Christmas is drawing near and that means one thing in Trinidad and Tobago: Parang music and more parang music. Parang Music draws from Trinidad and Tobago's rich Spanish heritage where paranderos sing, in Spanish, of the birth of Christ and many other related topics surrounding this time of merriment and cheer. Here then is one of the young and upcoming groups that make me feel proud everytime I hear them. This group uses the traditional instruments namely the cuatro, guitar, mandolin, maracas, claves and box bass. Here's Voces Jovenes - La Historia De San Jose

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November the 2nd marks a special day in the Roman Catholic Calendar. It is All Souls Day: a day we remember our loved ones who have passed on. In Trinidad, like in many other countries, we pay our respects by visiting the cemetery and "light up" the graves of our deceased family and friends.

For me it was no different: flowering plants were planted or placed on graves; graves were cleaned and lit. The spectacular thing to notice is the hundreds of candle lights that make the cemetery look like one large shimmering blanket of light that night. So what do we do after lighting the graves? Some pray the rosary while others just spend that time in silence reminiscing about the time gone by......


But the story doesn't stop there. In Trinidad there are also serious beliefs surrounding All Souls Day and the previous day All Saints Day. My father said those were two days hunters never went into the forest to hunt. Even "going out" to the beaches and rivers were forbidden. Souls were said to be roaming about and it was not safe....


This is where my father would always relate an incident that happened to his father one All Souls Night.....My grandfather back in the day burnt coals for a living by felling trees and making huge coal pits in the bush. It was very hard, manual work and sometimes the pits needed tending to at night. So that night my grandfather decided to stay in the bush in his little "ranch" to tend to his pit nearby.


No sooner had he laid down to sleep after "outing" his flambeau something shook the ranch. He got up lit his flambeaux and looked around; he saw nothing. The second time he laid down to sleep the ranch shook twice as hard. He got up lit his flambeau again and looked around; still nothing. By the third time the ranch shook violently and he had to leave the forest and come home. It was only then he remembered that it was All Souls Day that day....


Now this is only one incident but I would not even experiment to see if this is true and would respect All saints and All Souls Day and its significance. Of course some would say it is superstition but this is part of Trini culture I dare not challenge.


As I have said before I don't think someone would go into the bush to concoct stories...there has to be some truth to what is said. And strange though, how is it that hunters from different parts of Trinidad have similar experiences while hunting?...Maybe they have a hunters' stories association where they meet to get help making up stories lol :-)

Anyhow, that subject I will deal with later on, since I have many recipes to post still. Maybe I'll share a few incidents that were told to me by my father other relatives while they were hunting in deep forest. I'll Leave you with some pictures I took out of the "lighting up".

As a variation to the Trini Lasagna recipe I did some posts ago, we decided to try out some lasagna rolls trinistyle. These Trini lasagna rolls tasted just as well and you didn't have to worry about eating too much. They were already portioned in these neat rolls that you just serve, after it is cooled of course. They were very filling. After two lasagna rolls and a glass of beastly cold peanut punch I was good to go.

This lasagna roll recipe, in my opinion, could be ideal to get everyone busy in the kitchen. You could set up a little assembly line: when one spreads the white sauce, the other puts the meat then another the cheese and lastly daddy could do the rolling: What a fantastic meal for the family to get involved.

Anyhow, I must say that this seems to be a habit, but after having this lasagna roll I just have to try another variation: this time I will open it up for my readers. If you have a idea for another variation of the good ole Lasagna recipe why not drop me an email or comment.

So once again I present to you a simple trini recipe from my kitchen to yours. Here's Lasagna Rolls. Enjoy!

1 lb minced beef, seasoned
8 lasagna pasta
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 lb. cheddar cheese, grated
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 tbsp butter
4 tbsp. flour
pepper to taste
1 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp salt
1 pimento, chopped

More recipes to come. Ah gone!


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This time I'm back with Trini artiste Positive again with some positive vibrations. Enjoy Never let Go.

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.




PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!