How are you holding up, six months into this global pandemic? At first, it was relatively easy, right? Kind of like an elementary school snow day when you get to sleep in late and eat your sack lunch at home, around the fireplace. Or if you live in the Caribbean, like I do, those first few weeks were like the heightened hours before a hurricane passes — when you hunker down with your family, waiting for nature’s fury to do its worst.
But then the hurricane hits. The devastation becomes real and days without familiar routines drag into weeks, and then weeks into months. It’s not fun anymore. You hate to even look out the window. It’s depressing. The once lush landscape is now a dreary, dystopian backdrop of dead trees and bare branches. Void of color, the world looks bleak and angry. And then buried in your own misery, you forget that the world is still a beautiful, wonderful, incredible place.
For some of you, this pandemic may be the first time life has flipped upside down. For others, you may have already faced the worst situations imaginable. For us here in Puerto Rico, it’s been one challenge after another. In September 2017 Hurricane Maria devastated the island and destroyed the power grid, leaving many of us without light for months on end. In January 2020, a series of earthquakes crumbled homes and shuttered schools along the south coast of the island. Two months later, a global pandemic forced us into the severest stay-at-home-orders of any of the fifty states. Let’s just say, life was looking pretty miserable for a while.
But you know what? We learned a few things that might help you in your own journey through these challenging times. Here’s what most of us on the island will tell you about hurricanes, earthquakes, pandemics, and resilience:
- We are all much stronger than we know.
- We will get through this (we always do).
- And as much good as bad comes from these disasters.
When unfair or unexpected circumstances force us out of our comfort zone, strip us of our security, or force us to reexamine our faith, it’s no joy ride. It’s a brutal, painful, breaking apart of all that has held us together prior to this moment in time.
If I had to choose a word for 2020, it might be hurricane. Metaphorically, this year has blown into our lives with force, shaking us from all we hold dear … and in many cases, removing the everyday blessings we once took for granted.
When the first stay-at-home order was mandated on March 18, 2020, my family and I were two months from my long-planned 60th birthday cruise to Alaska. While cancelling the trip was the smart and responsible decision, it left a subdued sense of unfairness and disappointment. As the months dragged on, more disappointments followed. My daughter did not come home. The news got grimmer. Travel was put on hold indefinitely. Life became scary. And mundane.
But then, something interesting happened. Just as the Black Plague flowered into the Renaissance, Covid 19 drew out my latent creativity. I saw beauty where I hadn’t before. In the way the afternoon sun painted patterns in the palm trees. In the way fishermen drew from the sea delicacies I had always enjoyed, but never wondered about. Here’s how that wondering made my 60th birthday the best one ever — a truly remarkable stay-at-home Caribbean celebration that you can easily replicate. Travel with me to Puerto Rico, creatively and safely — without packing your bags or stepping on a plane.
How to Create an Indoor Fantasy When You’re Stuck at Home
Choose the Room
Choose a room in your house that can be transformed into something magical. I was first going to set up one of those white wedding tents on our outside patio but quickly discarded the idea. My birthday is in August, hurricane season in the Caribbean. All my hard work decorating a tent could easily be blown away on the next gust of tropical storm winds. I opted for my daughter’s old bedroom instead. That might sound like an odd choice, but it was the perfect room in which to create this Caribbean fantasy. It’s not cluttered, because it’s barely used, it can be easily decorated, and most importantly, it has one of the best air conditioners in the house!
The Good that Came from the Bad
My daughter’s long-abandoned bedroom — once mourned for all the memories it held — transformed into a place of new memories, of new togetherness, of a return to when it was just my husband and me, alone against the world.
Search for Party Decorations
I spent hours on Amazon searching for just the right decorations. I personally like Amazon because they have the most customer-friendly policies of any online retailer I have shopped with. Returns are straight-forward and Prime shipping makes for fast deliveries (except for now when all mail and delivery services have been impacted by Covid 19). I ordered Chinese lanterns, sparkling curtain lights, rose gold table settings, and Yankee Candle’s Home Sweet Home pillar candle for the center of the table. The room still smells of cinnamon!
The Good that Came from the Bad
I’m earning lots of points on my credit card from all this on-line shopping!
How to Create a Gourment Caribbean Meal
Splurge on Lobster!
Caribbean Spiny Lobster is one of those entrees you only have on special occasions. It’s expensive, but each mouth-watering morsel is worth the price. If like me, you live in Puerto Rico, go down to the nearest fishing dock, and buy two 1 ½ to 2-pound lobsters. Don’t buy any lobster over two pounds; the smaller ones are more tender. If you don’t have a fisherman’s dock near your house, go to your local seafood market and buy the freshest lobster you can find. Maine lobster is an adequate substitute, but it will have a different flavor. For a great description of the difference between New England and Caribbean lobster, click here. If lobster is out of your budget (our lobster jumped from $7 a pound to $10 because of the pandemic), jumbo shrimp, or chicken, or whatever fits within your budget will work just as well.
Boil, clean, and prepare your lobster. If you start with live lobsters, kill them humanely by first freezing them to lower their metabolism. This article, “How to Humanely Kill a Lobster for Cooking,” is a great resource. After half an hour in the freezer, place the lobster headfirst in boiling water and boil them until their shells turn pink. Don’t cook them completely; that will happen on the grill.
Remove the meat from the tails. Cut down the center of the tail with kitchen shears. Remove the meat and coat all sides with garlic butter. Place the meat on a medium hot grill. Grill for 5-6 minutes on each side, basting every few minutes.
Return the meat to the shell. Remove the meat from the grill and let it sit for several minutes. Return the cooked lobster tails to the shells for serving.
The Good that Came from the Bad
In my husband’s frenzy to make up for our cancelled Alaska cruise, he made sure we had lobster for the day. In his eagerness to please, he talked to two of his local friends (who have contacts with the fishermen) and instead of two lobsters, we ended up with five! Which means I can repeat the celebration one and a half times more!
Plan the Side Dishes
Arrange ahead of time to either order, make, or buy frozen one of Puerto Rico’s most delicious side dishes, mofongo (fried, mashed plantains rounded into balls and seasoned with garlic). If you live in an area with a large Puerto Rican population, you will surely find it on the menu in local restaurants. If there are no Puerto Rican restaurants in your area, you may find it in the freezer section of your local supermarket. Fresh or frozen tostones (fried, flattened plantains) are a good alternative if mofongo is unavailable. Make sure you pick up a bottle of mayo ketchup (in the condiment section) to dip your mofongo or tostones in.
Learn how to Make Mofongo
Even better, learn how to make THE BEST mofongo on the island with my friend Tata, everybody’s favorite cook. Here’s Tata’s step-by-step guide (for the recipe, click here).
Add a Side of Arroz con Garbanzos (rice with chickpeas)
This typical side dish tastes divine with lobster. Try not to think about all the starch you are adding and enjoy this simple but delicious recipe.
Select the Wine
The best pairing with Caribbean lobster is white wine. I like Bago Amarelo, a soft white Albariňo from Rias Baixas, in Galicia. Vivid straw-yellow in color, with intense aromas of mango, orange, and ripe apple, it has a rich, tropical character that’s perfect for our Caribbean celebration.
Make or Buy the Cake
I bought a luscious chocolate drizzled vanilla cake from our local supermarket. You may opt to bake your own or order it from your favorite bakery.
Choose Something Fun and Whimsical to Wear
As fun as it is to prepare all this delicious food, don’t forget to wear something special. I opted for a glam T-shirt that read 60 and quarantined. It was perfect. The colors matched my décor and the theme was spot on. You can purchase this shirt on Etsy. It was a fun, whimsical addition to the ceremony.
Put on Some Background Music
The celebration is not complete without some ambient music. I played Pancho Irizarry’s soothing album “Puerto Rican and Latin American Popular Songs with the Spanish Guitar.” Paco’s music is soft, romantic, and perfect for this stay-at-home Caribbean celebration. You can find his music here.
The Good that Came from the Bad
I learned to look around me, to appreciate how hard people have to work to provide me with lobster, and plantains, and all the food I enjoy but somehow took for granted. Watch this video on lobster hunting in La Parguera, where we buy our seafood. You’ll understand what I mean. The skill involved in trapping my celebratory dinner is amazing and worthy of respect.
I hope this post encourages you to be creative, to look for new meaning in challenging situations. If you’re feeling stretched beyond your emotional, mental, physical, and/or spiritual capacity, I encourage you to repeat the phrase: This too shall pass. Then remember it’s okay to not be okay. And it’s okay to seek help when needed. But above all remember, you are stronger than you think and more resilient than you imagine.
The world is still full of creativity, and color. Sometimes, we just need to look for it. I pray this reflection offers you a moment to exhale, to smile, and feel inspired.