What We Do at Night

There is a phenomenon that occurs when you visit tropical areas near the equator.  The sun goes down at 6pm.  All year long.  Not a ton of variance.  In Minnesota, in the summer, the sun stays out from 5:12am until 9:20pm on the longest day, and rises at 8:03am to 4:20pm on the shortest day.  I just realized I have been lying to people and telling them that in winter we only have 4-5 hours of sun.  Oops.  (They should know I always exaggerate by now.)  But my point is that in Minnesota we have 8 hour days and we have 16 hour days.  Here in Costa Rica it's completely the same all the time.

Which poses a problem for two gals who really aren't into the club scene.  What do you do after dark?  Here's what we do:

We walk for miles down the beach at sunset.

Some of the beaches have shells instead of sand.

We bring Nicole's dog, "Scotty", and he is really friendly and everybody loves him.

Then we come home and make dinner.

Brussels Sprouts?

Gross, right?  Not necessarily! 
Here's how to make brussels sprouts taste good (special thanks to Summer Grimes for this one):

Buy the little minis fresh.  Cut them in half the long way.  Toss them with olive oil and sea salt.  Place them face down on a cookie sheet, which you can line with tin foil if you're not into dishes, and throw in the oven for about 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees.  I like them when they are just the slightest bit charred, as pictured above.  But go with your preference, just kind of "toast" them.  YUM.  They make a yummy healthy snack.  Eating them reminds me of eating popcorn.

The fish is Corvina.  Nicole just mushed a bunch of garlic for the top and salt/peppered it with olive oil.  Maybe 18-20 minutes at 400 degrees.  You gotta just take them out when they're cooked through.  The other day we had tilapia and for the salsa on the top I minced garlic, tomato, cilantro, cucumber and that was added after the cooking.  That was pretty good too.

Goodbye sun!

Hello, wine!

JUST A COUPLA WILD AND CRAZY GALS!