La Dia Del Muerte

So, today is La Dia Del Muerte or as Catholics would have you call it All Souls Day.  It’s a day usually celebrated by putting out good foods and things that loved ones who have passed would enjoy.  Usually they make cookies and other items in the shape of skulls and name the skulls in honor of their loved ones.  I thought, OK, so let’s get into this one, since Halloween was such a damper with CJ not feeling well.  I was thinking of making cookies in the shape of skulls and baking them with my chicken (better to only heat up the house once a day because it takes so long to cool down) so I took out my Joy of Cooking cookbook to look up a recipe and found one for Coconut Macaroons.  Wow, I hadn't done the Macaroons that often when I was in NY because Coconut was so expensive, here I was with coconuts all over my yard! 

I pointed out the recipe to Charlie and said, I want to do this one.  He said great, let’s try out the grinder that our landlords left on the table in the back yard.  Out he goes and about 10 minutes later comes back in and has almost 2 cups of coconut ground up.  He says it’s easy; the hard part is breaking up the coconut.  But my recipe calls for 3 cups so he’s out there now, plugging away at breaking up a coconut.  Now, I know you don’t use the ones that have fallen off the tree already, they are overripe, but I never knew how he got the fresh ones so I am watching him.  He takes one of the fallen ones and throws it really hard into the tree and down falls two ready ones.  I have yet to ask him why he picked one over the other but he does…(all I know is I am glad he didn't get hit in the head with them, one almost did)  He then takes the coconut that he’s chosen over to this big  stump like thing that’s in the ground, it’s got a point on it and it’s been there (I found out later on after I moved that the majority of the block uses this one tree stump) to remove the husk.  He slams the nut on the point and pulls and eventually the husk comes off.  Once that’s done, as he put it, it’s a matter of gravity…we live in a concrete house with a concrete floor.  He puts a hole in it gently with a screw and drops it until it cracks, then you pry the shell apart and using the grinder you grind it.

So, I am making these coconut macaroons in the shape of skulls and I've put little M&M’s on them for the eyes and mouth holes and they are in there.  But a note to self, when using fresh (and I do mean fresh) coconut, you need so much less liquid….so they are coming out watery and they have to bake a bit longer….we shall see.  I just know the flavor is spot on and like everything in Belize, you gotta try it at least once….Has there been anything new in your life you would like the adventure of trying out?  Don’t wait till tomorrow because tomorrow never comes….