So here’s the thing. January is over, and I’m not quite sure where it went, but that’s probably because my days were all wonderfully full. My second semester of teaching is swinging, I rocked a job interview and I finally got my eyes tested – it had been 4 years. 😮 Happily my eyes are healthy and my prescription has stayed the same, which makes sense: I had no problem watching films at The Island House Film Festival, or reading the menu at their wine tasting. My eyes also played a major role in helping me decide what I was going to have for breakfast at the Barnetts’ two Saturdays in a row.
I’ve been friends with this family my entire life. They’ve been hosting an extended family/open house type of breakfast every Saturday for the last, I don’t know, 15 years? It’s nuts. In a good way. The menu is extensive, and apart from monkey bread appearing now and then, is made of solidly Bahamian dishes: boiled fish, stew fish, stew conch, corned beef, grits and chicken souse. Johnny cake and monkey bread alternate weeks. This happens every Saturday!
The food is delicious: savoury, salty, spicy, limey and heavy, just the way Bahamians like it. Then there’s potato or cassava bread, a dense sweet pudding that I won’t have room for if it’s a weekend for Johnny cake. We sit out on the balcony, looking over the ocean, and people come and go as their schedule allows. The meal starts around 10am, and I’ve never spent less than two hours in their company.
Switching gears, here are some photos from Jamaica I’ve been wanting to share for a little while now. This one I took driving to a friend’s house:
Maybe it’s because The Bahamas are so flat, but I can’t get enough of Jamaica’s rolling landscape. Wealthy people in Kingston show off their success by building mansions high up above the city, perched in precarious looking positions. Many of these small castles are in a neighbourhood called Jack’s Hill, and try as I might I couldn’t get a great shot of any of them. The road to the top is quite serpentine, and I was always passing through in a moving vehicle.
These I snapped sitting in traffic:
These beauties I saw in a friend’s friend’s neighbourhood. I have no idea what they are.
Home one evening, I walked past an open window at the right time, grabbed my camera and ran outside.
I’ll leave you all with the song I’ve listened to the most this week, “I Know Love” by Chronixx. I thought I’d heard every song from his Chronology album, but somehow this one slipped my notice. It’s chill and encouraging, and sets the perfect mood for baking. Yesterday, it kept me company while I made oatmeal raisin cookies. Enjoy the weekend! xo
Family, friends, food and the ocean? Sounds dreamy. Happy feasting.
Indeed. Thank you!