Cool Comes To The Caribbean

I had been scouring St. Thomas for mint because I needed it for two recipes that I had planned to make for our friends from Denver—the (Suit)Cases, who were coming to celebrate Chris’ 40th birthday. We pre-advised them to pack lightly (not much storage on board) and to avoid bringing hard sided luggage because, say it with me, there’s not much storage on board. My dear friend Brenda, showed up with “Pinkie”, the biggest, brightest pink, hard-sided piece of luggage that has ever been produced. I’m not saying that this was a totally bad idea…opened up flat it could have held the four of us, the two dogs, and a weeks worth of provisions, had we needed to abandon ship. It was kind of like a cool, pink folding life boat. (P.S. I will give Brenda credit—for her this was packing light. Proof ? She only brought two pairs of heels.) I will also tell you that it was soooo big it had to have it's own stateroom.   

The uber-cool couple

     I should point out here that Brenda is the coolest friend I have. She has all the coolest stuff and is in the know about all things and places cool. She even has a Gucci diaper bag! How cool is that?  Look up cool in the dictionary…you’ll see her picture. She’s that cool. I should also mention that Chris, while no where near as cool as Brenda, is a pretty cool guy himself, as far as cool guys go. So of course we took them to the coolest place we know—Havana Blue, which is were we started the birthday week, with a fabulous dinner.

     I told Brenda about my mint dilemma, so we hatched a plan to drink enough Mojitos to score the needed mint. News flash—the whole island must have been under a mint crisis because after the first one the bartender said he couldn’t make any more because even he had NO mint. Not cool.

     We spent the first night at Pirates Bight, which is where we get our complimentary wine glasses, then Chris, Brenda and The Big Guy got Willy T’d, while I fixed dinner. While in St. Thomas I had scored the biggest, most beautiful scallops (at gulp, $24.99 pound, but worth every penny) so I served them with a sun-dried tomato buerre blanc and blue cheese mashed potatoes.  

At the Baths

     The next day we snorkeled the Indians, which was on our way to Peter Island where Brenda and I had spa treatments booked. While we were getting scrubbed and rubbed, Chris and Big hung out at the pool and drank Pain Killers at $17 a pop. Yes, Peter Island Resort is pretty proud of its elite status. Bren and I made friends with the bartender who happened to be our  hook up for the mint, so that night I made seared Ahi, plantain and sweet potato mash, Asian slaw (with mint) and a sauce called kecap manis (a soy reduction with star anise). We wrapped up our relaxing day with a fancy bottle of Champagne, which I had bought for Chris' birthday. Nothing but the best, for these two!
     The following day we sailed to the Baths where the (Suit)Cases and I ignored the “No Snorkeling” warning flags and went snorkeling. After our near drowning experience we hiked the Baths, Brenda & I bought some cool Conch shell necklaces, then we took a scenic taxi ride across Virgin Gorda, which includes the most amazing view of the Sir Francis Drake channel. Big took the boat around and met us at Leverick Bay, where we had Happy Hour and took in the very uncool Pirate show. Since Chris and Brenda had requested seafood and more seafood, I made salmon with cheesy grits and a caper cream sauce, for dinner.     

The breathtaking view of Virgin Gorda

     
The next morning Chris, who must have bumped his head several months ago, and who is training for some crazy Iron Man  thing, got a workout in by taking the kayak for a spin around the boat, then we set sail for Jost Van Dyke. Chris tried his skills at fishing and found out that he didn’t have any, however, he did master the art of the bar crawl. We then had dinner at Corsairs, where we were served an obscene amount of lobster, shrimp and scallops, which was very cool! 
     On our last day together we went to Caneel Bay on St. John, where we got in one last snorkel. After lunch in Cruz Bay, Brenda (who like myself, is a professional shopper) and I got some last minute "birthday" (wink-wink) shopping in. We wrapped up the trip with dinner at my second favorite cool place, XO Bistro. 

     The next morning the (Suit)Cases were crying and begging us to let them stay on, but we run a tight ship here and had some VIP's coming, so sadly we were forced to put them inside "Pinkie" and call them a cab. You should have heard the way they screamed...not cool...

Pears & Prosciutto with Orange, Fennel & Mint Dressing

 This was the recipe that originally sent me on my mint mission. Adapted from one from Bon Appetit that calls for pear nectar and anise, I make mine with orange juice and fennel and top it with a little goat cheese. Brenda said it was delish and she would know. Go to the "Recipes" tab at the top of this page to view it.

The bathroom at One Love Beach Bar,
which Brenda was waaaayyyy to cool to use!