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We are huge street food fans so you can imagine our delight at finding food carts lining the Arawak Kay beach on the first day of our recent island vacation. The food truck scene in our hometown of Columbus, Ohio is more varied and delicious but will never match the Bahamas view!
1. grouper snack 2. colorful shrimp shack 3. peanut man 4. beached sailboat
This post is an entry in a contest for a ticket to Eat Write Retreat sponsored by Feastie.
On our trip to San Salvador Island, we stayed at Coconut Cottage which indeed was home to several coconut trees. Not being the kind of people to shy away from a free food source, Alex and Lil collected several big heavy coconuts and commenced to opening.
They instantly discovered that opening a coconut is a tricky thing. Like a twenty-something that refuses to leave her parent's home, the sweet meat clings to its shell. Two shells, actually.
The outer husk is smooth and thick. Lil beat on it with a length of beach combed bamboo to no avail. Alex tried a rock, then a screwdriver, then the corner of the cement patio, and his knife. 
I admit that watching the two of them working at this task over thirty minutes was a bit like watching a pair of monkeys discovering tools. The husk eventually splintered into packed fibrous sections.
Under the husk is the hard dense inner shell. The meat grows attached to this shell but if one shatters it with a hard blow, the nutritious coconut water would be lost. Instead, Alex drove a screw driver through one of the eyes with a hammer.
The resulting water is alluring - sweet, warm, and slightly salty from uptaking ocean water. Proponents herald coconut water as a natural electrolyte replacement. We enjoyed it with lime and rum in a perfect vacation cocktail.
With a few smashes from the hammer and rock, Lil and Alex broke into the shell to reveal bright white meat. (Also the sun came out. Ever changing light makes for challenging photography!)
Fresh coconut meat is juicy, sweet, and filling. It clings ever-tight to the shell. We used our teeth as rasps to shave off the meat and then tried a strong knife to pry off bigger pieces. At the suggestion of Internet guides, we froze some and baked it - the latter proving much more successful at loosening the goodstuff from the shell.
"Coconut isn't what you think it is. It's not just a brown shell. It has food inside that's white that's called coconut meat and some juice inside that's called coconut water. The brown coconut lives in a green big shell that's actually made out of wood. And coconuts grow on trees. Not any kind of trees, palm tree."
A coconut tree has more to give than just fruit. The palm fronds are dense, thick material just waiting to be transformed.
Alex's mother Deb, a fiber artist, did not hesitate to collect and start working with them. She first wove with full fronds.
A basket weaver happened to be in town the next day and revealed that Bahamian women typically split the fronds in half and remove the central pin-like fiber before weaving. This allows the fiber to lay flat and be more easily manipulated.
Incorporating this small change, Deb and Lil created several placemats. We dried them outside to be sure that any insects who might be inhabiting them wouldn't take over the house. Stowed in checked luggage, customs officials allowed us to transport them home.
One afternoon, Deb and I worked for nearly an hour to weave two small funky baskets. Souvenir baskets, like the one Lil bought, are constructed of woven fiber fabric.
Fresh coconuts rock. We are thrilled to have enjoyed them on vacation.
NB. The latest National Geographic Magazine reveals that we can mail coconuts, package free! We are totally doing this on our next tropical vacation!
Contrary to what you might think given the pictures, this post was not sponsored by Mechanix Gloves
One early morning in Monterey, California, I walked into my Russian Language classroom at the Defense Language Institute and was greeted with a most surprising smell. "Get over here an' tear you off a hunk of boooo-dan!" Sargent Lyles he shouted in his heavy cajun accent that applied equally to the Russian we were learning.
"What's that?" I mumbled, tired.
"Boudin! Sausage!" he replied, shoving a piece of hot meat on crusty bread into my hands.
I didn't expect or wish for juicy spicy sausage at 0600, but I couldn't help but love the foodie enthusiasm of 'the Cajuns', as we affectionately called Lyles and his good friend Lieutenant Eaves. Lyles and Eaves surprised myself and our fellow soldiers regularly with their experience with all realms of the real world. They recommended a 50/50 mix of Round-up and diesel fuel to remove weeds (effective, if not environmentally conscious), volunteered and knew precisely how to install a fence on a slope, and showed up to potluck meals with home-cooked Southern classics.
I will never forget their retelling of Mardi Gras in backwoods Louisiana.
Men dress in garish costumes and begin drinking early in the day. After parades, if there were any, they climb onto their horses. Next, they journey from house to house on a 'stone soup'-like tradition that seems to have mutated over the years. Instead of collecting usable contributions to a community pot of gumbo, households throw pieces of raw chicken at the drunk, costumed horse riders. Eaves and Lyles were proud enough of the insane but ancient Courir de Mardi Gras to show video of their band of drunken men in chicken-juice-stained colorful clothes.
-Alex's story, written by Rachel
Every year around this time, we reminiscence about The Cajuns and cook a Louisiana-inspired meal. This year we made boudin, a pork and rice sausage flavored with peppers and garlic. We used Emeril's recipe. Unlike any other of the many batches of sausages we've made, this sausage is stuffed with cooked meat. It is then poached in hot water for service.
We spiced our boudin mildly in the hopes that our child diners would eat it. (Only the youngest ate more than a cursory bite.) To replicate the heat that Alex remembers, I created a spicy aioli to spread on crusty bread slices. Topped with boudin and pickled onions, this combination was indulgent, just right for the spirit of Mardi Gras.
The rest of dinner with friends included masks, shrimp etouffee, maque choux, and Abita beer.
Dessert had to be king cake. The lemon flavored dough rose slowly and steadily, baked to a golden brown and tasted rich. I found the charm (not having a baby Jesus figure, we substituted an Easter bunny) so I will gladly bake a king cake again next year.
Lyles and Eaves, wherever you are, we hope you are celebrating Mardi Gras in style today. Laissez les bons temps rouler!
Yesterday I presented a workshop at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farming Association annual conference called 'Food Is Social: Using New Media to Market Your Food Business'. More people attended than I had handouts, so I promised to reprint my notes here.
“Four out of every five people who have access to the internet across the world use social networks in some form, many several times a day, some on multiple devices.” Linda Abraham, comScore Co-Founder and CMO & Michael Lazerow, Buddy Media CEO and Founder
“Consumers trust information they receive through blogs more than Facebook or Twitter.” Social Media Examiner, December 2011
“In the U.S., social networks and blogs reach nearly 80 percent of active U.S. Internet users and represent the majority of Americans' time online.” Technorati, October 2011.
Website (4-8 hours to set up) Represent yourself online with a website that contains, at a minimum:
If starting from scratch, choose Wordpress for a free, simple, but robust software. Upgrade to ‘YOURNAME.com’ for $12/year. Under Settings/Reading select ‘a static post’ to be your front page. Add other information as pages.
Blog (1 hour per article, ideally updated once per week at a minimum) Consumers trust and share blog articles. Use yours to promote:
If using wordpress.com, this timely information will be entered as ‘posts’. For best Internet search-ability, categorize each post and add tags.
Good blog posts (both in terms of readability for users and search engines) have:
Google Places (30 minutes to set up, nearly no maintainance) Help customers find your location by claiming a Google Place. Simply click the 'Get Started' button and follow the simple directions to be included on their online and mobile map searches. Be ready to add a few pictures, your hours, payment information, and a short description of your business. You will need a google account to set up this profile.
Facebook Page (30 minutes to set up, 10 minutes maintenance daily) Navigate to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php to set up your page. Be ready to include a profile photo (and a few more if you have them) and share information about your location and products/services.
Once your Facebook page is set up, participate daily, if you can. Each time you check in, respond to any questions or messages. ‘Like’ comments that people give you. Share a status message, which could include:
Twitter (5 minutes to set up, 10 minutes maintenance daily) Twitter makes it easy to set up your account and then you can start sharing messages in 140 characters. Share tidbits about what you’re doing right now, links to blog posts/events/facebook, and retweet other’s info. Converse with twitter followers by starting a message with @user.
The real power of twitter, however, is in the search. Go to search.twitter.com and look up keywords related to your business. Answer questions if people are asking, follow competitors and friends, converse with partners like @OEFFA, @4H, seed companies, governmental officials, etc.
Simple is better - flash graphics, music, and multi-paged sites can be fun when done well, but customers will understand you better when the message is simple and presented cleanly.
Keep mobile in mind - The use of smartphones is growing. Design your site and messages with mobile users in mind and make sure nothing on your site is too complicated for phones to view. Wordpress is easily viewed on most smartphone devises.
Converse and thank - Think of social networks as a way to have public conversations and share as you would at a dinner party. Thank those who follow you and those who share your information generously.
Promote genuinely - Too much self-promotion is inauthentic. Share a balance of information, news, links to other trusted sites, and fun.
QR Codes QR codes are scannable graphics that link a mobile device to a designated web URL. The destination can be an introduction page, introduction video, or more info about a specific product or service. Museums are using them to give more details about an artwork. Realtors publish QR codes on house signs to link to online picture galleries. Musicians link QR codes to current videos.
Create yours at http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ for your website or a welcome page for a specific event. If you are packaging goods for an event location where you will not be present, create one for each product variety that leads to more info for customers.
Analytics Once you have your website established, you will want to know who’s visiting.
Set up a free account at http://www.google.com/analytics/ to track data. Learn about your pageviews, location of users, keywords, etc. Use this data to provide information that people request, i.e. write more about popular keywords. You can also track how changes in your website organization or promotion are working and who is sending traffic to you.
Wordpress has their own set of data tools. These are less robust but still useful if you don’t want to bother with Google.
Other social networks Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Flickr, Google+ and hundreds of other social networks are out there. Explore them when you have time and use them if they will work for your business.
Remember that social networks are like all other tools - they only work for you when you enjoy working with them.
Also keep in mind that I offer writing and social media services at reasonable rates. If you want to have a social media presence but don't want to set up and maintain it yourself, contact me and let's find a way to work together.
Hoecakes!
No?
According to the Mount Vernon website, hoecakes were George Washington's standard breakfast. I figured this meant I should experiment with hoecakes for President's Day.
The site also shares a recipe. Unfortunately it is sized for a huge crowd and sounds a little funky.
Taking inspiration from Mount Vernon, I reworked the recipe and portions to fit my family's taste. I added a little wheat flour to give more body to the pancakes. Before cooking, I stirred in an egg for lift and richness.
The hoecake batter ferments overnight, giving a slight tang to the final pancake. The taste harkens of cornmeal mush, a rustic breakfast starch my father and I love fried.
This recipe is so simple that it only really requires three things: very fresh cornmeal (I like Carriage Hill delivered by Green B.E.A.N.), time to ferment, and sweetener. Berries, maple syrup, and molasses are all great toppings. I prefer local honey.
Added to Simple Lives Thursday 83.