Mother's Day Feasting

This has been an unusual Mother's Day. The fact that it is being celebrated without my kids or my own mother is not unusual; it is rare to get to share the day with any of them since we all live so far apart. Of course, I am even farther away this year, being out of the country.

It started last night. The power went out, again, around 4 p.m. It didn't come back on. I had a crockpot of beans cooking and chicken breasts thawed out and in the fridge, but the thought of throwing together another quick meal in a very hot kitchen before dark just didn't appeal to me. So I said "I'd like to go out to dinner" and Don willingly agreed. We went to Blue Bahia, a beachfront restaurant close enough that we could actually walk there, although we drove down. Their power was also out, but we figured they might have a generator, but that didn't seem to be the case. They had lamps lit in the kitchen and the waiter brought out candles for every table, reminiscent of last night's dinner. We ordered dinner and not long later, the power came back on. I had great St. Louis style barbequed ribs. And all mothers got a free dessert - a chimichanga filled with chocolate, peanut butter and bananas, served in a puddle of chocolate syrup. Yum!!

After church today, we went up to Dennis and Merlin's for a Mother's Day feast - and I'm not kidding. That woman must have cooked all day yesterday. She seriously put my mother-in-law to shame, and Lou was the queen of lavish spreads. Here's the menu: baked ham, baked chickens with dressing, footlong hotdogs (grandkids), rice and beans, mac 'n cheese, the island crab stew, fried plantains, iguana (yes, you read correctly - iguana!), potato salad, tomato-pepper-onion viniagrette salad and desserts - pineapple upside-down cake, brownies, cupcakes and some other cake, plus the chocolate cake that I brought. She wouldn't let me help cook, but she did have assistance from some of the grand-daughters.

Ok, so now you want to know if we tried the iguana and if so, how did it taste, right? Yes, we did, and it tastes like chicken! hehehe. Seriously, it was pretty good. And it does taste a little like chicken. She fixes it with iguana eggs, which I didn't care for. Her family was divided in appreciation of iguana - some love it, some hate it, and some love the eggs the best. I actually liked the iguana better than the crab stew. And someone left quite a few pieces of crab shell in with the meat. Merlin makes little tiny dumplings, which she pats out and drops in the pot with the coconut milk, crab, plantains, and yucca. The iguana has lots of tiny little bones to watch out for, so between the iguana and the crab, I was chewing carefully.

All of Merlin's kids who live on the island (2 do not) came for dinner, with all of their kids. It was quite lively, and to add to the noise and mayhem, Dennis popped in the Eagles' Fairwell Concert and cranked up the volume. Still...you gotta love the Eagles! We had a rockin' good time.

We are well-fed so I really don't care if the power goes out again tonight - although I would like to see the movie...