Tarts Cook Their Hearts Out For Haiti

"Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something."

These words have never been more true than today, as all of us search for a way to lend a hand to the people of Haiti. So, we Tarts, eager to help a country that to be honest, we know little about, decided that our 'something' should be a tribute in the form of what we love most...food. We decided to make a Haitian meal and invite a few friends over who, in exchange for what we love most, would give what The World Food Program needs most...money. To feed Haiti.

It all comes back to food...

...and the fact that the Tarts don't know how to make Haitian food. Crap. Someone 'google' Haitian food. Like, NOW!

Whew! We found some recipes and printed them out...not that it helped any...

"Erin, I don't even know what that means..."

So we decided to start with the easiest item on our list...Picklese...

Picklese is the native Haitian hot sauce, usually served with meat or fish. We got our recipe from islandflave.com.

Picklese (Pikliz)

6 Scott Bonnet Peppers (We used habanero...)

2 cups thinly sliced or shredded cabbage

1/2 cup thinly sliced or shredded carrot

1/4 cup thinly sliced or shredded onion

4 whole cloves

1 tsp salt

8 to 10 peppercorns (optional)

3 cups vinegar

Snip off the stem of the peppers, cut each into 4 pieces, and keep the seeds. Place hot peppers, cabbage, carrots, onion, cloves, salt, and peppercorn in a quart size jar. Then add vinegar.

Close jar tightly and let sit at least 24-48 hours before serving.

Serve with meat or fish.

This recipe is simple and delicious. Oh, and btw...we just now found out that often, only the vinegar is used as a form of hot sauce...just a few drops are needed. The Tarts discarded the vinegar and served the vegetables as a relish. It was a fave of many, except for one poor Tart victim, who accidentally ate a whole one of these little jerks...

Sorry, Steve! Next time, we'll do our homework and brief you on the dangers of Picklese!

All in all, the dinner was a success as we raised a good amount of money for WFP, an organization in association with the United Nations. If you'd like to lend your helping hand to feed the people of Haiti, please donate to http://www.wfp.org/.

Stay tuned for more recipes from our Haitian dinner to come.

In the meantime, our hearts are with Haiti.