Thanksgiving

It is hard to believe that it is already December!  The time is passing quickly and by the end of December, I will have been here 6 months. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and my PC friend, Kelsey, and I made it seem almost like a traditional holiday. I have always enjoyed cooking for Thanksgiving and usually start planning and preparing a week or more before the event.  Well, in Jamaica with my limited resources, I had to get creative and resourceful.  To begin with as you can see in the picture, in my kitchen there is one functioning burner and two pots and a skillet.  I knew we would not have turkey as that would cost approx. $50.00 for a 12 lb. bird and my food budget for the month is about $150.00.  A very kind Jamaican lady offered to f ix my chicken Jamaican style and bring it to  me.  I fixed deviled eggs, raw vegies and a dip.  I had indulged and bought some cheese (very expensive here and hard to find) and crackers.  I created "dressing" on top of the stove in the little pot and it was pretty good.  I had looked and looked for sage and finally found it, a necessary ingredient in dressing but not a Jamaican herb.We had mashed potatoes, carrots and chocho, two bottles of wine and for dessert, I created a pumpkin, currant bread pudding with a warm rum butter glaze - it was decadent!  I made that as well as the dressing in the little "magic pot" on top of stove.  I tried to deliver a maudlin toast before we ate and just in the middle of my delivery, one of the lens in my glasses popped out and the little screw on one side of the frame fell out never to be found.  Kelsey said "only in Jamaica" and we both laughed and gave up toasting and just started eating.  We had been listening to some of  her music,
Billy Holiday, Frank Sinatra and I added soundtrack from Somethings Gotta Give, Tony Bennett and a lot more.  We had fun exchanging music, laughing, deep philosophical talks, watched the sunset with a glass of wine and finished the evening watching a pirated copy of "The Help".  It was really great and made up for not being with our families and friends.
The other pictures include some of my recent paintings and of the children at the basic school (3-5yr) where I go to read during their story hour once a week.  I had read the little book  "Goodnight Gorilla" which they loved and the clever teacher was having them act it out.  For those of you who are not familiar with the story, it is about a zookeeper who goes to say goodnight to all the animals and lock their cages. The baby gorilla takes the keys out of his back pocket and lets all the animals out of their cages, and follows the zookeeper home without his knowledge.  The baby gorilla gets in bed with the zookeeper and his wife and the other animals proceed to lay down to sleep in the room.  When the wife discovers what has happened she is quite shocked but patiently leads them back to the zoo and attempts to lock them up again but the clever little gorilla takes the keys and they all follow her back to the house.  In the picture, you can see the wife in bed and the zookeeper and animals preparing to do the same.  It was such fun sharing this time with these adorable children.




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