Four Days

 Another day, another dawn, and so it goes.  Dawn on Saturday, February 12 was intense and stunning.  I took tons of photos and pared them down to 2 for your eyes.

So intense it was almost scary.

Mellowing a bit.

The lovely light shows off our refurbished beach (with the cement blocks are protecting the red mangrove seedlings we transplanted).  A newly designed turtle ramp will go at the bottom left.

Finally, the preserved lemons were ready to use.  I made  chicken tangine using 2 recipes from the New York Times as guides.  I used the cooking method of one recipe and the additional ingredients of the second recipe.  Lots of spices involved - cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, allspice, and fresh cilantro.  Also kalamata olives, green olives, tomatoes, onion, garlic.  And don't forget the preserved lemons!  It was not difficult and tasted fantastic.  Next time I will omit the kalamata olives, they were too dominant,  and I will be sure to have turmeric on hand.   And I won't hold back on the lemon!  The flavor of the lemon made all the other flavors dance together, especially on the second day.

Chicken tangine, ready to serve.

Dawn on Sunday was slightly more sedate.

If you click to enlarge, you might be able to see Venus, just to the right of center in the upper third of the image.

 Finally, one of the parrots that we hear every day cooperated  by sitting on a bare branch in the gumbo limbo tree behind our back veranda.  I thought is was a yellow headed parrot, but Nikki Buxton of Belize Bird Rescue told me it is a red lored parrot.  Still hoping for a photo op of a yellow head.

What a beauty!  Its mate was hiding in the leaves and friends were scattered throughout other nearby trees.  

The weather changed on Monday, with clouds and rain moving slowly in.  Not good conditions for photography.  But at least there was no wind to speak of and the sea has been calm.  It is still gloomy and drizzling today.

Not the conditions the passengers on the cruise were expecting!

Even now at midday, it is quite cool.  I have a lentil casserole in the oven to get the house a bit warmer.  

One blanket may not be enough!

Stay warm and cozy where ever you are.

Lemons in Belize

Citrus fruits are a major export of Belize and many varieties are farmed on  commercial scale for juicing, pulping, and shipping.   But, oddly enough,  not lemons.  It is very difficult to get lemons in Belize and they are a treasure to be prized when you come across them.  Imagine my pleasure in getting some lemons from Chris and Sue at White Rock Farm when we got all that lovely cheese. The lemons were small, juicy, and thin-skinned - and should be perfect for making Persian salt-preserved lemons.  Sue told me it was very easy to do and to just look up a recipe on line.  So that is what Becki and I did.

The results of our efforts - two pints of preserved lemons and some lemons to spare.

All you have to do is scrub the lemons, cut them into quarters that remain joined at the base, rub coarse salt into the cut surfaces, and cram them into canning jars so that their juice fills the space between the lemons.  No sterilizing, or heating, or cooking - just clean lemons plus salt pressed into a jar.  The hard part is waiting the 3 to 4 weeks before they are ready use in your Mediterranean and Middle Eastern recipes.