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| Pam and Jerry, newlyweds on their honeymoon at our resort at LaruBeya. |
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we met a very special couple on the beach yesterday afternoon with whom we shared a delightful dinner at the Mexican buffet at Hananero Restaurant, a short walk across the road.
A couple about our ages, Pam and Jerry are on their honeymoon. They were married last week on the beach in their winter home in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize at a small gathering of local friends.
Not so unusual a story in itself: another fine couple at retirement age, find one another and commit to spending their “golden years” together in wedded bliss.
The magic of Pam and Jerry’s story warmed our hearts. They found each other on Facebook a few years ago, over 40 years ago after dating in high school. I suppose this isn’t such a new story in today’s technological environment.
Smiling from ear to ear as they told their story, we all reveled in the good fortune of finding that special someone, especially only a few days from Valentine’s Day, a day that Tom and I always celebrated with cards, gifts, and a special dinner.
This year will be different for us. There isn’t a Valentine’s card to be found in Placencia, Belize, not a drugstore, not a Target store or a gift shop containing anything other than the handmade trinkets we agreed not to buy in our travels.
Years ago, I’d bake a heart-shaped cake with pink fluffy frosting on which I’d write words of love in my illegible handwriting. In any case, the message was clear. Now, with our restricted way of eating plus the lack of local ingredients to bake a palatable gluten-free cake, we will be dessert free.
At the grocery store today, I had hoped to find cream cheese to make our low carb, sugar-free, grain-free, starch-free, “Cream Cheese Clouds” a favorite candy that freezes into a delectable candy. See the recipe at the end of this post.
There was no cream cheese and no butter, both ingredients needed to make this candy. Also lacking at the little store, the biggest in the area was Italian sausage to make our pizza tonight (what we kept in the little fridge last week while living in the “water-free” zone looked suspicious so we tossed it).
There also was no breakfast sausage and no fresh veggies other than giant carrots and onions which we purchased. See my Facebook page for more details of our grocery shopping experience this morning.
In the morning, we’ll cut some fresh flowers growing everywhere around us. I’ll set the table on the veranda with the placemats and linen napkins I borrowed from the restaurant for our time here. We’ll crack the bottle of sparkling wine that we saved from the first night aboard the Celebrity Equinox using the champagne flutes in our villa’s cupboard.
We’ll dine on the leftover pizza that we’re making tonight provided we don’t devour it all tonight. (We used Polish sausage in place of Italian sausage. We shall see how that works out).
No cards to open, no gifts to unwrap, and no homemade cake with pink fluffy frosting sticking to our fingers. What there will be is the love to behold, the companionship to cherish, the commitment to comfort, the future to anticipate, and the moment…ah, the moment that will last forever.
Happy Valentine’s Day Pam and Jerry! Happy Valentine’s Day to my husband. Happy Valentine’s Day to our four children, their spouses, our six grandchildren, our combined ten siblings and their significant others, our aunts, our uncles, our nieces, our nephews, our cousins, and all of their extended family members and all of our friends, all of whom we left behind, all of whom we send our love.
Love is universal. Love is worldwide. Love is wafting through the air in our lives every day and hopefully, in yours.
Recipe for:
32 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cup granular Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda * ¾ tsp liquid
1 T vanilla or other flavoring (use red food coloring to make them pink if you’d like)
Beat everything with an electric mixer until fluffy. Drop by bite-size spoonful onto a wax paper-lined baking sheet. Or if you’d prefer to make it easier, pour onto the bottom of a parchment or wax paper-lined cookie sheet and spread around until 1/3″ thick. When frozen, break apart as you would peanut brittle into the bite-sized piece.
Makes 96 clouds
* I didn’t think they were quite sweet enough with 1/2 cup so I used liquid Splenda to equal 3/4 cup granular. The counts are based on 3/4 cup Splenda.
NOTE: You
can store these in the freezer and they will hold their shape quite well as
long as they are good and cold.
With
granular Splenda:
Per Cloud: 70 Calories; 7g Fat; 1g
Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carb
Per 2 Clouds: 140 Calories; 14g Fat; 2g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary
Fiber; 2g Net Carbs
With
liquid Splenda:
Per 2 Clouds: 134 Calories; 14g Fat;
2g Protein; .5g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; .5g Net Carbs
Per 4 Clouds: 268 Calories; 29g Fat; 3g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary
Fiber; 1g Net Carb