More couchsurfers in Cayman! This time we hosted E&L, two girls from Chicago doing a mini-Caribbean tour. By the time they reached their third and final island destination of Grand Cayman, they were just a bit worn out. So we had dinner at home the night they arrived.
Honest confession: I'm no domestic goddess. I don't make dinner very often. I usually cook once or twice a week, and we live off that dish in the form of lunch leftovers for the next few days. I keep telling myself that someday I'll cook regularly, decorate our home more, and take the time to be properly crafty. But for now, with a full-time job, training for a half marathon, helping with our church's worship team, taking oodles of photos (and of course, digitally editing the same), and keeping this blog somewhat up-to-date, home-cooked meals fall to the wayside. Fortunately, I'm married to Mr. Flexible, and we often resort to pancakes, peanut-butter toast, or fruit smoothies for dinner. It certainly isn't fancy, but my excuse is that this is the way to stay lean and mean: Eat a "big" meal (in our case, the afore-mentioned leftovers) at lunch, and keep dinner light and breezy. (That being said, as soon as kids enter the picture, I'll be all about the family-dinner-table scene. But I guess that requires regular cooking... darn.)
I said all that to say this: When I do make the effort to put a home-cooked meal on our dinner table, I want it to be reliable delicious. I don't want to go through all that effort just to wish I had stuck with cinnamon-oat pancakes (which, by the way, always satisfy.) For that reason, my latest obsession is getting my recipes from food blogs. And if I'm making something new for company and I want to be assured of a winning meal, it has to be from the Pioneer Woman.
Since we were hosting girls, I clicked right onto PW's Cowgirl Food link and found two winning recipes: 16-minute Shrimp Scampi and Spinach with Garlic Chips.
Another current obsession: Cooking from the iPad. It's greener than printing the recipe and takes up less counter space than a laptop. NS helped me by turning off the auto-off feature so that I wasn't always tapping the screen with a buttery pinky to wake the thing up.
What I loved about the Shrimp Scampi: It combined my "meat" and "starch" categories into one dish (so all I had to do was supplement with a vegetable.) ALso, the angel hair pasta and regular-sized shrimp cooked so quickly that 16 minutes was really all it took. Fresh basil on top added a nice Mediterranean green flavor. And there was plenty of cheese to go around, so who could complain?
And for the side: Spinach is one of those wonderful vegetables (a SuperFood all-star!) that is so good for you and cooks in only a few minutes. This recipe calls for the spinach to barely wilt, and you're already taking it off the stove! I enjoyed the garlic crisps - such a unique way to eat a familiar flavor.
Anyway, I can't speak for our guests, but I found the above combo to be a winning meal - one I'll be making again.
During their visit, E&L made sure to swim with the stingrays, dive at Eden Rock, eat at Copper Falls, and (unfortunately) spend an afternoon in George Town hospital (due to a bit of stomach illness from their previous island.) ¡Que lastima! They recovered in time for me to take them snorkeling at the Wreck of the Cali - my first experience there. I loved it! I think it was my favorite snorkeling experience yet. It's a beautiful site right off the George Town shore near the Casanova restaurant with interesting coral formations and, of course, the remnants of a ship wreck. I was excited to see a flounder and a few puffer fish among the sea life in the area.
As a thank-you to us, E&L made us breakfast Saturday morning before they packed up to leave. This worked out perfectly for us, because we had been on the road at 5:30 a.m., trying to beat the Cayman heat with a 6-mile run in the early part of the day. Let me tell you: There is nothing cool about 5:30 a.m. in the Caribbean this time of year. I'm not sure we can get up any earlier! In any case, we enjoyed having a home-cooked breakfast ready for us about an hour after we returned.
Yum - a family-style omelet with pepper and bacon toppings, and with lox on the side. I was more than eager to get out the Philly cream cheese and go to town on a lox-topped piece of bread (my make-shift bagel; there is no such thing as a proper bagel in Cayman - we're much too far from NYC).
I hope E&L enjoyed their Cayman stay. They were a pleasure to host, and since Chicago is on our list of places to see, they might be running into us sooner rather than later!
yay superfoods!
ReplyDeleteI know how hard it is to find time to cook, socialize, picturing, blog (I'm very very bad with that), and plan and go on weekend trips!!!
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