BarBQue for a cause

The Syndicate BarBQue Lyme Series kicked off this year with the first staging on January 27th.

It was great fun with a good vibe and a-mazing food! How good? Lets just say I'm not keeping up with hiphop music, I have overcrowded spaces and I'm not a fan of fish..........but.......the DJ's had me enjoying every mix, the crowd was good but not to make the venue stuffy; and the escoveitched fish was amazing!

I was also glad to be out with the Bloom family....that's never a bad thing really. =)

You can click here for more photo highlights from the January 27th staging courtesy of J-Dash Labs.

So you're probably wondering how the charity part of it works...For the 2012 event they donated a cheque to the Jamaica Association for the Deaf with proceeds from the event. Since the event is now a series, the funds donated to charity will be handed over once per year instead of after each staging. This means that the bigger each staging is, is the more help that charity can get.

With that said, I'm excited to see the menu and DJ lineup for the March 10th staging. Also excited to see even more folks coming out to enjoy a different kind of Sunday afternoon.

On a slightly different note, I want to say that I really do appreciate the Syndicate Events team who are by extension a part of the Bloom family. They have much faith in our mission and it means a lot to know that even before things were all in place, they thought it important enough for them to #GetInvolved and help make a difference for special needs students in Jamaica.

Thanks bunches!

Sooooo in a nutshell....all I'm saying is.....once your in Jamaica on Sunday March 10th, the Syndicate Events Charity BarBQue is 100% where you need to be!

super healthy potato chips

The average person sees potato chips and says 'oh yea these look good.'

But then there are the not so average people (like me) who read food packages and nutrition labels; comparing the calories, fat, carbs, sodium and vitamins and minerals before purchasing a snack (unless I really feel for a specific thing).

This week I met potato chips from heaven that are neither baked nor fried, and are gluten-free and vegan approved- Pop Chips.

It's almost like a potato chip for everyone, but of course the only problem is that there is as much air in the package as there are chips -_-

I tasted the plain chips, and to be honest I did consider how much nicer it probably would have tasted with a hint of salmon cream cheese. Honestly though it was a nice snack to curb that 'post-breakfast but pre-lunch' hunger that hit me. I figure the flavoured ones are nice too (and probably don't need any additions).

After some Googling I noticed that these chips are honestly like 'the international healthy potato chips'...and if you don't believe me, you can check it out on their website where the nutritional facts are available for all their products (they definitely make use of their website!).

I'm working on getting back in shape so finding the healthy snacks is a MUST because I'm quite the snack-er! 1 snack down, many others to go!

charity BBQ this Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is this week and I know most persons have absolutely nothing planned (except for probably church in the morning or something).

I'm inviting all folks in Jamaica to come out and start the lenten period with a charity barbeque. The event is being held by Syndicate Events - known for Absinthe and Igloo; and is in aid of the Jamaica Association for the Deaf.

If you want to see the even on Facebook, click here.....otherwise, here's all the details!

Syndicate Events Charity BBQ!

Date: Wednesday February 22, 2012 (yes I know the flyer says 2011...oops)

Time: 2pm to 10pm

Location: House of Kumasi (170 Cyprus Drive Belvedere, Red Hills)

Cost: $1000 and you can get chicken, pork or fish (refreshments on sale)

Music by: Kingston All Stars and guest DJ's

As you should know by now this charity is close to my heart so I'm super happy that they will be helping them out....and you can help out too.

Special thanks to all the corporate partners helping to make the event possible (Red Stripe, CB Chicken, Bad Dawg Sausages, Tru Juice - Official Juice Mixer, Worthy Gold Premium Jamaica Rum, Bullet Energy Drink, Jamaica Co-Operative Credit Union League, Bar On Wheels, FAME 95 FM, ZIP 103 FM, Main Event, Elite Catering and Carimed)

If you're in Jamaica link me for tickets...and if you're overseas I can let you know how you can help.

my love for the Devon House Bakery

I'll admit...I have a weakness for dessert! So having a bakery so close to home is like a daily temptation.

Initially to be honest, I didn't love much about the Devon House Bakery (called Brick Oven at that time), but then I believe they changed management and from there the place became a little pocket of greatness. =]

The star of the bakery I think is their patties. Although it costs a bit more than the average patty, It has lots more meat making it a lot tastier, more filling and definitely worth every dollar.

patty from Devon House Bakery

I personally love the fish, shrimp and lobster patties. I'm generally not a fan of beef and chicken so I've had neither, but based on my sister's review: they're good too.

In addition to the great patties, of course there's a case full of different pastries and a cooler full of various beverages. While I've just about had a taste of everything in the showcase, I ca say for sure that the stand out pastries for me are the turnovers and the toto (a Jamaican coconut cake almost).

The cookies, cakes and danishes are good too, and their cinnamon roll drizzled with a little icing sugar is the perfect compliment for morning coffee!

Newho, while the bakery is all lovely and stuff, be sure to enjoy other things on the property. Indulge in the Devon House ice cream (which is the 4th best place in the world to eat ice-cream), have sip of wine at Bin26, check out the shops and to take a tour of the great house (which has a pretty cool story behind it).

Now after writing this I'm hungry.....so off to find lunch!

grilled cheese a la Kim

I enjoy trying different random stuff in the kitchen. Quite often I fiddle around with easy dishes to try and make them a bit more exciting.

Other food loves of mine are pasta, herbs and cheese! I guess in a sense I just described Italian food....and my love for it often makes me wonder if in the midst of my Jamaican, Irish and Scottish background....there's a hint of Italian in it. (I ain't complaining if there is lol)

So yes....months ago I decided to give my basic grilled cheese a boost...and I came up with 'my super-fantab grilled cheese.' It really is just grilled cheese with Italian herbs, but the herbs give it a different taste...which is just lovely for me. =]

Anywho, here's how it works....

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of bread
• Cheese
• Herbs/spices (I choose my herb depending on my mood)
• Knife 

Steps:

1. If you're using more than one herb/spice you want to mix about half a teaspoon of each together first.
2. Sprinkle about two pinches of the herb/spice mix onto the slices of bread. (Trust me when I tell you not to overdo it because the dried herbs carry a lot of flavour).
3. Cut four 1/4 inch thick slices of cheese and put two slices on each piece of bread (be sure to place them so that when they melt you can spread the cheese easily).
4. Pop it into the toaster oven or microwave for the desired amount of time (the length of time will really depend on your appliance).
5. When the cheese is melted take the slices out and use a knife to spread the cheese across each slice of bread so that it covers the entire slice.
6. Enjoy!

As usual I was too hungry to really care too much about the photo lol but I hope you get the general idea of it's greatness =]

Hope yours tastes as great as mine did!

DIY: sugar cookies

As with most families around the world, there are a number of Christmas traditions in my family, especially as it relates to food.

Usually the holiday isn't complete without baked ham, grilled salmon, Mommy's special macaroni and cheese, Grandma's potato casserole, family recipe sorrel and Christmas cake (both of which I don't like), red/white wine to go with it all, and of course sugar cookies!

Once upon a time I had my superb sugar cookie recipe that was altered to perfection...but then we moved, and when boxes got all mixed up my little recipe seems to have gotten tossed to some unknown location. (it surely sucks that I'm the most organized person in my house)

So, because of that....my tradition of baking sugar cookies continues with a different recipe almost every year (until I alter to my standard of perfection). Usually after the first batch though, the recipe is so 'not to Kim's perfect standard', that I just toss it out completely.

This year my neighbour and I happened to try the same new recipe from allrecipes.com (click here to check the recipe out) and it was nice and easy and the cookies came out pretty good. (of course she baked them first and after sampling her set I accepted that it's a good start).

my 2-inch square sugar cookies

For my cookies, the only thing I added to the recipe was candy sprinkles. Also, instead of rolling the dough into balls and placing them on the cookie sheet, I rolled the dough out to half inch thickness and cut out 2-inch squares. I think this would give me more than the 48 servings stated in the recipe; but since my family was eating the cookies as each tray came out, I'm not even sure how much was done in total!

On another note, besides the fact that it tastes good and was nice and easy, I got a good amount of cookies from the batter and was able to see the nutritional info per serving in the recipe! That my dear friends is just perfect for the folks who want to watch what they eat this Christmas.

I'm definitely going to have to get another batch done before the season is done, but trust me, you should try it!

the skinny about my 'diet'

Just about every time I talk about food, I get one of two statements from persons:

'shouldn't you be on a model/pageant girl diet?'
At that point I usually think about the belief that 'skinny people usually eat a lot'....then I think 'but I'm really not that skinny though..am I?'

'you love food so much! I'd love to know how you stay so skinny'

This one usually makes me giggle....because I do love food, especially desserts! And there really isn't much going around that lol


How the 'diet' thing works

I've decided that I'll be the one to tell persons that there isn't anything known as a 'model/pageant girl diet.' What it is, is a diet........just a diet.....which is pretty much a word used to define the kinds of food you habitually eat. The difference, is that usually the diet that a model/pageant girl is on, is tailored to fit her individual needs.

The second thing I'll share: I don't live on a special fancy diet! Instead there are just foods I eat in abundance, those I eat in moderation, those I rarely eat, and of course the ones I avoid completely. In other words....I eat just like everybody else....just in the proportions that best suit my needs.


The 'Kim-Issa diet'
What's kinda funny is that contrary to what many people think, I've generally had this diet for ages. Long before I considered modelling or pageantry, I maintained a fairly healthy diet for my own health and now having more reason to do it kinda works as motivation. =]

The first thing to note about my diet is that it takes into consideration the fact that I'm allergic to spicy peppers and pineapples....that of course only makes sense (duh kim...why would you eat foods that would make you sick?).

The next thing is that I generally keep the 'bad foods' out! Fast foods, sauces, greasy snacks, salty foods, and all that jazz are at a minimum. For me water is the only drink that matters; and sodas/juices are minimal or non-existent, and usually replaced with cold green tea.

I eat two or three times a day (depending on how hectic my days are) and I tend to snack a lot. Generally though my snacks are granola bars, dry cereal, nuts of some kind, or what I consider 'simple prep foods' like crackers and tuna.

Besides all the healthy stuff, I do eat the not so healthy stuff sometimes and I do indulge in the world of desserts (and then possibly feel guilty depending on how much I indulged). The key trick here though is moderation. There's no need to have dessert with every meal, or even pastry every day. Build up some self control and stick to treating yourself every now and again.

Swimsuit parade for Miss Jamaica Universe '10

So there you have it....my 'diet'. Now in my opinion, no diet is going to be perfect, but you just have to alter your eating habits so it's healthier and better suited to fit the needs of your lifestyle. Also be sure to consider diseases that run in your family and start eating habits that reduce the possibility of you being affected.

Working out makes the healthy diet all the more worth it, so joining a gym or finding some at home fitness plans are always a plus.

All in all loves, watch what you eat and remember that your health is your business!

full house ramen noodle soup

When serious hunger strikes I usually resort to cooking anything I find in the kitchen.

My most recent creation was with the 'ultimate college student meal' - ramen noodles. I'm not the biggest fan of ramen though, because I think that even with the seasoning they give you....it's just tasteless. So usually if I make it I add my own seasoning to it (like garlic and onion powder, parsley and basil).

This time around I really wanted a hearty soup.....so of course I had to find a way to make the basic soup more interesting and find ingredients that would make it more filling than merely noodles and broth.

So I went on a mini hunt around the kitchen hoping to find ingredients that would give the soup some life. After about 5minutes I found:
          - carrots
          -a quarter of roasted chicken
          - flour

At this point the most logical thing to do was to cut up the carrots and the chicken, and to make dumplings (flour, salt, seasoning and water) for the soup....and that's exactly what I did. To try and make the broth taste the same as the chicken I cut the chicken into pieces and boiled it for a while with the other seasoning before putting the noodles and dumplings in. Of course since the dumplings would take a longer time to cook than the two minute noodles I had to put the dumplings in before I added the noodles.

It took about 45minutes max for preparation and to cook the meal (of course I was watching tv in between so I'm not 100% sure of the time.) As it relates to serving size, I was cooking for two and since my sister had already eaten by the time I was done....I ate it in two sittings. Anywho, I call this my full house ramen noodle soup here's the 'recipe'....or as close to a recipe as I could get:

Ingredients:

- 1pack ramen noodles

- quarter of roasted chicken

- 1 carrot

- 1/2 cup flour

- 2 cups water

- pinch of salt

- preferred seasoning (or lame ramen seasoning)

Process:

1. cut up the roasted chicken and place it in a pot with the water and seasoning

2. while allowing pot to come to a boil, make dumplings and place them into pot

3. when water comes to a boil add ramen noodles

4. add more seasoning to taste if necessarily

Kim's full house ramen noodle soup....let's ignore the fact that the bowl is kinda messy

 By the way...yes...I love herbs! lol (hence the hundreds of parsley and basil bits in the soup)

Hope you get yours to taste as delish as mine...

that super moist choco-chocolate cake

I mentioned the fact that one of my boyfriend's birthday cakes was my grandmother's super moist choco-chocolate cake recipe.

Although I won't be staring the lovely recipe with you (sorry) I will give you an idea of what makes it the cake it is. We made two 9-inch chocolate cakes and covered them with extra whipped chocolate icing (of course some went in between the layers as well). After giving it a fine coating of icing I changed the recipe a bit and instead of making my own chocolate I used store-bought milk chocolate to top the cake with chocolate shavings and had some fun with a Kit-Kat bar for the centre.

Super Moist Choco-Chocolate Cake

I can tell you for sure it was super delish!

of birthday cakes and bars

My boyfriend recently celebrated his birthday and we decided that this year we would have a night out with some of his friends, family and co-workers, and of course we did all the birthday formalities with speeches and cake.

The location - Macau Gaming Lounge and Bar

When I was looking for a location I was told about a new bar (soon to add gaming lounge) - Macau with pretty good food for reasonable prices. The space was nice and open and all in all the decor and atmosphere is on point. The place was pretty packed for a Saturday night.....considering that they pretty much just opened and in my mind 'nobody know's about them yet.' Clearly I was so wrong!

As expected the food is good, the drink mixes are nice and the prices are very reasonable.....especially in comparison to other bars and clubs in Kingston. Sadly the service was kinda blah, but that could have been because we were a pretty large group, or maybe it's because they didn't expect that big a crowd for that night. On the bright side, the waitresses were polite and that's a major plus considering how lax customer service is generally!

I can definitely say I'll be back there some time to chill and unwind with friends especially with the holidays coming up!


The cake - Sweet Mischief Jamaica

Now my boyfriend loves cake...chocolate cake to be exact. So on the day of his birthday my Mom and I made him the special family recipe for the super moist choco-chocolate cake. But I also needed a cake for the get together that happened on the weekend.

So with a desire to be different and Mommy putting ideas in my mind I got connected with Sweet Mischief Jamaica - a home-based bakery that makes specialty cakes. I send them the info and told them that I wanted to put small pictures on the cake that kinda picked up different things about the birthday boy.

I was  really nervous at first because although I saw their amazing work before, I thought I was asking for too much. When I spoke to them and they made it seem like it was nice and simple...that's where my excitement started. =]

When they delivered the cake I was close to bouncing off the wall. I was so happy with how it all came out that I was tempted to send it to everyone on my BBM list. lol Of course though the way the cake looks is only half of it all.....and for those asking....yes the cake was moist and delicious.

It was definitely worth the price and the waiting, and I know for sure that the next time I need a specialty cake I'll be giving them a call! Come to think of it I'm already conceptualizing my next cake =]

oh the greatness that is cupcakes!

Today was a good day....I had a super delish cupcake! lol

 Ok ok ok


Yes I'm 21, but I have an extremely active imagination, I love 'kids stuff' and my inner child is quite prominent sometimes.


How does this link to cupcakes? Well one thing that I think can always put a smile on my face is pastry...and more specifically anything that's in a cupcake form.


It sounds a little silly lol but when you really think about it, the cupcake is the perfect amount of cake and sweetness to satisfy that sweet tooth when you're trying to not break a diet.....especially if it's all pretty! =]


Because of my cupcake love affair I just about NEVER miss an episode of Cupcake Wars or DC Cupcakes and when I get a cupcake it really does brighten my day. =]

Whether it's a simple cupcake with basic frosting or it's all extravagant with a theme and all, I just see them a little bundles of baked goodness!

What's actually kinda cute is that the other day I was out and offered a cupcake. After pulling off the paper cup I noticed that the little girl sitting beside me was watching me with this slightly confused look on her face. I looked over and noticed that not only had she taken off the wrapper, but she had broken off the bottom of the cupcake ans squished it on top of the top of the cupcake.

I guess she saw the 'oh that's interesting' expression on my face and she started smiling.

Me: Hi
Little girl: I was looking to make sure you eat it properly.
Me: properly?
Little girl: yes (in that 'duh silly' tone) You have to make it like a sandwich, that way there's no bite without icing. 

This added to my already love-er-ly day! She really made me smile and of course I had to make my cupcake into a sandwich!

I may just eat em like that from now on!