Gearing up for New Year's Poolside!

Paul and I worked our asses off today trying to get prepped for the New Year's Eve dinner at Tropic's. We are booked for reservations for the evening. I just finished a Tuxedo Cheesecake which has a chocolate espresso brownie crust with a chocolate marble cheesecake topped with a marscepone mousse and finished off with a dark chocolate ganache. Yummy! Our plan is to get everyone fed by the time the "all white party" starts at 11pm by the pool.

We are expecting about 60 people for the New Year's party that starts as soon as dinner is served. All the guests have been asked to wear all white and we have a dozen or more cases of champagne ready for the big midnight toast.

Our goal is to get wrapped up with dinner, run home, shower and change and get back in time for the big "Part-A". I told Paul that we'll probably get home, shower and change into our chic and hip all white outfits, sit down for a minute and fall fast asleep. That not really a joke because it will probably happen.

Happy New Year from Saba!

Boxing Day on Saba

It seems as if Boxing Day is "the bigger" day to celebrate here on Saba. December 26th started off the champagne at breakfast by the pool followed by going house to house visiting relatives, friends, or for that matter, anyone who's door happened to be open.

The grand finale of the day was going to the Eugenius Johnson Centre to dance, celebrate and listen to The Occassionals play.

I asked how they came up with their name and the response I got was that they only play occassionally. Hmmn, so I thought it would be funny to start refering to them as The Every Once in a Whiles and then I got "even more clever" I came up with The Every Now and Thens.

One of the members of the band is Jonathan who happens to be the Governor of Saba. He plays this thing that looks like a cheese grater with a fork that scrapes along the edge. We laughed at the thought that if his gig as Governor didn't work out, he could always get a job at the pizza parlor putting cheese on the toppings. Funny at the time, yes.

I have to say that I was amazed by my wit but now, this morning, I think I'm more embarrassed by my obnoxious-ness. It may have been moderately humorous the first or second time, but 14 times?? Chris, put down the cocktail and close your mouth.....

All in all, I had an awesome day and was a happy camper.

It's NOT a Poinsettia but....

.....it's my Prickly Pear in bloom!

You may remember this piece of Cactus (or is it Cacti?, oh well, Who really cares) that I got after the Hurricane blew through Saba. When we moved up to the house on Booby Hill Paul planted it in this outcropping of rocks at the edge of the cliff. Well it has taken root and already started blooming! I'm calling it my Island Poinsettia....


Paul and I are enjoying our Christmas morning on the deck with coffee in hand and Christmas songs on the I-Pod. It is warm and sunny here today with highs in the low 80's.


Later we'll go down to the restaurant to begin preparing the "feast" for tonight's dinner for 22 people.


Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas from Saba!

Christmas Eve Dinner Menu

Paul put the finishing touches of our Christmas Eve prix fixe dinner menu and I got them posted around the island to boost some reservations for the night.

We are offering a four course meal with the following choices:

APPETIZER SELECTION:
Tuna Tartare with a soy-ginger dipping sauce and potato crisp
Lobster & Corn Chowder
Pork and Pistachio Pate with cranberry relish and Dijon Aioli

SALAD:
Mixed Field greens with spiced candied walnuts, dried cranberries and a bleu cheese & champagne vinaigrette

ENTREE:
Herb Roasted chicken breast with natural Jus with a sage & sausage stuffing & candied carrots
Seared Tenderloin of Beef with a rosemary-port wine sauce with Potato pave & broccoli-cauliflower florets
Grilled wild Salmon with mustard vinaigrette and mashed sweet potatoes and Country style green beans

DESSERT:
Cranberry Cheesecake
"Milk and Cookies" which is Homemade Spiced Rum Eggnog and Oatmeal Raisin cookies
Flourless Chocolate-Esspresso Torte with a warm cherry compote

You'd think that I would be as big as a house by now with all this food around but I find that when you're preparing it in the kitchen all day you kind of lose your appetite.

I weighed myself this morning and am down 26 lbs. Only one more pound to go and I will be under the #200lb. mark for the first time in nearly 7 years!!

Pretty soon I may actually be presentable on the beach.....

A Beautiful Morning Sunrise Over Booby Hill

Paul and I had a great day at the restaurant with a nice lunch & dinner crowd.

We had a group of 8 people here from the Czech Republic on holiday for 3 weeks. Wow, those folks really know how to drink! It definitely puts me into the Junior Varsity league in that category.

Another table came in and they were from the Maltese Falcon, the mega yacht I talked about earlier. The owner of the yacht told me that my homemade pate was fantastic! What a nice compliment from someone who's obviously travelled the world in his $300 Million dollar "toy".

Dinner service was a success with people saying how nice their meals were. Comments like that really make Paul and me feel like we're doing something worthy even if it's as hard work as it is. I never realized that my 4 decade old body would feel the aches and pains like I am. Ugh!

Had an awesome night's sleep and woke early this morning to enjoy this spectacular sunrise over Booby Hill. The visibility is so clear that you can see all 3 islands, St. Eustatius, Nevis and St. Kitts in the background.

Stinky cheese

Paul found a supplier in New York that offers some of the finest selection of French and Italian cheeses that can be shipped down here so he ordered a bunch for Christmas and New Year's at the restaurant. We were planning on doing some really nice cheese platters with wine pairings, etc.

Well, this morning I ran into the lady who runs the mail supply place and inquired about the order to make sure that when it gets here to call us right away so we could pick it up.

The response I got was "Oh, Was that YOUR cheese?" "It came in last week and it smelled bad so the ferry captain refused the shipment and it got thrown away" Ummnn, did you even bother to pick up the freakin' phone to call us and let us know?

Now I can just imagine $700 dollars worth of the finest European cheese rotting now in a G.D. garbage dumpster in St. Maarten. Do I have to do everything myself to get anything done with ANY level of accuracy?

And for that matter, It's SUPPOSED to "stink" you bunch of Ding-a-Lings....

The MegaYachts are coming, The MegaYachts are coming!

Over the last 24 hours we have gotten a chance to see several "big boats" arriving to Saba.

This one is the Caribbean Explorer which is actually a large live aboard dive yacht which caters to divers that cruise the islands and go scuba diving.

This one is a small sized Dutch cruise ship that comes to Saba once in a while for day trippers.

And the creme de la creme is this mega yacht sailing vessel called the Maltese Falcon. It is the largest privately owned sailing mega yacht weighing in a almost 300 feet long complete with its own submarine!

The Maltese Falcon is available for charter in high season for a mere 350,000 Euros per week for up to 16 guests, NOT INCLUDING FOOD AND DRINK. Good Golly Molly!!!!

Check out the info on it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_%28yacht%29

It anchored just below us yesterday and we watched it from the balcony. I kept waiting for some sort of smoke signal inviting down for the evening but, alas, it never happened.

A Little Intestinal Distress

Yesterday we celebrated Paul's 47th birthday by going to a great restaurant for lunch and celebrated with champagne and a delicious lunch followed by a nice afternoon nap and then a Christmas dinner to celebrate the holidays with the hotel and restaurant staff last night.

I have no idea what I ate or, more accurately drank but the day's festivities gave me a severe case of the "Di Di's". Most likely it was because my liquid intake outweighed my solids intake. Now I'm gonna have to delay my debut of the new Santa swim suit I was going to wear this week.


Nothing like a little leakage combined with a revealing piece of swimwear, right?

My New Mantra

Our friend Jody sent me this quote which I've now adopted as mine.

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather one should aim to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, glass of Scotch in the other, your body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO! Man, what a ride!"

Seriously, I think this is the way that we should all live our lives and not get all screwed up about things like traffic, work, politics, family tensions, etc.

A New Image for Tropic's

All of our light fixtures have arrived for the restaurant and they look pretty darn cool. It gives the Dining Room and really nice and serene atmosphere.

We also added curtains along the "rail" overlooking the pool which adds a little island, breezy and casual look.

The most important improvement though is our new shelf which holds our own blend of fresh pineapple and vodka. We are trying to come up with a name for the drink. So far, we have Paul's Pineapple Paradise or Chris' Fruity Tutti. The 2 words I've never like being put together is Chris and Fruity. Perhaps that reverts me back to old school yard teasing. I think we should just call it the Absolut Pollute.

Enjoying another sunny and warm Saban day today. Happy Holidays!

Opening Day was a HUGE success!

Our opening day at Tropic's Cafe was awesome! We're both freakin' exhausted but feel great about how things went. We started the day early, around 8am and with the exception of a short break to run home and get the doggies out and fed we ended our "work day" at about 11pm last night.

We were busy for both lunch and dinner and had a good Happy Hour crowd poolside. Paul did a fantastic job in the kitchen getting all the meals out, looking and tasting great. And I might say that my waiting and bartender skills dazzled the crowds. :)

Today is SABA DAY, the official national holiday on the island. Everything is closed, banks, schools and businesses but Tropic's is open for business so I hope that we'll be busy again today.

Off to work!

I'm Now Legal

Yesterday I picked up the last piece of paperwork for my resident status.

When I got my resident alien card a couple of weeks ago I found it unusual that it is larger than a typical sized credit card or ID card that we get "back home" and wondered how I would carry it around. For that matter I also wondered why I'm now called an alien but that's beside the point here folks....


But when I picked up my official Saban driver's license I saw that it is 11" X 5"! Now I am going to have to turn in my wallet for a snazzy new Man Purse to hold it. Or would it be called a Murse????

Tropics Cafe, The Official Take Over!

December 1st marks the official take over of our lease for Tropics Cafe.

We started the day by placing our food order through Merchant's Market in St. Maarten for delivery on Wednesday, pulling recipes for Country Pate and Duck Mousse (my job to make) and getting reorganized in the Kitchen.

I just love my new "uniform". Imagine shorts, tennis shoes and our logo polos to wear!

I'm sure that Paul is pissed off at me for being on the computer right now while he is on his hands and knees scrubbing away over at the restaurant. I've always felt, though, that I'm more suited for managerial tasks like writing in my blog and surfing the web for racy pictures to fill my imagination. Hmmn.