What a week this has been. On Monday, the nation had to deal with the tragedy in Boston. On Tuesday, a dozen detectives broke down a door to an apartment on the floor above me. Apparently an 11 year old was missing and a pedophile lives in this building. On Wednesday was so dreary and saddening for me (just because). On Thursday I had such a hectic day that partially involved a visit to the hospital. Today, all day on the TV, there has been extensive coverage of the manhunt for the suspect in the Boston Marathon Explosion and that just has me feeling BLAH! I cannot think of a better time for a cocktail. This one is mostly tropical and is exactly what I need to take me away! Have a great weekend guys.

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If you want a fruit that is high in dietary fiber, a powerful antioxidant, a good source of minerals like copper, potassium, calcium, iron, selenium, zinc and magnesium, then tamarind is the fruit for you. Granted, it’s very tart, it’s tasty once you get past that tangy taste. For people who crave sour junk food, then tamarind is a great and healthy alternative for you. Now, you won’t just find it just any where. Last week was actually my first time seeing it outside of the Caribbean. I was in the International Food Store when I bounced up on them and darn near did back flips. Now mind you, I have NEVER been a tamarind fan (I’m not a lover of tartness) but have you ever seen a thing that you hadn’t seen in a longggg time and so you just get/buy it for nostalgic purposes? That was me with these tamarinds. Once I got home and the novelty wore off, I started to think about what to do with them. In my country, we make a snack called tamarind balls which you can read more about @ Uncommon Caribbean. I knew I didn’t want those. After brainstorming, I came up with the idea of making a drink. I added some fresh lime juice to it and the result? A drink that I would make over and over for many years to come.

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Peanut punch is one of my favorite West Indian drinks! It’s originally from Trinidad & Tobago. On my recent trip to St.Vincent, I spent a good $50US in peanut punch box juices. After a night of hanging out, I needed something to coat my stomach, and peanut punch was always my first choice. Peanut punch is a milky drink with a strong peanut flavor, if you haven’t already guessed. It’s so easy to make and is quite similar to the Caribbean Guinness Punch. Peanut Punch is also notorious for being an aphrodisiac, building one’s back and giving lots of energy because of its high fat content. Because this beverage contains a lot of protein and antioxidants, it is also regarded as a health-promoting drink. Try some today. It’s super yummy! That should be enough to persuade you.

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Gin & Tonic is a classic cocktail that has been around since the 1700s. It’s simple and does the job. Because I’ve had blueberries hanging around here & wanted to make it fun to begin the weekend, I decided to spruce up the old classic a little bit. The recipes on the web call for straight forward gin and tonic but in addition to using blueberries, I also used some lime juice. It made for a very delicious, fruity and just plain fantastic drink!

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Ever since I was growing up in the Caribbean, I would always hear adults talk about three drinks that were good for “building one’s back”. Now as a little, innocent girl, I didn’t quite get what they meant but the context in which I heard it, I learned early on that I was going to stay far away from these 3 drinks. As a teenager, I continued to hear talks about these elixirs (if I may call them such) and then as a young adult, fully cognizant of what these West Indians meant, I still wanted to stay far from anyone who drank said drinks. These drinks were, plainly, deemed to be aphrodisiacs. If a man drank them, he is said to be able to put on a heck of a show behind closed doors. Stamina and energy, they claimed, for days! The three drinks are Linseed, Sea Moss and Guinness Punch. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, coming up on Sunday, I’m going to be so kind as to share the recipe for the latter with you. Because of the presence of the Irish in the Caribbean during the last few centuries, staples of their culture can be found throughout the Caribbean. Every where you go throughout the West Indies, Guinness is the drink of choice by many. Should you make this punch and drink it or serve it to someone, please be forewarned of the powers you (or they) are about to acquire. And if for some reason this drink does not give the magical powers in the you-know-where *winks*, well you/they didn’t drink enough. I kid. Not. Come back & tell me what you think.

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So, as I mentioned in THIS POST, I’ve been drinking a lot of homemade smoothies these days. I know you guys just love how I start off a blog post like we had been having a conversation the whole time, right? No? I’m sorry. Hiiiii Guys! How’s everyone feeling? I hope the week has started well for you all. I’m feeling GREAT! Maybe it’s all these healthy smoothies I’ve been drinking these days. I make it my business to drink at least one a day. Usually, I don’t follow a recipe. I just think about what flavors I’d like to taste, put them together in a blender and whiz up something. My body thanks me whenever I feed it all that goodness. The most recent smoothie I’ve made was this one that I call Truly Tropical Smoothie. If you think you’d like it, then give it a try! Come back and tell me how it was for you.

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Yay! It’s Friday. The beginning of the weekend and my time to let loose a little. Today, I’m sharing with you another rum cocktail. This is the third one in a row. I must be going through a rum phase. Don’t worry, I’ll soon make a cocktail with another type of liquor. I hope. This cocktail, according to About.com, “became popular at Pat O’Briens bar in 1940′s New Orleans, apparently debuted at the 1939 World’s Fair and was named after the hurricane lamp-shaped glasses the first drinks were served in. It’s said that O’Brien created the heavily rummed drink as a means to get rid of the large stock of rum his Southern distributors forced him to buy” I found it to be very delicious because of all the citrus juices. Try it and get your weekend started in style!

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Every day I wake up I think of my lovely St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I wish I was there right now. In fact, every day I wake up I say to myself “Boy, I really wish I could go (to) Salt Pond today” or I can be often heard telling one of my hanging buddies from St. Vincent “Today would have been a reallll(y) nice day to go (to) Salt Pond”. Salt Pond is my favorite beach in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. It has black sand and mildly rough waters. It’s definitely not the typical beach many think of when they hear the word “island” or “Caribbean”. Day after day, there’s no Salt Pond for me. Alas, I’m stuck here, in the States, and won’t be there for a while *Tears* You see, my most recent trip home just reminded me of what a beautiful country I was born and raised in. In retrospect, I can’t believe I was, at 17 years old, dying to get out of there. Only now, as a fully grown adult, can I truly appreciate the rich culture of my country, the warm and usually sunny weather to be had there 365 days a year, the beautiful, scenic views throughout the island and all that lush vegetation that provides those tasty fruits and vegetables. I love and miss you St. Vincent & The Grenadines.

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Quite a mouthful there huh? Shall we cut it down to just Trail Mix Smoothie with banana and peanut butter? What’s that you say? It’s the same thing? Well I was only trying to help….So I guess we’ll stick with the name in the title. Oh wait how about BPB Trail Mix Smoothie? Sounds mysterious doesn’t it? Ahhh, knew you’d like it! Whatever we end up calling this concoction, just know it tastes amazing. I had a trail mix package in my pantry and my girl friends and I have been trying to drink at least one smoothie a day, so trying to be creative, I thought I’d just blend my trail mix with some milk, add a banana and some peanut butter and abracadabra, my smoothie for the day

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So as you, my readers know, just the other day I made Coconut Milk. Geeze, let me tell you how tasty this stuff is! I used it in a Strawberry-Banana smoothie last week and I declare it was the best smoothie I have ever made. Sooo good. Because that coconut milk was so good and a little less guilt inducing than cow’s milk, I decided to experiment with pecan milk. My people, this is just gold! I have included a recipe for a smoothie and oatmeal that I used the pecan milk. You must give it (or them) a try!

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Oh how I love the flavor of coconut. It’s so…tropical. It reminds me of home any time drink or eat any coconut flavored drink or food. Where I live, canned coconut milk is about 1.50 for each can. Over time, that adds up. Recently, I ran out of diary milk when I was craving oatmeal so I was forced to improvise because 1. It was snowing outside and 2. I was just tooooo lazy to drive to the store. I’ve seen my grandmother make coconut milk already. She pretty much followed THIS method but I didn’t have a whole coconut on hand nor was I up to the task of grating. What I had though was a bag of coconut flakes lying around and with the help of Google, I was able to enjoy a nice bowl of coconut flavored oatmeal that day. I’m also experimenting with making pecan milk. Will post my results soon.

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This piña colada drink was inspired by one I had on Young Island (St Vincent & the Grenadines). I’ve had piña coladas before but when I had this particular one, I knew my new mission in life was to come back to States to make one that replicated this deliciousness to the T. I know this one deviates from the original but it’s still really good. If you ever give it a try, come on back and tell me how you liked it.

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I’m back with another cocktail. I guess you guys can just go right ahead and name me “Queen of Cocktails”. I just love the stuff. I hardly go out these days because I’m saving for something BIG. So every now and again we have date night at home. I much prefer those because we can buy a bottle of liquor for about $25 and make 15 different cocktails from that one bottle. Where as you go to a bar or restaurant and $12 gets you one drink. Besides, I love that when my head get really tipsy, I don’t have to drive but I can walk ourselves to the bedroom and fall asleep. This cocktail was requested by the Marine. He is a big Remy Martin fan and ever since they launched the Remy V (a vodka like liquor) he has declared it to be one of his favorite liquors. This cocktail came from the Remy V website. It’s smooth and definitely tasty! Be careful though, it will creep up on you.

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Happy December all! Tis to season to be merry, jolly and fine. I have been gone for forever and a day it seems. Life, I tell you, can get so busy. I have missed posting on here but have not slowed down on cooking, baking and making cocktails at all. My blog celebrated its 1st anniversary on November 9th and did not get a chance to post that sooner. I’m proud that I made it to a year and hopefully when things slow down a little, I’ll be able to post more and more. Today I’m sharing with you guys, this super easy to make and tasty cocktail. The gimlet is a classic cocktail that contains just lime juice and gin. In this instance I decided to spruce it up a bit by adding the lovely elderflower liqueur. Yum-O!

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Summer is officially over in two days. It went by so fast. There were some unbearably hot days and some nice cool, breezy ones and there were even days with storms that left us without power (twice). I enjoyed it all though. I made a lot more cocktails than food (a bad thing, I know) but this made for a more fun summer! This sangria right here is a twist on the traditional one that uses red wine. I’m not a big red wine fan but there’s always white wine in my house so instead of making a “hard liquor” cocktail, one hot summer day, I decided to make this sangria early in one weekend morning so my PIC and I could sip on it later that afternoon. It was definitely a light, yummy drink. A big hit with us both.

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