Mainly because The Runner and I are not ready to let go of the honeymoon yet, but also because the food that we had in Belize was just.so.tasty.  This week I’m going to be cooking out of the Belize cookbook that we bought on honeymoon (“Mmm… A Taste of Belize Cooking”).

 If I am honest, Belize week  actually  started on Thursday night with a salmon and avocado ceviche because we had some excellent Ceviche in Caye Caulker and after a full 24 hours of being back in Sydney, it sounded like a great idea!  I am probably finding re-entry after our 4 week holiday a little bit tougher than The Runner- which really shouldn’t be a surprise!

Last night I used the cookbook to make a seafood lasagne.  Now, it wasn’t quite the same because unfortunately conch and lobster are not as cheap and readily available in Sydney as it is in San Pedro.   In fact, I didn’t even ask the fishmonger about conch, and when I asked about lobster, he said he only stocks it at Christmas because it’s so expensive…. Clearly lobster will not be going in our Seafood lasagna because we didn’t with the $70M powerball lottery the other night.  So instead of snapper, prawns, conch, lobster, and crab, ours had snapper, prawns, scallops and  tinned crabmeat.  Close enough was definitely good enough in this case and there is lots leftover which I’m pretty happy about.  Contrary to popular belief, lasagne is a lot of work.  SO.MANY.STEPS—even with fresh pasta instead of dried pasta and even with seafood instead of beef.  At least for this recipe, the seafood cooks in the béchamel sauce so it’s not too bad, but there’s a reason no one does lasagna for one!

This morning I’m going to attempt a Fry Jack Recipe that I found on the internet.  Wish me luck!  If you haven’t been to Belize, it’s really hard to explain what a fry jack is.  We had them nearly every morning for breakfast and it’s basically like deep fried dough/bread.  That doesn’t quite do it justice but they are delicious.  The recipes that I have found on the internet don’t sound hard but these things never do until there is flour and oil in every conceivable crevice of the kitchen.   It will either be a great surprise when The Runner comes home from his cycling outing or there will be tears… or  possibly both!   If any Belizeans (relatives or otherwise) have any fry jack tips, please send them through!

For the rest of the week, we’re sticking with the Belize theme.  Tonight’s dinner is the classic Belizean dish- stewed chicken with rice and beans, Tuesday is Snapper Caribe with Coleslaw, Wednesday is Ginger Pork and Sweet Potato, and Thursday is Polenta and Mushrooms (it doesn’t strike me as being overly “Belizean” but it was in the book so it counts!)

I’m getting hungry just thinking about it and thinking about all of the delicious food we had on our honeymoon.  Our theme song for this week—“Don’t Stop Belize’n.”  We’ll be cooking and singing all week long!