1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bay leaf
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 small red pepper, chopped
1 cup peas
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup cooked white rice
salt and pepper

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil and bay leaf. Sauté the garlic, onions and red pepper until tender.
2. Stir in the peas, shrimp, red pepper flakes and allspice and cook until shrimp turns pink.
3. Combine with rice and heat rice through. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 small onion, chopped
1/4 small red pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 bay leaf
19 ounces canned black beans, cooked
1/4 cup strong coffee
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 teaspoon dark rum
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
salt and pepper

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil and bay leaf. Sauté the garlic, onion, red pepper and jalapeno until tender.
2. Stir in the beans, coffee, lime juice, rum, cumin and coriander and reduce heat to a simmer.
3. Simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed or evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Makes 4 servings

Our table is gone now, so dinner is eaten on the floor. My camera is having issues today; the automatic lens cap thing is not opening as much as it is supposed to, cropping a portion of the upper left corner of all of the photos I take. It did this once before and in trying to fix it I broke it more, only for it to fix itself again a week down the road. Well, after frustratingly tinkering with it for about an hour, I can only hope that it's going to fix itself a week from now and all will be well with the world.

I am basically trying to use up leftover ingredients still, which does not make for the most interesting dinners. I can only imagine the first week after the move will be as pathetic as the last week before the move, since in both instances I will be working with bare cupboards and an empty fridge. I made some sort of Caribbean Shrimp and Rice with red peppers, peas and rice. It ate like a simple comfort food, which I find that most dishes with rice do. My bay leaves are dried and far less potent now, but still imparted some of the flavor. The rest of the spices gave this a sort of Caribbean feel, hence the name.

For lack of a better companion and because of my fondness for beans, I made Caribbean Coffee Black Beans. I haven't come across a bad recipe using coffee as an ingredient yet. This wasn't as good as the Espresso Rubbed Roast or Chipotle Coffee Beans, but it was still more than edible. Coffee seems to work well with many spices, ranging from sweet to savory. This dish also incorporates rum and lime juice, which is very complimentary.