Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Recipe: Gunpowder Mint Tea


Our landlord's mother is always dipping into our herb garden and cooks up these massive pots of tea.. Since I'm not a big fan of basil or oregano tea (yuk!), I decided to try out some of our spearmint that I havent yet tasted but has been making our garden so fragrant!
I dug out the intense Chinese Gunpowder green tea that we bought in Chinatown Vancouver earlier this year and got to harvesting our mint :-)


I used both stems and leaves for maximum flavor


One teaspoon only of this particular green tea because it can get extremely bitter if too much is used
As for the mint, about 5 leaves does the trick for one cup



Tea is always made best with really hot, but not boiling water


Drop ingredients into pot and let steep for about 10 mins


The result? Tea as black as coffee but super delicious! 



I should make this more often... and surprisingly it has more of a kick than a shot of espresso, whilst the mint leaves a nice, cooling aftertaste.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Post-Thanksgiving Bootcamp Hike

A tradition for the Boot Campers every year is to do a half-full day hike. This time around the group went to the tidepools on the North Shore - a beautiful hike we've done several times before. The pics below are from Roberta's (Boot Camp Instructor) camera.




Roberta and I at the Tidepools



Beautiful view of the North Shore


Roberta at the Tidepools


It was pretty rough!


The tidepool water is so clear!


The rugged North Shore

Some of our group enjoying the cool down after the hike

Experiment: Gooseberry Icecream

Most of my island friends know how much i LOOOOOVE Armstrongs gooseberry icecream...and since its a seasonal flavor, what will I ever do once they run out? So, my last batch of gooseberry icecream I devoured, I saved the seeds from it and decided I will try to grow my own gooseberry bush.. then all we need is an icecream maker (is anyone looking to get rid of one by chance?!?!) and I will have gooseberry icecream ALL YEAR ROUND!!!!
So I planted these little seeds, and watched patiently every day for 3 weeks...nothing. Feeling defeated, I forgot about my little pot of dirt with dried gooseberry seeds buried in it until.... I took a close look yesterday and look what I saw!!!!!!!!!!!!





Oh - and the end result? Should look something like this:

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Sunday, November 13, 2011

West End Road Trip

Living on the East End now, we barely get out west anymore. For most of you, you may think this is funny considering its just a half hour drive to the other side of the island, but weekend chores generally catch up on us most weekends and we dont have the time to really make the most of a road trip and enjoy everything the west end has to offer. Yesterday we just did it!


View from Scenic Road

Carambola Beach Resort and the North Shore

Looking down onto Frederiksted from Scenic Road...can you see the cruise ship?

I love this view looking down onto the North Shore!

 One of West End's many hidden beaches

So many rockpools to explore!

Fossilized brain coral  





Frederiksted - lunch time!

No sandwich on island beats those found at Turtle's Deli in Frederiksted. Cajun beef, pickles, spanish onion, banana pepper..all smothered with spicy sauce and mayo, served on homemade roasted garlic bread - yes please!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

11.11.11 Wedding

11.11.11
I think this day will go down in history for having the most number of weddings... just at Carambola Beach Resort alone there were FOUR weddings yesterday afternoon!
Despite the masses of people, we had a wonderful night helping our friend Julianne celebrate her wedding day with her husband James.