The last couple of months we have been working hard around the yard and doing a lot of maintenance around here. At this point we think we’ve got every thing under control and looking good, so it was time to have some fun with food and drinks.

When we get pork bellies to make our bacon they always come with the ribs. The last bellies we got were huge and made some excellent bacon, plus we ended up with four big racks of baby back ribs. Usually, we would slow cook the ribs and serve them with BBQ sauce. This time to do something a little different, we decided to make them with a homemade teriyaki sauce and some others with a Korean rib sauce. Since we had so many ribs to cook we decided to have a bunch of friends over for an Oriental potluck.

Everyone we invited was excited about it and brought some excellent food. Let me see if I can remember everything. There was sushi, lettuce wraps, teriyaki ribs, Korean BBQ-style ribs, dumplings, fried rice, edamame, sweet and sour chicken with veggies, miso eggplant, and General Tso’s chicken. We gave everyone the option that if you were uncomfortable making an oriental dish you could just order something from a restaurant and bring it. That didn’t have to happen and everyone made something that was very, very tasty.

Besides all the great food, everyone had their adult beverages. There was beer, wine, rum, whisky, and even jello shots. The gal who brought the jello shots even made a sign to match the evening’s theme.

For the potluck, Kelley made fortune cookies for everyone with our own messages inside. Some of the messages were “Peaking duck saw you in shower” or “Your bill is $17.43. It could have been $14.43 if you had coupon” or “Fortunes not real. Get over it”. They were a lot of fun and everybody got a good laugh with them. We agreed that this was a lot of fun and that next time we should do a Mexican or an Italian themed potluck.

A friend of ours was even able to find a bottle of Japanese whisky. He told us that Japan is actually making some very good whisky these days. It was a very smooth whisky with a great taste to it. If you come to visit us and would like to give it a try, just let us know, we’ve still got a half bottle or so.

It’s been a while since we have made any liqueur so we thought it would be a good time to make some for the holidays. The last time we made chocolate liquor from our homegrown cacao it turned out great. This time we are also making some raspberry liqueur and some coffee liqueur since we have these growing in the garden as well. In a month or two once they are ready, I will strain them and then combine the chocolate and raspberry for what should be a great liqueur. I’ll probably save a little chocolate to go into the coffee as well.

If you haven’t seen these, they are pretty cool. Ice shot glasses. It’s a silicon mold that makes 4 glasses at a time. Just fill with water, throw them in the freezer overnight, and then pop them out of the mold. They will be perfect for that liqueur once it’s ready, and we already know that they work very well with tequila and Japanese whiskey. And the fun thing is that once you are done, just throw them on the ground.

We are usually not one for tropical fruity rum drinks, but every so often they can be good. Since we still had a few pineapples around and our dragon fruit is coming in, why not make a couple dragon fruit pina coladas? We threw the pineapple, dragon fruit, coconut milk, and some rum in the blender with some ice and let it go. Of course, we had to put an umbrella in it and also some dragon fruit balls on the bamboo straw just for looks. It was a very colorful refreshing tropical drink that I’m sure anyone would enjoy.

Kelley finally had time to make some more lobster ravioli. Amanda came over to give her a hand and they cranked out about fifty or so big fat raviolis. Kelley made the pasta and they got them all stuffed with lobster, spices, and ricotta cheese. These are always great with a light white wine sauce or deep-fried as an appetizer.

Ruben brought us down a bag of green chiles that he has been growing on our lot. This time he is letting them get bigger than last year like we suggested. I think these are still some of the seeds that I ordered for him from Hatch, New Mexico last year. Since we are no longer in Arizona, getting peppers like this is a real treat for us. I see some bacon green chile cheeseburgers and chile rellenos in our future.

Okay, it didn’t take long for us to decide to make some bacon green chile cheeseburgers. Our neighbor Chuck was down with his two brothers to do some finishing touches on his house. So we invited them and Amanda over for some burgers. Here’s how we do ours. We grind fresh beef, season it, and form it into patties. Then roast up some fresh green chiles, fry up some homemade bacon and grab some buns from our village bakery. Then we get the griddle on the bbq nice and hot, spread some bacon grease on it and toss the burgers on. Once the burgers are done with two types of melted cheese, we spread some bacon grease on the buns and put them on the griddle for a nice toasting. This is just how we do them and they always turn out great. I know in the Southwest U.S. you can always find a good bacon green chile cheeseburger somewhere, but not down here.

We are always up for trying something new to eat. This week we were at our little village produce stand and they had what looked like jars of olives. It turns out that they were sacpa (a Mayan word meaning white-pickled). The guy told us that they were a pickled fruit with a habanero in with them. He also told us that one of the resorts up here uses them in their bloody mary’s instead of olives. So we thought we would give them a try. They were good, sort of like a sour olive with a little heat to them. We could see where they would be good in a bloody mary. After a lot of digging around, I found out that it is a wild craboo, unlike the domesticated craboo we see in the markets around here. I guess these are seasonal and hard to find, so we were lucky we got the chance to give them a try.

Our citrus trees here around the house have been in now for about 5-6 years and are starting to produce. Nothing in volume yet, just a few at a time. One tree though is really loaded this year, but we’re not sure what they are. A lot of the trees we planted were grafted with two types of citrus. So the one that has all the fruit right now is either producing oranges or grapefruit or both. We won’t know until they start changing from green to either yellow or orange. Either way, we can’t wait because we love them both.

The trees we planted on our farm lot are doing quite well. Two years ago when we planted the trees they were all about 18-24 inches tall, and a lot of them now are all at least as tall as Kelley if not taller. Currently there are 7 different types of citrus, 11 mango trees, 3 avocado trees, 2 malay apple trees, 1 soursop tree, 6 coconut trees and close to 80 pineapples. Plus the other area that Ruben is farming with his different crops. Over where Ruben is farming there are also bananas, dragon fruit, Jamaican limes, and guava. And that’s not counting all the fruit trees we have around our place.

In a few more years all the trees should start producing and we might have to set up a fruit stand on the corner. Since Kelley’s maiden name was Kenney, it’s only obvious that we name it Letter Kenney’s fruit stand. 🤣

With everything we are doing around here sometimes I wonder how we have time to do anything else. But like the Belikin beer company motto says ” No working during drinking hours”.