that the tree would dry up and die... Having previously scoffed at this, I googled it and discovered research done many years ago suggested women had a toxic effect on plants and animals during this time if they touched them....any thoughts?!
Father and son hard at work!
Bertie's sister in France kindly sent over a swing I think she found in a garage sale (here, passing an item to someone coming over is a common postal method!). Bertie put it up on the manguier and it is a big improvement on the plank of wood previously used!

As you can imagine, the girls are thrilled with this new toy! Their favourite activity is when they get twisted round and round and round and then left to SPIIIIIIIN!

Mamie has a separate plot of land where she is mainly harvesting sweet potatoes at the moment. When I see them all hard at work in the boiling sun, digging and hoeing, and getting rid of all those weeds that the constant rain produces, it reminds me how much I admire those who work the land to produce the vital crops for us all. When I see her hat however, it reminds me of one worn by our friend Samson!

Sisterly love!

Back To Sainte Anne

Monday (3 November)
Bertie's sister kindly took LissaLou in her car (the girls were fighting over who got to go with her, as she has the coveted air con - ironically, the windows were wide open and she didn't even put it on, but I think being with the "Big Girls" was pleasure enough for LissaLou!) as well as her daughter and her friend and her granddaughter to the beach at Ste Anne so we could show Mum what real sea is like - none of this freezing North Sea business! It was nice that the adults weren't outnumber by the children for a change!We have a float for Baby JoJo but don't often use it now as he is always trying to drink the sea water. It is easier to keep him out this way!Just to remind you how blue it is!This brave lady made it into the water and quite deep down - I had forgotten she isn't a strong swimmer, so well done! Evidently the sun, sea and sand life suits her!

Bertie's sister and niece

Our friend who kindly lends us her car - enjoying a few minutes peace and a beautiful evening

Hitting The Shops And The Pool

Friday
Whilst Bertie was at work, we took the girls and their cousin to the shopping centre near us. They love sitting in this car, so for a change I actually put a euro in it to get it movingOh if only I could be there too, Baby JoJo squealed!I have been thinking about getting a paddling pool for a while and so was delighted to find this one complete with ball and float. It is now up on on our balcony and the girls have a lovely time splashing in it. Or just lounging beside it! On this particular occasion their cousin and our neighbour (who just happened to be wearing her swimsuit under her clothes!) came in too.

The only problem is emptying it. If we tip it all out, it floods our downstairs neighbours! So we have to carefully bucket it all down the back (where the blue towel is) so it goes into the gutter. Bertie has been muttering about putting up a gutter all the way round for a while - go for it I say!

Tea At Judy's

I can't remember how long Judy rocked Baby JoJo to get this result!Does this photo convey how much grief the girls gave Pastor Al as they ran around shrieking at him?!Baby JoJo learns the more important skills in life - cup of tea anyone?I love this shot mum took!

A Walk By The Sea

(Wednesday 29/10)

Off for our walk down our road - it is so nice to have coconut trees lining the streets here!

Turn off our road and the hill leads straight to the seaBut there are various obstacles to manoeuvre first - this one was far too close for comfort! And I could have done with a 4x4 rather than a buggy to get through the grass.Admire the local widlife on the wayMade it to the pier! Just on the right is where LissaLou fell in a few weeks back, so you can imagine I was a bit jittery with the girls running along! Happily Bertie turned up to provide an extra set of hands

Not often we get a photo of a family outing.Then it was off with those shoes, swing those legs overand dip those toes in!

What gorgeous girls!

Introducing Mum To Gwada Life

Mum spent hours uploading photos to photobox to bring the next blog entries to you - thanks Mum! Your effort is worthwhile!
Here is a glimpse into her fortnight stay here...

This is our house - I am at the gate talking to a neighbour who also goes to both our churches (!) We have the part upstairs - the right window is our bedroom, the middle is our living room/guest room where mum slept, and the left is just a random hall. See those stairs on the left? Everyday I lug the lunch up and down these stairs to eat......outside! See the lovely table cloth? Mamie got that recently for this table and it adds brightness to our day. See the plastic cups? I had to start using these after we broke a total of 6 glasses! I think we are eating court bouillon (fish in tomato sauce) and racines (root veg like banana, sweet potato, breadfruit). Oh, and the bottle of juice is homemade passion fruit juice. All courtesy of my MIL!This is how LissaLou pretty much spent Mum's stay! Mum came armed with plenty of crafts and this Peppa Pig book amongst many things brought lots of pleasure. LissaLou just kept on and on and on......but Mum didn't always! This was past 8pm and the jetlag/early mornings had caught up on her. I thought LissaLou had gone to bed, but here she was cheerful as anything, colouring away!