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.

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:

Watch out St. Croix.....

I'm back on the road!

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!

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. 

If only it was THIS easy to get Alpie to eat her veggies...