The Secret

I have found the secret to using the pizza stone. It removes all the frustration and mess that results when the prepared pizza does not slide neatly off the peel and onto the stone. The secret is parchment paper. In my research on how to use the stone I had come across this suggestion but had never come across parchment paper. I knew what it was but hadn't had any personal experience with it. I called my friend Pat who does a lot of baking to ask if it was available here in the rainforest. Not only is it available but she had an extra roll so she gave me some to try out.

Last night after happy hour and a foiled attempt to go to see my friend Donnie Walsh perform at a local restaurant, I decided to go home and experiment. The foiling was done by my little Sally Dog who surely would not have been permitted entrance to the restaurant where Donnie was playing. When we left Perla's we locked her inside with Perla's Rottweiler, Lizzy. As I was parking at the restaurant, Sally showed up and had evidently done her Houdini thing to get out of Perla's. So it was a no go.

In any event, I had promised Pearla a pizza and my peel-to-pizza stone transfer technique was pretty hit-or-miss. But I had high hopes for the parchment paper. So I took a batch of dough and worked it a little stiffer-than-usual. Then I formed it into a round on the work surface. I placed the parchment paper on the peel, sprinkled it with cornmeal and moved the crust from the work surface to the parchment paper. Then I built my pizza while the stone was pre-heating.

The transfer to the stone was flawless. I was thrilled. The pizza just slid right onto the stone and sat like it grew there. Nothing spilled or dropped. It was awesome. So now I just had to find out how to get the pizza off the parchment paper. That turned out to be as simple as the transfer. Nothing stuck and with two spatulas I was able to lift the pizza onto my cutting board. The pizza was a little larger than the cutting board but I managed to cut it up in any case. As usual it was delicious.

So today I made Perla's pizza. She's a little fussy so I made a pretty basic pizza - tomato sauce, onion, mushroom, pepperoni, tomato and cheese. I just realized I forgot green and red pepper - oh-oh I'm in trouble. It too transferred flawlessly. Now I had to transport it to her bar. I drive a Honda Quad. I had a large pizza pan so I put the pizza in that and covered it with an inverted cookie sheet, sat the works on a pillow and bungeed it to the front rack. I drove slowly up to Perla's for the big moment. She was asleep! So I left the pizza in her kitchen. She'll probably microwave it later and it will go all soggy and lose the beautiful crispy crust the stone delivers. Ah well, it's the thought that counts, right? Perla will be delighted just for the attention it will bring her.

Extraordinary Kindness

I received a comment on FaceBook today regarding the trouble I was having with the yeast available locally. One of my FB friends had made an excursion to the closest north american style supermarket and gifted me with fresh, new yeast. She dropped it off at the house just before I had to leave for my outside appointment. I am touched and blessed.

On my beachwalk this morning there was a lot of activity. The locals were pulling fish in like crazy and there were "boils" all along the beach to mark the feeding frenzies. Many of the fisherfolk just wait around for these "boils" and upon seeing one run to the location and fling their handlines into the fray. They use artificial silver minnow lures that appear to be highly effective and practically universal.

I saw a small dolphin up on the berm on my way south. I couldn't tell if it was somebody's catch, since the locals just toss all their fish up on the beach, or whether it had died and just washed up there. On the way back I saw a sting ray which had definitely died and was washing around in the surf. The cycle of life in the rainforest.

Today was a good day. The beachwalks are getting easier each day as my conditioning is improving. My workouts are also getting more and more comfortable as I regain my strength and build new muscle. Today I have managed to stick to my meal schedule so I'm giving myself a silver star!

I was expecting to get my permanent, unrestricted residency today. It didn't happen. Immigration wanted me to go to San Jose to have my picture taken and to sign the card or agreement. I just did this at their Liberia office to renew my temporary (ten years) residence. They have my photo and signature on file. I am trying to get the file transferred from San Jose to Liberia. This could take a while the way they do things here. A local artist produced a bumper sticker proclaiming: "Costa Rica- we make easy hard". It has become very popular.

I'm staying home tonight.....maybe make a pizza using my new peel. My friend Joff used to make pizza for sale a while back and he had a peel he wasn't using so he donated it to my cause. I am hopeful it will perform better than the one I made in a hurry with sub-standard materials. We will see a little later on.

Meanwhile, I'll be chillin' in the rainforest.

I love Sundays. Yesterday was simply awesome. I had been having yeast problems (for baking purposes, of course). The yeast that is available in the local stores is practically dead. I wasted several batches of dough learning that there was still some life in what I had purchased but it took eight hours to rise. I was relating my experience to Perla and she gave me some yeast she had in the kitchen. Wow! This was dynamite. I had picked up a tip on the web that suggested heating a glass of water in the microwave for 2 minutes and then putting the dough in the microwave to rise.

And rise it did...more than doubled in size in less than an hour!

Unfortunately, the yeast Perla gave me was only enough for a couple of batches of dough. So I went to the local bakery figuring they used enough yeast to keep their supply fresh and they filled up a spice container I happened to have in my pocket so I am good for a while now.

So yesterday, I baked a batch of banana-oat-apple-walnut-raisin power bars. I also baked a batch of apple-oat muffins. Then I undertook the big experiment.

I love English muffins but only rarely are they available here and then, of course, they are made with white flour and undoubtedly filled with preservatives. I made whole-wheat English muffins yesterday. I must admit the results were pleasing for the first attempt. There is a lot of technique required in handling the rounds to produce an aesthetically pleasing product. But it worked as advertised in the recipe I found on the web and I am delighted.

To wind up the day, I made Chicken Parmesan for supper...what a treat! Since I embarked upon this weight loss program, I have been somewhat stumped regarding meal preparation to support the program. A few days ago, however, I acquired a cookbook specifically designed for the program with interesting recipes containing the appropriate balance of carbs, protein and fat. My life has taken yet another turn for the better.

Five pounds lighter in paradise................

Sea Snakes

Today's beachwalk began by encountering a sea snake at my beach access. These critters normally stay well offshore but at this time every year they wash up on the beach to spawn as I understand it. They are usually pretty spent or dead when we see them and are not in any way aggressive. However they are to be avoided as they are highly venomous and there is no anti-venin available. Fortunately, they have very small mouths which makes for a poor delivery system for anything as large as a human. Children and pets should be kept away for their safe guarding. I counted six on my beachwalk this morning though I have seen many more than this in years past.

I walk to the northernmost end of our beach at Las Brisas. This is what it looks like at the shoreline where I turn around and ...what else...walk back south. You can see the volcanic character of the promontory that separates Potrero Beach from the next beach to the north...Penca.

Breakthrough Pizza

I was gifted with a Pizza Stone years ago. My ex never showed any interest in using it. I decided that it was a valuable addition to my collection of kitchen artillery. So I read the scant information that came with it and pulled up everything I could on the web - all conflicting of course. But I gleaned enough to feel comfortable with a trial.

So I mixed up some whole wheat pizza dough from a recipe I found on the web. The proving yeast didn't look all that energetic - like not ready to sign up for a triathlon - but I soldiered on and set the dough aside to rise. After the prescribed 2 hours it had not budged. I figured I had a bad batch of yeast or I was a little overambitious in attempting whole wheat dough the first time.

So I chucked it and made a batch of basic dough....same result. And again. I got discouraged and went to take a nap. When I got up two hours later the dough had noticeably risen. So I went out for a beer to celebrate. When I got home I punched down the dough, separated as directed into three portions and began to create a pie. I did this on the work surface. then I had to transfer to the peel. This did not work too well and I basically had to remake the pie on the peel. I had sprinkled lots of flour and cornmeal on the peel but the process of patting and spreading the dough evidently made it stick so the transfer to the hot stone in the oven was a disaster. But I did wind up with a misshapen mountain of edible pizza.

So I was part way there. Some one had suggested wax paper would work for an easy transfer to the peel. I had visions of transferring and simply peeling away the wax paper. It does not work. Scratch another batch. I thought perhaps A half sheet of wax paper to fold the dough over would make for an easy transfer to the peel. Wrong! Both halves stuck to the wax paper in spite of a generous flouring. Scratch another batch.

So I made some more dough. Three more batches. It rose in 4 hours. I had determined by this time that the pie would have to be made on the peel to avoid transfer disasters. The peel now well floured and well cornmealed, I brazenly placed the portion of dough in the centre and proceeded to spread it into the prescribed circular shape - or something resembling it. I gave the peel a shake from time to time and the whole crust-to-be moved freely. So far, so good. Then came the construction phase. I painted the dough with California Oil Sauce (basically EVOO and garlic, and sprinkled with grated mozzarella. Another little shake and the dough was still free-wheeling! I added turkey, mushrooms and red bell pepper for a little colour and topped with more mozzarella. This time, the pizza was a little reluctant to move when I shook but a little assistance from a metal spatula freed it up and it was rolling free. The transfer to the hot stone was flawless. Twenty minutes later, I had my first near-perfect pizza stone pizza.

And that's the way life is in the rainforest.

What a day this was

Everything was normal this morning. I went for my beachwalk with Sally and Gracie, came home, had breakfast and started work. All good so far. My sister had made arrangements for our friend, Dennis, to drive to Liberia (about an hour east of us) to get some maps printed. I have the only current map updated regularly and I decided to piggyback on the journey and get a new map of the water network. Dennis showed up at the house at eight o'clock. I had a little shopping list for him - office supplies mostly. We estimated the cost of the items I needed and I assured him I would transfer the funds to his account so he would have the cash to pay for them. We do this all the time.

I returned to work and finished my time-critical exercises. This done, I thought I had better transfer the money. This is when everything went south. The bank's website was dead in the water. I had no other way to get money to Dennis. He called when he was at the map-printing place and we reduced the order so that it would be covered by the cash my sister had advanced him. But that was it. I told him I expected the website to be back up soon and when the transfer was done I would advise him. It was lunch time and I figured we would be back to normal by the time he had eaten.

We weren't! Between the jigs and the reels, and a few phone calls, I was becoming dubious that the service would return in time for him to pick up the rest of the items. I even went as far as emailing the bank manager asking her to do the transfer...never heard back. I called Dennis to advise of this maneuver and he said he would wait one more hour.

At around four o'clock the website came back up. I did the transfer and called Dennis. He couldn't withdraw cash from the ATMs but he was able to use his debit card. He came here to deliver the purchases around 8:30 pm......a very long frustrating day for him.

Ah well, that's life in the rainforest....where else would a bank take down it's website without warning and leave it down for almost a whole working day? Ya gotta love it.

Local Shopping Bonanza

A week or so ago I ran out of propane. That is to say, the tank servicing my stove ran out. I always keep a spare tank because I have observed that the gas only runs out when you are cooking or baking and never otherwise. So I just swap them out and away I go.

Not this time. The spare was empty in spite of being sealed and appropriately heavy when purchased. Apparently it had leaked all the propane out while awaiting it's turn to fuel the fire. Not a big problem; I took it back to the store where I bought it. They recognized the situation and my dilema but were fresh out of propane. This was Saturday. They would get more on Monday.

This was not going to work for me so I drove off to Potrero, the adjacent community and bought a tank of gas there. You actually must purchase the tank and bring it back empty to pay only the refill. So now I have three tanks! But I did have gas to cook over the weekend.

I realized I had not been to the store where I got the propane in quite some time although I used to be a regular. I remembered that they used to have a good stock of household items. I don't get out of town much as you may have gathered and I had put out wish lists to shoppers I knew who would not mind picking a few things up for me. They weren't having a great deal of success.

So I made another trip to the store in Potrero and was totally blown away to find nearly everything I was looking for - and a few I was not. I will be shopping there much more frequently now.

And that's the way it is.....living in the rainforest.

Beachwalks

As a complement to my Fat-burning weight loss program I have added beachwalks. Every morning at 6, I grab my bamboo walking stick, don my special beachwalking shoes and head for the ocean with my dogs, Gracie and Sally. This is a photo of Potrero Beach looking south to Flamingo around 3 miles distant.

The beach has been maggoty with fisherfolk. You can see that the pelicans are in close to the water's edge feasting on baitfish. This means that there are bigger fish in close as well and the locals are well aware of that. They wade into the surf and toss out handlines to catch their breakfast and with a little luck their dinner too.

The shoes really are special. Normally I wore flip-flops but they are useless -dangerous even - when wet and the sand gets in them and sticks to your feet and usually you kick them off and carry them. They have introduced a kind of duck boot here that works like the proverbial charm. They are really lightweight and stay on your feet. As long as you watch where you're stepping they keep the sand out and you have a comfortable walk without having to carry them. I love them. And I was lucky enough to get a pair in basic black. They are often orange, lime or grape coloured...not my style.

We have a lot of shore birds too. Above is a heron looking proud as a peacock...hmmmm.

This is my backyard, livin' in the rainforest.







I walk from the house to the beach and then north to the place where the beach ends in a volcanic promontory separating us from the next beach. Then I turn around and walk back. I meet somebody I know every day and usually stop for a chat. I get home in around an hour, just in time to have a nutritious breakfast and start work.

Printer goes Rogue

It must be the moon or just that time. You may remember my scanners going down recently. Well, this being the first of the month, I had water bills to generate for delivery to the bank this morning. I started the printing Saturday around 2pm providing lots of time to complete the job which usually takes an hour or so. All was proceeding well until I encountered a paper jam. This was not unusual. It is normally a matter of clearing the jam and proceeding. Sometimes in the past it required a reboot to carry on but nothing more.

Not this time! For some reason known only to itself, the printer wished to consider that it was printing some fantasy version of War and Peace or something. It just kept feeding blank sheet after blank sheet after blank sheet. Being the optimist I try to be, I sat there like that guy Desmond on "Lost" pushing the button and believing that sooner or later the phantom job would end and the printer would reset itself and be available to complete my assignment. Not to be. I pushed that damn button until 10:30pm and gave up.

I tried again in the morning with the same result. I finally called a friend and borrowed his printer to finish the invoicing. The bills made it to the bank by opening time today...I haven't missed yet but this was close.

With any luck I will get a ride to the big city today to purchase a new printer. I probably won't be able to get the one I want but I should be able to get something. Ah life in Paradise ;> )