#19 - Travel somewhere else on my bucket list

One of my favorite geographic locations on Earth is the Caribbean.  The island life, the sand, the sun, the palm trees, the turquoise water... I love it all.  I am a Cancer Water baby, and thus, the Caribbean is my "home"...

And I'm lucky enough to have visited many Caribbean islands in my short life span.  But, what might be surprising is that Jamaica is NOT one of those islands...

So, naturally, when a group of friends said they were going to Jamaica for a birthday party weekend, I jumped on the chance to go. And it turned in to one of the most fun vacations EVER.  (Which says a lot considering I had just been to the Galapagos islands, and have done many girls weekends to Miami, Vegas and Key West!!!)

We started our vacation with mimosas at the airport :)

We took a long bus ride to the resort...

Upon arriving at our (all-inclusive) resort, we immediately ordered our first drink...

We dropped our bags off in our hotel rooms, and discovered the mini bar - they restock the bottles every other day...

We immediately changed in to our pool-gear, and took our first group pic :)

And then we took our second drink and went to the beach to relax :)

My view....

We swam in the ocean....

That night, we discovered that we could refill our own wine... from a wine barrel!!!!

The next day, we hung out at the pool...

We got drinks at the swim-up bar at the pool...

And hung out in the jacuzzi... of course, still drinking :)

We played cards at night...

Don't worry, we tried to keep our legs closed....

The next day, we piled on to a bus with Marlon Brando... and the next five hours were the most fun I've had in a long, long time...

After the bus, we boarded a giant catamaran...

We went snorkeling :)

We climbed a waterfall and took many group shots...

We immersed ourselves in cold water...

I tried to look like I was in a tropical forest....

And we had fun....

After climbing the waterfall, we boarded our catamaran and went on a booze cruise...

....where we partied like one percenters...

My girlfriend Katrin is a hottie... and rocked her red bikini :)

After another amazing bus ride singing songs with Marlon Brandon (Rum n Red Bull!), we took a photo with our fellow bus riders... and we kept the party going... SO MUCH FUN!!!!

A great pic of the buffet line :)

We danced to some horribly bad music...

But hey, we tried to have fun...

Later, we went to dip our toes in the ocean...

I hugged the palm tree :)

The last day, we drank coconut juice straight from the source!

This was one of the most fun vacations I've ever had... from good friends to good food, great drinks, an awesome boat ride followed by an awesome bus ride with amazing people having so much fun... it was just epic.

Thanks to Katrin, Dave, Nada, Will, Elianne and Bargav!!!!  I had an amazing time... and I can't wait for the next vacay!!!

Seriously, when is it???  8-)

Grilled Green Tomatoes with Corn and Pepper Salsa

I love tomatoes.  One of my fondest memories is of padding barefoot through my parent's backyard in Alabama towards my Dad's garden on a hot summer day and picking a sun-warmed, ripe, red tomato off the vine, and taking a big bite.  Juiciness ensued.  Flavors exploded.  It was indescribably phenomenal.

This past week, I made a "pilgrimage" to Jersey City after work to get dinner from my favorite food truck, the Cinnamon Snail.  The Snail was parked at Grove Street, where apparently on Thursday's, there is also a farmers market.  As I was weaving my way through hipsters and women with strollers, my eye found a table of green tomatoes... and it was love.

See, I've had a recipe in my recipe book for years... and I've wanted to make it, but I couldn't find green tomatoes in my local supermarket... so when I saw them, I bought them, immediately, and never looked back.  I got home, created a shopping list for the rest of the items, and set to work!

This recipe is originally from Shape Magazine, and it's touted as being 123 calories per serving, so not only is this a yummy use of farm-fresh green tomatoes, it's healthy...

Grilled Green Tomatoes with Corn and Pepper Salsa
Slightly modified from Shape magazine's recipe
Serves 4
Prep time: 15 mins; Cook time: 4-5 mins

Ingredients:
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
8 slices firm (unripe) green tomatoes, about 1/3 inch thick each
1 T dried Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 ears sweet corn, kernels cut off
1/4 red pepper, finely chopped
1/4 green pepper, finely chopped
2 T finely chopped red onion
2 T finely chopped cilantro
1 T rice-wine vinegar
1 t ground cumin
1/2 t chili powder

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, mix olive oil, Italian seasoning and garlic.    Add tomato slices, rubbing marinade in.  Season with salt and pepper. Let sit for 15 minutes.

2. Combine remaining ingredients in another medium bowl.

3. Heat grill.  Cook marinated tomatoes 2 minutes or more on each side, until lightly browned.

4. Arrange grilled tomatoes on a platter and top with corn salsa.

Not only did I make this recipe according to plan, but I took it a step further and stacked two of the grilled green tomatoes with two red (ungrilled) tomatoes and 2 slices of fresh mozzarella:

Pretty stack! 

And it was gooooood.  Very good.