This weekend was so cold and snowy (thanks to Winter Storm Jonas), we wished we were back in Jamaica. So we decided to re-create a Jamaican meal — jerk chicken (jerk is actually a compliment in Jamaica–it means hot and spicy).  We also made rice and beans, using two types of rices–brown and white.  For salad we made a spinach, avocado, tomato, red onions and corn salad with a mustard viniagrette. And, although it was a “little cold” for this drink,we decided to make Strawberry Daiquiris.  We made and drank them (no rum for the kids:) while we were watching the NFL playoffs and waiting for the chicken to marinade in the jerk marinade.  Oh and mom wouldn’t let us make dessert because it was too late so we made Bananas Foster, or as we call it Bananas “Koster”, the next night.  It was so good that we think it will be our house specialty!

The final meal

Dad’s plate

Bananas on Fire! AKA Bananas Koster

To make the jerk chicken, we first had to make the marinade: we cut up a lot of onions, garlic, green onions, thyme and jalapeno peppers. (The recipe called for Scotch Bonnet peppers, but we were in the middle of a blizzard, so jalapeno was the best we could do…and they were plenty hot.)  We also brought back a jerk spice mixture from Jamaica, so we toasted that and added it in.

Ingredients for jerk marinade

We blended everything together, and when we added the spices it went from bright green to brown…interesting.

While the chicken was marinating, we made strawberry daiquiris (we made a simple sugar syrup, not rum, for the kids:) and watched the playoffs. We can’t wait till the Superbowl!

We baked the chicken, made the rice and beans, and put together the salad. Alex made an awesome mustard viniagrette and then we ate.

We wanted to make Bananas Foster for dessert on Sunday night, but mom said it was too late (so we made it the next night (tonight, Monday).  They were super delicious and very fun.  Mom let us both light them on fire, with very long matches, but she had the fire extinguisher handy). Alex came up with a new name for the dessert: Bananas Koster. Here’s what they looked like (served with vanilla ice cream…the hot banana/rum/brown sugar melts it quickly).  We will do a how-to later, time for bed now.

Banana (Max) Koster

Banana (Alex) Koster

Definitely glad we had long matches!