Cochas - a yummy twist

I have not had time to bake or cook much since we got here with work and all, and I have been feeling the need to create so yesterday I woke up, sent S on an errand to buy breakfast, and ignored the kids while I whipped up a batch of Conchas.
For those of you that have never eaten or heard of Conchas, Conchas are a typical Mexican sweet bread that are covered with psychedelic neon sugar frosting either in pink, yellow, brown, or white. Typical flavorings include strawberry (strawberry flavored milk powder), pineapple, chocolate(powdered chocolate milk mix), vanilla. So I set out to make the bread and do at least the vanilla and chocolate, but I also wanted to experiment because I can never leave well enough alone.
I found this great recipe for Conchas on the site La Cocina De Lesley. I am reposting it here with my changes:

Ingredients:
Sponge 

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 packet instant or quick active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup very warm water

Dough 

• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1.5 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 3 cups flour

Topping

• 1 cup powdered sugar plus up to 1 cup extra for those pieces that are too sticky
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 tablespoon diced/pulverized cocoa from a log from Antigua(substitue cocoa powder if you have it)
• 1 tbsp fresh mint chopped finely
• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
• rind from 1/2 a tangerine
• 1 tsp orange extract

Directions:

Mix all ingredients for the sponge in your mixing bowl, and let sit a min of 15 minute (if you are like me, you will forget about the sponge and it will sit for 45 minutes - it's OK!). Look for small bubbles to show that the yeast is working.  While the sponge is sitting and bubbling away, put the milk in the dough section in a pan with the butter. Warm up slightly until butter is mostly melted - do NOT boil. Then, remove it from the heat and add it to the proofed sponge(the already bubbled yeast mixture). In a small bowl, mix the egg, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add this to the sponge along with the flour.  Mix away.

 

I noticed that my mixture was too dry, so I added more milk which really helped. After the dough mixed for like 6 minutes, it became  nice ball that was elastic and not sticky so I took the dough hook out and let the dough sit in a corner and rise.

My helpers?

MEANWHILE.... make the topping. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and the flour and butter to a bowl. Use you potato masher or dough cutter to cut in the dough. Then add the vanilla and use your fingers to mix the mixture until it looks a little bit like wet sand.  At this point you ant to separate it into three pieces and add your flavorings. To one piece add the chocolate, mint leaves, and peppermint extract. To another piece, add the orange peel and orange extract - also to this one you can add food coloring if you wish. Work the ingredients in with your fingers - add more powdered sugar as necessary to keep the topping from being a sticky mess. Once everything is well mixed, put it in the fridge to chill.

The dough should be nice and doubled by now, but it could take up to 90 minutes to rise. Once the dough is risen, cut it in half, then cut each half into about 6 -7 pieces. Roll these into ball shapes and set on a greased baking sheet to rise again. I think I needed to let mine rise a bit more, but at this point the kids were going crazy with lack of supervision so I had them help and didn't get a full rise in.  

Preheat your oven to 350

Take your topping out of the fridge and cut it into either 4 or 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and flatten with your hand to the size of the top of the concha. Cover each dough ball with the topping and cut pretty design into the topping. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until slightly browned.

Yes people, that is a knife and my kids like to eat flour.

These were very delicious, I would recommend eating them the day they were made, but you can always save them for another day. I like dunking them in my coffee.  

Adventures in Texas - Sculpture Days!

So, this summer I decided to make the most of my six, yes, 6 weeks off from school and have adventures with the children and S. We have gone and done some pretty fun things. Look for more updates about the things we did this summer as the weeks progress.

In no particular order......

Adventure 1 - Sculptures, sculptures everywhere!

Managed to get into the waterfall with getting soaked!

Today was Family Day at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden in Zilker Park. I saw a posting for this event last month in the Free Fun in Austin blog but I didn't go because, well..... I was too lazy. I mean, pack up two kids, go to an unknown event where Superboy might have to behave just scares me. Today though, I was looking for something free to do and this posting popped up again so I thought, why not give it a try. The worst thing that could happen is that he breaks a few million dollar statues right? I packed up the kids, called a friend and she packed up her kids, and then we went off to see what the hoopla was all about.

We got to the Umlauf, and I was so pleasantly surprised! The building itself reminded me of a cross between the Botanical Gardens on St. Croix and an art gallery. There was this great little waterfall to the right of the building that the kids loved exploring and that filled the air with the melodic sounds of water flowing down rocks.  From there we entered into the atrium and listened to a story being read. It was about an Octopus - how appropriate! Superboy ended up talking to the nice lady from Book People all about animals like rattlesnakes, wolverines, and badgers and how cool they were. I think she left that conversation missing an ear or two!

Scavengers on the hunt.

The wonderful ladies at the Umlauf gave each child a photo scavenger hunt of different sculptures and a dry erase marker so they could cross off the sculptures as they found them.  The little little ones LOVED this and had a great time. The older ones liked the challenge of finding different statue hands, but were not as excited as the littles.  The Umlauf also had a sand pit where the kids could make sandcastles, volcanoes, and roadways.  There was sand and water involved so my island kids had a BLAST!  I would say that this was the highlight of the trip.

Playing in the sand.

In short, other than the slight heart attack that I had when we were inside and Superboy almost knocked over a 3 million dollar statue, it was a highly successful day where they ALL had a blast. Do I recommend taking your kids to the Umlauf? Yes, should you expect them to want to go back every week - umm, probably not, but I think they will be up for it once every few months.  This trip gave me the idea that doing a scavenger hunt for all ages would be the way to go when we go to a questionable locale on our next adventure.

In order to end our day, we went Amy's Ice Cream in the Arboretum.  It was cool - they had great flavors. I got Mexican Vanilla, Superboy got Sweet Cream with gummy bears, and A got a Melon Sorbet - I think A's was the most refreshing. We then went to go see the granite cows in the little park behind the shops.  The kids all loved climbing on these statues and riding the cows off into the sunset!

Tandem cow riding!

Go have a sculpture adventure today and tell me about it sometime.

Ramblings from Texas

Wow, wow, wow! Life has changed and I've neglected this blog. I am going to try to post once a week. Now that summer is here, that should be doable... yeah, sure.

So, we moved - and then we moved again.  We are still in Texas, but rather than being south of Austin, we are now north of Austin in a little bedroom community called Cedar Park.  I got a job, we bought a house, bought a dog, planted a veggie garden, A joined a swim team - or two, C is going to preschool, S stays home and is raising kids, cleaning house, being a taxi for the kids, shopping, taking car of any loose ends that I have left behind, and in short being a fantastic house husband, AND we have been exploring Austin!

C admiring a buffalo statue near Johnson City

There is SO much to do here - Capital tours, Austin sightseeing, pioneer farms, parks, Native American Pow Wows, music festivals, Cinco de Mayo celebrations, dog parks, shopping, movie theaters where they serve food(!), parties, GIANT book stores, kite festivals, etc.  We have yet to scratch the surface, go past the tip of the iceberg, etc. in terms of what there is to do here. We like it, it feels comfortable. I can see how we will have to strive to maintain our island vibe though what with all there is to do, I can see us getting over extended. In fact, most weekends we manage to build in home time where we hang here and do stuff like paint, make flower crowns, ride our bikes, cook, etc.

Crucian peeps and others at the Dirty Girl Mud run

Scarf dancer at Powwow @UT

Do I miss St. Croix? yes. Do my kids and husband miss St. Croix? yes. In fact the other day, C asked Stephen when we were going back and NOT for vacation. When we told him we didn't know, he got very upset and muttered something about going back to his island and selling this house for sixty five nine dollars - sorry kid, we need more money than that for this sucker!

I discovered Crucians here in Texas! We are EVERWHERE!!!! Big Up Crucian massive! I need to have a real Crucian party here this summer, play some Violators, Stanley, Quelbe, and even toss some Daddy Yankee in that mix to really let the new neighbors that "we deh here, meson!" So, if you find yourself in Austin this summer, look us up and "Leh we jam!"

Christmas Spirit

 We have been so busy unpacking, trying to figure out where we are, driving to the grocery store, doing homework, and working – yes, I am working now – that it feels like Christmas is no where near here.  Yes, we have a tree and our chimney has Christmas decorations – and YES I did send out Christmas cards this year(finally), oh and I did bake one set of Christmas cookies too, but still it just doesn’t feel like Christmas yet.

What to do to make it feel like Christmas? Join the neighborhood caroling group of course! No, I can’t sing and you really don’t want to hear me sing, but I still enjoy doing it. Our neighborhood has for the first time, got together and tonight went caroling. We met  at our pavilion, had hot chocolate, cookies, and sweets, practiced singing, and then jumped on a trailer covered in hay bales and set off down the road to sing to some neighbors who have a had a hard year. 

The kids were super excited, hopped up on sugar, and raw energy, the adults enjoyed socializing, and making other people feel good.  All in all, it was a nice way to “bring in” the Christmas season. So, get out there and do something Christmasy.

Life, Crazy life

I feel like my life has been crazy. What am I saying? Life HAS been crazy and I don’t see it getting any easier in the next few months either. SIGH  Between school, family life, and trying to keep us going on a sane schedule, we made the mad, crazy decision to leave St. Croix.

SSIIGGHH. 

Don’t get me wrong, we are excited to start a new adventure, to expand our horizons, and try new things, but you know, leaving is SCARY, hard, and WAY too much WORK!  There are tons of reasons why we chose this time to leave here, and tons of reasons why we could have stayed, but once we laid the cards on the table, it made more sense to leave STX than stay right now.  I know those of you living up where it gets cold and whom have know us since I was little are probably just shaking your heads right now in disbelief. I don’t blame you; I shake my head in disbelief and can’t really grasp the thought that in (hopefully) less than a month we will no longer be on this bright little jewel in the Caribbean. St. Croix will ALWAYS be where my heart is and a HUGE chunk of my heart will be consumed with my love for this island; but it is NOT the island of my youth anymore.  It has changed so much in the last few years- but especially in the last 8 months – that I almost don’t recognize her. 

People don’t seem to care for our way of life here anymore, yes things are getting hard economically, but that isn’t even what I mean.  What I mean is that there are so many more people here now who are being bad elements. There are more burglaries, shootings, hold ups, rudeness, drive by shootings, and just general disrespect going on that it saddens me and makes my heart feel burdened. I feel that we have lost our way and need good government and sensible people to help bring us through our rough times.  We need visionaries who can give up their own agendas to bring St. Croix through her hours of darkness and back into the light.

Will St. Croix be what she was when I was growing up? Probably never again – we have gotten too big, been exposed to too many outside “values”, and been shown how the outside world lives to ever return to the good ol’ days. Will St. Croix once again become a place where many people can live in harmony, support one another, look out for their neighbors, and where people will stop to help those in need? Yes. Will that happen over night? No.

I think this transformation needs to start in the home – if you see your child being mean to another – STOP them. If your child disrespects you because you haven’t been a parent who has rules – make some rules and give your child consequences. If you allow your children to be disrespectful, take wheat doesn’t belong to them, and have no consequences then you will get more of the same as they become adults.  

Maroon ridge view

After giving our children consequences for their actions, we need to look to our governmental leaders. If they aren’t working to better this place we call home, why keep them in office? Why do we pay them the money we do? Is it so they can pass legislation renaming roads? Maybe it is so they can return money that the Feds give us for our schools so our children fall further behind in education? Hmm, no? Oh, I know, it’s so those politicians can steal more money from us and further weaken our economy.   Heck, if I didn’t do my job, I’d be fired in an instant – why can’t we fire our Senators if they don’t do a good job?

ANYWAY – this post wasn’t supposed to be about St. Croix’s ills, it was supposed to be about our crazy life and how by leaving I have made it crazier.  SO yes, I have been a hermit these last 4 weeks trying to do school, pack, not kill my husband or kids when things got crazy, empty the fridge, learn all about the moving process, and not tear my hair out trying to figure out how to do EVERYTHING I want to do before we leave. Life is CRAZY here right now, but we enjoying all of our remaining time on St. Croix because I want to impart my love of this place to my children before we leave. 

We have gone hiking, chaney hunting, ruins rambling, Taino Indian learning, taken part in food events, gone to the farmer’s market, spent time with friends, played on the beach, etc.

There is still so much to do!

Sunrise over St. Croix

If you don’t see me out and about it is because I am trying to get in a last minute dive, go to Buck Island, walk the beach at sunset, watch the sunrise over Point Udall, go down that road I ALWAYS wanted to explore, climb that mango tree, snorkel the reef at Jack’s and Issac’s, and generally just explore this beautiful island paradise.  I want to drink Tamarind juice, eat Armsrong’s Ice Cream, have another Pate, eat another Roti, have a rum drink at Buck Island, swim a beach I have never swam before, take pictures of everything, lime in Christiansted, explore the back streets of Frederiksted. I want to go horseback riding in the rainforest on a fast horse, see the tide pools at Annaly, go to Maroon Ridge, I want to breathe in our salt air, smell the rain on the hot ground, feel the Tradewinds caress my skin after coming out of the ocean. In short, I want to take all my favorite parts of St. Croix wrap them up in my heart and carry them with me so that when the going gets tough on our new adventure I can pull out each memory or experience and remember what a charmed life we had here and what a truly special place this little island in the Caribbean is.

St. Croix is where my heart is. Where is your heart?

These boots were made for walkin'.......

deep sea explorer

In about February, my friend Anna was leaving island and while at her house I saw these über cute cowboy boots that I thought would be super fun and super cute for C to wear. She gladly gave them to us as handme downs. I think we were the 3^rd child to get them.  They were some well loved footwear by the time we got them.

beach boots!

These boots have been used as cowboy boots, firemen boots, astronaut boots, exploring boots, and most recently fisherman boots. They have been used for stomping on gongolos, running, climbing, holding swords, hiking, hiding things like toys and leaves, cars have ridden in them, they have been worn to town, the grocery, to the beach, to see horses, on boats, and to bed. THANK YOU ANNA for providing fun hand me down footwear for my kid for the last 7 months.  I can count the times on one hand that C has worn other footwear in that time frame – umm, 5 times. HE LOVES those boots!

During this whole time that C has been wearing the boots, it has been without socks so you can imagine the stench that emanates from them when they are removed. They must be taken off outside and they never come inside anymore.  Even the bugs that get put into them come out gasping for air! He has sweated in them, put dirty feet into them, had pee accidents in them…. You get my drift.

boot love!

It has gotten such that when people see C and he doesn’t have his boots on they ask him what happened to the boots? He will answer I left them at home, or they needed a rest.  He hears EVERY reference to his boots when we are out(EVERY SINGLE ONE) and answers with a “Tanks! I love my botas”. He even asks complete strangers if they like his boots.  He would sleep with them on if I let them come into the house off his feet.  He models them - naked.  When I ask him if he wants to wear his shoes and am holding the boots, he says “Not papos mami, botas(not shoes mommy, boots)”! The kid cracks me up!

garbage boots going
on assignment!

Sadly though, the age of these particular boots must come to an end.  On Friday he decided to go wading into the sea to catch fish while wearing the boots.  Salt water, sand, and fish are not friends of leather boots.  Not sure how I am going to explain to him why the boots must be trashed, but would you want to wear something that has foot stench, salt water, fish, and sand smell? He probably wouldn't mind but I and the rest of the family on the other hand.......

So Adieu dear boots, adieu. It has been fun, and one day we will get another pair, but for now – out you go.  Enjoy your well deserved rest in boot heaven where all well loved boots must go.

       

The home schoolers go indigenous with the Caribbean Indigenous Arts and Crafts Museum on St. Croix!

Today, we had the pleasure of going on a field trip to the Caribbean Indigenous Arts and Crafts Museum at Cane Bay! Whew, what a mouthful! This trip, although open to all ages, ended up being all elementary kids. There were three girls and three boys - what a great group they were too!

The kids arrived and were instantly captivated by Kelly the Parrot who sand Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, some opera, and cried like a baby!  She was really cute and hates to not be the center of attention.  Anyway, after talking and interacting with Kelly, they all went over to the open air picnic area and took their seats.

The children learned all sorts of fascinating things about Tainos. Tainos were the indigenous people who lived here on St. Croix from PreColumbian times up until shortly after Columbus "discovered" the Virgin Islands.  They were one of the most populous groups of Native peoples in the Caribbean. They farmed, hunted, gathered, and created beautiful works of art.  It is thought that their farming techniques were so far advanced that they only had to dedicate 2 hours a week to gardening. They produced such food stuff as pineapples, cassava(or yucca), peanuts, and sweet potatoes. They also grew cotton. Apparently when Columbus came by he noted, as did other explorers, that the island of St. Croix was heavily terraced and farmed with cotton plants.

Some of the islands in the caribbean still retain their Taino names. Some of these islands are Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti.  It is thought that St. Croix's name was AyAy which means The River. Now, why would St. Croix be named The River? There are no rivers or flowing bodies of water here! Well, way before the plantation industry got going here, St. Croix was FULL of rivers and streams and guts. With the advent of plantation farming, all the trees were either burned or cut down and it stopped raining here.  Once the rain stopped, guess what else stopped? THE RIVER!! Salt River is named just that because there was a river of water that flowed out of the hills and into the ocean. When we have tremendous rains, our guts fill and flow into the old path of our ancient river. I wonder what St.Croix would look like today if those plantation owners hadn't deforested our island - don't you?

ANYWAY back to some facts that our group thought was neato:

1. There were between 20 and 30,000 people living on St. Croix at the time of Columbus' arrival
2. A Taino woman shot one of the Spaniards with bow and arrow when Columbus' men came ashore
3. Columbus never actually set foot on St. Croix
4. Tainos had parrots
5. Tainos used blowguns
6. Spent a lot of time making very cool art
7. They wore feathered hats
8. Taino Indians were some of the first Indians to live on St. Croix
9. Many words came from the Taino Arawak language

So folks, if you get a chance to go visit Brian and his wife Jill at the  Caribbean Indigenous Arts and Crafts Museum at Cane Bay, please let us know what you think.  This is a great resource for artists, collectors, and children to learn a bit about our history here on St. Croix before the European conquest.

The Summer of Ice Cream!

Pure ingredients

It seems like in years past each summer has had a theme. Last summer was jams and jellies. This summer has been ice cream!  When I was little my Dad made homemade ice cream every once in a while.  I don’t know why he didn’t make it more often, but I do remember that we had an old White’s Mountain hand cranked ice cream maker. It was the kind you had to put rock salt and ice into.  Maybe we didn’t make it more often because my Mom didn’t like the egginess of homemade ice cream, or maybe because finding rock salt on the island was hard back then.  Who knows, but I do remember being sad when Hurricane Hugo destroyed it.

The secret to tropical ice cream!

A few years back, my Dad got a new Cuisinart ice cream maker that was electric and had a freezer bowl. It was genius! He started making ice cream again, and since he usually had an excuse to make it when we came for dinner, it became tradition for A to tell him what flavor to make. He started making Cinderella and Ariel ice cream….. what is that exactly? It’s vanilla ice cream or almond flavored ice cream that has been dyed the appropriate color to match the Princess in question’s dress. Hence blue ice cream for Cinderella and pink or red ice cream for Ariel.  My niece L also got into and started asking for Aurora ice cream, and then later Pocohantas ice cream. I am sure that is Disney got a hold of this site, they would make an even larger fortune!

Mixing

Anyway, I have an attachment for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer that promises to make ice cream. I tried it once and it worked marginally. This summer, I was determined to figure it out and make it work!  So, I experimented – a lot J

Tricks to using a KA ice cream attachment in the Caribbean:

1.     FREEZE your bowl for at LEAST 5 days.

2.     Chill in the freezer your cream for at least 2 hours before you mix it into your base

3.     After mixing your base, CHILL for 2 days in fridge or FREEZE for 8 hours.

4.     Start mixing as EARLY in the morning as possible(5 am is NOT too early in this case)

5.     Cover your KA with a fluffy bath towel while it is mixing.

6.     Once mixed and soft serve consistency, place into metal or ceramic bowl and put back into freezer at least overnight

7.     Eat with friends and family outside while admiring the lingering heat of the day

Basic ice cream recipe:

1C whole milk*

1C sugar

2C cream

4-6 egg yolks(large)

flavoring

*The more whole the milk you use, the creamier the ice cream

Scald milk and sugar in pan. Beat yolks in separate bowl. Add scalded milk to yolks once milk is slightly cooled. Mix continuasly so yolks don’t cook.  Return to stove top and stir until the mixture coats the back of your spoon. Once it is thick and coats spoon, mix into super chilled cream, add flavoring and chill in fridge or freezer.

Some notes: If you are using whole flavorings like mint leaves, cinnamon, rosemary, etc steep those in the scalded milk for at least 30 minutes then rewarm milk and add to yolks after removing flavoring(or not – your preference)

Some of our favorites this summer were:

Mango and Morita Chili

Rosemary, Blood Orange Olive Oil, and roasted Pepitas

Chocolate Decadence with Cocoa Nibs

French Vanilla

Mint Chocolate Chip with real mint leaves

Mamey, Cinnamon, and Piloncillo

Mango

Mamey

I have a few other flavors up my sleeve but will not tell you about them just yet!

We enjoyed this summer’s theme. Did your summer have a food theme?