Happy late Easter

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Amaryllis Lily in front of the guest casita.

Over the past weekend right in front of the guest casita, we had one of our lilies bloom. I guess you could call it an Easter Lily. Actually, it is an Amaryllis Lily, we are not sure if it is a Barbados or a Peacock variety as we have both types. Either way, it is a beautiful flower and there are more ready to bloom.

The ham turned out perfect.

Our 25lb. Easter ham that we started a couple weeks ago turned out great. After curing for two weeks it was then put in the smoker for about eight hours. I started it out smoking with some hickory chips and then finished it off with apple chips. The next day it was put on the grill on low to warm it back up. While it was warming it was basted with a whiskey brown sugar glaze.

Raspberry pie with fresh raspberries from the garden.

Another thing Kelley made for our Easter feast was a pie with some of the fresh raspberries we’ve been getting from the garden. Easter Sunday was a beautiful sunny day here, with good friends and lots of food.

Everyone starts at the crack of dawn and will finish before the day’s over.

Every year on Good Friday the town of Benque Viejo decorates the streets with sawdust tapestries in preparation for the reenactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. For weeks prior, people have been designing their tapestries and dyeing sawdust. On the morning of Good Friday, they start laying out their designs on the streets.

Putting the finishing touches on.

Good Friday events in Benque Viejo іncludе a re-enactment of the Passion of Christ in the morning, a church service in the afternoon, and the Holy Burial procession through the town’s main streets in the evening.

This one takes up the entire block.

The tapestries won’t last long because the Holy Burial procession on the way to the church will pass right over them.

Sawdust carpets leading up to the church.

If you are ever in Belize this time of year, this is something you need to see in person. The amount of time and effort everyone puts into making these, only to have them last one day is amazing. And to think that they are all just made out of colored sawdust.

Besides Easter stuff…

Our most recent little project around here is a firepit and sitting area. I know what you’re thinking, why do we need a firepit in the warm jungles of Belize? Believe it or not, from December through February the temps do get down in the 50°s. We’ve spent quite a few evenings sitting outside bundled up thinking how nice a fire pit would be.

We couldn’t get grass to grow in this area, so a firepit was our next choice.

The rocks for the pit we gathered from the road construction once they were done. The wood on the benches we had leftover from a build and we spent under $20 on cinder blocks. Now that’s the kind of project we like!

Interesting vine.

Recently we were trimming the trees in the driveway and removing some of the dead vines. This one vine had a bunch of them all twisted together and was pretty cool looking. I’m thinking it could make a great door handle on a shed or something. What do you think?

A strangler fig wrapped around a cohune palm tree.

About 50′ off our back patio we have a huge strangler fig that is wrapped around one of the big cohune palms. It is at least three feet wide and about forty feet tall. Eventually, when it kills the host tree we will cut it down and find something cool to do with it. When I was looking up info on the strangler fig I found a place in California selling smaller ones, and they wanted $4,500 each. Too bad we couldn’t get that kind of money down here for it.

The custard apple is a lot more purple when it’s totally ripe. The lychees might look a little strange, but they are delicious.

A couple fruits that you don’t usually see in the states are the custard apple and the lychee. Custard apples and lychee are fruits that I’m sure many of you have never heard of much less tried. The custard apples around here have a beautiful pinkish-purple flesh inside and are loaded with seeds. They are sweet and creamy like custard and are very tasty, especially when chilled. The lychee is a rough skin fruit with an opaque white flesh that is very sweet.

Holding the pizza near the top of the oven to get a last minute melt on the cheese.

Since we recently split all that firewood, it was time to fire up the pizza oven once again. Our neighbor Monica had some friends visiting from the states, so we invited them and Amanda over for a little pizza and beer.

A meat lovers pizza.

It takes a few hours to get the pizza oven hot enough, so I only like to fire it up when I know we will be making more than a couple pizzas. That night we made at least eight pizzas, maybe more with all kinds of different toppings. They all turned out great, but our technique still needs a little bit of work. When you come down for a visit we’ll be sure to fire the pizza oven up.

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter and we hope to see you soon.

3 thoughts on “Happy late Easter”

  2. Happy Easter.
    Love the Lily, ham look delicious, as does the pie. I miss you and Dave cooking dinners.
    Try cooking beans overnight in your pizza oven, that was a tip from someone when we had the BBQ Store.
    XOXO

    1. We’ll give the beans a try. There is a restaurant here that puts chicken in their pizza oven at the end of the night. They say that by morning it is cooked to perfection and ready for that day’s recipes.
      We’d love to have you guys over for dinner sometime.

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