"We'll bring the fish" - Cooking in Costa Rica

One thing (and practically the ONLY thing) I miss about the states is the awesome weekly meetings we used to have on Sunday's. Someday I hope to have our original group all here and all together again. Until then I'll be looking for people to form a new group.

To that end, we recently met a couple (Gerald & Tamara) who were visiting here from Northern California. They live in Sebastopol which happens to be very close to where we lived. They are making plans to relocate in a few years or hopefully sooner.

We really hit it off and we discovered that we have so much in common (besides our geographic proximity in the states). We invited them to dinner last week and I gave them the option of chicken or fish on the grill. They chose fish and then offered to bring it. I said I would supply the munchies and the wine.

Once they were here we were having such a good time that we decided to prepare the meal jointly, except that it turned out that they did ALL the cooking! He is an excellent cook.

We visited with them on Saturday and plan to have dinner with them on Monday or Tuesday as they are flying back to California on Wednesday.

They would be an excellent addition to "the group". Here's hoping they come back very soon!!!

a short 2 minute video below of our cooking experience!

"We'll bring the fish" from Devon on Vimeo.

Thanks Gerald & Tamara

here's the onion peeling tip

Put the onion in the freezer for about 15 minutes before cutting it. The theory with this one is the cold inhibits the onions’ release of its eye-irritating chemicals.

• Tear and irritation level: Painless and tear-free, like Johnson & Johnson’s baby shampoo
• Ease and convenience: Fair. You have to remember to take the onion out of the freezer before it gets too hard and also plan ahead for that extra freezing time. Also, the frozen onion can be a bit harder to cut through, the peel more difficult to pull off, and the cold slices could affect your cooking because of how they might interact with the other ingredients. Otherwise, I haven’t noticed any change in flavor compared to non-chilled onions.
• Verdict: This really works, but has a few caveats. Unlike hacks like wearing goggles or chewing gum, however, this trick might help others in the room too.