I'm petrified of nipple chafing. Once it starts, it's a vicious circle.

Erin and I have spent the morning cleaning our pad and running to the grocery store. It fails to amaze me the randomization that occurs when stocking Jamaican grocery stores. It is utterly unfeasible to plan to make any recipe because without fail the grocery will not have one or more ingredients. I should be used to this by now… my life is one America’s Next Top Chef task after another, at least when it comes to my culinary endeavors. I believe that meal planning in Jamaica would be daunting for even a highly trained chef. It is not that we are trying to make exotic, Emeril BAM! recipes like a turducken stuffed Amazon river bass in a Sri Lankan cinnamon white wine reduction garnished with rare Peruvian orchids. We sometimes go weeks without mainstay components like milk, sugar, garlic, eggs, etc. This not to mention the price of most produce has risen three fold since our arrival on island (with no raise in our living allowances). Needless to say recipe development is sketchy at best and sometimes we must get creative. What is the maxim I’m looking for…? Oh… Necessity is the mother of invention. I get that, but it doesn’t reduce my desire to hit up a Whole Foods upon my visit to the states in March. Along that line and at the request of my mother, here is a rough list of the things E and I wish to do while we are home. We realize that we have a lot on our list and if everything doesn’t happen we won’t be in the least bit hurt.

Where/what we would like to eat
-Granite City
-Steak ‘n’ Shake
-Margaritas (Bob-dre is in, any other Taco Tuesday takers?)
-La Bodega (I think Sam and Matt call this one)
-Stroud’s
- Ixtapa
-Sheridan’s mmmmm
-chocolate bag
-ice cream ice cream ice cream
-nice fruit
-ribs and German tater salad (G-ma Mean and Uncle Squirrel make the best ☺)
-flourless chocolate torte (P is going to make these last things, he just needs people to enjoy them)
-chili
-stuffed mushrooms

Also we need to stock up on some things like socks and olive oil. So if anyone is down with a Target/Costco trip we’ll be making a couple of those as well.

We’d love a trip to the bookstore, and some good coffee.

We’re going to need to enjoy lots of good beer, preferably while watching basketball. I dunno if anyone is down with helping us do that…

With everything, the more the merrier. If you are super excited about any of the above let us know via phone, email, or blog comment. We are also open to any additional ideas.

Good Night and Good Luck!
Patrick with input from Erin

p.s. Why does Snoop Dogg always carry an umbrella? Fo’ Drizzle
p.p.s. Great news! No longer do I feel the need to beg for blog comments. Leave one, don’t leave one, I could not care less. I (we) still enjoy your input but the new feedjit widget lets me know our blog at least gets some traffic… big brother style. The fact that a couple people are reading is all I wanted to know anyway. Plus I like the flags.