Yardies, at home and a farrin (part 8)

[^KK^ 3]

Happy Monday! I'm wishing for this week to FLY by.

Hi KK Any particular reason you are wanting the week to fly by?

Next month is Anniversary!!!! Can't wait to get October behind me. It wasn't a bad month..just dragging.

[Yaads 0]

Pray for me! I cant do this much longer. I am so so so stressed!

Oh Shrewdy I am sorry this process is being so difficult for you. Many thoughts and prayers heading your way.

[Marlita 0]

hey Ladies!

Anyone know about POE thru Fort Lauderdale/ Will they take your JA food items?

Lita; if they let me through with 15lbs of ackee Evan will be fine. Plus I had about a dozen small breadfruit and a carry-on full of fry fish.

, ok I thought Evan was crazy with his 8lbs. Ok, I am not gonna worry to much. His plane leave is 15mins and he has not called me, and when I call him it just goes into voicemail. been like that for awhile now. Its stressing me out cause I have no idea if he even made it to the airport.

[SupportOAFJF 0]

Me and my mother always bake x-mas eve..so x-mas always come ketch wi a bake..and mi a stir an a tell mi modda mi dyam hand a hat mi...and she a cuss a tell mi stop chat ova di cake cause mi a go mek it fall...ahahahh and mek sure no get di egg eye inna di mix..i love it..absolutely funny...i'm baking at home too this yr with the family lookin forward to that

SHem..i think they call it that cause of the blue cornmeal maybe mi no know..and $5/slice fi cake is expensive

[Mrs. Palmer 5]

hey Ladies!

Anyone know about POE thru Fort Lauderdale/ Will they take your JA food items?

I know this doesn't have anything to do with anything, but I'm going to go on record and say that I absolutely do not like Fort Lauderdale's immigration set-up. You would think with the amount of international traffic they have coming through there that they would have more counters available, but it is the smallest immigration station that I have ever seen. If you have connecting flights through there, I would recommend that you have plenty of time in between flights, because it is definitely going to be awhile When I was coming back from JA through there, it seemed like everyone in line (and there was a ton of us) was scrambling to run and make our connecting flight...I mean down to the final boarding call! I'm too old to be running through an airport like that...not to mention we had to pass back through security which was also a small section. They really need to do some upgrades.

[TRELAWNY PARISH 10]

Ladies here you go.... KNOCK yourselves out

Blue Drawers

Blue Drawers, Duckunoo, or Tie Leaf are the names that are given to this boiled pudding of West African origin. Jamaicans are very fond of this starchy, green banana-based boiled pudding, which is enjoyed as a snack or dessert. Many people from different parts of the island use these names interchangeably when entertaining their guests or family members with this fare, whenever possible. Since I am from the eastern side of Jamaica, these names are the only ones that I can remember being used to name this delicious treat. And although these names were common, we were reluctant to use "blue drawers" in front of adults, fearing we would be admonished to have manners and respect... because using the word ‘drawers’ is slang for underwear. How this word became synonymous with a boiled pudding is still a mystery to me. I could speculate that ‘drawers’ are the banana leaf ties that are used to tie the prepared batter before it’s added to the boiling water, but that is just my guessing – honestly I don’t know why the name ‘blue drawers’ came about and I’ve never checked. With all that said, the taste is what we’re interested in…not history. Irie? Cool.

Another very important thing about blue drawers is that it is traditionally made with the banana leaves as the exclusive binder. However if you live in a place where banana leaves are not available, what do you do? Or even if you live somewhere where there is an ample supply of banana leaves but you’re not able to get any immediately…use aluminum foil.

And that’s how we will make this ‘blue drawers’…yah mon!

Blue Drawers:

2 cups Green Banana (grated)

1 cup Sweet Potatoes (grated)

1 cup Coconut Milk

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 cup Brown Sugar

½ tsp. Salt

1 cup Flour

1 tsp. Vanilla Flavoring

4 tbsp. Raisins

2 tbsp. Cooking Oil

4” x 6” Aluminum Foil Sheets

Twine or Cord.

Note: This recipe calls for grated green bananas and sweet potatoes…please remove the skins from the vegetables before you grate them.

Use a large mixing bowl and add, the grated bananas, sweet potatoes, flour, baking powder, salt, and cooking oil. Use a wooden spoon to mix all the ingredients.

Warm the coconut milk on a low fire. Add the brown sugar and vanilla to the coconut milk and sweeten. Next, add the sweetened coconut milk to the rest of the ingredients and mix everything together until the batter is formed. In the meantime bring water to boil in a saucepot. Use the wooden spoon to add four to five spoonfuls of the batter to an aluminum sheet. Bring the two long sides of the sheet together to hold the batter in place. Fold them together to retain the batter inside. Fold the two ends of the sheet and tie the blue drawers with the twine, cut the excess twine.

This takes a little practice, so if you don’t get it at first, big deal. Do it again.

Repeat this process for the rest of the batter and then add all the blue drawers to the pot of boiling water. Let the pudding cook for about 45 minutes.

When the blue drawers are ready remove them from the boiling water and let them cool to room temperature.

Remove them from the aluminum sheets and serve as is or with ice cream. You can also eat them with a little honey and ground cinnamon.

YAH MON!

[SupportOAFJF 0]

hey Ladies!

Anyone know about POE thru Fort Lauderdale/ Will they take your JA food items?

Lita; if they let me through with 15lbs of ackee Evan will be fine. Plus I had about a dozen small breadfruit and a carry-on full of fry fish.

, ok I thought Evan was crazy with his 8lbs. Ok, I am not gonna worry to much. His plane leave is 15mins and he has not called me, and when I call him it just goes into voicemail. been like that for awhile now. Its stressing me out cause I have no idea if he even made it to the airport.

they will let him take his back to scan if he tells them about the breadfruit...and trust mi dem sumpting deh heavy..mi bring up couple one yr and mek mi tell u mi not brining no more....and dem no help yuh

[Marlita 0]

Morning ladies! I worked on-call over the weekend, so I'm off today. I'm actually going to head over to the polls today and vote early. Mi cyaan wait in line forever on Nov 4 How is everyones work day so far? I was just reading where they have found a young black boy's body in a white SUV who's tags match the SUV they were looking for in the Jennifer Hudson case. While I pray that it is not her nephew, I have a sad feeling that it is. This world is so scary.

Are you going to be out of town on election day?

No, I', going to be in town on election day...but there have been news stories all over the state about the length of the poll lines NOW, so I can only imagine how long the waits are going to be on the actual election day. I wasn't blessed with alot of patience, so I figured I would go ahead and get it done, and not have to take too much time off of work.

Wish we had early voting here!

Wish we had early voting here too, but its Cali, this state is a wrap whether I vote or not.

[Yaads 0]

Hi, Ja English, how is your job coming along?

Really liking it!Get free dental, free health insurance, extra time by clocking in early etc....My husband is pushing me to apply for other jobs paying more, but I really want to stay a while....I'm doing insurance billing which normally you have to go to school for, so I think a year of experience would be great for me careerwise....

What a cutie you have there JaEngy

Glad you are liking your job...especially after the horrible one you used to have. I definitely think you should stick around and get some on the job experience. Even though you could get a better paying job - free dental and healthcare...that is worth a lot. It is becoming harder and harder everyday to get a good job with good benefits.

[SupportOAFJF 0]

Lita i'm sure he made it...probably issues with the reception..mi knoe Evan not missin dat dere flight

[Yaads 0]

Hey all

Sol..i was thinkin about u..how r u?

Hello everyone I am doing good my stomach is healing from surgery and I feel better now. So far so good.

Glad you are doing well and healing. How long of a recovery period are you expecting?

[Marlita 0]

hey Ladies!

Anyone know about POE thru Fort Lauderdale/ Will they take your JA food items?

I know this doesn't have anything to do with anything, but I'm going to go on record and say that I absolutely do not like Fort Lauderdale's immigration set-up. You would think with the amount of international traffic they have coming through there that they would have more counters available, but it is the smallest immigration station that I have ever seen. If you have connecting flights through there, I would recommend that you have plenty of time in between flights, because it is definitely going to be awhile When I was coming back from JA through there, it seemed like everyone in line (and there was a ton of us) was scrambling to run and make our connecting flight...I mean down to the final boarding call! I'm too old to be running through an airport like that...not to mention we had to pass back through security which was also a small section. They really need to do some upgrades.

I just went thru FLL last week, and it was fine, actually the immigration station for inbound AirJA flights was sbigger than at LAX. Maybe it depends on what airline you use, or which conceting flight you had. I had a 2 hour layover and got to my connecting gate with 30mins to spare. Evan has a 3 hour layover, so hope its enough.

[*JG* 2]

Marlita, I've come through Miami with food items and they did not take them.

Tell him to blanche everything that must be cooked and then freeze it.

I have never heard that term before. some stuff he has cant be frozen or it ruins it.

Oh I am so sad for jennifer hudson family. I assume the boy was found dead.

Steamed.

What is he bringing?

[Mrs. Palmer 5]

Ok so I'm not a cook, and the only thing I ever bring back on the plane is patty's from the shop in the airport, so what does "blanche" mean? Cuz I would love to bring back some ackee and saltfish.

[Marlita 0]

Lita i'm sure he made it...probably issues with the reception..mi knoe Evan not missin dat dere flight

He better not! but u know JA traffic on a monday morning. Better not be no road blocks. I am gonna call the airline and ask he he made it on there.