Showing posts with label Skinny Carib. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skinny Carib. Show all posts

Monday, April 18, 2011

Spring Cleaning for the Palette: Launch of the Skinny Carib Kitchen


If you have watched the series of films Oceans 11, 12, and 13 you may have heard the elder cons debate with the handsome young cons about the difference between a Grand Opening and a Soft Opening.

Why not get out the ticker tape, balloons, bands and fan fare and just open, or in this case LAUNCH the "Skinny Carib" Kitchen? 

When have you ever started a diet or exercise plan that you started out "guns blazing", pumped and from start-to-finish-to-now actually succeeded in reaching your goals?   In that case, I raise my glass to you, and I cannot wait 'till you decide to become our guest blogger! 

For most of us, especially after the religious and secular Spring holidays, college and other school exams, the debauchery of Spring Breaks and in the United States--TAXES!!--we, uhm, need a moment..., to decompress.  We are walking around hung over from living life as the modern pace demands.


Flying Balloon During Sunset, by Teeratas




So, today, with the wisdom of compassion--for you and for myself, we start with a soft launch.   Think of it as saying grace in the moments before you partake in our course of meals, mellee [meh-lay = chatty gossip] and movement [my simple exercise philosophy].






www.amway.com/GoodCleanLife for products we recommend because they are eco-human friendly since 1959 and they give back to communities in need.  We also receive a large portion of our funding from the Peace Pair, LLC  indepedent distributor that you connect to through the link provided: www.amway.com/GoodCleanLife  


My first lesson is in Spring Cleaning.  Literally changing how you clean the kitchen itself (some of you are already doing a phenomenal job, here).   And, more like a Skinny Carib from way back in my Mamma Mary's Caribbean kitchen, adding your physical body to the kitchen line up and giving the body a good internal cleanse.










White Towel and Flower, by Sura Nualpradid



NO! NO!  Not that juicing fast thing.  I don't know a thing about it and wouldn't promote it here or elsewhere.  That sort of thing is for professionals and mystics.   I am not a doctor or herboligist in real life and I don't play one online.  

 
BUT, my Grandmother (Mamma Mary) knew what she was doing…

One Spring, when I was 11 years old, I became very ill--I now track it back to the beginning of the active stages of my disability.  My white blood cell count was extremely high, my hair was only healthy in patches, my neck became very swollen and one morning I woke up and I could not turn my head in any other direction than the one it was facing--to the left.  The toughest part for me is that I could not go to school.  Although it was not called "Home Schooling" my lessons were sent home to me and I could not participate in my beloved labs in Science class--unless you count the probings of doctors and random potions of well-meaning neighbors as my personal science lab.  At the end of that school semester, having turned the age of 12 in bed at home alone, I was sent Home from St. Thomas to Antigua to my grandmother... 

By the end of that summer, it was anybody's guess what sort of body would return--if one would return at all.  

I remember overhearing a woman talking to my mother: "Eh, Miss Ruth...how's 'de child? Mon-eeque?" 

And my mother saying simply: "That's Monique. Right there."  My mother pointed, directing the woman's attention to my self standing behind her skipping--up on the concrete divider and then down into the open yard.  I was too happy to be too upset that this woman, my mother's good friend and sewing client, had ignored me the whole time she was there talking to my mother in the yard at Kromprindsens Gade #65 in St. Thomas, USVI—as she had always been one of my adult fans who made me feel happy to be alive in my Carib skin.

Months earlier, my grandmother, after her observations and evaluations, had held my chin, angled it to meet her face, and looked directly into my eyes.  I smiled back.   SHE began with a cleansing...

And though there were herbs, teas & "bush baths", it was nothing like the sort of dramatic fasts that I recognize is an important part of some methods.


I know you, too will have your way to begin.   I do advise cleaning up the pantry and refrigerator if the items there contain certain additives.  And though this is not a Vegan or Vegetarian blog/philosophy, I do suggest more whole and organic foods.   It also helps to have a mind-set that is able to accept that not all changes should be done at once: there is a difference between running water over dishes to wash them and stacking them up in the middle of the tub and getting out the hose--a gentler path can be more precise.

I've found that I learn something when I can apply patience in the process.   It's usually the very thing I needed to learn so that it's impossible for me to repeat old habits.  AND it respects my schedule. 

So, on April 18th, 2011, we begin here too with our version of a rocket launch, in honor of the pacing and quietness of a full moon --lighted, gentle, glowing, soft and yet remarkable set amongst the flicker of stars.  
 

Welcome to the Dance of the Skinny Carib(R),
The Festive Launch of Healthy Living, Loving and Laughing--Caribbean Style!

m.
The Skinny Carib(R)

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Sunday, April 17, 2011

War of the Island Palate--and, Some Good Looking MEN! Yes, this is Folklore...


Club Indigo , Haiti


Born in Hawaii, Jack Johnson's music and lifestyle has the laid back essence of a Trinidad & Tobago Surfer.  Yes, I said surfer.


Something about those waves, whether they are in The Caribbean or elsewhere seems to have produced a culture of "dudes" who play a cool, breezy tune; are ready-at-the-smile; and take on a huge wave like it's a call to a grand dance with a fellow natural--the sea.

Born in Antigua myself with over 365 delightful beaches, I still managed to be in absolute awe of the surfing culture I encountered in Trinidad and Tobago.  I was amazed at the hand-made, hand-art-carved boards; and God-crafted bodies.

I should have been writing, because I was one of the winners of The Cropper Foundation's grant to Caribbean writers--and the only one hailing from the United States mainland.  But the Caribbean has often been a source of collection, not of crafting for me.  There is literally too much life happening in the moment for me to look away.  These surfer bodies did not help the situation!

No, there's no sordid story to reveal. 
But, watching these guys eat, I had the ridiculous urge to feed them. 

I was deeply concerned that for all the years they had been reared on Trinidadian soil, they had been subjected to the spoils of the questionnable dish, known and loved by native Trinidadians---the "oil-down".  

Lover of all things food, when I was told the main ingredient of this legendary culinary offering was breadfruit, I was unable to achieve a proper night's sleep as the idea of it was more intriguing than waking up and realizing that you had not only chosen Prince Charming, but that he in fact, worshipped you as his one and only Sleeping Beauty--the one for whom he had searched far and wide to find and kiss and give the sweet breath of life--despite the fact that he saw you first thing in the morning.  

Oh, how that Trinidadian moon hung low as if it were a bright sun-child visiting the night...

And then, I woke up!

To that foul, sweet-oil and coconut-rubbed thing that my fellow island-writers devoured, spreading grease and woe on all corners of my soul.  THIS was NOT my beloved breadfruit! 

The Challenge, by Carlos Porto

On that day the Antiguan-Trinidadian war was begun!

Under the guise of OUR blog, I secretly had this very moment planned.  May they rue the day Chief Folklorist was attached to my surname!

I have heard of similar food wars between Jamaican peas and rice (again with the coconut addition) and the blessed by God and man "Antiguan-Dominican-Puerto Rican-Cuban-Haitian-St.Thomian-Kittician-Brooklynian" true versions of peas and rice.  Yet and still, the Jamaicans will NOT cease and desist this cocunut concoction that passes as Caribbean food!

I LOVE IT!!  These are the kinds of family duels that bring us to the Global Dining Table and opens the door for our more serious conversations. 
I've been told that I use food, I don't just cook it.  Guilty! 

Let the Dueling Begin
as named by the "Skinny Carib"  OR
 

Like music, food seems to draw us in and once you sit at my table, you're hooked.  Might as well stay for the intellectual discourse--it'll make the food digest easier (unless of course, it is the ridiculous "oil down"...:->!).

While my writing workshop teachers Earl Lovelace (author of Wine of Astonishment and Salt) and Merle Hodge (no food titles, why Merle? Why?) talked of prose and poetry to my wide-eyed, writing sistren and brethren, I hatched a plan. 

I excused myself on the grounds of a gastrointestinal upset.
I wasn't lying; this "oil down" thing cut me real deep!  

I went to the kitchen of the little island inn and asked the women there if it would be okay for me to make my own meal, as I could not digest "a few of" the items that were prepared for the other guests.  Aware that I already had a sensitivity to the sun, they assumed I must be one of the "sickly" ones and were happy to oblige.  In fact, they wanted a lesson of sorts in preparing this Antiguan breadfruit.  But how was I to get the breadfruit?

By now, you know I love a good hat.  So, broad hat, wrap skirt and tree branch in tow, I set out on a village "walk-'bout" in search of a ripe breadfruit.  In addition to my new writer pals who were game for even more of the madness  from "the American", along for the trek were village laughter, finger-pointing, and nay-saying--aah, my old comrades!


But there was that one yard, and that one tree, and that one woman who said "You really-really serious?!"  I'm not sure if it was pity or respect, but she was resigned to my insanity as she grabbed the tree branch and bat wildly at the high hanging fruit--with each swing becoming prouder still to have the one ripe breadfruit that had the power to subdue the very madness that had been brought to it!

And so it came to be that a few mouths in that dark-dark corner of the earth known as Grande Riviere, Trinidad were introduced to a proper breadfruit, as God intended it! 

I believe the new crop of young surfers hailing from Trinidad who are making national headlines must have somehow benefited from this renewed palate.  That 1/8th of an inch of a wave that was rid with that much more ease...   I will let the scientists do the study.  

Many-a-Trinidadian will cry foul over this blog entry.  Jamaicans and their jerk chicken and "coconut-cook-up-rice" will ask for my fingers for typing this blasphemous text.  To them all I say, let's duel it out at the family Dinner Table over some good food. 


It is in this very spirit of humor and love that I hope to share my knowledge of healthy living with our Global Family wherever they may be on the earth or moon.   I will discuss a variety of approaches to eating, herbology, exercise, beauty and overall nutrition.  I will deal with family harmony at the dinner table, even if each person has a different eating preference or need: Vegan, Vegetarian, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Auto-Immune Ailments, and so on.  I will tap from the best of the best and share links & personal stories from a variety of dinner guests.

Or when you just need a visual or auditory feast, you can still come Home to our Skinny Carib kitchen, because we have music, poetry, art/photography and YES, Folklore.

Be ye a hard-body (crunch!) or a creamy body (tasty!), as long as you want to live in the very best skin that you can, join me in the "Skinny Carib" kitchen-- and bring a dinner guest. 

Frankly, I made way too much!



(and for one other, good-looking, talented man who we claim as our own: Listen to This!)


In Global Community (Despite some questionable culinary choices),
m.
Prof. Monique S. Simon
Chief Folklorist/Project Director
(and now, The "Skinny Carib")
THE Caribbean Folklore Project(TM), living island traditions worldwide



p.s. One other looker: Chris Dennis, Trinidad Surfer Dude!
 
See more on youtube when you type in "Chris Dennis" in the search box.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

The "Skinny Carib" has invited you to her kitchen. Will you RSVP?

My Caribbean Mamma was wrong!
...at least about this one thing.  Finishing the food on your plate just because there's a hungry child somewhere doesn't make much sense.  Obesity in one part of the world does not cure poverty elsewhere.  If anything, the best solution is to show your child a good example by purchasing products from companies that give back to communities in need.  That's what we do as individuals, but it's also the fundamental basis of our company model: to partner with business that give back to communities in need, but that also provide products and services that are eco and human friendly.



Our current picks are:

Legacy of Clean(TM) household cleaners. 
Our affiliate link is http://www.amway.com/GoodCleanLife   This company has been eco and human-friendly since 1959.  They also give back generously to communities in need.



Toletta: 
as seen on "The Doctors" TV program.
  • Purse-Sized
  • Antibacterial
  • Patented
  • 20% Larger and 42% Thicker than other brands
  • and Yes, Biodegradable
All that and they  Support the CURE for Breast Cancer and Children Living in Poverty.
All you need to do is pick PINK or BLUE
or BOTH--make life a gift and buy for another.


The Himalayan Salt Shop

In addition to the healing salt products and anti-allergen salt lamps they offer, we have partnered with them to bring you a minaturized version of a traditional Caribbean Dutchie Pot/Coal Pot designed into salt lamp, with candle holder/scent infuser, keeping to the authentic traditional shape, while offering you the unique healing benefits of a Himalayan salt lamp.

Use our affiliate link to learn more about salt lamps and to purchase any number of items for home spa, medicine cabinet or home-health.  Carib Folks Healthy Home

Our custom designed Dutchie/Coal Pot is a limited release item.  We anticipate only 500 for this initial run, so please indicate early your interest in this item, by sending us an e-mail at: Info@CaribFolks.com if you wish to secure a pre-order.   (Please indicate your interest in either a spa pack or a kitchen pack when you write to us, so that we can predict #s of each set of sampler packets to prepare as a bonus item with your Dutchie/Coal Pot Salt Lamp purchase).  

We will announce and post our Pay Pal link to this item a few weeks before the orders are ready-to-shipped to our worldwide destinations.   If you have sent usee-mail, we will inform you letting us know of your interest, we will send you a courtesy e-mail with Pay Pal purchasing option before we inform the general public. .


And for inspiring posters, with words and images of Great Thinkers and Beautiful Locales, we choose our All Posters Affiliate: More Good Pics.  Purchasing through our link funds the free content we offer on our websites/blogs/and Facebook Pages.

Join Us and Simply Enjoy the Authenticated Caribbean Folklore information we offer.   Or just visit for the pretty pictures and occasional humorous exchanges.

Everyone is Welcome at Our Global Famly Table,
No matter where you reside on the earth or moon!


http://www.facebook.com/THECaribbeanFolkloreProject
http://www.skinnycarib.com/


Sponsored by A BOWL OF FIRE!!!!