Catching Up

I haven't blogged in a while. I've been a little busier than usual, and was out of town last weekend. But really, I haven't had much to say for myself lately. I'm just living life, trying to stay positive even though I don't always feel positive.

I went to VA last weekend to visit my parents. It was nice to spend time with Momma and Poppa Scott, Taylor, and grandma, and also to catch up with a few good, old friends (including my "second mommy" Mimi). I also had Burmese food for the first time-it was delicious.

 Fermented tea-leaf salad (tastes much better than it looks)

Speaking of food, I made what I humbly consider to be the best shrimp and grits ever last week:

(Hint: if you try this recipe, sub thick-cut bacon for the proscuitto and add a little cayenne pepper.)

I'm looking forward to the weather warming up so we can spend more time outside. I haven't been on my bike since last September. I'm also getting antsy to start gardening. We have some fun weekend trips planned for next month-NYC, then Chicago for Baconfest with Alex and Taylor and their girlfriends.

Kitchen Adventures: Salt Cay Edition

On our way to lunch one day, we ran into a local guy who we'd met earlier in the week (it's a small island), and he asked us if we wanted some lobster. We ended up with four small, just-caught lobster tails for free. We were planning to find Kevin the fisherman and buy snapper from him for dinner, but figured we'd go with the lobster instead. We asked the owner of the restaurant where we ate lunch to keep the lobster in her fridge for a couple of hours until we headed back to our beach house. (We were on our bikes, and it was way too hot to carry fresh lobster around all afternoon.)

Raw materials: lobster, onions, lemon/limes, and plenty of melted butter

View from the grill

View in the grill

You'll notice an absence of anything green in this meal. It's very hard to get fresh produce on Salt Cay. They don't grow any of their own because the wild donkeys eat everything, and it's expensive and inconvenient to get produce from other islands in the area. We thought we would try to supplement our meal with cactus pears. These particular cactus pears looked pretty but didn't taste very good, which was a shame because they're labor-intensive. Taison was in charge of burning off the spines and peeling them.

For an island with limited access to groceries and only three restaurants, we ate well. We had lots of conch (conch fritters, conch stew, fried conch, conch empanadas), an amazing curried banana soup, delicious barbequed ribs, whole fried snapper, and curried goat. There was also plenty of rum punch and a refreshing alcoholic ginger beer that's made on Grand Turk, the next island over.

 Conch empanadas

Hard ginger beer-perfect with whole snapper, cole slaw and red beans and rice

 Conch fritters

This is what your kitchen would look like if you were a lighthouse keeper in the 1800s

Grand Turk Lighthouse

A Year Ago in Belize...

...Julian was with us.

Caye Caulker, Belize, March 2012

I had many bittersweet moments during our vacation this year. Moments when I missed him, moments when I suddenly remembered everything that happened in July and over the months since then. I am proud to say that I twice answered the question "do you have any kids?" accurately, by saying that our son was stillborn last summer.

Sunrise in Salt Cay, Turks and Caicos, March 2013

Dear Julian,

We just got back from a trip to the Caribbean, kind of like the one you were with us for last year.

There were lots of babies on the plane. It made me think about what it would be like to have you with us. This would have been the trip where we really introduced you to the sand and the ocean (and sunscreen). You would have been too little when we went to the Vineyard last September.

Do you remember the old man in Belize last year? You may have been able to hear him when he said, "take good care of that baby!" to me. I replied, "okay, thank you" and laughed a little, because that man was the first stranger to comment on my tiny baby bump.

I think I did take good care of you. After all, you were nice and chubby and perfect-looking when you were born, with all ten fingers and ten toes. I think you were happy and comfortable in my belly for those nine months-you certainly seemed to have fun kicking and rolling around. Even though I was hoping to take care of you for a lot longer than a few months, it was nice to have that short time with you.

Love,
Mommy

Beach Escape 2013

We got back from Turks and Caicos yesterday. We had a nice week and easy travels. Here are some pictures: 

The cockpit of the antique-looking 9-seater plane we took from Providenciales (a larger city in Turks and Caicos with an international airport) to Salt Cay, the small island we stayed on. It was a surprisingly smooth flight.

Salt Cay airport from the plane

North Beach, just steps from our suite. We had the beach to ourselves almost every day.

Biking into "town" for dinner on a very bumpy, sandy road. We road our bikes all over the island, despite the rough ride. Luckily, they had lights on them for our rides home from dinner. We could see so many stars at night-the most I've ever seen in my life.

It was chilly and rainy on our first full day there, so we hung out in our suite most of the day, except for a visit with the family of goats that live nearby. This is one of the twin baby goats. 

Lunchtime on our front porch

Island donkeys-they're feral and eat everything and destroy the island ecosystem : /.

The building in the background is one of the three restaurants on the island.

Sunset over the water

Benji, our doggy friend

Our cow acquaintance 

Special sand-each grain was polished perfectly smooth by the sea. It was so soft and light.

Me and Taison in front of the old salt ponds

Ready for a Break

In the last two weeks, I've dealt with an irate parent at work, been to the dentist twice, and had over 15 vials of blood drawn. I'm fine, both physically and professionally, but I'm ready for a break. Luckily, we leave for Turks and Caicos tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to a few nice warm days on the beach with Taison. I'll soak up a few extra rays for you all, especially my fellow sun-starved northeasterners.

Goodbye for now, snow and cold