Perspective
October 24, 2007 Posted by: ERIN

Tom and I are taking a ride so that I can practice my driving-on-the-other-side-of-the-road skills. He is giving me pointers, such as "there's not always a posted speed limit, but around 40 is good" and "people will beep when they are passing you, but don't worry, it's a friendly beep". I seem to be getting the hang of it.

Tom starts expounding on the fact that San Sal drivers always seem to be in a really big hurry, even though given the size of the island, it is never possible for them to have to travel all that far. As an example, he makes the seemingly innocuous, yet highly amusing statement: "This one time, a guy roared passed me at the mall only to get off at the exit for the airport." When I burst out laughing, he is confused until I explain the two funny things about what he has said.

First, what he is referring to as "the mall" is a small strip of about five shops. They are all fine establishments, including Exquisite Shoes and Flex Health Foods, but combined could fit inside a Walgreens and have notoriously unpredictable hours of operation. Not exactly what you would envision coming from a man who grew up in a town that is home to a mall with the greatest amount of retail shopping space in the US.

Second, "the exit for the airport" would seem to imply some sort of highway-type road with on and off ramps. In reality, there is a single road encompassing San Salvador. While paved, it does not have lines or shoulders. And the only ramps are the kind for boats that extend into the sea. At the airport, the asphalt of the road morphs into that of the parking lot, such that they are a continuous blob and for a small stretch it is not entirely clear which you are driving on. Without even a driveway, it is difficult for me to describe this as an exit.

Pretty neat how quickly our perspective shifts.

P.S. We are going to be stateside for the next week or so ... Tom to attend a conference and me to become a godmother to my adorable niece. I'll have pictures when we return!

Chicken, Beets, and Muffins
October 21, 2007 Posted by: ERIN

From about November through June, the field station experiences its busy season for research and classes. During these times, we receive almost weekly shipments of food and supplies from Nassau, which allows Tom and I to order almost any grocery items we might want (as long as we don't mind having a whole case of it). However, during the current off-season, there are no researchers or students to feed and hence, no more weekly shipments. This forces us to mostly make use of the stored food items in the cafeteria pantry and freezers. Figuring out how to manage a 7 pound can of yams, 5 gallon jug of soy sauce, or 10 pound block of cheese can be tricky, but for the most part, making meals with basic ingredients that do not sacrifice tastiness is the key. Here are a few new recipes that I've tried since being here that are both very simple and very yummy:

Oven-Fried Chicken
Adapted from The Church Supper Cookbook, Edited by David Joachim

I have fallen in love with this baked chicken. The recipe helped me to hone my butchering skills, although most of you have the luxury of not having to cut up whole chickens. I must admit, I'm a bit jealous.

1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 stick melted butter
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups dry breadcrumbs or finely crushed corn flakes

Dip chicken pieces in butter, then shake in bag containing garlic powder, paprika, thyme, salt, and crumbs. Place skin side up in a lightly greased 9" x 13" baking dish, and bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes or until done. Serves 6 to 8.

Erin's Notes:
I've made this several times and found that it's easy to make variations on the recipe that always result in tasty chicken. Finely crushed rice krispies make a good breading if you don't have breadcrumbs or corn flakes on hand. For a healthier option, remove the chicken skin (it still comes out moist!), and use barbeque sauce or milk instead of butter. Grill seasoning also makes a good substitute for the spices.

Zippy Beets
Adapted from About.com

With a large supply of canned veggies at my disposal, I looked for ways to make them a little more interesting. Beets are one of my favorite foods, and this recipe does not disappoint.

1 can (15 oz) diced beets, liquid reserved
1/4 cup minced onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Add water to reserved beet liquid to make 1 cup. Sauté onion in butter until soft; add flour and stir to blend well. Add salt and pepper, sugar, beet liquid, and vinegar. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick. Add beets; heat through. Serves 4 to 6.

Erin's Notes:
For a brighter red color, use a can of whole or sliced beets and dice them yourself. I also found that using olive oil to sauté instead butter has no effect on the delicious, zippy flavor.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Adapted from Epicurious.com

An excellent way to put those overripe bananas on your counter (along with a giant bag of bulk chocolate chips) to good use!

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large)
1 large egg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line twelve muffin cups with muffin liners. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Mix mashed bananas, egg, melted butter and milk in medium bowl. Stir banana mixture into dry ingredients just until blended (do not overmix). Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake muffins until tops are pale golden and tester inserted into center comes out with some melted chocolate attached but no crumbs, about 32 minutes. Transfer muffins to rack; cool. Makes 12 muffins.

Erin's Notes:
I tired increasing the chocolate chips to 1 cup and found that so many chips were a little overwhelming in the muffins. So I would suggest sticking with the recommend amount!

And if you'd like to take a little peek inside our industrial-sized stores...

Discovery Day
October 17, 2007 Posted by: ERIN

This past weekend was the annual Discovery Day Celebration here on San Salvador. Discovery Day is akin to Columbus Day in the states, but has arguably even more significance given that this is the actual island where Christopher himself landed in 1492. The holiday also acts as a homecoming for the community, with family and friends who have left San Sal for employment or higher education returning to visit and enjoy the revelry. The main events of the weekend were held during a four-day festival at Grahams Harbour, which is just a short bike ride up the road from the field station. There were music performances, contests, games, a comedian, and dancing all in a county fair type atmosphere.

Of course, my favorite part of the festivities was the row of concession booths offering a variety of delicious Bahamian foods. Bahamian cuisine has similarities to Southern cooking, with its barbeque ribs, fried chicken, mac and cheese, and slaw, but also contains understandable Caribbean and maritime influences, such as plantains, crab and rice, and fresh grilled fish. However, the two dishes I most enjoyed are both purely Bahamian conventions.

First there was conch salad, which consists of raw conch, tomato, green pepper, and onion all chopped into bite size pieces and drizzled with copious amounts of both orange and lime juice. We actually stood there watching them remove the conch from the shells and then chop it for our salads, so my guess it is doesn't get any fresher than that. The conch was very tender and the citrus gave the whole thing a really flavorful bite.

Then there was a fabulous dessert called guava duff. It is a bready cake with guava chunks, covered in a deliciously sinful (i.e. butter-rich) guava sauce. The cake is not particularly sweet in itself, but the sauce, which is thinner and runnier than a frosting, is very sugary, so the combination of the two ends up being quite tasty. I'm already in search of a recipe so I can recreate it.

Grand Opening
October 13, 2007 Posted by: ERIN

Hello! Tom and I have been trying to get this site up and running for a while now, but being novices at web design, the programming has be going a little slowly. We hope to post updates and photos often, so that we can stay in touch with all our friends and family back in the states. Please bear with us until we can smooth out all the kinks!

To get things started I wanted to share some photos from the past couple of months:

First, below you will see candid shots taken by friends and family at our wedding in August. We were married in the Thousand Islands of upstate New York, and it was a perfect day. We haven't gotten back the professional photographs yet, but as soon as we do I'll be sure to share those as well.

Soon after the wedding we began our trip to the island. The plan was to drive a truck with my belongings and our wedding gifts to Florida, from where we would fly to San Sal while the truck and our boxes where shipped to the island. Unfortunately, we ran into engine trouble in Georgia and the truck completely died only 90 miles from our final destination in Florida. Thanks to a tow truck, we eventually made it the whole way, but the whole ordeal was quite a honeymoon adventure!

There are two dogs that live here at the field station. Zipper belongs to us, and Coco belongs to Mike, the assistant director. They are both very cute and sweet, although Coco can be very skittish and is prone to bark at strangers. Their favorite pastime is wrestling on the beach, which results in two very wet and sandy doggies. Zipper has recently develeoped a horrible habit of chasing cars, and we had a bit of a scare last week when he was "knocked" by a slow moving vehicle. He got some cuts on his face and is favoring one of his back legs a bit, but nothing was seriously hurt or broken. He is already doing much better, and hopefully he'll be back to being crazy on the beach in no time.

So all in all things are going well for us on the island so far. I've been getting things settled in the apartment, and plan so start painting many of the rooms soon. I have also been working on getting my garden started. The herbs are coming along nicely, and I'll be putting in some veggies this coming week. I hope to take full advantage of the virtually year-round growing season, and since fresh produce can be hard to come by more than once a week in the stores on the island, I'm excited to grow much of our own. Tom has been working diligently to finish our new tile floors, and his work at the field station has been keeping him busy as they are making preparations and improvements for the upcoming busy season. He also wants everyone to know that one of his fantasy football teams (he has two) is doing well.