Welcome home to me

Although my patio in Dedham is not quite the same as the patio (with private pool and Jacuzzi) that Phil and I had in St. Lucia, it is great to be home. Home sweet home, so comfy, my own blankets, my Basil puppy and my own home cooked foods.

Ohhh how I missed vegetables, fresh pasta, whole grains and comfort food. The resort food was ok, it had many restaurants to chose from. There was a Italian Restaurant, a Caribbean Restaurant, a British Pub (which we were able to see the Red sox and Bruins games, and managed to exchange words with some NY fans...story for another day), a Japanese Teppenyaki, a French Restaurant, a Steak House, and a few more that we didn't even get the chance to go to.

My favorite part of the week was the fresh fruits. Passion fruit, ommmmgosh, passion fruit, the most powerful and wonderful tasting, yet weirdest textures and grossest looking fruit you could ever eat. I ate my weight (almost every day) in passion fruit.

The local beer was called Piton, named after the famous twin peaks in St. Lucia. It was sort of similar to a Corona, so I always asked for it with a lime, even though that's not the traditional way. Our Suite had a little mini bar that also had a large amount of liquor to chose from, juices, lots of seltzer and sodas, Champagne and wines. The fridge was so cold that most of the time things froze together.

One thing I wanted to touch on in reference to our vacation is safe preparation, cooking, serving and storage of food. In a Caribbean Island and even in Boston in the summer we have to be careful of our food in the hot weather so that we don’t make our guests sick with food poisoning causing little bacteria’s.

Some safe cooking tips:

Cutting boards – designate your cutting boards. Have one for vegetables, one for meats and poultry and one for fruits. Meats and Poultry can carry bacteria like Salmonella, and when we cook our proteins it is not a concern but when sharing cutting boards it is possible for the bacteria to get on your fruits and veggies and make you sick.

Cooking your meats – most of us like out meats medium rare or medium but you do want to make sure that you are cooking those meat to the proper temperature to make sure you kill our little bacteria friends.

Keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot – the colder foods are kept, the slower bacteria and germs will grow, this is why frozen foods last so much longer. Your refrigerator should be kept at 40^oF or lower and your freezer should be kept at 0^oF or lower. Hot foods should NEVER be left out for more than 2 hours. Germs thrive at room temperature.

Thawing — The safest way to thaw meat is to take it out of the freezer and leave it overnight in the refrigerator. Do not thaw meat on the kitchen counter. Again, germs thrive and grow faster at room temperature.