Squee! I Made the National Post paper AGAIN!

I have to tell you how surprised I am about how much I suddenly love cooking.  It's my new creative outlet born from a quest for whole food, clean eating, no preservatives, nothing processed and allergy friendly.  This past weekend I catered our yoga retreat for 12 people with ease converting more than one person to eating kale and one woman tried beets for the first time since childhood and she liked them!

So I guess since it's close to launch and my first article is handed in and approved I'll let this cat out of the bag:  I'm one of eight women who will be contributing to a new on-line FOOD MAGAZINE titled HOT PINK APRON. 

Here is the link to the National Post - I even have a head shot!

Gotta run I have a cake to make.

So This Happened Yesterday ...

The funny thing  was that I was having a bad kitchen day and this meal was the one I pulled out of the hat to save dinner and The National Post's Gastropost thought it looked pretty yummy too.

I've been cooking a lot lately and am really enjoying toying and modifying recipes to suit my gluten free, meat free and dairy free diet.  My husband won't eat any of it, he is a meat and cheese kinda guy, but Fin and I and my friends are enjoying the Mother Ship kitchen experiments.

Beach Dogs in Salinas Grandes

There is no shortage of skinny stray dogs in Nicaragua.  When we arrived at the beach in Salinas Grandes to check on our build the first thing to take our hearts were these gorgeous little puppies!  I  hadn't even seen the beach or our lot yet, you would think I'd be running to look, but no, I got all caught up in puppies!  Who can resist a puppy in paradise especially with a three year old girl's sheer delight at her discovery of them?   

There were two pups with a gentle mama and another female pup about a year old from her litter last fall.  Papa dog was floating around, although, he was not nearly as social as the ladies. Ha-ha!  Sounds familiar.

Finley is absolutely smitten with the puppy.

Fin petting / trying to pick up a pup.

The next day when we returned to the site we were with our friends Sasha and Shamus.  They brought along a big bag of dog food for those puppies and their family.  The dogs wasted no time plowing into the kibble.  I swear when we came back again the following day we could see the puppies had filled out, we could see a few less ribs.  Of course the workmen building the three houses are caring somewhat for the dogs. They do get the odd scrap and we fed  beach dogs some pieces of fish from a delicious dinner put on by our builder. Check the next post for that spread!

We can't wait to get down to Nicaragua and have some beach dogs to love.  It's been a long year here in our house since we lost our dog Cecil last January.  A home is just not complete without a dog to love!

Nicaragua Makes Top Three in the New York Times

You know it's really cool when the universe rears her beautiful head to reaffirm your path.

Check this out you little travel bugs!

Never Ever Ever Ever Ever

... miss lunch at Rachel's House if you're invited!  

I'm pretty certain I don't even need to add words to this page to prove why you should never ever ever miss an invitation to lunch at my friend Rachel's house.  Honestly, she puts on the most beautiful spread at every occasion. This luncheon was for our dear friend Alice who was celebrating her 80th birthday!   I'm after Rachel to start a blog about her lunch and dinner parties and then turn it all into a book ... you can see why:

Hostess gift, birthday gift and party favours.

I make it a habit to never ever arrive to a lunch or dinner engagement without a hostess gift of some sort. I like to bring flowers, and while Martha Stewart frowns upon bringing fresh cut flowers sans vessel to a dinner party where the host may be too busy to source a vase and put the flowers out, I say poo poo to you Martha! My friends have got it all going on and can handle such a little aside.

Party Favour

The theme was Alice's Blue Dress so I bought Blue Belle and Iris bulbs then attached a note about friendship and some of the lavender from my garden

Rachel explaining the dishes to Doris

NOM NOM NOM

Asparagus with chopped egg

Quinoa salad made by our Kadra

Blue

My plate piled high!

Asparagus, quinoa salad and chilled lemon trout over baby greens...

Iced tea - a southern staple

Local cantaloupe and strawberries thank you Doris!

My Food Photography

This is the ad Polly's Perfections ran in the February issue of Washington Magazine.  I am friends with the owners and had photographed a lot of chocolate for their catalogue and to hang in the store.  Photographing chocolate has it's perks!

Spring Forward Yoga Re"treat" - Update!

Spring Forward Re"treat" in Duck NC

Meet the lovely ladies aka broads who attended the weekend retreat.

Laura, Ebba, Kadra, ME, Brandi and Sharon

The weather was 87 degrees the day before the retreat at the beach...by the time we were heading there it was a glorious 57drees F. No one minded as the company inside was so warm and cozy. We settled into our Friday afternoon, choosing bedrooms in the beautiful beach house and joining the gang in the great room to write our retreat intentions. I like to set the weekend's intentions in writing. Why do we choose to be at a retreat? How does it fit with our daily lives and what do we hope to take away after our weekend. It's interesting to place an idea or statement on a page and revisit it over the course of the weekend as the statement takes on new meanings after each session each day - it deepens. These are personal intentions and are not shared unless there is a free willingness to do so by the individual.

We practiced a fully supported restorative yoga on the Friday night to set the tone for the weekend. Candle light, music, and only 15 postures supported by pillows and blankets and using straps to help the client really settle into a relaxation. I like to offer assists and a few elements taken from Pranasage that I learned while studying with Don and Amba Stapleton in Costa Rica. Janice Lane arrived toward the end of the practice to meet the gals. She joined in placing her super hot Reiki hands on the ladies. It was a delicious start to our weekend!

Heather participating in the Saturday morning Interdisciplinary Yoga session

Yogi's listening to a discussion prior to practice.

Getting settled for a guided meditation by Janice Lane

Of course you have to feed the body as much as the mind and we fueled it up with out hesitation!

Flounder special at The Bluepoint in Duck NC

My good friend Rachel Mills catered the vegetarian meals at the retreat. We feasted on cucumber mint salad, lentil soup, corn bread, butternut squash and apple bake over brown rice and orange and roasted red beet salad. My photos aren't doing the food justice - it was fresh and

DELICIOUS!

Sunday morning we stretched our bodies gracefully in a Yin Yoga practice called sweet surrender. It was a beautiful opening practice that really was the finale to a beautiful weekend. Of course we journaled and shared open discussions about all kinds of things ....related to our lives and the lives of mating turtles ...(don't ask). It was a lovely weekend and I am looking forward to another already!

Garden

Since moving to the south - I cannot - grow a thing. I used to have an amazing garden. I used to grow all the ingredients to make tomato sauce and salsa and loved the whole canning process. I used to grow gorgeous cutting flowers and fill my house up with bouquets....but that was when I lived in Ontario. Now I raid other people's gardens!

Our friends planted a wonderful garden and then left for Europe for a month - we were invited to pick what we wanted while they were away. Dad, Fin and I had a good morning poking through the gardens picking a few veggies for our dinner.

Dad is checking out the herbs.

Dad and Finley with the eggplant and yellow squash.

A few of our pickings.

A teeny tiny tomato!

Finley was particularly good at picking the tomatoes.

She worked at it for a while. Her attention span astounds me sometimes!

WARNING This Post WILL Induce Hunger

Dining OUT in Costa Rica

Steve and I have been travelling to COSTA RICA together since 2001. As we set out on our first trip we read several books about Costa Rica learning about culture, industry and food. The Lonely Planet and Foder's travels guides were among those books we bought and read cover to cover. We also spoke to many people who had either wintered in Costa Rica or been surf bums there in the late 80's early 90's. Every one told us the food was bland.

A day or so into our first trip Steve and I were beginning to wonder what the discussion of bland food was about? We ate local dishes. Casados is the Costa Rican name for a plate of the day. You get the fresh catch or chicken and salad, beans, rice, and fried plantain and sometimes some young cheese. All ingredients are fresh and delicious. Nothing in our opinion is bland.

We are currently living in eastern NC where we rarely go out to eat. I'm positive in the bigger city of Raleigh there are excellent restaurants but in our area not so much. Yes, we are food snobs. Having come from a city like Toronto where we can get every type of cuisine under the sun where competition is fierce so food quality rock - it's hard to come to this area to eat out. I'm not saying southern fried is not good, it is , it's just other specialties done well are lacking here. So we elect to stay home and cook. While the restaurant experience is disappointing the shopping is not. We have a Saturday morning farmer's market we can shop for organic produce and a fish co-op within walking distance.

On this trip to Costa Rica we were very excited to dine out for two reasons:

1. We have not dined out in ages - especially long leisurely dinners since becoming parents. Family is so respected in Costa Rica and the wait staff is all over the children. Children are welcomed to dinner at any hour of the evening.

2. The food as we have come to know it is AMAZING!

Casado from Harbour Reef

Finley & Steve sharing a Casado at Soda Melyssa

Shrimp & Avocado salad from Lagarta Lodge

Finley & Steve sharing the same expression and a chicken burrito at Kaya Sol

Shrimp in Gorgonzola Sauce at Casa Tucan

Papas Fritas at The Guilded Iguana

The Priest Family eating at a Soda which is a typical outdoor Costa Rican Restaurant.

The cokes are served cold in glass bottles and are made with sugar cane ... so yummy!

Pargo Rojo or as we know it Red Snapper from Casa Tucan

Snook in salsa verde aka basil pesto from Guilded Iguana

Molly chowing down on a margherita pizza at Giardino Topical

(yes that is my PILSEN in the foreground!)