the accidental scientist

Heart of the Matter #32: Breads - Sweet and Savory

2009-12-07T12:07:00.001-08:00

I don’t know about all of you, but I love the holiday season. It’s like a food-lover’s dream – the possibilities for making and eating delicious food are blissfully endless. I spend hours pouring over every food-themed magazine I can find and picking out all the cookie recipes and other fun foods that I want to make this holiday season…this year? Eggnog and a yule log...wow, that even rhymes. Plus, I’d love to hold a cookie exchange with my friends this year. Do you have anything you’re hoping to make this month?

The holidays are a perfect time of year for this month’s Heart of the Matter theme, “Breads: Sweet and Savory.” There are so many kinds of breads that go perfectly with the cooler weather that we’re getting here…warm, yeasty boules filled with herbs and crackled crusts, sweet loaves packed with tart cranberries and ginger to be eaten with tea, sticky rolls for breakfast…it will be a challenging just choosing what kind of a bread to make! And yes, believe it or not, we get cooler weather here in Hawaii! Along with lots of winter rain…and last week, it even snowed on Mauna Kea, the huge volcano that is on the Big Island! Even my hometown in Colorado is in the holiday spirit, getting decked out for a white Christmas with nearly 10 inches of snow coming in today!

So this month, send in your entry for a sweet or a savory bread (or heck, go wild and do both!). And of course it should please be heart-healthy too: your entry should be low in saturated fats (ie. not too much butter!), be low in salt (sodium), and if you'd like, abundant with vegetables or herbs or fruit. If you want to get more information, check out our useful links in the right hand marginal of the HotM blog. Please only use your entry for this event so that we can keep things centred on heart-healthy recipes and please link to the event as well. Send your entries to me at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com before (your) midnight Thursday, December 31, and please put "HotM" in your subject line so I can keep track of all the entries! ;) I'll post the round-up on January 1st so that we can all eat these healthy breads as part of our healthy new year's resolutions!

Reviving Rumaki: Retro Dishes for HotM

2009-12-01T12:59:00.000-08:00

After some technical difficulties, I am finally posting my entry for HotM...

The theme for Heart of the Matter this month is Retro Dishes. When Ilva and I decided on this theme, the first thing that came to my mind was rumaki. Rumaki was found at nearly every American party in the 1950s and 60s and I can’t think of anything more retro for my entry!

Rumaki is an appetizer that is thought to have originated with “Trader Vic” (and no, that’s not the Trader Vic of Trader Joes), whose full name was Victor Bergeron. There’s some controversy here though…Trader Vic owned some so-called “mock-Polynesian” restaurants in San Francisco, but according to Wikipedia, the earliest known reference to this little delight is on the 1941 menu of the “Don the Beachcomber” restaurant in Palm Springs…one of Trader Vic’s big competitors. Makes the history a little more interesting, huh? Check out the link on the Wikipedia page because it actually has a scan of the menu!

The variations on rumaki are vast, but in general, it’s always got water chestnuts that have been wrapped in bacon and marinated in a soy-sugar mixture before being broiled or baked. Many rumaki have chicken livers as a major component, but I left them out because the first rumaki I had (my friend Kristin introduced me to it) didn’t have them and so I’ve developed a taste for the simple bacon-water chestnut flavor. However, to throw my own spin on it for HotM, add a little Hawaiian flair (and some more Polynesia to it), and to give this little pupu (Hawaiian for appetizer) some extra vitamins, I added pineapple to the mix. To make it heart-healthy, I lowered the amount of sugar, adding sherry for a sweet flavor, and used turkey bacon to decrease the fat content. Let's revive this delicious yet forgotten appetizer! Though you might want to make a double batch – these disappear quickly!

Here’s the recipe:

Healthy Rumaki a la Hawaii, makes about 35-40

¼ cup pineapple juice (preferably freshly squeezed; or at least not from canned pineapple)

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp ginger, finely grated

1 tbsp dry sherry

1 tsp brown sugar, packed

1 small can (8 oz.) of water chestnuts

1 cup of pineapple, cored, cut in ¼ slices, then cubed (preferably fresh)

10 strips of turkey bacon, cut in half and lengthwise and crosswise

toothpicks

Preheat the oven to 375F (or broil, if you can - I can’t because ours doesn’t work). Cover a cookie sheet with foil. Combine the pineapple juice, soy sauce, ginger, sherry, and brown sugar in a medium bowl and whisk together. Add the water chestnuts and soak for 1/2 hr in the refrigerator.

Dump the pineapple/soy mixture into a small saucepan and boil gently until reduced to about half – about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, wrap each water chestnut and a piece of pineapple in the turkey bacon and secure with a toothpick. Using a pastry brush or simply drizzling, coat the outside of each little parcel with the thickened mixture, then bake for 20-25 minutes (or broil for 5-6 minutes) or until the bacon is crispy.

Thanks for hosting, Ilva! You can check out this month's round-up over at Ilva's site soon and remember that all the archives are kept on the HotM blog. See you next month!

Heart of the Matter 30: Seeds, Nuts and Things (Round-up)

2009-11-04T21:56:00.000-08:00

This month's theme for the Heart of the Matter monthly healthy eating round-up was Seeds, Nuts and Seed-like things and I'm very excited because we got a lot of entries! Thank you to everyone who participated!

The first entry came in from Aparna, over at My Diverse Kitchen: A Vegetarian Kitchen in India, who sent in her take on the theme with her Healthy Granola Squares. I just love the look of them - fat and beautiful and full of yummy seeds and nuts!

Next to come in were the Chocolate Almond Soft Caramel Muffins from Dhanggit's Kitchen. These sound so decadent and delicious! Plus, those caramels remind me of being a kid too!

Nathan Lau, whom I have had the great pleasure of meeting when he and his lovely wife, Annie, were here visiting in Hawaii, submitted his entry for Roasted, Salted Pumpkin Seeds, one of my favorite October snacks (and the best reason to carve up a Halloween pumpkin). Their blog, House of Annie, has lots of great recipes they make both with and for their family.

Johanna over at Green Gourmet Giraffe, whose banner for her blog title I completely adore, turned in her recipe for fabulous-sounding Chocolate Sesame Cookies, which are vegan and have loads of interesting ingredients like tahini, molasses and those gorgeous black sesame seeds. Mmmm....

Tigerfish sent in a recipe for Millet Congee. Millet is a grain that I wish I used more in my own kitchen and I think I will have to try this recipe soon because I just so happen to have some in the cupboard (and congee is something I have always wanted to try)! You can see the recipe for this perfect fall dish over at Tigerfish's blog, Teczcape - An Escape to Food.

The next entry came from Tasty Curry Leaf - healthy Banana Sunflower Seed Cookies! These light, fluffy cookies use bananas instead of eggs and I think they look like a smashing success! Since we have an abundance of bananas all the time here in Hawaii, I think these will be another dish that is made soon in my house.

Champa from the blog, Stories from an Indian Kitchen, is new to blogging but thankfully already participating in events. These Vegan Almond Cookies are full of yummy things like cardamom and almond butter - I love the thought of that combination!

Our last two entries come from the blog, Pan Gravy Kadai Curry. The first entry was this Pan-fried and Almond-crusted Salmon on a bed of sauteed spinach. Since we all know the benefits of eating fish for omega-3-fatty acids to help our hearts, I'm always on the lookout for a good salmon recipe!
I have a dream of eating roasted chestnuts in New York City around Christmastime, but since it will be a long time since I go to NYC, I can't wait to try Pan Gravy Kadai Curry's second entry for Oven Roasted Chestnuts at home!

See you all next month for HotM 31, where Ilva will be host!

Heart of the Matter (HotM) 30: Seeds and Things

2009-10-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

This month for Heart of the Matter, my co-host Ilva and I are going with the theme of Nuts, Seeds and Nut-Like Things. "Things" being other nut- and seed-like ingredients such as peanuts, which are considered nuts by most people (hence, the name) but are actually a type of legume. We got only a few entries last month (all of them fabulous!), but we're hoping to see more of you this month! Nuts make perfect Fall snacks and appetizers, are great in salads and breads...seeds are perfect in things like granolas, muffins, breads and all sorts of things. We can't wait to see what you come up with! Right now, HotM is the only thing keeping my little blog alive, but I still have high hopes for coming back sometime in the future!

So this month, send in your entry for the most creative thing you can think of to do with Nuts, seeds or other nut-like things. And of course it has to be heart-healthy too: your entry should be low in saturated fats (lean meats and fish), be low in salt (sodium), and if you'd like, abundant with vegetables or fruit. If you want to get more information, check out our useful links in the right hand marginal on the HotM blog. Please only use your entry for this event so that we can keep things centred on heart-healthy recipes and please link to the event as well. Send your entries to me at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com before (your) midnight Saturday the 31st of October, and please put "HotM" in your subject line so I can keep track of all the entries! ;)

See you then!
Michelle

A is for (Sea) Asparagus

2009-09-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

For this month's Heart of the Matter, my co-host, Ilva, and I chose to go with the alphabet...and what better letter to begin a series of alphabetical themes than the letter, A? While you won't be seeing a complete series for some time (we want to change the themes up with all the holidays on the way), you'll be seeing different letters appear in the upcoming months.

So many of my favorite foods begin with the letter A: apples, almonds, artichokes, avocado and of course, asparagus. While asparagus is a year-round vegetable here in Hawaii, I know for many of you, it is only a short-lived springtime indulgence. And besides, I wanted to capitalize on some of Hawaii's bounty that maybe isn't so commonly known. For these reasons, I chose one of my new-found favorite vegetables here: sea asparagus. Despite it's name, sea asparagus is not very similar to the asparagus we typically think of. It's more like a seaweed, I guess...or better said, a sea-vegetable. Sort of a cross between a bean sprout and a sea weed...it's a little salty, a little juicy and adds a bit of fresh flavor to anything.

This little sea vegetable grows wild in many places, but in Hawaii, Marine AgriFuture grows sea asparagus hydroponically on Kahuku shrimp farms, harvests it by hand, and sells it at Farmer's Markets and some of the grocery stores on the Island. So, while it's not a food product native to Hawaii (so many of them aren't), it is locally grown. And delicious.

Sea asparagus is very versatile, and good for you. It's full of vitamins A, B12 and B9, as well as folic acid and antioxidants. It's thought to be a good detoxification agent and good for your muscles. And it's a good source of iodine. Since LB and I eat a lot of dark, leafy greens, which also grow very well in Hawaii and are good for you, but tend to interfere with the uptake of the important mineral, iodine, sea asparagus is one way we get our weekly dose of iodine (we use kosher salt for cooking, which does not have iodine added to it the way "table" salt does).

While many people prefer to blanch the sea asparagus for a minute or so before using it, we've found that with the type of dishes we like to make with it, we like to maintain it's salty taste. While it is a bit bitter when eaten raw from the package, when mixed with oils (like the recipe below) it doesn't taste bitter at all. Below is my entry for HotM and a salad that is perfect for a potluck or a light dinner (with some crusty bread or even by itself). It's also easily cut in half. If you want to try it at home and don't have sea asparagus, this is still good with a bunch of regular asparagus - blanched first, cut into smallish pieces, and a little extra soy sauce or shoyu added.

Sea Asparagus and Tofu Salad, serves 8

1 package sea asparagus, roughly chopped
1 japanese or english cucumber, diced
1/2 block of extra firm tofu, diced
1 large heirloom tomato, diced
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Dressing

2 tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1 tsp. honey

Combine all the salad ingredients, except for the sesame seeds, in a large bowl. Add the dressing to a small jar with a tight-fitting lid. Close the lid and shake. When the dressing is mixed, pour it over the salad ingredients and then mix, gently. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds and then mix again gently. This is good fresh, or even after marinating over-night. Better still? I use the dressing for all kinds of things - lettuce salads, marinating chicken, just about any kind of anything that I want to add an "Asian" flavor to...try it!

HotM Change

2009-07-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
There has been a slight change in plans for Heart of the Matter this month, and I will not be able to do the round-up because I had to leave town unexpectedly. Please send your HotM entries to my co-host, Ilva, at Lucullian Delights. Her email is luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com. If you have already sent in your entry to me, please know that I have forwarded it on to her, so there is no need to re-send it if you have already. I apologize for the change and will see you next month.

Best,
Michelle

Heart of the Matter 28: Budget-Friendly Foods

2009-07-02T18:55:00.001-07:00

If you’re in the U.S. or many other parts of the world, you’ve no doubt heard about The Recession for months now. Many people are tightening their belts and making changes in their lifestyle to try and conserve funds or prepare for uncertain times. But no matter where you are, it never hurts to be a bit frugal occasionally or to have a few meals in your repertoire that can stretch your pocketbook a bit further if needed. Thus, the theme for this month’s Heart of the Matter is “Budget-Friendly Foods.”

Your challenge this month is to come up with a meal that is budget-friendly AND heart healthy…either using ingredients that don’t cost much (or perhaps you grew yourself?) or even ingredients where a little goes a long way. Be creative and share with us how you save money when you cook! What’s your go-to meal at the end of the month or before payday comes? What do you make when you have a lot of people to feed but not a lot of money?

After the round-up, we’ll all have a suite of meals that we can use to help stretch our budget next month…And who knows, maybe that extra money you’ve saved could go towards a trip later on in the summer or spent on a bushel of extra juicy peaches while they’re in season?

After you’ve made your meal and blogged about it, send me the link before midnight on Friday, July 31 at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com and stay tuned for the round-up a few days later.

Remember that your entry should be low in saturated fats (lean meats and fish), be low in salt (sodium), and that you can be abundant with vegetables or fruit. If you want to get more information, check out the useful links in the right hand marginal of the HotM website. Please only use your entry for this event so that we can keep things centered on heart-healthy recipes.

Lemony Summer Pasta Salad: HotM 27

2009-06-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

While others around the country are just now beginning to see the bounty of summer’s first produce at their farmer’s markets – stone fruits, fava beans, baby lettuces, we’re on a little bit of a different schedule here. June in Hawaii means that mangoes, tomatoes, arugula, lychee and Kahuku sweet corn are back in force.

Yep, I said tomatoes. And I don’t mean the little cherry tomatoes that grow year-round here. I mean the big beauties that most of the rest of the US doesn’t see until late in the summer. And these aren’t Early Girls or Uglies either. They’re our own variety: Big Wave. But we also begin to get other heirloom varieties too, thanks to Jeanne Vana, our resident Island heirloom tomato grower. For a self-proclaimed tomato addict such as myself, this is heaven.

The theme for Heart of the Matter this month is the Best of June’s Produce, so I couldn’t resist a dish that had a few of the tomatoes I picked out at Jeanne’s farm out in the North Shore last weekend. And I had to add in a few of the other vegetables that are plentiful these days too: peppery arugula, crisp cucumbers, sweet sugar snap peas, and local asparagus (available year round here). Summer also means we’re back to hot days and muggy nights, which means that I don’t want to spend much time in the kitchen because anything simmering on the stove or roasting in the oven also means we’re roasting in our skin it’s so hot inside the house.

Here’s the dish I came up with – it’s a pasta salad that’s great for a light, summer evening meal or a hearty lunch – it's healthy, packed with veggies, lightly scented with lemon zest, and it would be perfectly complimented by a slice of grilled bread and a glass of refreshing Riesling on the side. Play around with it! Use your favorite early summer produce or what you have on hand. If you prefer a non-vegetarian salad, this would also be delicious with a can of good-quality tuna in olive oil and some capers added. We’ve also been making our own cheese, which I would add next time to replace the feta – stay tuned for that recipe sometime next month when I’m back to blogging regularly (teaching ends after today!!).

Lemony Summer Pasta Salad, serves 6

6 oz. shaped pasta
1 bunch asparagus, the woody ends snapped off
2-3 large tomatoes, chopped or ~15 small cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 small cucumber, peeled
1 large handful of sugar-snap peas, trimmed and cut in half
2 scallions, thinly sliced
4 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
zest of one lemon
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup feta cheese
2 tbsp. thinly sliced basil (chiffonade)
1 bunch of baby arugula

Bring a large pot of boiling, salted water to boil. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. When the water begins to boil, add the asparagus and cook for 2 minutes, then remove the asparagus using tongs and transfer it to the ice water bath. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook it until it is al dente, then drain. Rinse the pasta with cold water, drain and return to the pan.

While the pasta is cooking, remove the asparagus and put it on a towel to dry. When dry, you can chop it into 1 – 2 inch lengths. Pour the ice bath out and add the cut asparagus back to the bowl, along with the chopped tomatoes.

Add the cucumber, sugar snap peas, and scallions to the cooled pasta. Whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon zest and salt and pepper in a small bowl until it emulsifies, then mix this with the pasta and vegetables. Add the feta cheese and basil. Add the asparagus and tomatoes and mix very gently with a large spoon or better yet, your hands.

Just before serving, mix in the arugula. If you plan to eat this as leftovers, only add the arugula to what you will be eating at one time – it tends to wilt too fast for my taste if it’s added early.

Heart of the Matter 26: The Locavore (Round-Up)

2009-06-04T23:52:00.000-07:00

The theme for Heart of the Matter 26 was "The Locavore" or using local foods - using an ingredient, or several ingredients, from near your home. I hope it encouraged at least some people out there to seek out some kind of local food or be inspired to start growing something of your own! I'm sad to say though that only two of you out there were able to join us for this round-up and I hope it's only because May and June, that transition from Spring into Summer is always a busy one. I know I was crazy busy and waited until the last minute to make my dish and try and take pictures, only to find out my camera wouldn't work! So my actual post is in this round-up because I have just now gotten my camera back to working. I know my co-host Ilva also ran into some computer issues and was unable to participate this time as well.

Hopefully we'll see some of our regulars - and maybe a few new bloggers? - back here for June's theme next month!

But without further adieu, here are our three entries - the two ladies who stuck it out and sent in their entry, and myself!

Our first entry came from Soma, at eCurry. She used some beautiful little greens that were right outside in her backyard to make her Stir Fried "Pui" with Poppy Seeds - which is, as she describes it "a very simple recipe that my mom & my grandmom would make. It is a stir fry with a lot of flavor of garlic, almost caramelized onions and a sprinkle of poppy seeds." Sounds lovely, doesn't it? And it's so inspiring to me that she grew it herself!

Our second entry came from Zabeena, who writes the blog, A Lot On My Plate. It has a very simple name, Pink Green, but you'll see while its name is simple, there are some incredible and interesting flavor combinations going on in this single dish - consisting of asparagus with three pink dipping sauces (and thus, the name!). She's also got a lot of interesting info about the food, the place she lives and how this dish came about - go check it out!

Lastly, my own dish is super simple, but made with all local ingredients...a Sweet Corn, Mint and Feta Salad. Well, that's not exactly true. It is all local except for one ingredient...which could well have been local too but when I sent my husband to the grocery store for me he came home with the non-local version of the feta. Oh well! Kahuku sweet corn is available for most of the year here and is in full swing right now, so I simply paired it with feta, fresh mint, a bit of lime juice and some olive oil, salt and pepper. It turned out a wonderful, simple dish that I'm sure we'll be eating again this summer with various types of grilled fish and maybe even bring to a potluck or two!

A big thanks to Soma and Zabeena for participating! Hope to see you next month too!

Heart of the Matter 26: The Locavore

2009-05-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

Eating locally is big these days - the closer to home your food comes from, the more economical, carbon-friendly and overall good-for-everyone it can be. People who eat mostly local foods have even garnered their own title: locavores. Locavores are people who eat mostly food that has been grown or produced near their home (sometimes a radius of 100 miles - or even their own back yard). Many farmer's markets are beginning this month (or on their way), the first spring lettuces, asparagus and rhubarb are peeking their way out of the ground and ready to grace our plates after a long winter, and the idea of supporting your local economy couldn't be more prudent...what better way to enjoy all of these things than to cook up something at home, made with fresh, spring ingredients that have traveled a minimal distance to your plate?

Since we're as big of supporters of being good to our bodies (especially our hearts) as we are of being good to the Earth, we thought a theme of Local Foods, or "The Locavore" for Heart of the Matter this month would be fitting. So go ahead - forage, grow or shop your way to a heart-healthy dish made mostly with foods from the area where you live, then share it with all of us!

Here's the rules:

Make something that is heart healthy (low in saturated fats - ie. lean meats and fish, low in sodium and abundant in vegetables or fruit), using mostly ingredients that are grown or produced within 150 miles of your home (or heck, at least from your state/region). If you're growing something in your garden and it's ready to use, that's even better! If you can find only a few ingredients locally, then use one of them as the centerpiece for your dish! We're not strict, we just think it will be a great way to start the summer off - thinking about what might be grown in your community, or what you could be growing by the time September rolls around and Fall is here (for instance, tomatoes are best towards the end of summer...there's still time to get seedlings and start growing your own - everybody knows there's nothing as tasty as a home-grown tomato!). Just think of all the participants of HotM from around the world and all the possible climates and different types of things that can be grown in all those different places!

Once you've blogged about your local foods dish, submit to me by email at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com by midnight on Thursday, May 28 (please put "HotM" in the subject line). Then stay tuned for the round-up and see what everyone else made from ingredients that were local to them. If you're still unsure what "heart-healthy" means, check out the HotM blog, and the many useful links in the right hand sidebar. Please only use your entry for this event so that we can keep things centered on heart-healthy recipes. We're excited to see the diversity of heart-healthy and local dishes that you produce this month and can't wait to read about them!

Drink your Way to a Healthy Heart: Hibiscus-Ginger Cooler

2009-04-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

The theme for Heart of the Matter (HotM) this month - hosted by Ilva at Lucullian Delights - was Flowers. In Hawaii, hibiscus grows wild and is commonly found in home gardens and as an ornamental plant, but this little beauty is also extremely high in vitamin C (maybe that's what gives it its beautifully rich color?) and preliminary studies show promising results that it may lower high blood pressure and even cholesterol when steeped and enjoyed as a drink. Sounds like the perfect heart-healthy drink to me!

Hibiscus has been used as a health "tonic" of sorts in cultures all over the world for centuries, and I think it's high time we bring it back! I've been taking some herbal classes lately, learning about the herbs, flowers and plants that are both native and invasive in Hawaii that can be used for tinctures, salves and more to improve health and reduce reliance on contemporary medicine. For my entry for HotM this month, I steeped dried hibiscus flowers with ginger, a rhizome known to be great for stomach problems, but which also has cholesterol-lowering properties. For a little kick, I added a bit of peppermint to the steeping liquid and then sweetened it slightly with honey. It came out great! I can imagine it as an extremely refreshing drink for the dog-days of summer, but it's been nice for the nice days this spring too, when you get a warm day. Add an umbrella and some sparkling water (or hey, rum if you are so inclined) and you've got yourself a fruity, tropical drink that can be made with completely local ingredients. We'll be drinking much more of this in the days to come!

While the flowers themselves are much more beautiful when they are not dried, the dried ones keep well in an airtight container and impart a gorgeous, ruby color to your steeping liquid. Hibiscus has its own distinct flavor...which is actually really difficult to describe, but good! And you don't need very many! I used 15 dried blossoms (I got these at the farmer's market some time ago, but you can also dry your own to about) but you could use the same amount of blossoms in a larger amount of water I think and not lose any flavor...I had a bunch, so I didn't mind using them because I wanted the hibiscus flavor to come through.

Hibiscus-Ginger Cooler, makes 4 cups.

4 cups filtered water
15 dried hibiscus blossoms
1 inch ginger root, organic and unpeeled - sliced into 1/4" slices
1 small sprig of mint
raw honey, to taste

Bring the water to a boil, then remove from the heat and stir in the hibiscus, ginger root and mint. Let steep for at least an hour or up to 4. Strain the mixture with a sieve (or cheese cloth if you want a clearer liquid). You could sweeten it with the honey at this point, or you can sweeten each glass as you want to drink it depending on your preference and who will be drinking it later.

Don't Forget to Vote for your Favorite HotM Recipes!

2009-03-23T13:09:00.001-07:00

Don't forget to vote for your Favorite Recipe and the entry with the Best Presentation from this month's round-up for Finger Foods for our 2 year Birthday Bash! You needn't have entered the actual event to vote for your favorite entries! There are prizes for each category: the winner of the favorite recipe category will win a special box coming all the way from Ilva's home country, Italy, packed with goodies, including black rice from Veneto, a small bottle with White Truffle Scented Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar Jelly and Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans from Slitti! The winner of the presentation category will be sent a box from Michelle's state, Hawaii, full of delicious tropical treats, including Waialua Estate Single Origin Hawaiian dark chocolate, Red Alaea Salt, and Hawaiian grown macadamia nuts and Planted by the River Guava curd (this is one of the last remaining bottles of these special curds - the couple running the company has decided to stop selling them and they are no longer available, which is really a very sad thing because they are amazing! see Heidi's review here and here)!

The winners will be announced on March 25th, so you have until tomorrow night at midnight (Hawaii time, which is probably well into Wednesday for many of you) to vote for your favorites. Send your votes to me at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com.

Heart of the Matter Birthday Bash Roundup

2009-03-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

Aloha! And thanks for joining us for the Birthday Bash Round-up for the Heart of the Matter. We're 2 years old now and I don't know about you, but I'm ready to celebrate! We had so many great entries this time - bloggers who have been with us since the beginning, some who have been showing up steadily since they first heard about us, and new bloggers who wanted to help out. Remember to keep your eye out for entries that stand out - we're looking for the entry with the best recipe (who will win an Italian goodie box!) and best presentation (who will win a Hawaiian goody box!). The winners will be announced on March 25th, so there is one week to vote for your favorites. You needn't have entered the actual event to vote for your favorite entries! Send your votes to me at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com. Well, without further adieu, here are the entries...

Our first entry came from the Green Gourmet Giraffe, with Johanna's Strawberry and Passionfruit Icy Poles. If you're looking for a heart healthy and colorful treat for you, your guests or your kids that is full of freshly squeezed juices and fruit, then these are definitely it!

I love Brussels sprouts and my co-host, Ilva, from the blog Lucullian Delights, made some delicious looking (and beautiful) Chestnut, Parmesan and Rosemary-Filled Brussels Sprouts for her first entry. I can just imagine plucking them up with my fingers and eating them!

Our friend Labelga, from the blog Leafy Cooking, made these tasty little Marinated Arabian Cheese Balls with joghurt, which was something I hadn't heard of prior to now, but certainly look like they would be amazing!

Ever-faithful participants, Bee and Jai from the blog Jugalbandi, brought these unique Spicy Nut and Seed Clusters with all manner of wonderful flavors (including cayenne, fenugreek and pumpkin seeds!) to the party. I can just imagine myself standing by the refreshment table and gobbling these up by the handful...

From the blog, eCurry, arrived these dainty Savory Layered & Nut Stuffed Chickpea Swirls. Soma, author of the blog, says they are khandvis, another type of food that was new to me, but when I heard what was in them - mint & coriander chutney & coarsely ground lightly toasted almonds - I'm certain that I would fall in love with them!

They say for the prevention of heart disease you should eat your omega-3s and salmon is one of the healthiest sources for these essential nutrients. Tigerfish, from the blog, Teczcape - An Escape to Food, brought these lovely and healthy Salmon Cakes with Mango Salsa on them and I just love the splash of color that mango salsa lends to these little beauties. I wish the mangoes were ready to eat here!

If I saw this Fig and Red Onion Confit at a party, I'd definitely have to hunt down the maker - it happens to be Suganya, from the blog Tasty Palettes. I've always imagined confit being complicated and thought it was only made from meat...Suganya shows us it's easy, beautiful and can be healthy and vegetarian at the same time! Delicious!

While Marla from the blog Bella Baita View confessed that this birthday celebration was "only" her second time participating, I'm glad she decided to join us once again because her entry, Red Lentil Crostini, topped with thin, dried apple slices, sounds truly irresistable. We hope to see you again sometime soon, Marla!

I've been secretly hoping that Tanna (from My Kitchen in Half Cups) could participate in HotM for ages, but she's always got so many projects and other events she participates in that she hasn't had the time, so it made my heart beam when she sent in her entry for these scrumptous-looking Small Bite Bean and Tuna Pizzas. She shares these with neighbors on her rooftop with a bottle of wine - sounds like a perfect party to me!

One of my favorite greens is arugula, but I almost always eat it raw. I see now that I've been sorely missing out after hearing about these Saucy Chicken and Arugula Meatballs from More Than Burnt Toast...plus, she was lucky enough to eat them wild when she was only a child! These little babies seem to me that they're like the perfect little black dress - they can go from pasta dinner to party food (on toothpicks) in a snap!

From TastyCurryLeaf in India, we have this decadent Walnut Vegetable Pate, served on toasted whole wheat bread (and I can just imagine it would be equally delightful in wraps or scooped up with fresh vegetables!). It's filled with hearty-healthy walnuts and sounds like a wonderfully healthy version of this exquisite food that looks and sounds fancy, but is simple to make - perfect for impressing any guests!

Laura, from Tiramisu', brought these dainty Shrimp Marinated with Lime and Herbs to share at the party and I just absolutely love the little skewers! Elegant, yet simple, I bet these would make the perfect dinner party appetizer too. Not only are they good for you, but they're beautiful to boot!

My co-host, Ilva at Lucullian Delights was thinking of our friends who have trouble with gluten and made gluten-free Mediterranean Rice Balls for the party as her second entry. She declared her love for finger food and described it as: "The little 5 year old girl in me, sitting there in her pink tutu and her fairy wand, raging to get out and run havoc in my adult life." What's a party without a few children running around in the background, right?

Lastly, I made Spiced Macadamia Nut Granola Bars over at my site, The Accidental Scientist. These bars are full of my favorite granola ingredients - whole grains, lots of dried fruit, coconut, macadamia nuts, maple syrup and honey!

Thanks to everyone who pariticipated this month and celebrated right along with us!! Don't forget to vote for your favorites by March 25th so that we can send out the birthday bash prizes!!

Join the Party! The HotM Birthday Bash Is Just A Few Days Away!

2009-03-15T07:09:00.000-07:00

Wow, I don't know about you, but this last month has passed in a blur. Today is the last day to participate in the Heart of the Matter - Eating for Life Birthday Bash! There's still time to participate if you want to get in the fun - you can find the full details here. Remember, there are prizes at stake for the best recipe and presentation - gift boxes from Italy or Hawaii full of wonderful goodies! You have until midnight (Hawaii time) tonight - well, really, you have until I wake up Monday morning if you'd like to whip up some delicious finger foods, snap a photo and send off your entry. Then just come on over to the party on March 18 - when the round-up is posted - and see what all your fellow heart-conscious food bloggers brought! After that, you'll have one week (until March 25th) to vote for your favorite entries. The two winners will be announced on the 26th.

But I wouldn't be a very good host if I didn't share with you my own entry, so here it is: Spiced Macadamia Nut Granola Bars - not so much party food, necessarily, but definitely to be eaten with your fingers! I try to stay away from store-bought granola bars - they often have odd ingredients and preservatives as well as high fructose corn syrup and loads of fat. I stay away from store-bought granola for the same reason, and because most of them are far too sweet for me. These little bars are a great snack or would make a good breakfast with some fruit on the side (say, a dainty little clementine or one half of a beautifully ripe papaya?) and a big glass of milk. They're not too sweet, lightly spiced and and full of good for your heart ingredients like flax seed, whole grains, nuts and fruit. Or heck, why not bring them to a party? See you on the 18th!

Spiced Macadamia Nut Granola Bars

cooking spray (for pan)
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup triticale (or spelt flakes, or more oats - whatever you have will be great)
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1 tsp. cardamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
3/4 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
3-4 slices crystalized ginger, finely chopped
8 dried figs, thinly sliced
1/4 cup dried bing cherries
1/4 cup dried, unsweetened coconut (I get this at my local natural foods store)
3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup raw honey
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp coconut oil
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat your oven to 350F. Spray an 9"x 9" baking pan with cooking spray. Mix the oats, triticale, flax seeds, cardamon and allspice in a large bowl. Add the nuts, ginger, figs, cherries and coconut to the bowl and toss everything together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg whites and vanilla. In a small saucepan, heat the honey, maple syrup, coconut oil and salt over low heat until combined and the honey has melted. Add a little of the warm mixture to the eggs in a small stream, stirring constantly (you are tempering the eggs). Then add the egg mixture to the rest of the honey mixture in the saucepan. Add the contents of the saucepan to the bowl containing your oats and other goodies. Mix well, making sure to get all of the dry ingredients (like your spices and the flax) off the bottom of the bowl and in the mix. Spoon the mixture out into your baking pan and press down with your fingers or the back of a measuring spoon - pressing out to all the corners. The bars should be about 1/2" thick. Put the bars in the oven and cook about 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a rack. Cut into bars - you should get about 8-10 bars. I didn't have the right-sized pan and squeezed mine into 1/2 of a pyrex dish, so I'm not sure exactly how many you would get if you had the right pan ;)

Happy Birthday Heart of the Matter!

2009-02-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

Heart of the Matter is turning two years old!

Nearly three years ago, Ilva from Lucullian Delights and I started thinking about beginning a monthly blog event dedicated to heart-healthy eating. In February of 2007, Ilva, along with Joanna from Joanna's Food, made those thoughts a reality when they launched the website for Heart of the Matter - Eating for Life and called out to the food blog community to send in their recipes for heart-healthy foods. I finally joined them in October as a host and for nearly two years, your recipes have been rounded up and archived every month so that we all have a go-to resource for diverse, heart-healthy recipes and information about heart disease.

Last month, we were concerned that we were going to have to end Heart of the Matter (HotM) because we were getting fewer and fewer entries every month. We sent out a plea for recipes and you came to our rescue - we had a whopping 20 entries! This month, we'd like to have even more! To celebrate that HotM has survived, and in honor of this very special anniversary, we've revamped the website and we're going back to our very first theme: Finger Foods. Entries will be due at midnight on Sunday, March 15. Please send your entries to my email: phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com with the subject "HotM" and link back to this announcement in your post or to the HotM blog. I'll post the round-up by March 18th.

(Here we see the Italian prize: black rice from Veneto, a small bottle with White Truffle Scented Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar Jelly and Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans from Slitti)

But what would a birthday be without presents, right? Even though it is the birthday of HotM, we feel that it wouldn't exist today without YOU. So we want to give YOU a gift for being a vital part of the HotM community and participating! After the round-up is posted on the 18th, you will have one week (until March 25th) to vote for your Favorite Recipe and the recipe with the Best Presentation. The winner of the favorite recipe category will win a special box coming all the way from Ilva's home country, Italy, packed with goodies (see the photo above)! The winner of the presentation category will be sent a box from my state, Hawaii, full of delicious tropical treats, including Planted by the River exotic curds, Waialua Estate Single Origin Hawaiian dark chocolate, Red Alaea Salt, and Hawaiian grown macadamia nuts (picture to come soon)! Stay tuned after the round-up for more details on this.

Keep in mind that your entry should be low in saturated fats (lean meats and fish), be low in salt (sodium), and have loads of vegetables or fruit (nuts, wine and chocolate are also considered to be healthy for your heart in smaller quantities!). See the HotM blog, especially here and the links to various heart disease related organizations on the side bar. This list of Joanna's is also helpful as are this, this, this, this, this and this and even this post! Please only use your entry for this event so that we can keep things centered on heart-healthy recipes.

So no matter if you're new to HotM, you've been waiting for that perfect time to join in (this is it!) or if you've been participating with us since the beginning (a special thank you to you!), send in your healthiest, heartiest finger foods! See you at the party!

How to Buy from Whole Foods Without Spending Your Whole Paycheck

2009-02-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Foodies in Hawaii have been abuzz about the September opening of a Whole Foods store at the Kahala Mall - the first of these stores in the Hawaiian Islands. Whole Foods isn't exactly known for being a reasonably-priced, value-driven grocery store. In fact, the nickname for this corporate-owned natural foods store is, as I'm sure many of you who have Whole Foods in your area already refer to it by (at least we used to in Monterey, CA), "Whole Paycheck." The nickname is not without substantiation, either. You can easily walk into Whole Foods and spend a pretty penny for a very small bag of groceries.

In Hawaii, where food is already at premium prices no matter where you shop, I was curious to see how Whole Foods would hold up against the hype, and if it would be worth the 30-40 minute drive across the island to shop there, since I live on the other side. Luckily, I have a partner in food crime, so to speak, and received an email shortly after the store opened from my friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen to attend a "Value's Tour" at Whole Foods - finding healthy food and doing high quality shopping at Whole Foods on a tight budget. Needless to say, I was game. While we attended this tour some time ago, and I am just now [finishing] writing it up, with the economy on a downturn, I thought the information we obtained during the tour is even more relevant now, so I'd like to share. They now run these tours weekly on Saturday mornings at 11AM.

We arrived to a fully-booked tour at 11AM, given by the very pleasant marketing supervisor, Elyse. She started off by explaining to the group (I think Deb and I may have been the youngest in attendance...and neither one of us is exactly a spring chicken either) why Whole Foods is different from other grocery stores - and I learned a few things about Whole Foods that I didn't know before this. For instance, they only feature foods that are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats - foods they consider "pure." I was skeptical about this claim, having just finished Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma (yes, I know I am the only one out there that hadn't read it yet), but every processed product I picked up off the shelves didn't seem to have any strange ingredients that I couldn't name or a "red #5" on the label.

The store also had a very large selection of organic, gluten-free and local foods. Every organic item is 3rd party certified and no herbicides or pesticides can be used (maybe obvious, but now I've been hearing about the "natural" pesticides that organic companies can use like Rotenone - read the second sentance in that link if you dare...). Most of the fish are also certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, and many come from our local fishery fleet in Honolulu. They have a large selection of gluten-free foods too - and all of them are prominantly marked and many are segregated into their own areas to help with ease in finding what you need. The local foods are what really got me though (what can I say? I'm a locavore at heart!), because it was by far the largest selection of local products I have seen here in a single place, and they are all prominently displayed and easy to find. There are little tags everywhere sticking out from the shelves identifying local products and as soon as you walk in the door, there is a huge case of all locally grown produce (the picture above this is the other half of the case):
Yes, that is asparagus on the top shelf in the picture (from Waimea) and Kahuku sweet corn in the middle, both from Oahu. Apparently, asparagus grows year round here and believe it or not it's actually good year round here too (I know, go ahead, hate me all you want to - and then come and visit!). The produce prices are surprisingly reasonable, for some things. For instance, back in September, locally grown organic mangoes top out at $3.99/lb (not bad for here). A little (#1 recyclable, I might add) plastic box of Ho Farms family tomatoes (those cute ones you saw in this salad) are $4.99 (Foodland has them for $3.99 on sale usually, but 4.99 regularly priced). Locally grown papayas were going for $1.99/lb, and organic bell peppers were running for 3.99/lb (el cheapo!).

Many other products are priced similarly to Safeway or Foodland here or PC Market in Eugene - so basically, they seem competitive. Watch out for the prices on certain items though, dragon fruit, which I just bought at Foodland a few days ago for $4.99 was a steep $9.99 at WF. Unfortunately, since September, prices have risen a bit...while not completely outrageous, many things are a dollar or more expensive now than when I was first there. I'm not sure when they did as I only make it there probably once a month these days because I don't go into Honolulu that often - or if it's only a seasonal jump in price, but that remains to be seen.

One thing going for WF is that they definitely know how to make food pretty and it does help sell their products no matter how much it costs. Check out the coffee selection...feel like you're at some kind of Colombian farmer's market (or, perhaps, Hawaii since we do produce our own coffee here)? And not that you can read it, but their in-house coffee is locally grown - complete with a big sign to tell you exactly which island it came from. You have to admit, that's pretty cool.

And if the coffee station doesn't sell you, the fish case will (check out that moonfish/opah in the top picture!). All the fish had pretty eyes and pretty scales (yay - fresher!) and we even learned that you can pick out your fish, decide how you'd like to cook it that night, go off to do your grocery shopping - and heck, while you're busy picking out your Veggie Booty, they'll even cook it for you - free of charge! They smoke meats and fish in-house and don't even get me started on the glorious cheese and charcuterie sections and the enormous (and quite tasty) deli area. The meats, however, are not local, which I happen to find a good thing...our one local grass-fed beef supplier, North Shore Cattle Company, can barely keep up with the farmer's market...but when I asked, the guy behind the counter told me that WF is attempting to work with producers on Molokai and the Big Island to get some local meat later on.
Okay, so enough already about what it looks like, how can you save money?? Elyse gave us 7 ways to save and I'm passing them on to you:

Shop the Sales: Like most grocery stores, every other week WF begins a new sale on certain items in the store. The sale items are identified by the bright red "SALE" tags sticking out from the shelves - just like the green, local tags. You can simply browse down the aisles, looking for red tags and buy up what you can. But then you've got to be able to cook with whatever you can get on sale...we're used to using this strategy here because we practically only buy what's on sale anyway!
Search for Values: WF has another way of showing you how to save money by marking products that are already good values even without a sale price attached to it. For these items, WF is passing along to the consumer savings they've gotten from the producer of the item through partnership or by buying in bulk. These are labeled by another green sign (this one is dark green - the local foods tags are light green) that says "Best Buy!" or "Value!"
Buy 365 (WF Brand) Items: Similar to Trader Joes (Oh TJs - how I miss you!), WF arranges with a specific producer to make a product that is specifically for them at a set, nearly unbeatable price and which they can put under their own label. These are often the cheapest brand in the store and the producer has to follow all the other WF requirements of good, clean, pure food so you're still getting a high quality product, even if you don't know the name of who actually produced it (or so they say).
Bring in your Manufacturer's Coupons: WF will accept manufacturer's coupons - you know the ones, from all your favorite health food magazines - so bring them in and use them to save money!
Buy a Lot of One Thing: If you really like papayas, buy yourself a case! Or how about boxes of Peace maple pecan cereal? Similar to how wine stores give a 10% discount if you buy a case of wine, WF offers a 10% discount off cases of your favorite foods.
Oh, and if you like wine as much as I do, did I mention they also have a special rack of $10 or less wines too? So that even if you're in a hurry, it's easy to find the cheaper vino.
Buy in Bulk: As any self-respecting crunchy individual like myself knows, bulk foods are a great way to save money and you can buy as much as you want to. WF has a fairly decent selection of granolas, beans, pastas, dried fruits and other bulk items. It's far better than many of the other grocery stores here and many of them are organic.

So, while I won't be trudging over into Honolulu every week to do my grocery shopping, in part because of the cost of food and gas (driving over there and back takes nearly a 1/4 of my gas tank and I drive a ford escort), the more I hear of WF working with local farmers and fisherman from the local farmers and fisherman, and the better variety of local foods and food in general, I have to say I'm happy to patronize this big organic chain store on occasion. I go over and stock up on essentials (and the occasional fun goodie too) when I want something healthy, organic or specific (they are the only store I've been to on the island that carries broccoli rabe!), and heck, armed with value savy information from the tour, sometimes I even save a few dollars too.

Let Them Eat Cake! Orange Chocolate Brandy Cake, That Is.

2009-02-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

I recently attended a potluck and member meeting for my local Slow Food organization – Slow Food Oahu. Being January (and thus a month where we are still reeling from the painful sucking dry of our bank-account paying for health insurance, estimated taxes, car registration and of course, the ghosts of Christmas presents past), I needed something that didn’t require a trip to the nearest grocery store for $20 worth of ingredients (though I can’t seem to get out of the nearest grocery store for less that $30 no matter what I am buying). Thus, it had to be easy and use only ingredients that I might already have. Surfing through my blog recipe archives (which sorely need updating), I found just such a thing: Chocolate Brandy Bundt Cake.

The first time I made this humble cake was in the beginning of my blogging days – over three years ago. Since then, the recipe has sat in my archives – lost, lonely and unused. That’s a shame for a cake that has coffee, cocoa and a hefty shot (ahem…1/2 a cup) of brandy in its humble ingredient list. Not to mention that the cake is easy to make, can be whipped up simply using a whisk, a couple of bowls and a single pot, and includes ingredients you’re likely to have in your larder – if you own such a thing (which, of course, I don’t) – or at least in your cupboards. I don't even own a "real" bundt pan, but that's okay too.

Reading over my old post, I saw that back then, while I thought the cake was good, it didn’t have much brandy flavor to it. Since the particular potluck in question was a round-up of the various chefs, restaurant owners and resident foodies in town that care about where their food comes from, I thought I should probably kick it up a notch. I decided to add a bit of orange zest and cinnamon to the cake, guessing that one couldn’t go wrong with the combination of brandy and oranges, and that a bit of cinnamon rarely hurts most baked desserts. Luckily, I was right. The combo is delightful, and LB and I practically licked the bowl clean before it was even baked - something I haven't done since I was a kid. It smells amazing coming out of the oven and this time, the brandy didn’t hide behind any of the other flavors, making the cake rich and complex even with only a simple dusting of powdered sugar.

The only other dessert in attendance at the potluck was a concoction made of tangy lilikoi (passionfruit), bananas, yogurt, honey and tiny squares of poundcake (um, YUM). Everyone raved about how tasty it was to mix the lilikoi and yogurt with the chocolate cake and I have to admit, the tartness of the lilikoi was a nice offset to the richness of the cake. So if I was doing a dinner party at home, I might even serve this with a bit of lilikoi ice cream next time since we just so happen to have a tree outside that kicks off a few lilikoi every couple of weeks (which I of course run over and snag before the neighbors get to them) – but plain old vanilla ice cream or even lightly sweetened whipped cream would also do the trick.

There are a few things I did differently this time while making it because my style of cooking and baking has changed over the years. I’ve listed these changes, as well as modified the recipe for cooking here in Hawaii, but the old recipe works just fine too. Honestly, I’m re-posting it now because there’s some sort of satisfaction in being able to re-post an old recipe because you’ve figured out how to make it better – and besides, don’t you just love taking a (little) better picture than you did the first time? It’s like a special kind of food-blogging retribution. I have one more version I want to try of this cake - a spicy version - so you'll be seeing it again sometime in the future.

Orange Chocolate Brandy Bundt Cake

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Ghiradelli) + 1 tbsp. for dusting pan
1/2 cup strong, brewed coffee
1/2 cup brandy
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch peices + extra for pan
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
zest from one (organic, preferably local) orange

Preheat your oven to 325F. Generously butter a bundt (or pseudo-bundt as the case may be) pan and dust with 1 tbsp cocoa; knocking excess out. Heat coffee, whiskey, and remaining cup of cocoa powder in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat. When this is warm, add the butter and whisk until the butter is melted. Remove the pan from heat and add sugar, whisking until it's dissolved. At this point, it should turn dark and silky. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and cool ~5 minutes.

While the chocolate is cooling, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a separate bowl. In a third bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla and orange zest, then whisk this mixture into the cooled chocolate mixture until combined well. Finally, add flour and whisk until just combined (the batter will be thin and bubbly). Pour batter into your prepared bundt pan and bake until a wooden skewer or pick inserted into center comes out clean (about 45 - 50 minutes; though it took 55 min. here in Hawaii).

Cool completely in pan on rack (about 2 hours), then remove from pan onto rack. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream or ice cream.

A Healthy, Hearty Pesto (Heart of the Matter 23)

2009-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

I don’t know why, but whenever I mention anything about healthy eating to LB, he persists in making faces like it’s the last thing in the world he can imagine doing. As if the concept of eating delicious foods such as oatmeal, quinoa, barley, nuts, fresh vegetables and fruits is just far too “crunchy” for him...oh, and did I mention he was a Deadhead? Doesn't make sense, does it? Maybe the stigma of “healthy = bland & boring” is still attached to healthy food in his eyes. You’d think after eating healthy meals like Kabocha Squash Pizza with Kale and Fresh Sage and Tuscan-Style Roasted Chicken with Vegetables, and even decadent Caramel Macadamia Nut Sticky Buns, that he would know better. Apparently that is not the case. (Men!)

Recently, when I mentioned that he had two choices for dinner – a Morrocan-style chicken dish or a walnut, parsley and flax pesto on pasta, it elicited the same sour face as if he was five years old and I’d just asked him to eat his creamed peas (which, I’m sure, are also delicious).** Little did he know that no matter which option he chose, he was still getting both – just on different days. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure a walnut, parsley and flax pesto was going to be any good either, but I thought we might as well give it a try since I am always on the look out for alternative pasta toppings – especially if they are healthy, and even better if they are packed with omega-3-fatty acids, which this recipe just happens to be. You can read more about flax seeds and omega-3s (and get a killer granola recipe to boot) from my favorite go-to nutritionist blogger, Melissa, here and here.

**Sidenote: I learned this trick from my older sister with my nieces. She gives the kids two [healthy] options and let’s them choose. Then they feel like they are making the decision, and she knows that no matter what they decide, it’ll be a good choice in her eyes. Works wonders with grown men, too.

The original recipe can be found here. And I can’t really take the credit for it, because it belongs to that all-American homemaking icon, Martha Stewart (can’t you just see her telling you to eat your creamed peas?). I put my own measurements on it because I was lazy (see below), and added some extra pizzazz by throwing in some sautéed local oyster mushrooms. If I’d had them, I’d have also added some beautiful cherry tomatoes, for color even more than flavor. Or instead of tomatoes, some thin slices of Canadian bacon would also be lovely (and still healthy!). But I have to tell you - it’s surprisingly good on its own, even without the accoutrements.

I served it with whole wheat angel hair pasta, and the bright flavors of the pungent parsley stands up well to the hearty wheaty-ness of the pasta. This is a wonderful, quick and healthy dinner for any busy night of the week, and it’s my entry for the Heart of the Matter (HotM) this month, where the theme for heart-healthy cooking this month is “Slimmer Recipes.” After all that decadent holiday food, we could all probably use a few slimmer recipes in our repertoire, right? Check out the round-up at the HotM blog after January 28th to see the wonderful recipes that have been submitted from around the world. Or maybe you have a slimmer, heart-healthy recipe you’d like to share? There’s still time to get your entry in to Ilva at her blog, Lucullian Delights, who is hosting this month. We would love to have you join us – the more, the merrier, and it brings even more awareness about heart health and heart disease.

Walnut, Parsley and Flax Pesto on Angel Hair Pasta, serves 4
adapted slightly from www.wholeliving.com

8 oz. whole wheat angel hair pasta
1/4 cup walnuts, raw
several large mushrooms (I used local oyster mushrooms), thinly sliced
2 tsp. olive oil, divided
3 tablespoons ground flaxseeds (if they aren't already, grind them in a spice or coffee grinder)
1 large bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
1 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
freshly ground pepper

Preheat your oven to 375F. Start a large pot of ample salted water and cook the pasta until it is al dente. Drain when finished, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Meanwhile, toast the walnuts in the oven until they are crisp and fragrant, about 7 minutes.

Saute' the sliced mushrooms in a skillet with ~2 tsp. olive oil until they release most of their water and become soft and slighly browned.

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the walnuts until the nuts are crushed and somewhat ground, about 1 minute. Add parsley, garlic, 1 tsp. olive oil, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and reserved 1/4 cup of pasta water; pulse until smooth and thick. Add the pesto to the warm pasta, adding a little more pasta water if it appears too thick or does not coat the pasta evenly. Garnish with extra freshly grated parmesan cheese.

You could easily double the pesto recipe, and it can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week in a refrigerator or up to 1 month in a freezer (freeze it in an ice-cube tray for easy use!). Bring pesto to room temperature before serving; supposedly it' s not good to heat pesto because it ruins the flavor of the delicate herbs.

A Pizza to Keep You Warm On a Cold Winter's Eve

2008-12-31T12:26:00.001-08:00

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou, or Happy New Year!

When I married a man who didn't like olives and didn't do much cooking, I had no idea that LB would become the Bread Man of the house (and lo and behold, he also quickly fell in love with olives - after only gentle prompting to try the ones that didn't come from a can). These days, he can whip together a mean batch of pizza dough, some amazingly fluffy pull-apart clover rolls, or toweringly high biscuits (that put my hockey-pucks to shame) in merely the blink of an eye. But pizza dough is his favorite. He's always coming up with new toppings for his pizzas too, like roasted cauliflower or his "buffalo chicken wing" pizza. Nearly all of them have been extremely tasty. We especially like to have pizza topping cook-offs, where he'll make up a batch of crust for at least two pizzas, he'll make one and I'll make the other, and we'll see which one we like best (I don't have to tell you that oftentimes we pick our own and there is almost always a tie).

You can really put almost anything on a pizza and finding a winning combination is part of the fun. One of the pleasant surprises about living in Hawaii has been finding fruits and vegetables that I thought I knew well, that for whatever reason (the planets align properly to make some perfect? the electromagnetic properties of the island?) taste especially sweet and delicious here. These include pineapples, mangoes, and papayas - which I wasn't too surprised about - but also persimmons and kabocha squash.

Kabocha is a Japanese winter squash (or pumpkin) that is rich in beta carotene, iron, vitamin C, potassium, and even some small amounts of calcium, folic acid, and B vitamins. Interestingly, kabocha continues to grow after it's been harvested. It's picked when it is fully mature (ie. flavorful), then ripened in a warm place (77°F) for up to 13 days to help its starch begin to convert to carbohydrate content. Following this, it's transferred to cooler temperatures and stored for about a month, continuing the starch transformation. When kabocha is picked, it's dry and bland, but after this transformation it's flesh becomes a reddish-yellow color and is smooth and sweet. Apparently, kabocha reaches the peak of ripeness about 1.5~3 months after it's harvested (Wikipedia).

I've always liked kabocha, but here in Hawaii it tastes like it's taken a luxurious soak in the perfect amount of brown sugar solution, and to top it off, it's texture is unbelievably silky and smooth. It needs no adornment - no butter, no maple syrup, no sugar, no anything - just cut it up (or not), roast it at 400F for half an hour to 40 minutes and that's it. It certainly puts its cousin, the butternut squash, to shame. Here, every kabocha I have tried has been fabulous, and every butternut squash has been stringy and tasteless. So I'm now a kabocha lover and convert and I use it in almost everything I can, from salads to side dishes to soups, and of course, as a pizza topping.

This was the latest venture in our pizza topping quest and the combination was splendid. It felt like a big hearty hug in the middle of winter - the delicately sweet flesh of the kabocha went wonderfully with the hearty, savory scent of the sage. Add a little cheese, some other winter vegetables and a few spices, and you're good to go.

Kabocha Squash Pizza with Kale and Fresh Sage, makes one large pizza

1 large pizza crust (see below)
1 small kabocha squash, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tbsp. olive oil, divided
pinch of salt
1/2 large sweet onion, diced
2 cups chopped kale, thinly sliced
1/2 pint of mushrooms (I used local Hamakua oyster mushrooms)
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
2 cloves of garlic, minced
a small handful of fresh sage, minced
goat cheese or feta cheese (I actually used goat feta from Surfing Goat Dairy on Maui)
Parmesan and red pepper flakes, for garnish (optional)

Buy or make your own pizza crust - if you've never made it before, try! It's easy, and the results will be worth it. We use one from the Joy of Cooking, but there are lots of crust recipes out there.

Preheat your oven to 425F and toss the squash pieces in 1 tbsp. olive oil and salt. Roast on a sheet pan in the oven for 35-40 minutes until soft and tender but not mushy. (I did this the day before and kept it in the fridge until I needed it...something I often to when roasting veggies is roast extra for a second meal later on in the week).

Saute the onions in a medium pan until translucent. Add kale, mushrooms, red pepper flakes and dried oregano and cook until the mushrooms give up their water and the kale has cooked down quite a bit. Add the garlic the last few minutes of cooking and cook for about 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat.

Brush the pizza crust with olive oil, then layer on the kabocha squash and onion mixture. Sprinkle the sage over the top and then dot the cheese across the whole pizza. Cook the pizza until the crust is firm and the cheese is slightly browned or melted (feta doesn't melt much...). Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan and more red pepper flakes.

Other Pizza Posts:
There's Always Time for Pie : Blue cheese, red onion and pine nut pizza; Caramelized onion and balsamic vegetable pizza
A Perfect Fall Meal: Mushroom and Pancetta Pizzas
The Pizza Research Institute, Eugene, OR: Apple, gouda and walnut pizza

HotM 22: Heart Healthy Decadence (Round-up)

2008-12-28T11:34:00.000-08:00

This month's theme for Heart of the Matter focused on decadent treats that were heart healthy. Unfortunately, we didn't get very many entries this month, and so I waited a few extra days, hoping that we might get a late entry or two because December is such a busy month anyhow - and it seems to have worked, because we did! Thanks to the wonderful bloggers who participated this month, even in the midst of all the holiday hustle and bustle!

Our first entry comes from Ricki, who authors the blog Diet, Desserts and Dogs. She reminds us in her post that real women bake cookies too (I love this!) and offered her recipe for Tutti Fruiti Christmas Cookies. Since we're already after Christmas now, these pretty little treats would still make lovely hostess gifts or anytime cookies.

Labelga, a regular participant of HotM and the author of Leafy Cooking went with some premium ingredients and made a Bisque d'homard (or, Lobster Bisque) - she served it fresh and hot and it didn't even need the cream the recipe called for, making it really healthy but still full of flavor. This truly shows that heart-heathy treats can be delicious and decadent!

Ilva, my co-host at Lucullian Delights, has posted a beautiful Apricot Almond Cake with Oats and Coconut for her decadent treat. This would make a very lovely holiday breakfast or a delicious treat any time of the year!

Lastly, my own entry was for Caramel Macadamia Nut Sticky Buns - these little treats were an early holiday breakfast for us and are perfect if you're having guests this holiday season.

Thanks again to the participants this month and I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday!

Mele Kalikimaka!

2008-12-25T23:49:00.001-08:00

If you're celebrating with us today
in your own corner of the world,
we wish you a Merry Christmas
from Hawaii!

A Healthier Christmas Morning

2008-12-23T15:42:00.000-08:00

Every Christmas morning for as long as I remember, my mother would wake up early, head down the stairs and into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. My siblings and I would line up at the top of the stairs in our pajamas, youngest to oldest (later line-ups would include various significant others, husbands and wives), sleepy-eyed and hair astray, and wait impatiently until she gave the signal letting us know it was okay to tromp the rest of the way downstairs and gather around the Christmas tree. While we’re all a little too old now to still believe in Santa Claus, our stockings – hung by the fire, of course – were always filled with a few extra trinkets from ole’ Saint Nick. After presents were opened, coffee enjoyed (now often spiked with Kahlua or whiskey) and the requisite (bad/terrible) Christmas morning photos were taken, mom would bring out whatever special Christmas breakfast she had planned that year. Sometimes these were rich egg casseroles, decadent French toast, Christmas breads and fruit or something unique she had attempted from a recent magazine…all of them delicious.

This month for Heart of the Matter (HotM), we asked for decadent, yet heart-healthy recipes from you. My contribution is a slight adaptation of a Cooking Light recipe I posted here some time ago: Caramel Pecan Sticky Buns. While it’s not our Christmas morning breakfast this year (I’m planning on a grits, cheese and egg casserole instead), these buns would make an excellent holiday breakfast, tasty enough to please any palette and nice enough even for guests (or, ahem, breakfast in bed)…just make sure you start them early or even the day before, as they take a long time since they have two rises. But the effort is well worth it. The dough is soft and sweet, the caramel sweet but not cloyingly so, and the nuts add a perfect contrast in texture. There is butter in them, but each roll has a relatively small amount, and they’re fairly low in fat (only ~5 grams of fat, with only 1.9 of it saturated). I also used brown rice syrup in place of corn syrup, since this natural sweetener is proving to be a better bet for healthy eating in recent research studies. One roll is perfect with a big, steaming mug of coffee and some seasonal fruit on the side (though if it is for the holidays, maybe two wouldn’t be awful…). I had to throw a Hawaiian twist in them of course, and ended up with Caramel Macadamia Nut Sticky Buns.

Caramel Macadamia Nut Sticky Buns, makes 16 buns
Adapted slightly from Cooking Light

Ingredients
Caramel:
* 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
* 3 tbls butter
* 3 tsp brown rice syrup
* Cooking spray
* 3 tbls toasted macadamia nuts, chopped
Dough:
* 1 package dry yeast
* 1 2/3 cups warm water (100° to 110°)
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided (about 23 1/2 ounces)
* 1/3 cup granulated sugar
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 2 tablespoons butter, softened

For the caramel, combine brown sugar, butter and brown rice syrup in a saucepan over medium heat; stirring frequently until the butter melts. Continue cooking until mixture thickens and becomes smooth, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; pour into the center of a 10-inch round cake pan. Quickly spread caramel onto pan bottom. Sprinkle with macadamia nuts and cool to room temperature. Lightly coat sides of the pan with cooking spray.

To prepare dough, dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in salt. Add 5 cups flour to yeast mixture; stir until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes); adding enough of remaining flour only to keep the dough from sticking to your hands as you knead. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place 1 hour or until doubled in size. (If you can press two fingers into dough and the indentation remains, then the dough has risen enough.) Punch the dough down; cover and let rest 5 minutes.

Combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl; set aside. Roll dough into a 16 x 12-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface; spread 2 tablespoons of softened butter over dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Roll up rectangle tightly, starting with long edge, pressing firmly to eliminate air pockets; pinch seam to seal (do not seal ends). Cut into 16 (1-inch-wide) slices. Place slices, cut sides up, in prepared pan (rolls will be crowded). Cover and let rise 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375° and bake for 20 minutes or until the rolls are a light golden brown. Cool in the pan 5 minutes on a rack, then place a serving platter upside down on top of pan and invert onto the platter. Serve warm and sticky, with coffee and love.

Christmas Came a Little Early This Year

2008-12-21T16:09:00.000-08:00

I recently joined up to participate in a Foodbuzz Featured Publisher perk called the Tastemaker Program. In essence, they send you samples of specially selected goodies, you taste and honestly evaluate them, then post about the product on your site…sounded like a pretty good deal to me! Not long after signing up, I received the first product, truffles from Cowgirl Chocolates. These little chocolate treats arrived in a festive red box, gussied up with a black ribbon and adorned with a delightfully tiny pair of silver cowboy boots.

According to their website, Cowgirl Chocolates is the brainchild of a ceramic artist named Marilyn Lysohir (“May-Lillie”), who wanted to combine her love of both art and chocolate. Founded in 1997 in Moscow, Idaho, the company touts their goods as “gourmet chocolate for adventurous chocolate lovers,” and since I would consider myself among that group, I was thrilled to be able to try them. Most of the recent press they have received has been about their Copper Kettle Brittle (which I may just have to try next), so I was curious how the truffles would measure up. I grabbed LB (always good to have a second opinion), and over the next few days, we tasted our way through the box.

Browsing their flavor guide, which accompanies the brightly wrapped chocolates, I saw they separated the truffles into “mild” and “spicy” categories. I wasn’t sure that most of the flavors lived up to the “adventurous” title, but the Raspberry Lemonade Dark Chocolate, the Spicy Cappuccino, and the Buckin’ Hot Habañero Caramel certainly had my curiosity piqued. First, let me say that these are not the kind of chocolate truffles that you might expect from say, Vosges – there are no crisp chocolate exteriors or luxuriously silky ganache inside, but I don’t think that’s exactly what this company is going for anyway. The packaging and the over-all feel and look of the chocolates, as well as the website, suggest more charming farm girl than elite fashionista, and they certainly blow Russell Stover out of the water and off the ranch.

There’s not a distinct difference in texture between the exterior chocolate coating of most of the truffles and the ganache inside – the mark of an exquisite truffle, in my humble opinion is a thin, crisp coating surrounding a silk interior – but the over-all texture of these truffles is still pleasing. The flavors, however, is where this company earned big bonus points. A few of flavors are not very well balanced – namely the Habañero truffle and the caramel, which consist of a very spicy and slightly unexpected (because it is delayed) kick in the mouth…which made me a little sad because I love the combo of hot spices and chocolate. Other flavors, however, perfectly offset the richness of the chocolate, like the Raspberry Dark Chocolate and the delicious Spicy Cappuccino, with its crunchy “biscuit bits” added for texture. Our favorite truffles were the Spicy Double Dark Chocolate, the Raspberry Dark Chocolate, the Spicy Cappuccino and the very interesting and complex Raspberry Lemonade Dark Chocolate. But you should try them and decide for yourself.

So, if you’re looking for a very last minute stocking stuffer, or even a perfect hostess gift for all those new years parties to come, Cowgirl Chocolates would make anyone on your list a happy camper – be they a cowgirl, a cowboy or a city-dweller. Even better, they offer customized flavor assortments – the mark of a company that cares about their consumers. They also have brittles, hot chocolate and truffle bars – all of which I’m sure are excellent. I’m all for supporting the little business with the good-will story and a little rustic charm thrown in (I’ve never been much of a fashionista anyhow – I grew up on a farm and shh…even had my own pair of cowboy boots at one point), so I’ll definitely be ordering from them in the near future (especially some of that brittle…). A big thanks to Foodbuzz and to Cowgirl Chocolates for the samples and this opportunity!

A December Full of Heart-Healthy Decadence (HotM 22)

2008-12-07T11:17:00.000-08:00

December is a month full of festivities: holiday parties to attend and coordinate, visitors to entertain, baked goods to create, presents to make or buy, occasions to celebrate with friends and family, cards to write and good cheer to spread. For many of us, it's the busiest time of the year, but also a time of year when we get to let our kitchen prowess shine - or at least get in there and try a few new things!

For me, December means breaking out the Alabama Christmas CD for a few renditions of "Thistlehair the Christmas Bear," scouring books and magazines for new cookie recipes to share with friends, family and cookie swaps; finding new side dishes to accompany the dusty and required recipes for artichoke dip, prime rib and chicken noodle soup that make up Christmas eve and Christmas day fare; and choosing to attempt one of those "traditional" holiday treats that simply are aren't around the other 11 months of the year: yule logs with chocolate bark and marzipan mushrooms, soft and sweet panettone, fruitcake studded with jewel-like candied fruits, elaborate gingerbread houses, rum-spiked eggnog...you know the stuff. Every year, I dream of making such decadent treats, but December comes and goes too quickly, and I find myself left with only the vision of sugarplums dancing in my head and no yule log to speak of. This year, I'm determined to make those sugarplums materialize and sink my teeth in to them.

For over a year, participants of the monthly Heart of the Matter (HotM) event been helping Ilva, Joanna and I show that food that's good for you doesn't have to be boring or bland. We've already done baked goods and holiday food as themes before, so now we're stepping it up a notch. The holiday season is a time of celebration, abundance, and culinary wanderlust - so for HotM this month, we're asking you to share your recipes for the most decadent, delicious treatsyou can think of - with a heart-healthy twist. What sort of mouth-watering, scrumptious recipes do you dust off from your kitchen repertoire this time of year? Do you have a something you've always wanted to try, that always seemed too over-the-top to make any other time of the year? Will you take the challenge to make those indulgent foods saved for once-a-year into heart-healthy holiday treats?

The usual rules: If you’ve participated before, you already know the basics. If you haven’t, check here, here and here for ideas on what “heart-healthy” means, and we hope that you’ll join us! Again, we ask that this please be a single event entry(please don’t use your post for other events – that way we can keep things centred on healthy heart awareness). Just send your entry to phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com (please use the title HotM, so they don't get lost) by midnight on Thursday, December 25, linking to my site, The Accidental Scientist (and to the HotM blog if you’d like). Please note that this is only a few short weeks away! Since it's so soon, and I want people to be able to gain inspiration and be able to enjoy the recipes all month long but have them before the holiday actually arrives, I'll be doing the round-up differently this month and posting the recipes that have come in at the end of each week. If you've never participated before, please join us! We'd love to have some new "faces" and recipes to share!

Thankful for the Wisdom of Others

2008-11-27T07:51:00.000-08:00

There's something infinitely soothing about knowing you're about to spend the whole day cooking. Well, infinitely soothing for those of us who really love to cook anyway. I know that I, for one, am looking forward to the act of preparing for the big Thanksgiving feast - even though I'm not the one who will be roasting the turkey, making the stuffing or the mashed potatoes nor many of the other wonderful, traditional dishes that grace Thanksgiving tables every year. But that's okay.

As much as I love being the one in charge (heck, I'd cook the whole thing and have all my friends over for it if I could, but I guess that wouldn't be proper, eh?), it's also liberating to not be the one calling the shots. Instead, I can focus on the few dishes I am in charge of - this year, it's the ubiquitous green bean casserole (only a homemade version this time) and a delicious-looking take on Brussels sprouts from Nicole Stich, the author of the beautiful blog (and now book!), Delicious Days. Later on, I'll make my own versions of the stuffing and cranberry sauce, turkey and other trimmings that I didn't make for this first meal. Who says you can only eat Thanksgiving foods on Thanksgiving? Why not enjoy them other times? They're still seasonal in December! Most of them would be fabulous by themselves, alongside roasted chicken or fish (miso green beans anyone?) and would even make perfect winter meals for tucking in with a bottle of wine and good friends (or even a good book).

Besides, I love stuffing and cranberry sauce - it seems a shame to only enjoy them once a year, and yet that's the only time I make or have them. For the stuffing, I want to try this recipe. And the cranberry sauce? I'm thinking of incorporating a few local ingredients - like ginger and lilikoi (passionfruit). Besides, many of the bloggers I love will be posting what they've made for Thanksgiving on or after the big day (at least if they are "slackers" like me) - why not try and enjoy them now? I'll have the freedom of playing around with cranberry sauce, stuffing and all the other classic dishes to my heart's content - and they don't even all have to go together! Plus, then I get all the leftovers I want, which everyone knows is the best part.

But something happened this year while I was out fighting the masses at the grocery store, buying all of the ingredients I needed. Something that really made me think about Thanksgiving itself. I had picked up one of those tin, disposable pie plates for LB. LB always makes his mother's apple pie for Thanksgiving - it's become one of our own traditions for the holiday, and he does a great job at it. But we only own one pie plate and there will be 12 or more people at the feast this afternoon, so he wanted to make two. The pie plates were in my small basket, along with a myriad of other things I had forgotten or couldn't find my first trip to the store (because, of course, this was my 3rd trip). As I was grabbing a plastic bag to place the collection of small, compact Brussels sprouts I had chosen in, an older woman reached out to pick one up at the same time. We both had our hands out, and she insisted that I go first - "youth before age," was how she put it. I thanked her and pulled my bag from the roll.

And then she said something that took me by surprise:

"Oh, you actually know how to make a pie! I'm so glad!"

I told her that yes, I do, and that I loved to cook. But also that the tins were actually for my husband, who was making an apple pie for the Thanksgiving table. She told me she thought too many young people didn't know how to cook anything from scratch anymore, and she was glad that some were still out there that did. That statement saddened me. Are there really so many people out there that don't know how that this elderly woman believes that young people will only go to the grocery store to buy a pie as opposed to buying the simple ingredients needed to actually make one? I guess so. I forget sometimes, in my world of food-love that not everyone avoids fast food restaurants or likes to cook from scratch...nor even believes that they have the time to do such a thing.

I didn't really learn to cook from my grandmother or my mother per se, as I've mostly taught myself over the last few years (and there have certainly been ups and downs) when I first had both the opportunity and the desire to learn. But they gave me advice along the way, shared their recipes with me, and more importantly, instilled an appreciation for simple food...crisp radishes and baby green onions in ice-water, canned pears and homemade jams and jellies, and the age-old family secrets for amazing fried okra. Even more than that, they helped me to not be afraid of the kitchen - as a child, I was enlisted to collect fresh eggs from our chickens, help snap peas from the garden, shuck corn, peel peaches and pears for canning, roll fresh egg noodles for stroganoff, and of course, prepare for the many Thanksgivings we had at both their houses over the years. They're the reason I yearn to go back to farm life in some ways - a big garden, fruit trees, fresh eggs - and they're the reason I want to learn to cook from scratch. Because that's the kind of food I grew up with and that's the kind of food I want to eat. It's also the kind of food I want my kids to eat too - when or if I have them.

Standing there in the grocery store, I suddenly wanted to ask the woman to share all of her wisdom with me - did she have any recipes that she loved? Any kitchen tips or home remedies she swore by? What did she love to make from scratch? What was she making for Thanksgiving and how many times had she made it before? Was there someone in her family who would be carrying it on for her when she could no longer? Not wishing to seem like some nosy grocery store freak, I wished her a happy Thanksgiving and hoped silently that she did. And I said a quiet thank you for the people in my life that have passed things along to me.

Many of us cannot be home with the rest of our family for this holiday, but we can carry our family with us and the traditions we have made with them to our tables no matter the far corners of the globe where we are today. Even if we're not making the same dishes that aunt Dottie or Grandpa Joe made when we were children, and we're now making our own traditions, we carry their stories and the memories with us no matter where we are today. I have been fortunate in that my grandmother gave me many of her own and her mother's recipes, and my mother now loves to cook as much as I do - but I'm also learning from the wisdom of friends and friend's families - people who are willing to impart a bit of their history, their recipes, and their experience with a novice cook such as myself. And then there are you, dear bloggers, who share so much of your thoughts, recipes and yourselves on the internet with me and with so many others. I hope this dissemination of information never ceases - may we all someday know how to make a pie from scratch and learn something from someone we love so that we can carry on for them.

I hope you all have a wonderfully delicious Thanksgiving, no matter where you are.

Heart of the Matter 21: Easy Mexican-Style Rice

2008-11-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

Lately, I seem to be getting my entries in for Heart of the Matter (HotM) barely in time for the deadlines. I think I'm going to have to make a New Year's Resolution to get them in at the beginning of the month!! Last month, I didn't even get to participate because at the end of the month, I was in the middle of moving. This month, the house was in disarray again because my refrigerator was broken and everything was stuffed into one of those little dorm fridges - or didn't even make it that far and ended up in the trash. I held a quick funeral for all the organic veggies and condiments that didn't enjoy the warm "weather" in the fridge for the few days before the repairman could get there, but truly, there was nothing I could do but sit by and wait. It was torturous, really.

Having my fridge back as of last night (and thus, making it easier to cook because I could actually find things and have things that required refrigeration), I needed a quick grain-based dish that I could snap a few photos of to make the deadline for HotM this month over at Joanna's Food. I'd had visions of making my own, healthy version of this savory farro tart (and I still intend to do this), but alas, it didn't happen. Running to the grocery store at 5 PM last night, I realized that I didn't have the time, or the money, to grab all the necessary items. So, instead, I settled on creating something from the pantry items I already had available. As luck would have it, it ended up being one I've been whipping up for quite some time.

I've made it so many times, in fact, that I didn't even realize it would be HotM worthy, but it is! It's got very little fat, is made with brown rice (a whole grain), and can be whipped up in a short amount of time - paramount for busy people and those who are preparing for the big Thanksgiving feast that is to come tomorrow. It's also a perfect side dish for any Mexican-style meal you like to make - a perfect break from all the traditional American Thanksgiving foods that all of us in the USA will be sick of in a week or so too.

Thanks for hosting this month, Joanna! I can't wait to see the round-up in a few days and see what other people created for heart healthy grain dishes this month! If you've never participated in HotM before, go check out the HotM website and please consider joining us next month, when I'll be hosting. I'll post the announcement for the theme (as well as the basic rules) here and on the HotM site just a few days after the round-up. Sounds like it's time to start for me to start working on that New Year's Resolution...time passes quickly this time of year!

Easy Mexican-Style Rice, serves 4- 6 as a side dish

2 cups brown rice, rinsed
4.5 cups water or stock
2 tsp. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can of diced tomatoes (low sodium preferred)
1 small can of diced jalapenos or green chiles
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 tsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste
cilantro, roughly chopped, for garnish

Cook the rice according to how you normally would. I cook mine is a rice cooker, so I can't tell you how to cook it in a pan - it's my crutch of sorts - so just add the water and the rice and push go! While your rice is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large, non-stick pan and saute the onion until tender. The last 30 seconds, add the garlic, then remove the pan from the heat. When the rice is finished, stir in the can of diced tomatoes (the rice will actually warm it up) and your jalapenos or green chilies. Lastly, stir in your spices and salt and pepper (all of them to taste, really). Top with the chopped cilantro and serve. We like it as an accompaniment to spicy fish tacos and alongside Peter's Beer Beans.

A Few Last Thoughts on the Eat Local Challenge

2008-11-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

All of the food you see here is locally grown or produced,
except for that pesky block of Spanish manchego near the top.
Well, we can't all be perfect, can we?

I hate to admit it, but I dropped the ball the last week of the Eat Local Challenge. My excuse is that it coincided with moving to a new place, but really, there's no tip-toeing around the fact that I totally blew it off at the end of the month. Worse, not only did I bomb the end of the challenge, but I ate frozen fish sticks, microwavable meals and anything else I could find that was in the freezer or cupboard that entire week, just so that I didn't have to think about dinner or move it to the new place (shh...one of those microwavable meals was set to expire one week after I ate it...Lord help me!). So, since I guiltily cheated and bombarded my digestive system with all manner of preservative-laden and nearly expired processed foods, I thought I should at least weigh in on some of the things I learned during the month. Consider it a retribution of sorts for my lack of gastronomic discretion, or... the least I could do.

Since I had opted for the "produced in Hawaii" as part of my "exceptions" list, I had been planning to have a single week (preferably the last week) where I would eat only foods grown in Hawaii, but alas, in the midst of it all, that didn't happen either. I did have several meals that were made from only locally grown foods (and you'll be seeing the recipes and the stories to go with them in the coming days), but they didn’t happen consecutively. Since I'm a card-carrying member of the Alice Waters devotee club and could be happy eating a tomato fresh from the garden with only a sprinkling of finishing salt (black lava salt of course) or sauteed greens with only a little macadamia oil and a splash of shoyu (I never found garlic here either), many of the meals were simple.

Ba-Le Bakery bread (Oahu) with Surfing Goat Dairy goat cheese (Maui),
a fresh North Shore Farms heirloom tomato (Oahu) and a Blue Lotus organic egg (Oahu) -
topped off with black lava salt from the Big Island.

Most of the truly local meals consisted only of meat or fish with vegetables or vegetables only (remember, there are no grains grown here and no dairy widely available). No matter what we were eating though - locally grown or locally produced - I wanted the flavors of whatever ingredients I was using to shine through, barely unadulterated. I figured that if we were getting the freshest ingredients, grown closer to our front door than anything else we could possibly buy, then I wanted to be able to taste the difference. And you could. Since nearly everything that travels here must come from at least 2000 miles away, crispness in a head of lettuce or chicken that has no smell of ammonia is a treasure in itself. Don't get me wrong, we have our diamonds though too that are hard to find elsewhere - the sweetest mangoes and pineapples, rich Kona coffee and chocolate, and amazing grass-fed beef (even better than any I had in Oregon).

The Challenge was certainly an eye-opening experience. I began to think about things I hadn’t before, like labeling laws and which large grocery store chains had foods that I wanted to support, because they supported the farmers and producers I wanted to buy from and had the most local foods available (or had clerks that knew something about the food they were selling!). I found wonderful new farmers and producers that make and sell fabulous foods, right here in Oahu, and I even got to know some of them. I was blessed by the kind offerings of things like home-grown okra and freshly picked macadamia nuts from friends who wanted to help out. One family even cooked us a meal in their home full of locally grown vegetables, so that we could stick to our convictions when we dined with them. I found beautiful new vegetables, fruits and fungi (from "French" sorrel and dragonfruit to tree tomatoes and pepeau), ate the bounty of the land (beautiful papayas, mangoes, coconut and taro) and experienced eating a truly free-range chicken. I learned an incredible amount about the food itself and the people who grow it here, and I am still learning...honestly, this journey has really only just begun.

North Shore Farms Big Wave and Heirloom Tomatoes

I'll certainly continue to eat mostly local foods - all of my eggs, vegetables, fruits and the majority of the meat and fish we consume have always been local. I feel it's important to keep my money my local economy, especially in such trying and expensive times, so I'll continue to support the farmer's markets and the farmers and producers that grow and make beautiful products, and especially those that follow practices that I support - like organic farming. I'll also continue to boycott products whose practices I don't support - like shipping pigs in from far away...my pork will be from the mainland, and an organic farm, until I can find a more acceptable source closer to home.

It's definitely possible to eat only locally grown foods (read here, for someone that did it the entire month - and a great blog and website to boot!) and even more so to eat only locally grown and produced foods. It's not easy, but it's definitely a worthwhile experience (and way of eating). In general, locally grown vegetables were cheaper at the farmer's markets than at the grocery stores. But searching the grocery stores for local products wasn't as easy on the wallet (or the gas tank) as I had hoped. And it will continue to be that way, until we demand from the stores that the local products are the ones we want to buy. Until something changes, we can choose how and where we spend our money. The people here in Hawaii (and elsewhere) need a better awareness of our foodshed in general, and while there are some great places and organizations making big strides in this arena, there is always room for more...I hope to be a part of that movement in the future.

Local papaya, pineapple, dragonfruit, tangerines and a tiny citrus fruit from a
tree on the Island where I work - very sour, but perfect for drinks!

And LB? He made it through the month with shining colors - even suggesting we continue to have a week here and there where we only eat locally grown foods...I'm so proud. Now if I could just get him to take the reigns and do the actual shopping for it. Maybe next year?

For other posts related to the Eat Local Challenge, as well as many resources for local foods, go here: 1, 2, 3, 4. Also read the Eat Local Challenge website and the Share Your Table blog - both are full of great information!

A Cold Day in Hawaii

2008-11-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Despite the fact that the rest of the USA thinks of Hawaii as an always-warm paradise (and it is, most of the time), it's been surprisingly cold here these last few days...I actually donned a long-sleeve shirt this morning and my little flip-flop laden feet are freezing under my desk as I sit here and write this...not comparable, I know, to those of you who are already foot-deep in snow flurries, but it's the coldest I've been since we moved here. Believe it or not, I'm not actually complaining, so what could possibly be my point? My point is: it's finally cold enough where I can make soups and stews and slow-roasted meats and vegetables and all the other Fall-themed food that the rest of you in colder climes have been smugly enjoying for the last couple of months!

You see, the last time I tried to make a soup (in September), LB and I began sweating profusely and could barely finish our meal we were so hot (it felt sort of how I imagine the hot flashes of menopause might be, and since I am not quite ready to head into that arena, no thank you!). That's not to mention the fact that every time I turn on the oven or stove for longer than 10 minutes, the entire kitchen (and house) heats up and we have to turn all the fans on. When I entertain, I have to have all the cooking finished long before any guests arrive so that the house can begin to cool down, lest we all sweat onto the pupus. And my favorite teas have all been turned into iced tea or sit, sad and unused in the cupboard because I find I have no desire whatsoever for a hot beverage before bedtime when it's still 80 degrees in my house.

But the ultimate test for the freedom to once again warm the house up while cooking? Roasting. Roasting involves turning the stove on at a high temperature for at least 45 minutes...an unthinkable act if it's already warm inside your house (if you should desire that your significant other not be cursing you from the cooler shadows of the room furthest from the kitchen). One of my favorite simple roasting recipes comes from Ellie Krieger, and it's a one-pan, chicken and vegetable dish that pleases everyone: it's easy to throw together (good for me), it doesn't make many dishes (good for LB), and you can improvise until your heart's content (good for you) with whatever vegetables you have available.

It uses a few "summery" ingredients, like zucchini, which are available here year-round, but you could use more winter-esque vegetables too (winter squash, onions, and sweet potatoes? green beans are another nice addition too, just cut in half) and I'm sure it would still be wonderful. I tend to be a bit more lackadasical than Ellie in my preparation - like leaving the seeds in the tomatoes because it helps makes a deliciously juicy sauce by the time everything is roasted (and oh so perfect for sopping up with crusty bread), but you're welcome to follow the original instructions instead, if you'd like...the link to it is below.

This meal was completely local too, right down to the bird. But you know what? The vegetables themselves are good by themselves too. The chicken came from Blue Lotus Farms, and honestly, I think it was the first truly free-range chicken I've ever had. What I mean by that is: this bird used it's legs. A lot. That sucker had ligaments in its legs the size of my pinky finger! Gross if you're not that into meat (sorry!!), but a fact of eating it too. The dark meat was rich and chewy - evidence that those muscles had run around plenty before this chicken was captured for dinner - but also full of flavor (and slightly gamey, to be honest). Kind of makes you think about what a chicken is supposed to be like, before humans bred them to have such large breasts that they can't even move, or worse (if you haven't yet, read Michael Pollen's The Ominivore's Dilemma). It's breast was tiny - not like those gargantuan Dolly Parton chicken breasts you can buy at Costco by the bag, but it was moist and pleasantly chicken-y, and put together with several deliciously local vegetables, it made plenty for 2. Add a loaf of crusty Ba-Le bakery bread on the side to sop up the juices, and you've got warm, cozy comfort in a bowl...a cup of hot tea with local honey would even make a perfect dessert - preferably sipped while cozying up on the couch with a light blanket.

Tuscan-Style Roasted Chicken with Vegetables, serves 4
adapted from Ellie Krieger; find the original recipe here.

3 medium zucchini or crook-neck squash, cut into spears
8 Roma tomatoes, cut into 4 wedges
1 large bulb of fennel, cut into ~6 wedges through the root end
1 large onion, cut into ~6 wedges through the root end
4 bone-in chicken breasts with or without skin (or you could do a whole cut up chicken)
olive oil, salt and pepper
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 lemon - zested, juiced and the rest of the rind saved
1 tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
optional: finishing salt (I used black lava) or chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Put the vegetables in a large baking dish and add a couple of glugs of olive oil and toss, adding a pinch or two of salt and pepper. Put the chicken breasts (or pieces) on top of the veggies and nestle them down in. In a small bowl, combine another glug of olive oil, a little more salt and pepper, the garlic, oregano and juice and zest from the lemon. Cut the lemon rind into four large wedges and add them to the vegetables too - why not? Rub the oil/lemon/garlic mixture on the chicken, and then pour the rest of the sauce over the top of the veggies. Roast for 30 minutes, then add the chopped rosemary and stir. Cook 20-25 minutes more until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender and starting to brown around the edges. Keep in mind that if you leave the skin on, it won't get really crispy because the veggies release so much water. I roast it with the skin on, then remove it before serving. Remove the lemon wedges before serving too - unless you like them! Sprinkle a little finishing salt or chopped parsley over the top and serve.

A Catalyst for Change

2008-11-11T18:09:00.001-08:00

Nothing remains without change. ~ Buddha

Near the end of September, we received some unexpected news: our landlord would be putting the house we had been renting (since April) up on the market, and soon. At first I was upset; the thought of moving again so shortly after the stressful process of moving here felt unbearable. We had two large dogs, no furniture, and needed a commute that wasn't awful for two people who worked on separate sides of the island. We could have stayed until the house sold - who knows, it might have been right away or taken years - but we decided not to take a chance on having to take the first available rental, and began looking for a new place immediately. After nearly a month of searching, we finally found it: a small, but unique and brightly lit place in Kailua, HI, the next town over. And that, my friends, is where I've been these last few weeks - in the process of packing, cleaning and saying goodbye to our old place and unpacking into our new one.

When we left Eugene, it felt like we had emptied our lives of more than half of our belongings, paring it down to the things that felt necessary for feeling like we were at "home" when we made the difficult move from Oregon to Hawaii. But when we were packing up our stuff this time, it suddenly felt overwhelming how many things we actually still had. It was stressful and was not how I wanted to spend my evenings after working all day. Over 50% of our remaining things consisted of kitchen stuff - small appliances, serving dishes, pots, pans and gadgets. Suddenly, we were giving up our big, granite-topped counters and ample storage space for a much more modest kitchen where our things would barely fit and where even food storage was problem. Instead of several cupboards filled with food, we now had only one. But somehow, after frantically unpacking because we had guests arriving the first weekend we were living there, it all fit. And you know what? It already feels like home.

Contrary to what LB might tell you, I've been wanting to become more of a kitchen minimalist in many ways. I've always enjoyed cooking simple, rustic meals...those that don't make many dishes, don't have complicated ingredient lists and where the flavor of the few ingredients you're cooking with are the main flavors of the dish...you know, the kind of food that would make Alice Waters proud. Having a small kitchen seems the perfect catalyst to change to a simpler way of cooking and eating, and I can't wait to see where it takes me. While I thoroughly enjoyed the shiny appliances and beautiful mahogany cupboards of our old place, our new kitchen is the type of kitchen that somehow just "fits" us a little better. We do have to be organized (very little counter space), dry our dishes (no where else to put them away), our drawers are filled with fewer gadgets (but who needs them anyway?) and we really have to work as a team. I can already imagine a jar of fresh yogurt culturing on the back of the counter and a colander of freshly washed greens in one side of the sink. There are kabocha squash seeds drying on a cookie sheet near the window right now.

And you know what? All the windows make it perfect for taking pictures - day or night. And right outside all those windows lighting up the living room? A perfect view of the steep, mist-covered slopes of the Ko'olau range. Maybe change doesn't have to be so hard after all.

Regardless of how easy or difficult the transition of moving may be (and no matter what, it's still stressful to do the move itself), arriving after work to your new home for the first time and finding a package with your name on it - and full of food, no less - is something magical.

I hadn't participated in Blogging by Mail (BBM) in a really long time, and when my friend Deb suggested I go check out the most recent announcement at Stephanie's great blog, Dispensing Happiness, I decided I needed to get back in the game. This round of BBM had a huge number of participants, but thanks to Stephanie's hard work, it was easy to follow and everything went smoothly. Thanks Stephanie! The theme was "10 items or less" and entailed choosing 10 small but favorite things from your home and sending them off to another blogger. My box came from far away - Stockholm, to be exact - and from the wonderfully sweet blogger, Angelica from Butter & Beans.

Angelica sent me such incredible goodies in my box! There were tons of chocolate snack foods (a woman after my own heart, obviously!) - Ballerina cookies (think: chocolate and vanilla shortbread with smooth, rich chocolate sandwiched between; I've already broken into these and nearly half of them are gone...), Dumle original, Marinanne chocolate filled mint candies (what could be better - chocolate AND mint?!), a large block of Karl Fazer special edition milk chocolate (LB has been drooling in anticipation of opening this one), Center milk choclate with toffee filling (also delicious, I might add), and several smaller little chewy candies.

She also included a handwritten note explaining some of the other items, which helped me navigate the rest of the things she included. My favorite so far is the slightly salty Kalles Kaviar spread, made from fish roe and it's wonderful on the traditional spelt crispbread she sent to go with it: Spelt-Dinkel. She also sent two types of jam, Hjortronsylt (cloudberry) and a jar of beautiful raw lingonberry jam that is the most amazing shade of purple! According to Angelica, the cloudberry jam is native to the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland and her favorite berry. We're having crepes this weekend and I'm going to try it on them, just as she suggests! To top it off, she also included a cookbook, "Served from the Swedish Kitchen: 50 classic recipes from Sweden." Angelica recommended the lingonberry jam with Swedish meatballs, and lo and behold, there is a recipe in the very book she sent, and many of the recipes look simple to prepare - perfect for my new kitchen. The best thing? She wrapped some of the goodies with a pink and white polka-dot ribbon, which made them seem even more special!

Thank you so much Angelica! You helped make my new home feel warm and comforting even as I was in the midst of boxes and chaos, and that means more to this blogger than you could possibly know. I'm so glad I decided to join in BBM because I now have the opportunity to get to know you through your blog!

Labels that Lie?

2008-10-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

One of the most difficult things about the Eat Local Challenge is deciphering the labeling of products. I shop for all of my veggies at the farmer's market, where you can actually talk to the producers of your food and there are some regulations about the type of food that can be sold there and where it was grown, but even this has it's own issues because some of the markets are so incredibly busy that the vendors simply have no time to chat. The bustling of the markets is both good and bad - good because more people are visiting and buying from farmer's markets but bad because we're losing one of the best things about farmer’s markets, being able to form a relationship with the farmer or producer of the food you are going to eat.

However, none of the farmer's markets on the windward side that I can go to have meat or fish readily available. When I can make it to town (Honolulu) on Saturdays, and when it is available, I can get free-range chicken from Greg Yee at Blue Lotus Organic Farm or grass-fed beef from North Shore Cattle Company. NSCC also has meat available on the windward side at the Kailua Farmer's Market, but they often run out before either market even begins (many people go early and buy before the bell rings to begin the market, then go around and pick up their bags after it officially "starts"). We actually buy our beef wholesale (1/8 a cow) through an arrangement between Puu’o’Hoku Ranch on Molokai and the Slow Food group here on Oahu instead of NSCC in part because of availability, but also price and because we support the way the farm is run.

The fish counter at Whole Foods in the Kahala Mall -
they actually tell you where their fish is from, but most of it is not from Hawaii.

With the new labeling laws in effect, I've been seeing more countries of origin on the labels of some meats and fish many of the grocery stores I've recently visited. But while it does tell me the country, the label “Product of the USA” does not tell me where in the USA it is made or caught or produced. And it most certainly does not tell me whether it was caught or raised in Hawaii. The fish has been the biggest surprise. Even though this is an island with it’s very own fishing fleet, much of the fish is still shipped in from all over the world – even things we can, and do, fish for here (Ahi, Opah, Opakapaka) and have farms for here (tilapia and prawns)!
Keep in mind that there is a paucity of local products in the grocery stores in general, even at Whole Foods, who actually makes it part of their "mission" to get as many local products on their shelves as possible. When it opened about a month ago, only about 1/4 of the fish selection and none of the meat selection at Whole Foods was locally caught or raised.

The windward side is even worse than Town – we have one vegetarian natural foods store with very few locally grown produce options and one non-vegetarian natural foods store with absolutely no local meat. While it is sometimes helpful to talk to the people at the meat or fish counters at other grocery stores, they often have no idea where the food or fish or meat is from either. Some stores have their own “local” labeling buzz words: "Island Produced," "Locally Grown," "Island Fresh," or some other variation on these phrases, and that’s primarily what I’ve been looking for and relying upon to make my grocery selections.

"Island Produced Pork" from Foodland: The label in question.

You might remember my story about the first day of the Challenge, wandering around Foodland, picking up anything I could scrounge for dinner and breakfast those first few days because I wasn’t quite prepared and the farmer’s market was still two days away. You might remember I picked up a pork leg steak under the “Island Produced” label. While I wondered to myself what “Island Produced” meant, I figured it would do as a local product for the day. I went home, grilled my steak and enjoyed it for dinner. For this, the second week of the Challenge, I went back and bought myself an “Island Produced” pork belly – figuring it would be fun to make my own bacon or roast it with veggies since this isn’t a cut that I see very often.

Then I opened my email this morning and found this story. Then I read this story. And watched this video. While the claims in the story haven’t been “verified” by state and local pig producers, which doesn’t surprise me, pork produced under this label are raised in Montana or California and shipped the 2,400+ miles to Hawaii in very inhumane conditions. They are then brought in, kept and slaughtered here on Oahu in similarly inhumane ways. Read the stories or watch the video if you want the full grisly details. Suffice it to say that I’m appalled and disgusted and there is no way I’m eating that pork belly now, nor buying from this label ever again.

Sigh. There’s also a “50th State Brand” chicken producer here. I’ve been staying away from it because the label says only that the chickens are “Processed and Packaged in Hawaii,” which to me indicates the chickens are not born and raised here at all…and now I’d question how they arrive here too. Not that the mainland has any more scruples than Hawaii though. I’ve read the books, I know the drill: the state of food production in the USA is horrible. LB and I typically buy organic or humanely raised meat and eggs and from small farmers when/if we can find it (in Eugene, this was easy), but even corporate organics, where we get our meat now, has its issues too. And there are no small, family farms shipping their organic goods to Hawaii. At least we have a few good beef and chicken producers here, and I think I’ll be sticking to them for my meat the rest of the time I’m here.

Grass-fed, organic Puu'o'hoku Ranch beef burger on Bale Bakery bun
with fresh, backyard guacamole, local veggie pasta salad (leftovers from a potluck) and warm okra salad.

To read more about the challenge, and find more local products, see these posts: 1, 2 and check the Eat Local Challenge website for updates on what's happening both locally and nationally.

Okra: Deslimed and Delicious

2008-10-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, okra came in neat little cylinders battered in flour and fried to a brown crisp. It was my favorite thing to get at the now defunct and long-ago closed down Furrs Restaurant in my small, Colorado hometown. Furrs was a chain restaurant - the kind of chain restaurant with deep blue and black paisley carpeting, where you grabbed your cafeteria-style tray (always a pale yellow or brown or gray) and loaded it up as you went along with small, individual white diner plates of such home-syle favorites as roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, boiled corn, and of course, green or yellow or red jello for dessert (or if you got lucky, pale yellow tapioca with whipped cream from a can that day). The quality of the food was, I'm sure, highly questionable, but as kid that didn't matter...at Furrs, I could get as much okra as I wanted.

I remember snaking through the line, packing up my tray with a veritable buffet of all of the available goods - grandpa and grandma and dad and various aunts, uncles and cousins flanking me on either side. One by one, we'd reach the end of the line and filter out into the enormous dining room lit by replicas of antique chandeliers that cast a deep, golden light over the whole place. And we'd sit down at one of the long, 12-person tables and just catch up with each other. My parents have been divorced for as long as I can remember, and these weekend ventures to Furrs were one of my favorite past-times with my dad's side of the family. We always took the whole family to Furrs when no body felt like cooking.

I think my love of okra began with my grandma. She makes a mean batch of okra. She's from Texas and there is no one in the world that makes fried okra like grandma and her siblings. The recipe is simple: okra, cornmeal, flour, salt, pepper and cayenne. Fry it in your favorite bacon grease (well, she is from Texas) and you're done. It's perfect that way. Not healthy, but still perfect.

Unfortunately, the first time I tried making okra without frying it was a complete and utter disaster. I think I tried making some kind of quick pickled okra or something from a Martha Stewart magazine, and as soon as I cut into the stuff, that slick, sticky slime that okra is known for came oozing out onto everything. It didn't go away after a good soak in the vinegar solution either. In fact, I think it made it worse. It was like eating snails (or worse, snot) - and I wasn't eating that. Since then, I've tended to stay away from okra unless I need a good little artery-clogging kick, which does happen sometimes. That was until I started this Eat Local Challenge and was handed over a gracious sack of okra pods from the overflow of a friend of a friend's organic garden - green and bright and with dirt still clinging to them.

I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I took it. I also took home an idea for what to do with it: they brought a cold okra salad made with curry powder and jalepeno peppers. Before inundating the okra with spices, there was first the matter of desliming it. I searched the internet for ideas and there were tons out there. I finally came across a woman on some food forum telling how her grandmother taught her to do it, and how she had done since. I was sold.

Here's the basic idea: Slice up your okra, put it in a saucepan and cover it with water. If it's a medium-sized saucepan, add about a 1/4 cup of vinegar to it (adjusting as necessary) and bring it to a boil. Simmer about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the spoon doesn't come out slimy when you stir it around the pot. Drain, and you're done. I used Aloha Cider Vinegar to deslime mine. Since I had recently run out of curry powder, I used cumin instead. Kona sea salt, pepper, a little macadamia nut oil, a touch more vinegar, and a locally grown hot pepper - and it was delicious. I paired it with an Island-produced pork leg steak - and there would have been Molokai sweet potatoes to go with it...if they didn't have plastic all over them.

Cumin-scented Warm Okra Salad, serves 4 - 6

approx 20 large okra, sliced into 1/4" to 1/2" pieces (Oahu; friend's garden, free)
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar (Aloha; Honolulu, Oahu; Longs $3.99)
1 tbsp. Hawaii's Gold Macadamia Nut Oil (Oils of Aloha; Wailua, Oahu; Foodland $9/12.7 oz.)
2 tsp. cumin
pinch of Kona sea salt (Big Island; Kailua Farmer's Market; $9/bag)
pepper, to taste
1 red hot pepper, finely diced (Oahu; Kailua's Farmer's market; $1.00/10)

Deslime the okra (see above) using water and apple cider vinegar. Add the remaining ingredients (to taste, really, these are just approximations). Enjoy! I liked it best warm, but ate it cold the next day and it was good that way too. After that, the slime starts coming back...so be forewarned. ;)

Local Products and Places:
locally grown okra (from friends)
Kailua and KCC Farmer's Markets for hot peppers
Kona sea salt
Oils of Aloha Macadamia Nut Oil (Hawaii's Gold Pure Macadamia Oil)
Aloha Apple Cider Flavored Vinegar (though I must admit that the "flavoring" part scares me...)

To read more about the challenge, and find more local products, see these posts: 1, 2 and check the Eat Local Challenge website for updates on what's happening both locally and nationally.

Learning to be a Locavore

2008-10-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

Just Add Water CSA Beets (Oahu)

As the first week of the Eat Local Challeng e comes to a close, I’ve learned a few things. My emotions have run the gamut from thinking I live in a land of plenty to feeling like I live in a land of none. I’ve gone from wishing I my “exceptions” list was closer to that of a fellow locavore to reveling in the abundance of the new local products I’ve discovered or heard about from friends, relatives and other Hawaii food connoisseurs. I have felt frustration at grocery store fish counters, delight at talking to farmers, bewilderment while reading websites that say little to none about the actual production of the foods they make, sadness at the enormous loss of local dairies, rice paddies and egg farms in recent years, and even a smidgen of confidence as I try and explain to curious grocery store clerks, friends and coworkers about what I am trying to do and why I feel it is important.

It’s been a strange, winding trip from the beginning of the Challenge until now…Day 1 had me scrambling around my pantry, unprepared, trying to find things that I knew were local. Breakfast was easy, oddly enough – a few “island-fresh” Kalei eggs scrambled with scallions from the farmer’s market and a mango from our CSA box. Since I teach Wednesday mornings, I came home for lunch to a lovely salad made by LB containing the last few, scraggly CSA vegetables in my refrigerator drawer. Somehow the small, single, whole Roma tomato rolling around the bottom of the Tupperware felt like an unusually poignant finale to the whole meal as I bit into its juicy flesh, it’s seeds spraying into the back of my mouth.

Farmer's Market Finds: Pepeau (black tree fungus) from Maui
and oyster mushrooms from Oahu

Running to the grocery store to gather things for dinner was a rude awakening: I spent 30 minutes (on a hungry stomach) searching for local products and ended up paying $7.56 for a locally grown dragonfruit that became Thursday’s breakfast. I found “Island Produced” pork that didn’t say where on the “Island” it was produced and couldn’t find anyone who could answer my questions about it – still, I took the least unusual of the cuts (a leg “steak”) and added it to my basket. $50 and a small basket of a few local products later, I headed home. Dinner became the pork steak, grilled, with a warm okra salad (the okra came from a friend’s garden). We had planned to have steamed potatoes to go with the rest of our dinner, but thanks to a bit of oversight and distraction, our cheap plastic steamer melted into the pot when the pot ran out of water. Oops. We shared a bit of Oahu-produced Wailua Estate 70% dark chocolate to end the meal, treasuring the fact that chocolate is actually produced here. Exasperated from ruining one of the pots I use all the time, and knowing the following day would be difficult until I could head to the Farmer’s Market that evening, I decided I had to start fresh the next day.

Having made it through that first day, the rest of the days have flowed much easier. I now have my sources for a diversity of whole foods: organic (and some non-organic) fruit and vegetables; Hawaii-raised grass-fed beef, organic free-range chicken, and pork (although the “leg” cut is about the only one I think I could stomach); and organic eggs. Sugar, coffee, tea, chocolate, goat cheese, beer and wine have also been easy to find. I’ve found several local sources for delicious “processed foods” too – bakery breads; shoyu (soy sauce) and vinegars; tofu; granola; asian-style noodles and wrappers; tortillas and more.

Ono, fresh off the boat; Honolulu Fish Auction

Is it right to trade in my locavore card and eat processed foods whose ingredients don’t come from here? Some people in the midst of this challenge may think so. Some days, even I would agree – it feels almost like cheating. One thing I’ve learned this week is that the rules can, and will, change as I go along – just as my feelings do. I’m learning a lot more about my local food-shed than I thought I would. I’ve found it can be a roller coaster of trying to do what’s right, only to find that sometimes it’s not. Locally caught varieties of fish aren’t necessarily sustainable fish. I've heard that Meadow Gold Dairy products are strictly from the mainland, despite what their website says. It’s like reading Michael Pollan's books again and realizing that it’s not just the big box companies in far-away places that you have to worry about – sometimes the trickery is happening right in your back yard – as you learn that your milk travels 2,400 miles, unchilled, to become the only milk in the USA that is double pasteurized, after it's arrival 8 days later.

I’ve also learned that things are more complicated than I could have foreseen…there are two sides to every story. You may decide to cut one company off your list because everything isn’t from here, even if there are no reasonable alternatives. Then you learn that the company was just bought and is now owned by its employees and has a long-standing history of community on the island, even since before World War II. You pick your battles, I guess, and then choose the path that is right for you. First and foremost, this Challenge is about awareness for me, and I know I feel more alert and aware to every item that enters my kitchen these days.

locally grown "French Sorrel" (Oahu)

I may not be able to eat like a locavore for 100% of my diet (there are no whole grains or dairy are produced here, and I prefer to have both in my diet), but I’ve founds some gems for some things and had my fair share of disappointments for others. My dinners are simple, un-complicated and unfussy, but nearly everything has been tasty (minus, perhaps, those potatoes that the steamer melted into, but we decided not to try eating those). Still, no matter what, my eyes are now open to a new world of farmers, producers, grocery store clerks and friends that I didn’t even know were foodies deep down inside – offering up their own recommendations, secret sources, and sometimes food from their back yard. And you know what? There’s a plethora of delicious options out there.

Local products I’ve been eating and drinking this week:

Raposa mangoes, apple bananas, kale, chard, collard greens, green and red lettuce, beets, sunflower and daikon sprouts, sweet basil, sweet onions, napa cabbage, beans, oyster mushrooms (Just Add Water CSA; $25/week)
Oahu-grown Dragonfruit ($5.99/lb from Foodland on sale, but also at the Kailua farmer’s market for a bit cheaper)
Oahu-grown Molokai, Ho'olomahia, and Okinawan sweet potatoes ($3 for 6; Kaiula farmer’s market)
Tangerines, avocados, macadamia nuts, apple bananas and okra (from our own and from friend’s backyards; free)
Big Island Goat Dairy feta cheese (R. Field Wine Co., Foodland); Surfing Goat Dairy goat cheese and feta (Maui, $6/round; Kailua farmer’s market)
Nalo Farms baby romaine (Oahu, Kailua Farmer’s Market; $4 for 2 small heads)
Ono “Island Fresh” (Hawaii caught; Foodland; $8.50 for 2 small fillets) *on the "good alternatives" list
Big Island Bees Organic Honey Ohi’a Lehua Blossom (KCC farmer’s market – but we get it from our neighbor who sells it there; $5/4.5 oz.
Kona Sea Salt (Big Island, Kailua Farmer’s Market; $9/small bag)

Some good locally produced “processed” foods I've tried this week:

Anahola granola (Kauai; Foodland; $8.50/bag)
North Shore Naturals Hawaiian Spirulina popcorn (Oahu; Down to Earth; $5.19)
Wailua Estate Malie Kai Chocolate, 70% (Oahu; Whole foods, $4.99/1.5 oz. bar)
Mehana Brewing Co. Volcano Red Ale (Whole Foods, $9.99/6-pack)
Kona Brewing Company Limited Release Wailua Wheat Beer with Passionfruit (Big Island, Foodland, $9.99/6 pack
Kaiulani Spices “Exotic Curry” (Oahu, Whole Foods, $6.99/ 3 oz. jar - also at KCC farmer's market)
Ba-Le Bakery Sliced Loaf (Oahu, Kailua Farmer’s Market; $5.00/loaf)
Waialua Soda Works Root Beer (Maui, Kailua Farmer's Market; $1.50)

I’ll be telling you about some of my favorite foods and products in the next week, as well as some of the recipes for some of the dishes we’ve been creating, so stay tuned! If you have suggestions for products or places to discover new foods, please feel free to leave me a comment - I'm learning from all of you too!

The 2008 Eat Local Challenge

2008-10-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

Hawaii imports nearly 90% of its food from other places. We don’t even make many of the ingredients that most people consider essential to daily life anywhere on the islands. There are no rice paddies in Hawaii. No one in the state grows wheat nor makes flour (at least any that I’ve been able to find). There is not a single dairy left on Oahu (although if you read Meadow Gold’s website, they still say that is where they’re getting their milk…). That means there’s no local source for butter on Oahu then either (No butter? Oh my God, why did I move here???). Considering that we are one of the most isolated island chains in the world, should the current oil and economic crisis continue, we could one day find ourselves without planes and ships delivering food to our doorstep daily. It’s unlikely for now, I know. But if/when that occurred, some people believe that we would not be able to sustain our Island populations for even a month on the food that is grown and produced here. It’s a sobering thought.

Put all that aside for a moment, however, and you’ll find we’re quite lucky in many ways. Not only do we live in paradise (tee hee ho ho...I guess I can live with imported butter), but we are also one of the only states in the US that produces their own coffee, tea, chocolate, salt and sugar, we have a plethora of delicious varieties of fruit and fresh island produce, and we even have a few (albeit some nearly secret) farmers and fisherman that produce organic, free-range chicken and eggs, grass-fed beef, our own iodine-rich source of sea vegetables and some of the freshest prawns and fish that the ocean has to offer.

The Eat Local Challenge began in 2005, in an effort to get more people out there foraging across their home states (and in some case, foraging only 100 miles from their homes) for local sources for nearly everything. The goal was, and still is, simple: try your best to eat 100% locally grown foods for 30 days (or at least try and eat as many as you possibly can). Their website is a collaborative hub of foodies, food bloggers and normal everyday Joe's around the world who are doing their best to seek out local products - and they've even got their own title in Wikipedia: the locavore. Being a newbie to the local food scene here on Oahu (and after a great suggestion from a fellow locavore), I decided that this would be a great way to help (/force) myself find locally available products. So, I signed LB and myself up 5 days ago (hey, honey, I signed us up for something that I hope you want to do too...). Today was the first day. I'll keep you updated with weekly (maybe bi-weekly) posts on the progress of our local eating habits, but I'd really like to feature some of the better foods we find and eat throughout the whole thing, so stay tuned for that too.

The first step is making a creed of sorts:

1. What is your definition of local?
After a bit of research the last few days, I think our definition of "local" has to be the entire state of Hawaii, which includes all of the surrounding islands. Considering we're a small island ourselves (only 566.66 miles), and since the majority of those miles are either not livable (think: very steep volcanic mountains!), are full of residents or tourists and resident or tourist properties, or are industrial, then I think this is fair. Relatively speaking, the miles from Island to Island that our Island-produced products travel are far shorter than any food that would be imported from anywhere else. Also, when it is impossible to find foods that are grown locally, I will at least support local producers (for instance, we have some fantastic bakeries, even if they don't produce the flour, they know how to use it well!) - for me, this is part of the over-all goal and supports the local economy and small, family or individual enterprises. If I eat out, it will be at a place that sources as many products as possible from local growers and producers.

2. What exemptions will you claim?
I'm going to try to claim as little as possible, while still living like a person: spices that are not available locally (including pepper, unless I can find a local source...), flour, baking powder, baking soda, yeast, Dijon mustard and butter. I will also be drinking organic soymilk from Costco (milk costs sooo much here!) and using organic half-and-half in my coffee until I hear back from the people at Meadow Gold to find out if the really do source and distribute from local dairies. I was going to just cut them out completely, even if they were local, until I saw that they don't use growth hormones in their milk (whew). So I'll let you know if that changes. I'll try to make it through the month without rice, but I'm putting it here just in case I get desperate... Also, any perishables that are in my fridge right now that aren't local - letting them go to waste isn't good for anybody.

3. What is your goal for the month?
Our goal is to support our local economy and the farmers and producers who are the blood, sweat and tears that actually provide food to this Island state - it reduces our carbon footprint, supports local families, promotes sustainability and it's something I'm passionate about already. I've been wanting to find and feature local foods on here since we arrived in Hawaii, and this is a great chance to meet new people involved in the local food shed, to find great products, and even just to see if it's possible. But importantly, our goal is also not to break the bank. Food is not cheap in Hawaii by any means, and often local foods are even more expensive than imported goods (go figure). So, we aim to find high quality, local goods that are reasonably priced (or at least worth the price). I think that's about it. Gulp...what have I gotten myself into?!

You can still sign up. Care to join us?

HotM 18: Preserving the Harvest (Round-up)

2008-09-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Heart of the Matter (HotM) is an event designed to promote healthy eating and heart disease awareness. Specifically, each month Joanna, Ilva and I ask you to devise recipes around a specific theme that are healthy for your heart and your body and share them with the rest of us. We archive all the wonderful entries at the HotM blog, so that whenever you need a heart-healthy recipe for any occasion, you have a plethora of options to choose from. HotM has been going strong now for over a year, and we are grateful to all of you who have participated in this important event - people who have been sending in entries from the very beginning, people who have hopped on in the middle of the ride and those just now joining in.

The entries for September's theme of Preserving the Harvest comprise a surprising variety of wonderful ways for you to extend the harvest of whatever season you may be celebrating in your end of the world - sit back, grab a cup of green tea, and start planning your pantry...

The ever-faithful HotM participants, Jai and Bee from Jugalbandi, conjured up a Roasted Tomatillo Salsa. Their delicious photography and just getting ahold of the recipe for this salsa ought to be enough on its own to send you running to their site, but you'll have to read their post to get the full effect of their entry - it's hilarious!

Hailing from my old stomping grounds in Eugene, Oregon, Culinaria Eugenius has created one of the most unique entries we recieved: Vegetable Salts! What a cool way to use up extra vegetables, reduce your sodium intake while upping the flavor quotient, and have cute little jars of your own making to add to the pantry! Not only that, this woman is a Master Preserver! Check out her fabulous blog for additional recipes (and witty commentary) - from fermented pickles to dried tomatoes and beyond!

Ever end up with so many of the same vegetable that you just didn't know what in the world to do with it? Sarah from the blog, What Smells So Good?, used up her 11 lbs of carrots and got a big dose of beta carotene to sweeten the deal by making her Curry Carrot-Ginger Soup. Sounds like a wonderful way to start the cooler season to me! While this is probably an easy-to-freeze recipe too, she also suggests a great way to use up extra food: give it away to your loved ones!

Melissa, our resident nutrition expert from Gluten Free for Good, tells you all about the health benefits and nutritional details about apples, then shares her recipe for dehydrating them and turning them into healthful, tasty and easy to carry snacks that you can take with you no matter where you want to go - whether to school, to work or even hiking up a 14,000 foot peak!

Tanna, from My Kitchen in Half Cups recounts her experiences in making Preserved Lemons and takes you through a photographic feast of links and useful recipes so that not a single one goes to waste. Then, to help you even more, she provides links to other sites that have made Preserved Lemons too so that you can load up on wisdom from other bloggers and new ways to use these beautiful and tasty treats before you begin making your own!

Forget buying those dried out, tasteless and scentless red pepper flakes from the store to put on your pizza or add spice to a dish. My lovely co-host, Ilva, from Lucullian Delights offers her simple method of sun-drying chili peppers. She keeps her Dried Chili Peppers in her kitchen for use the entire winter long, making them available whenever she needs them. What a great idea!
Last of all, I conquered my fears of fermenting my own foods and made kimchi (kimchee). It's a great, heart-healthy (and body-healthy) way to use up a head of Napa cabbage and adds tons of flavor to all types of foods. You can read about it at my blog, The Accidental Scientist.

Thank you to everyone who participated! If I somehow missed your entry or you forgot to send it in, please email me and let me know so that I can add you to the round-up. Join us next month for a new theme, when Joanna is host!

Take Two Bites of Kimchi and Call me in the Morning

2008-09-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Fermented foods have been around for ages and are a large part of the diet of Korean, Japanese and North and Central European people. Fermentation is used to enhance flavor, create new versions of food (think: yogurt) and preserve certain types of foods which would otherwise perish far quicker. Not to mention the fact that they are delicious and very nutritious for you. They are enzyme-rich, can act as antioxidants, and through the breakdown (or pre-digestion, if you will) of carbohydrates, fats and proteins, many nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins C and B12, and many different minerals are made more available for absorption into our digestive tracts. Fermentation is essentially encouraging the growth of "probiotics," or friendly bacteria, that are good for our immune system, digestive system and over-all health.

I've always been intrigued by the process of fermentation - maybe it's the scientist in me or just the numerous health benefits, but it's an amazing transformation of food that can take place right before your eyes - turning one type of food into another...milk into yogurt, yeast and flour into bread, and barley into beer. Bit I've also always been reluctant to try it, especially since I moved to Hawaii. It's so warm here...I had visions of strange bacterial cultures growing in anything I tried to make, things fermenting too fast and/or getting contaminated, making myself sick, or having whatever I made make someone else sick - all culminating in me never wanting to eat or make another fermented food in my life (how sad and awful would that be?).

Well, the time had come to set my fears to rest (or at least confirm them). The theme for September's HotM is "Preserving the Harvest." One useful reason to try fermentation is simply to extend the shelf life of certain foods - and then use them in different ways. So why not take some fresh Chinese (Napa) cabbage from the Farmer's Market, set it in a salty brine at room temperature for a few days - leaving it crunchy but soft at the same time and taking away the edge of the raw, green-ness of it (think: ruffage!) - and then pack it into jars with a solution of spicy, garlicky flavors for later use with LB's tofu burgers (coming soon!), stir fries and other rice dishes? In other words, for my entry this month, I wanted to make kimchi (kimchee).

Kimchi itself has been around since ancient times - references of the stuff date back all the way to 2600-3000 years ago. Traditionally considered a Korean condiment and side dish, the most common kimchi is made from Napa, or Chinese, cabbage and is called bechau kimchi (according to Wikipedia). It's fat free, has a high quotient of antioxidants (good for your heart!) and the particular recipe I tried has a lower amount of salt than most. Kimchi is also a great beginner's introduction to fermented foods: it's easy to make, has a simple ingredient list and it's got a short fermentation time. Even better? My neighbor offered to try it first if we were too scared (I was!)...and so far, he hasn't keeled over...

The verdict: You already know it's good for you and your heart, with all those probiotics and antioxidant leanings, but it's quite tasty - although this particular recipe tastes and looks nothing like the thickly-coated red kimchi you might be used to. I pretty much kept the recipe the same, only substituting fresh ingredients for the dried because it was all I had. It has a subtle sour flavor, with just a touch of heat from the cayenne and red peppers and a bit of saltiness to it that will compliment any sort of mild-flavored food you might wish to pair up with it. It stays crunchy, which I like, and the color is still fairly greenish, without being gray, which I guess can be a bit of a problem sometimes. The fermentation was easy, painless and only mildly stinky (also a consideration in deciding to make it). So, I think I'm ready for my next fermentation project: yogurt!

Kimchi, makes 2 half-quart jars
adapted slightly from RecipeZaar

2 medium-sized heads of Napa (Chinese) cabbage, sliced into 1" pieces
2 tbsp kosher salt
4 cups filtered water
1/2 tsp. honey
1 tsp cayenne
1 tbsp. chili pepper flakes, or Korean chili powder
2 garlic cloves, minced
1" fresh ginger, peeled and minced
4 cups filtered water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp kosher salt

Clean all your jars and utensils prior to use! Dissolve 2 tbsp of salt in the filtered water...do not use tap water if your water is not filtered because the chlorine will inhibit the fermentation. Chop the cabbage and place it in a large ceramic or glass bowl, then pour the salt/water mixture over the top. Weight it down with a plate or something heavy to keep the cabbage submerged and then cover the whole thing so that no other "bad" bacteria will get in there. Leave for two days at room temperature...it should begin to bubble slightly. If it isn't, then let it go another day or two.

Combine the rest of the ingredients - honey through 1 tbsp. salt - and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let cool to 100F. Meanwhile, drain the cabbage and pack into two half-quart sized jars (it looks like it's too much, but once it's packed, it fits perfectly). Pour the liquid mixture over the cabbage, making sure it's all settled in and covered. Then cap, put in the fridge for a day, and eat to your health and heart's content!

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: `Aha`aina - Recapturing the Global Flavors of the Luau (Part II, The Recipes)

2008-09-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a sampling of the amazing food that we shared at our `Aha`aina (Great Feast), complete with recipes. You can read about and see more photos of the area, the event and the food from the other food blogger in attendance, Deb, from Kahakai Kitchen. Recipes here are courtesy of the friends and coworkers who attended and agreed to share their recipes* with the people in attendance, and with you - the rest of the world. I promise you, everything was absolutely, incredibly, mouth-wateringly delicious! Enjoy!

APPETIZERS:

Tapenade: (France, Eric R.)
400g pitted black olives
5-10 anchovies

10-15 capers

1 large spoon of olive oil

Hummus: (Greece, Eric R.)

400g of chickpeas
2 garlic cloves
2 large spoons of fresh shredded basil
2 large spoons of olive oil
1 large spoon of water
1 small spoon of white vinegar
salt and pepper

Pulse the ingredients in a food processor for the tapenade until well mixed smooth; clean your processor. Then pulse together the ingredients for the humus until smooth. Serve with cut up local veggies - including cucumbers, celery, carrots and bread.

MAIN DISHES:

Kalua Pork Burritos (Baja California/Mexico, Craig M.)

Kalua Pork Burritos:
1 tbsp. rock salt
1 tsp. liquid smoke
1 tsp. minced garlic
5 lbs. Pork roast, slashed
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger

Combine all ingredients and rub over pork roast. Place in roasting pan and cover. Roast for 4 hours at 325 degrees (to 170F internal temp). Shred the pork using 2 forks or fingers. Reserve juices and saute with cabbage until cabbage is tender. Add rock salt and roll into steamed tortillas. Serve with mango salsa.

Salsa:
4 ripe mangoes, peeled, pitted and diced
3 small Maui sweet onions, finely chopped
2 jalepeno chiles, minced (include ribs and seeds for hotter salsa)
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
approx. 3 tbsp. fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 avocado, diced
chili powder, salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the ingredients for salsa in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If it’s too hot or acidic for your tastes, you can add more diced avocado.

Chicken Long Rice (China, Mackenzie M.)

2 lbs. chicken thighs, skin and fat removed
1 inch thumb of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 oz. bean-thread noodles, aka cellophane noodles, aka "long rice"
6 fresh shiitake mushrooms
1 medium carrot, julienned
half medium yellow onion, minced
6 green onions, cut into 1 inch lengths
sea salt, to taste
4 cups low sodium chicken broth

Submerge the chicken and ginger onion and garlic in broth and simmer for one hour. While the chicken simmers, soak long rice noodles in separate bowl of warm water for at 45 minutes. Cut noodles into three inch lengths with a pair of scissors and set aside. Prep carrots, mushrooms, onion and green onions... set aside. Remove the chicken, reserving broth, and let cool slightly. Remove chicken bones and discard. Chop chicken into fine pieces. Taste the broth and lightly salt to taste. Bring the broth back to a simmer, add the carrots, mushrooms and simmer for 10 minutes. Add chicken and long rice. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until the long rice turns translucent. Don't overcook, or you'll end up with gelatinous sludge! Just before removing add the green onions. Most of the broth will have been absorbed, but you want a little to remain.

Huli Huli Yakitori Chicken (Japan, Yumi K.)
Servings ~20 skewers

4lbs. of Chicken thighs
pinch of salt
1 cup of Sake (Japanese cooking wine)
1 cup of “Hawaii’s Famous Huli Huli Sauce”

Cut up the chicken thigh to small pieces. Marinate chicken in mixture of salt, Sake, and Huli Huli Sauce for an hour. Put chicken pieces on skewers. Cook skewered chiken in an oven at 300F for about 70 minutes (Rotate skewers half way).

Kalua Pork Cabbage Rolls “Kaldomar” (Sweden, Deb C. – from Kahakai Kitchen)
Serves 6 as a meal (more as a pupu!)

1 large head Savoy cabbage or 2 smaller heads green cabbage
Water to boil cabbage in
1 tsp salt

Filling:
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups cooked white long grain rice
1/2 cup milk
2 cups cooked Kalua Pork, shredded (see recipe below)
1 tsp Chinese Five Spice Powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 stick of butter (to top cabbie rolls when baking)

Sauce:
1/3 cup liquid/drippings from cooking Kalua Pork (cooled and fat skimmed off)
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp Chinese Five Spice Powder
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp parsley, finely chopped for garnish

Core cabbage and cook in salted boiling water until leaves are slightly soft and easy to remove (about 10 minutes). Remove cabbage from water, peel off leaves one by one and place on a towel to drain. While cabbage is cooking, sauté onion in butter until soft and translucent. In a pan, place cooked rice and mix in milk, cooked onion, Kalua pork and five spice powder; add salt and pepper to taste. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. To assemble rolls: Take a cabbage leaf, trim any thick edges and trim the coarse center vane (easiest to make a small “v” cut into the leaf. Put a 1 1/2 Tbsp of the filling on the cabbage leaf, fold up the bottom of the leaf, tuck in the sides and roll up to the top (thin end) of the cabbage leaf, as tightly as you can. Place the cabbage roll, seam side down in a large oven proof pan or casserole. Repeat and fill casserole, packing rolls tightly together to keep them intact. Once pan is filled (about 24-26 small rolls), place several pats of butter on top of leaves and place in oven to cook about 20-25 minutes until rolls are slightly brown on top. While cabbage rolls are cooking, make sauce. Place liquid/dripping from Kalua Pork in pan with Tbsp butter. Once butter is melted, add 2 Tbsp cornstarch and five spice powder and blend. Gradually add milk and cream, stirring constantly until sauce is smooth and heated through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove cabbage rolls from the oven, top with sauce and serve with the boiled potatoes and preserves.

Easy Slow Cooker Kalua Pork:
4-5 pounds Pork Butt Roast
1 Tbsp Hawaiian Alaea Sea Salt (or substitute regular sea salt)
2 Tbsp liquid smoke flavoring

Trim any excess fat from pork butt. Using a fork, pierce the pork butt all over. Rub pork butt with liquid smoke and sprinkle with salt. Cook on low for 12-16 hours depending on size of roast (Two 2.5 lb roasts took about 12 hours, one 4.5 pound roast took about 16). Turn roast once during cooking time. Remove pork from slow cooker, reserving the cooking liquid. Shred pork, adding some of the drippings/cooking liquid if needed to add moisture to the meat. Allow the surplus dripping/ cooking liquid to cool; skim fat from the top and use if needed for sauce or gravy.

Inspiration: Cabbage Rolls or Kaldomar are a classic Swedish dish where the cabbage is stuffed with ground beef or pork, onion and either rice or bread crumbs. It is believed to have originated when the Swedish King Karl XIII was campaigning in Turkey in the 1700s and brought back the idea of making a “dolmades” or stuffed grape leaves. Since there are not a lot of grape leaves in Sweden, cabbage was used. In searching the internet there were many recipes for this dish—some baked, some fried, some using a sweet syrup, some using a creamy sauce, some with breadcrumbs, others with rice so I took inspiration from all of them and came up with what sounded best to me. To add the Hawaiian touches to the dish, I substituted Kalua Pork (smoked, shredded pork butt) for the ground meat. Here is Hawaii you can buy containers of Kalua Pork but it is simple and much cheaper to make your own—all it takes is some time and a slow cooker. Since allspice was featured in a lot of the recipes, I decided to add Chinese Five Spice, since this seasoning is used frequently in cooking here and I felt it would compliment the smoky flavor of the Kalua pork. In Sweden, this dish is traditionally served with small boiled potatoes and Lingonberry preserves, I dressed my potatoes with butter, parsley and Hawaiian Alaea Sea Salt and served it with Poha Jam (poha is a sweet/tart berry grown in Hawaii). Check out Deb's experience at the `Aha`aina here!

Mole (Mexico, Heather M.) Recipe coming soon!

Hawaiian Lau Lau with a Fijian Twist (Fiji, Haruka and Todd R.)

Lau Lau Leaves (= Taro leaves)

Ti Leaves
Kalua pig
Coconut Milk
Sweet Onions

Twine to tie

Wash Lau Lau leaves and Ti leaves. Slice sweet onions. Wrap Kalua pig, sweet onion and coconut milk in Lau Lau leaves and then in Ti leaves, and tie the ti leaves by twine into small purses. Steam or bake until Ti leaves turn black (approximately 4 hours). **Please do not eat Ti leaves nor twine! Kalua pig can be substituted with any other type of meal, fish or starch.

Inspiration: Normal Hawaiian Lau Lau does not use coconut milk. However, when I stayed in Fiji for over 3 months, I discovered that Fijian people add coconut milk to Lau Lau, giving it a nice creaminess and sweetness. Why not borrow this wonderful idea?

Kadon Pika (Guam, Alesia B-P.)

1 whole chicken, cut up into small pieces or chicken parts
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup coconut milk
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp garlic powder (or fresh garlic, crushed)
1 large papaya, chopped
3-6 hot peppers, crushed (use less or leave out if you don’t like it spicy)
2 eggplant (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 bundle string beans, 1 inch pieces

Preheat oven to 375F. Place eggplant on a cookie sheet and add a little oil. Lightly season with sea salt and bake for 20 minutes. Brown the onion in a medium sized pot with very little olive or canola oil. Add chicken and cook at medium heat until brown, then add the water, vinegar, soy sauce, coconut milk, black pepper, garlic, bay leaves and hot peppers if you are using them. Add baked eggplant and string beans to the pot. Cook on high heat until it starts boiling, then turn down to medium and cook until the chicken if fully cooked.

Kroppkakor (Sweden, Mattias O.)
Filling:
1 kg boiled potatoes 1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs 250 g Kalua pork
2½ dl flour 2 onions
Teriyaki sauce

Mix boiled potatoes, eggs and flour together. Fill with filling. Boil for 5 minutes. Serve with pineapple.

SMALL DISHES/SIDES/SALADS:

Vegetable Pancakes: Taro Jun (Korea, Marisa)

2 bunches of green onions, thinly sliced lengthwise
2 white onions, finely chopped
2 taro, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cups of flour
4 eggs
2 tbsp. sesame seed oil

Mix everything together, add enough to the skillet to make them about 4 inches across and very thin, then fry like pancakes.

Tortilla Espanola - with a touch of Hawaii (Spain, Christine G.)

3 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
4 medium-sized sweet Hawaiian potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
10 eggs
1 big Maui onion (or 5-6 small Maui onion), chopped
1/2 liter olive oil
salt

First, heat the oil in a large frying pan and then gently fry the sliced potatoes and the onions until almost soft, stirring from time to time so that they don't burn on the bottom of the pan. Drain the vegetables in a colander to get rid of the excess oil. Beat the eggs in a bowl and season with salt. Add the potatoes and onions and mix well. Heat a little oil in a frying pan on a moderate heat. Pour in the potatoes and eggs and shake the frying pan from time to time so that the omelette doesn't stick to the bottom. Once the bottom of the omelette has set (about a couple of minutes approximately), turn the omelette by placing either a flat plate or saucepan lid on the frying pan and quickly turning over. Gently slide the omelette back into the frying pan and continue frying for less than a minute, once again shaking the pan from time to time so that it doesn't stick to the bottom.

Roasted Vegetables Provencal with Pineapple (Italy, Michael Layden)
serves a lot of people!

1 large head of cauliflower, separated into florets
6 Molokai sweet potatoes 15 mini Ewa sweet onions, cut in half (or two large sweet onions)
1 medium Maui Gold pineapple
2 large green peppers,
4 medium red peppers
8-10 large carrots
1 tbsp. dried basil
2 tsp. paprika
1 tbsp. salt
pepper, to taste
pinch of cayenne
olive oil, to coat

Preheat the oven to 425F. Cut all of the vegetables and pineapple into 1 – 1 1/2” pieces. Toss with olive oil and spices, and spread in a single layer on 2 cookies sheets. Roast for 30-40 minutes or until vegetables become caramelized and browned.

Inspiration: I chose the roasted veggies because it is a rustic style dish that makes a great staple at any meal and the flavors meld well with many other dishes. Also, my typical version of the roasted veggies is savory and I though that the addition of sweetness brought by pineapple would give this dish a great island flavor. To me, the unique flavors melting together while the veggies roast represents the melting of culture and tradition to bring out the best in all and I feel this dish could do that.

Mango Shrimp Salad (Korea, Marisa)

1 head of lettuce, chopped or torn
1 red bell pepper, sliced
3 Roma tomatoes
1 cucumber, sliced
2 mangoes, chopped
1 Fuji apple, chopped
1 avocado, sliced
1 cup of cooked shrimp
1 bottle of Annie's Papaya poppyseed dressing

German Taro Salad with Portuguese Sausage (Germany, Tim D.)

1⁄2 large taro root (equivalent of 5-8 potatoes depending on how much salad is to be made)
1⁄4 cup chopped green chives
1⁄4 cup chopped green onions
1⁄2 cup chopped Maui onions
1⁄2 stick butter
5 tablespoons olive oil
4 Portuguese sausages
6 hard-boiled eggs
Mayonnaise

Remove outer skin of taro, dice into 1⁄2 inch x 1⁄2 inch cubes. Bring large pot of water to boil, then add taro, boil until taro becomes soft. Drain water from taro. In a separate pan, melt butter and olive oil in saucepan, next add the maui onion to cook it slightly. Add some taro to the simmering butter/olive/onion sauce and fry until golden brown (you can do this with most of the taro, it gives it a crunchy texture). Add the remaining butter sauce to the taro and mix. Add the chives, green onions, and an adequate amount of mayonnaise until the mixture becomes creamy. Gently mix in the cooked Portuguese sausage and enjoy!

Lomi Sea Asparagus Tofu Salad (Japan, Yumi K.)
Serving Size : 20 people

3 Packages of Sea Asparagus
6 Tomatoes
3 Japanese Cucumbers
1 Package of medium firm Tofu
1 package Nalo Greens
1 head Romaine Lettuce
1 bottle “Hawaii’s Special Peppered Papaya Seed Vinaigrette“

Boil Sea Asparagus for 30 seconds. Drain and soak ice cold water. Cut up to a 1 inch pieces. Chill for at least an hour. Chop up tomatoes, cucumbers, and tofu. Mix up all the ingredients and pour over to bed of greens and lettuce. Pour dressing over the top.

Green Salad with Papaya Seed Dressing (Hawaii, Michelle P. from The Accidental Scientist)

Salad:
1 large head of romaine lettuce, chopped
1 bag mixed greens
1 small bunch basil, finely chopped
1 small bunch mint, finely chopped
2 large red peppers, sliced
1 package goat cheese, small pieces
1/2 large red onion, sliced
1 large papaya, cut into 1/2" pieces

Dressing: (makes about 3 cups)
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tablespoon whole mustard
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup canola oil
1/4 cup minced shallots
3 tablespoons papaya seeds

To prepare dressing: In a food processor, combine sugar, salt, mustard and vinegar and process until smooth. With the motor running, add oil in a steady (but slow) stream and blend the dressing until it is emulsified. Add the shallots and the papaya seeds and blend until the seeds are the consistency of ground pepper. Serve the dressing with the above salad.

DESSERTS:

Kolacky Cookies (Lithuania, Dan B. – recipe from his grandmother, Elizabeth Barshis)

1 c. butter
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
Guava, Strawberry Guava and Pineapple-Coconut preserves

Cream butter and cream cheese with vanilla extract until fluffy. Blend flour and salt; add to creamed mixture. Chill dough thoroughly. Preheat oven to 350F. Form small ~2in diameter circles by hand or alternatively roll out dough 1/4 inch thick on floured surface and cut with 2 inch round cutter. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet. Make a small indentation in center of each round, then fill indentation with fruit preserves. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.

Taro Lefse (Norway, Hollie and Travis P.)

4 cups mashed potatoes (substitute taro or poi)
3/8 cup shortening
1/8 cup sugar
3/4 tablespoon salt
3/4 to 1 cup flour (the less the better)

Stir to mix. Make small balls of the mixture, flatten and roll out thin. Fry on ungreased hot griddle. Cool and store covered in the fridge. To rehydrate wrap in a moist cloth or towel. Spread butter and powdered sugar mixture on one piece of lefse. Place another piece of lefse on top and cut both layers with butter sugar mixture between into strips.

Haupia Flan Casero (Mexico, Pablo “The Flan Master”)

1 can of coconut milk
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 can of table cream
2-3 eggs (depending on size)
1 little spoon of vanilla
1 bar of cream cheese
sugar (as much as you want)
1 small can of pineapples or fresh small pieces

Mix the coconut milk and the next 5 ingredients (through cream cheese). In the empty flan container, add the sugar and heat until sugar is dissolved and has a golden color. Then let it cool to room temperature. Once sugar has cooled down, add the coconut milk mixture and put it in the oven. Let it bake for 45 minutes at 200 degrees. (Note- it is very important that the container in the oven has a lid and also is placed on another container with water, Bano Maria). Check the flan as needed, baking time will depend on your location. To know that is ready insert a wood stick and if it stays and doesn't move, the flan is ready! To decorate use the pineapple around the flan, now you are ready to enjoy your Haupia Flan!

Inspiration:
The flan master (Pablo) is originally from Mexico. Flan is a very common dessert in Mexico shared in family dinners. The Haupia flan was inspired by the good moments with family and friends in both Mexico and Hawaii. For him is a way to say thank you to this beautiful land with some Mexican-Hawaiian flavor!

Dobos Torte with Lilikoi curd (Hungary, Neva M.)

Lilikoi (passionfruit) curd:
1 1/4 cups sugar
pulp from 4 lilikoi (~1/2 cup or more)
1/4 cup lilikoi concentrate, sweetened
3/4 cup butter (European style)
9 eggs, room temperature
juice from 1/2 a lemon
~1Tbsp Cointreau liquor

Torte:
8 egg yolks
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups sifted bread flour
8 egg whites
Thin mango slices
Crushed macademia nuts

For Curd: Squeeze the lililkoi through a strainer or cheesecloth to get as much pulp and juice as possible. Melt the butter in a non-reactive pan over low heat. Stir in the sugar, lilikoi (both pulp and concentrate), and lemon and bring just to a boil. Whip half of the hot liquid with the yolks and then pour back into the remaining hot liquid. Add the Cointreau. Return to a simmer, whipping until it starts to thicken (several minutes). Do not bring to a boil. Strain and chill.

For Torte: Beat egg yolks and sugar together until thick. Gradually add heavy cream, and stir well to blend all ingredients. Add bread flour, sifted. Mix thoroughly, and fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Divide batter into 7 equal portions. Butter the bottom of a 9-inch springform mold. Spread a thin layer of cake batter with a spatula. Bake at 400oF for 8 min., or until done. Sandwich layers together with lilikoi curd. Spread top layer with lilikoi curd, arrange mango slices, and sprinkle with macademia nuts. Keep chilled until served.

Victorian Sponge Cake with Coconut Cream and Guava Jam (England, Michelle P. – from The Accidental Scientist)

3/4 lb. salted European-style high-fat butter, softened (plus extra for pan)
3 cups self-rising cake flour (plus extra for pan)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups double Devonshire cream (or 4 oz. mascarpone and 4 oz. cream cheese)
3 – 4 tbsp. coconut milk (not light) or coconut cream
3/4 cup guava jam
confectioner's sugar and mint sprigs, for garnish

Preheat oven to 360F. Grease two 2" deep 8" round cake pans with butter and dust with flour; set aside. Beat remaining butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high for 5 minutes. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Combine eggs with 6 tbsp. water in another bowl and whisk together. Add half the egg misture and half the flour to the butter-sugar mixture. Beat well for 1-2 minutes, then add remaining flour and egg mixture. Beat for an additional 5 minutes. Divide the batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes. Invert cakes onto a rack, remove pans and let cool completely.

Beat cream (or mascarpone and cream cheese) in a medium bowl until stiff (or smooth if you are using the cream cheese/mascarpone mix) . Add 3 tbsp. coconut milk and mix well. If too stiff, add the last tbsp. of coconut milk - if not stiff enough, chill slightly. Put 1 cake layer on a cake plate, spread the top with jam, then cover the jam with the cream. Spread top of remaining cake layer with remaining jam and place it, jam side down, on top of cream. Dust cake with confectioner's sugar and add a mint sprig to the center.

Drinks:

Coconut-Mint Limeade (Hawaii, Michelle P. from The Accidental Scientist)
makes approximately 1 gallon of limeade - can easily be cut down!

limeade:
2 cups of lime juice (from approximately 24 limes)
2 cups of simple syrup (recipe below)
5 cups of coconut water
1/2 large bottle of sparkling water, or to taste
1 lime, slice thinly, for garnish

mint simple syrup:
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
2 large sprigs of mint

For the simple syrup, mix the sugar and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil undisturbed for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, add the mint sprigs and cover with a tight lid. Allow it to rest for at least one hour or cool to room temperature. For the limeade, mix all the ingredients together (except additional lime) and chill it or pour it over ice. Add the lime slices for garnish and serve.

*Most people used locally grown ingredients for their dishes; alterations in recipes to make them "Hawaiian fusion" are indicated in purple. Keep in mind that many of the recipes served at least bites to about 30 people - so they'll make great pot-luck sizes, or else you may need to pare them down!

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: `Aha`aina - Recapturing the Global Flavors of the Luau

2008-09-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

"24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs" is a global blogging event, devised, collected and showcased by the amazing folks at Foodbuzz.com. This event celebrates the scope and diversity of food blogs by capturing the cultural diversity and unique local perspective of bloggers from around the world: it's real food, experienced by real people, and shared real-time.

In Hawaii, community celebration comes in the form of feasting on delicious food in the company of family and friends. Today this feast is often called a luau, but sadly, the only luau that visitors to Hawaii (even long-term visitors) are able to participate in has gone the way of many other fine traditions – turned to entertainment for tourists and comprised of a pared-down menu of accepted (and expected) dishes...and I believe, losing the very reason for its being in the process.

Green Salad with Papaya Seed Dressing (Hawaii)

The luau didn’t begin this way. It originated with King Kamehameha II, who brought peace and equality to the ancient Hawaiians in the early 1800s by finally bringing the social classes together and banishing the arcane rules that had long dictated their lives. This historic change was christened and celebrated by a great feast, called an `aha`aina. Suddenly, commoners were permitted to eat with royalty and women were allowed to eat beside men - everyone rejoicing around a single table.

Korean Pancake (Korea)

For the first time, Hawaiian delicacies such as bananas and coconuts that were previously reserved for royalty were enjoyed and shared between all and traditional Hawaiian staples such as poi (taro), crab, pig and yams, were eaten alongside exotics from the New World. Since the inception of the`aha`aina, culinary influences such as miso, rice and teriyaki from the Japanese; sweet bread, sausage and malasadas from the Portuguese; and dishes like lomi lomi salmon from the West have been incorporated into Hawaiian cuisine.

Huli-Huli Yakitori (Japan)

Modern Hawaii is a global melting pot more than ever. Across the Islands, people celebrate life and pay tribute to their heritage by bringing and sharing dishes that reflect their own cultural customs and backgrounds. In keeping with the spirit of celebration for life and fellowship that began so long ago, we wanted to revive the `aha`aina for the for the Foodbuzz “24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs” event. To create this `aha`aina and to promote the sharing of cultural ideals and food traditions, we brought our friends and coworkers – all home cooks - together to celebrate global diversity in true Hawaiian style…to simultaneously recreate and reinvent the `aha`aina on a tiny island off the coast of Oahu.

Tortilla Espanola de Patata (Spain)

For the event, rather than devise a specific menu, we challenged them to do one of two things:

1) Create a new version of a traditional Hawaiian dish, using ingredients that are prominent staples of their country or ethnic background; or
2) Make a traditional dish from their country or ethnic background using locally available Hawaiian ingredients.

Lau Lau with a Fijian Twist (Fiji)

The response was overwhelming – we had nearly 30 people, most of whom didn’t know each other prior to the `aha`aina. Our one requirement, beyond the creating of the dish, was that each person be willing to share a bit of themselves, their culture, and their cooking with the rest of us. The group embodied the global community that has been drawn to Hawaii because of its unique location and spirit of aloha, and included people from over 16 different nationalities - from Hawaiian to Guamanian, Japanese, Mexican, Lithuanian, and beyond.

To bring home the concept of community, not only between those of us living here in Hawaii, but across the world wide web as well, we even invited other Foodbuzz Featured Publishers in Hawaii to join us - to bring their own cultural identity and cooking prowess to the table, and to cover it on their own blog and in their own style. Only one, Deb, was able to attend and you can read her thoughts about the whole experience on her fabulous blog, Kahakai Kitchen.

Kalua Pork Cabbage Rolls "Kaldomar" (Sweden)

For the `aha`aina, cooks and non-cooks alike came out swinging – the food was a veritable feast, both for the stomach and for the eyes. Since each recipe was newly created by the person that brought it to the table, many people were hesitant when they arrived – worried that their food wouldn’t taste right, wouldn’t be right; that it might not look or taste “good enough,” but as the tables were set up and filled with beautiful food, there were satisfied faces and smiles all around. There was no “best dish” of the day – instead of competition between dishes and people, there was only sharing, tasting and discovering the tastes of everyone’s unique heritage, combined with the flavor of land we live in and love (Hawaii, of course!).

Roasted Vegetables and Pineapple Provencal (Italy)

The quality and deliciousness of the feast was clearly evident in the audible exclamations and sounds of surprise and delight that were heard across the table amid the other conversation (and in how much and how fast all of the food disappeared). Before long, as the scent of coconut, mangoes, and pork wafted out into the air, we even had "neighbors" that began to trickle in and ask if they could join the feast. The food literally brought an unexpected and unique group of people together. There were kids running around exploring the new surroundings and providing the feeling of a large family joined together, while the adults were having a different kind of new experience – on the palate and in the spirit of fellowship and new friendships forming.

Many people reflected that they reconnected to parts of their heritage through the experience of coming up with their dish – to mothers, to grandmothers, to childhood memories and family gatherings, and even through traditional recipes they had never heard of nor tried before. Some created their dish as a way to thank the land and the people there – using ingredients from Hawaii and integrating a piece of themselves and their culture with the land they now live in, and sharing it with the people there. One even swore off the luau, exclaiming they would "rather have an `aha`aina any day! Everyone agreed they would definitely come back together for another one (next year, perhaps?).

Kadon Pika (Guam)

We believe this feast represented the true meaning of the `aha`aina and the aloha spirit of the people of Hawaii, reinvigorating the tradition of fellowship and community celebration in the hearts and minds of the people who attended. But the `aha`aina needn’t be specific to Hawaii. It could be recreated anywhere - near or far, around a smoldering imu (an underground oven for cooking Kalua pig) or in your own backyard...you can recapture the global flavors, and the spirit, of the luau in your own way.

As you know, the food blog world truly represents a global community – connecting people across the world at tables and in kitchens, regardless of any borders. But food itself is the universal language of the planet: no matter who you are, where you live or how much money you have, you have to eat – it’s a requirement of human survival and part of the whole human experience. But there is a global community, and a world of creativity, existing right outside your doorstep too – in yourself, your family and your friends. Bring them together, ask them to share a bit of themselves with you, and relish in learning something new about them. I guarantee you’ll be feasting and celebrating life together around a table of amazing food...and what could be better, or more worthwhile, than that?

Dobos Torte with Lilikoi Curd (Hungary)

Stay tuned for the incredible recipes (plus more photos) from this amazing event - they'll be posted soon!

Victorian Sponge Cake with Coconut Cream and Guava Jam (England)

Going Bananas in Hawaii

2008-09-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Forget everything you know about bananas...those long, mushy or hard as a rock green phallic-looking things you get at the grocery store that are typically imported from Central or South America and taste, at best, slightly banana-like or way too sweet and banana-like - going from perfect to completely mushy in 60 seconds. You know the ones I'm talking about...they're as long as your forearm and taste about like it would probably taste to lick your forearm too...if you covered it in banana mush. It's not the other Americas' fault the banana varieties they typically export - the Cavendish and Williams are sub-par...but it doesn't make them taste any better by wishing they were either (sorry Other Americas).

Lucky me, I've never been one to like bananas much anyway (can you tell?). Sure, I loves me a good loaf of banana bread (especially one that is dense and caramelized on top, or with some dark chocolate chips in it - xoxo Kristin!), but eating one raw? Bah. Only if I have to so that it won't go to waste and if it hasn't gone too black and brown and mushy and overly banana flavored on me. And don't even get me started on banana "chips" - more like poker chips if you ask me, since that's about all they're good for (pass me a big one, LB - I win!). As a side note, dried bananas of any type are a dream...and we're talking whole, dried bananas people! Banana-y (but not too much), soft, chewy...they're positively onolicious (Hawaiian slang for super-dooper delicious)! But those can be sometimes be hard to come by, and expensive (if you're in the neighborhood, Kimberly often has dried apple bananas at her booth at the Farmer's markets or the next time you're in Haleiwa, you can find them at Celestial Natural Foods; if not, then try your local natural foods stores for dried bananas. Trader Joes also has them, but they flatten theirs and cut them into thin slices and it's just not quite the same.). I digress.

Hawaii's bananas, called apple bananas because of their slight apple-like scent, only slightly resemble their longer, mushier cousins. They are sweet (but not as sickeningly sweet as the other varieties), they are short and fat, they have a slight tang to them, and they stay firm (just the right amount of firmness) for far longer than other bananas. And they won't even go all brown on you as soon as you cut them and expose them to air! But it's the tang and the firmness that get my heart racing. I have loved these little babies since the first bite after we arrived here. Better still, we just happen to have several apple banana trees in our back yard! (oh Hawaii, how I love thee...oh landlord, how I love thee for planting thy trees...). But if you don't have an apple banana tree of your very own, or friends that have their own trees because they'll have them coming out of their ears every time they harvest, most of the supermarkets here have them too. I have also been told that some specialty stores on the mainland will carry them imported from Hawaii. (One note: do not harvest bananas from your tree in clothing you like - there is a super sticky resin that will look like rust on your clothes and never, ever come out). Also, while apple bananas can be found elsewhere, the soil in Hawaii makes them the most luscious, sweetest apple bananas out there...or so They say...and I believe it.

Funny, but here you will often find people buying their apple bananas green, not yellow, and letting them ripen at home. That's just how it's done. With most of the fruit here, actually. Buying fruit at different stages of ripeness allows you to get a variety of fruit on the same day (like the once-a-week farmer's market) and eat it all week long, at the perfect ripeness. Perhaps it's also because most of the tropical fruits sweeten as they ripen, so it's easy and accepted to buy them green and wait for that peak of ripeness from the comfort of your own home.

While I could eat several apple bananas a day raw (and I do), when we harvest from the tree, a large clump of bananas comes down at once...and they all ripen at once (bananas give off ethylene gas which will ripen any fruit around, even if it's not a banana, so keep your other fruits away if you don't want them to ripen too). So you can give them away, eat them yourself, freeze them or start baking and cooking with them right away. And I've been doing lots of all of these options, leaving me with several yummy banana recipes I'd like to share with you. So, expect more to come in the future. To tease you: apple banana gingerbread; caramelized apple bananas with brandy; and frozen apple bananas dipped in chocolate...

Those recipes are all delicious, but the first recipe I want to share with you really stemmed from not wanting to waste any food. Looking for something interesting to make for breakfast, I convinced LB to make a batch of Heidi's Baked Doughnuts (LB is the bread/yeast man in our house). They turned out pretty great and we ate them for breakfast twice - but LB had made a full batch of these babies, so we had several left over. I tore them up into 1/2"-1" pieces, and threw them in a freezer bag...I figured they'd make a good base for a sweet and scrumptious bread pudding. Well, I was right - they did.

It was LB's general idea, and my recipe, and it turned out fabulous: (Apple) Banana Bread Pudding with Grand Marnier Sauce. It's a mixture of basic bread pudding recipes, reduced to four servings and made with what we had available, and we'll definitely be making it again (we still have doughnut pieces in the freezer!). An ever so slightly crisp topping set on a smooth and creamy base, it has just the right amount of a gentle tartness from the bananas to offset the sweet and rich butter sauce that feels like silk on your tongue, and the whole dish just screams comfort...it's like something your grandmother would make (you do know that Granny was always adding a touch of alcohol to your sweets, right? Helps with toothaches and such...). But better still, it's the perfect compliment to a dark, rich mug of Kona coffee.

Next time, I'd like to make a caramel sauce instead of using the Grand Marnier, although I do feel the very slight orange flavor complimented the gently tangy banana flavor quite well. I'm sure you could use brioche or even store bought sugar and cinnamon rolled doughnuts (or just add a bit more sugar and cinnamon to the recipe if you use something else) and you could probably use the more common varieties of banana in this recipe also (although you'll be missing that tiny bit of tang - maybe reduce the sugar a bit?) - but, my friends, you are certainly welcome to simply come on over and join us for breakfast, any time. We'll definitely be serving this to our house guests in the future.

Apple Banana Bread Pudding with Grand Marnier Sauce
serves 4

1 cup of soymilk (or regular milk - we can only afford soymilk here!)
1 cup of half and half
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. high quality vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
5 cups doughnut pieces, torn into 1/2 inch pieces (preferably Heidi's)
5 apple bananas, thinly sliced

1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp. Grand Marnier, or another orange-flavored liquor

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the soymilk and the next 7 ingredients (through salt), adding only 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar (reserve 1/4 cup). Place the doughnut pieces in a large bowl and pour the mixture over the top. Mix gently and allow it to sit for about 5-7 minutes (since the bread component is doughnuts, it doesn't need very long to soak, you just want to make sure that all of the pieces are moistened thoroughly). If it doesn't seem moist enough, add an extra splash of milk or soymilk until it looks very moist, but isn't completely soggy. Gently mix in the apple banana slices.

Butter a 6"x 4" casserole dish (or you could probably use a pie dish, just adjust the ingredients accordingly (ie. up everything by 1/4 or so), and pour the mixture into the buttered dish. Sprinkle the top evenly with remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Cover the dish with a piece of buttered foil, and put it into a larger casserole dish on the middle rack in the oven. Pour hot water into the larger dish until it reaches about 1/2 up the smaller dish. Cook for for 25-30 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for another 10-15 minutes until the sugar becomes crispy and slightly browned, forming a little crispy shell on the top.

Just before it's about to come out of the oven, prepare the sauce. Melt the butter over medium heat with the powdered sugar, stirring until the butter is fully melted (but not brown!) and the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the Grand Marnier. Serve over the top of the bread pudding - with extra on the side (it's good)! The whole thing - bread pudding and sauce alike, is just as delicious the following morning if you end up with leftovers (but you might not).

Resources:

Hawaiian words: ono - delicious; onolicious - super, duper delicious
Dried bananas: apple bananas from Kimberly; regular dried bananas from Celestial Natural Foods, 66-443 Kamehameha Hwy, Haleiwa, HI 96712, 808.637.6729; or check your local natural foods store (Whole Foods in Hawaii does NOT have them)

A Cure for the Grumpies

2008-09-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

So, I have a little confession to make...I get grumpy when I am hungry and when my blood sugar gets low. And when I say this, I don't mean "grumpy" as in a little testy or sad or cute-when-you're-mad sort of grumpy. No, when I say "grumpy," I mean full-on, ready-to-battle, talk-to-me-or-look-at-me-sideways-and-I-will-rip-your-head-off grumpy.

This confession will come as no surprise to LB (in fact, I think the last moniker he mumbled under his breath for me after a recent *episode* was something like "mean devil woman" - I heard you by the way, LB). Poor LB has been the recipient of my grumpiness on the way home from work on more than one occasion when I had salad for lunch (I actually refrain now from having only salad for lunch - I'm convinced that salad is not really "lunch"...it's only lettuce leaves and therefore disappears from my belly quickly - or it has a secret compound that activates my grumpiness in 3-4 hours). I know, however, that this is not a phenomenon that is unique to me and me alone. In fact, I know it happens to many other women out there because I have seen and heard their husbands/boyfriends/parents chime in when LB starts describing this particular trait of mine to friends - just why he feels the need to share this information with them in the first place is beyond me, but that's another discussion. Does it happen to men too? Probably. But not LB. Which only makes me grumpier when I am already grumpy.

"Why the hell aren't you grumpy too? Aren't you starving? I'm starving. And stop looking at me like that..."

Well, if you happen to be one of those women (or even better, if you live with one of them - because when we're like this, we're practically incapable of doing anything but being grumpy, trust me!) or if you happen to be a man that is not like LB, then this recipe is a good one to have on hand. It's also just a great dish if you've just come home from work and you're tired, you're hungry, (you're grumpy), you don't have anything specific planned for dinner, and you're supposed to be somewhere in an hour (or, maybe not). This is a great dish for when you want something that will fill the empty void (or, perhaps, the enormous abyss) in your stomach, that tastes delicious and doesn't take a lot of work. This is the kind of food that is hearty, comforting and easy...and heck, it's just simply good. And it will certainly cure even the meanest case of the Grumpies.

In fact, I can't even take credit for this little beauty really - the idea isn't even my own. I saw a coworker eating her version of this dish and it looked so delicious that I asked what was in it, then went with what I had on hand (okay, I'm totally lying - I went right out and bought the broccoli because it looked so darn good on her version and the potatoes because I didn't have any, and then went with what I had on hand). So, you can (and should) switch up the ingredients if you don't have the exact ones that are listed here. You can add spices as you feel like or go with your intuition. Mine didn't even need any because the sausage had so much flavor (and heat - the good kind of heat) by itself, but if you don't choose flavored sausages, a tsp. or so of red pepper flakes or a few fresh herbs (thyme, maybe? or basil) would be a nice addition. This would also be an easy vegetarian recipe, and probably be just as tasty - add tempeh maybe or just go with the veggies and potatoes (potatoes are fairly filling on their own I suppose), using vegetable broth instead of chicken and adding a few spices for extra flavor. Either way, you have a meal in minutes to enjoy with hardly any work required at the stove...and who knows, it could even save your spouse from cowering in the closet for most of the evening.

Simply Good Sausage and Potato Supper, serves 4

4 sausages, sliced on a bias - I used Aidells Habanero and Green Chili
cooking spray or olive oil spritzer
2 tsp. olive oil
1 small head of broccoli, florets sliced into 1/4"-1/2" slices (add the stem too if you'd like)
1 medium sized yellow or sweet onion, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 medium sized carrot, sliced on a bias
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
6 red potatoes, cut in quarters
1 - 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock or broth, divided (preferably stock because it has more flavor)
salt and pepper, to taste

Spray a large saute' pan with olive oil or cooking spray and allow it to heat up over medium high heat. Add the sausages and cook until browned on both sides. Remove the sausages with a slotted spoon and place aside. Add 1 tsp. olive oil to the pan, then add broccoli, onion, red pepper and carrot to the pan and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds. Add the potatoes to the pan, and about 1/2 cup of chicken stock. Cover and cook until the stock has reduced and nearly disappeared, and stirring the mixture occasionally. Keep adding stock, 1/2 cup at a time until the potatoes are tender and unctuous. Add the sausages back to the pan, season with salt and pepper and mix gently. Serve.

Protecting Your Heart While Preserving the Harvest (HotM 18)

2008-09-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

After worrying for years about a family history that involves prevalent heart disease, I finally bit the bullet recently and got a total work up of all of my important "numbers" - HDL, LDL, triglycerides (TC), TC/HDL, blood pressure, etc. - that would help me assess my "actual" cardiac risk. For those of you here in Hawaii on Oahu, The Windward Heart Center is offering a free cardiac risk assessment that I highly recommend taking advantage of. No matter where you live, and even if you don't have a major concern for heart disease right now, it's good to have a baseline for all those numbers so that if they do change over the years, you know by how much.

For instance, the last (and only) time I had my total cholesterol checked was three years ago, and it was considered "borderline." It's dropped a whopping 40 points!! Not only that, but my ratio of triglycerides to HDL (the *good* cholesterol) is below "average." According to the cardiologist there, all this together means that I've got less than a 1% chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years. Yay! That made my day (and prompted me to go immediately and buy myself a snickers ice cream bar to celebrate - one of my biggest weaknesses from the shop at work - everything in moderation, no?)! Keep in mind that this was a huge surprise - I have lost all but one grandparent to heart attacks when my parents were young; the last one has had a quadruple bypass and my father has a stint; and that's not including uncles and great aunts and uncles, many with major bypass surgeries or heart attacks themselves.

Now, I'm not convinced that doctors have figured out how to accurately diagnose the risk for heart disease (check out this book if you want to be intrigued, as it has a lot of interesting food for thought), but I can't deny that for whatever reason, my cholesterol has certainly dropped significantly. And since I don't exercise on any normal basis (still a constant struggle and goal for me), I can only attribute it to what I've been eating - and a lot of that has to do with all of you and the recipes that you've been creating and submitting on a monthly basis to our little brainchild and pet project, The Heart of the Matter (HotM).

So let's keep it going! The theme for September is Preserving the Harvest. We want your heart healthy recipes that stretch out the foods of the season to last you for the days to come. Do you dry apple slices, rub them with your special spice mix and keep them for afternoon snacks all winter long? Do you make low-sugar jams and jellies? Or do you prefer pickling and brining the goods from your garden? Do you make your mother's spaghetti sauce and keep it in the freezer for those cold winter days or make batches of uniquely flavored vinegars? How about turning extra chilies into chili pepper water?

However you do it, whatever your favorite way to do it is, help the rest of us come up with new and unique ways to make the bounty last by sharing your recipes. Remember the special challenge of HotM recipes - each recipe should follow hearty-healthy eating guidelines - you can find more information here, here and here. If you've never joined us, this is a great time to start! Post your recipe on your blog and send me the permalink at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com (or if you would like to participate and you do not have a blog, email me your picture and your recipe and I'll post it for you with the round-up). All entries will be due Sunday, September 28, by midnight (Hawaii time), and I'll post the round-up a few days later on this blog, and on the HotM blog. Thanks ahead of time for participating and I hope we'll all continue on our way to a heart healthy future together!

Resources:
The Windward Heart Center
641 Kailua Road
Kailua, HI 96734
by appointment only - Tues. or Thurs.
808.261.2441

Adventures in Breadbaking

2008-09-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Someone, somewhere, must have used a similar title for a post such as this - playing off the theme of Adventures in Babysitting; a movie from the late 1980s that chronicles the trials and tribulations of a babysitter who ends up having to take two teenagers into the big city while she is babysitting them and everything turns into chaos. It's a great movie. I'd almost go so far to call it a classic comedy. In the movie, nearly everything that can possibly go wrong, goes wrong. Well, I felt just like Elizabeth Shue in that movie while I was baking my first real loaf of yeasted, kneaded bread.

Now, I've talked before on here how afraid I am of baking bread. Not of the yeasty parts of it, but the kneady parts of it. Now I know why, and I feel that my fear was grounded! While I had visions of following in Cookiecrumb's footsteps, making beautiful bread in less than 5 minutes a day, at the time I just couldn't justify buying myself another cookbook (Yet. I still have to work my brain around that silly married joint account thing...). Instead, I reserved myself to pull out the two remaining packages I had of dry active yeast (much cheaper than a new cookbook), and give it a whirl. I raided my cookbook collection (it looks so meager these days, after storing so many of them before the move), and I finally settled on Molly Katzen's Basic Bread recipe, from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest - one of the first cookbooks I bought on my own (when I joined my first CSA, I had absolutely no idea to do with the strange vegetables that came in my box that I had never heard of - like chard and kale and dandelion greens). I chose her recipe because it had cute little drawings of the whole process (like a good scientist, little cute drawings and pretty-colored bubbling waters always get me).

Well, I learned a few things during my endeavour. First of all, I did everything wrong.

I added the flour before whisking together the yeast and the water and the honey together in the "sponge." Oh, wait, and I realized after about 20 minutes that I forgot to even add the honey. It said "a drop" of honey (take a second here to go see Cookiecrumb's great little narrative on the use of words like "a drop," a "smidgen," a "dash"...), so I stuck my fingers in the honey (don't worry, that stuff is sterile) and swirled them around in the mixture to get it off, and then I gave it a bit longer. Did I mention I also lost some of the yeast? Yep. Because apparently, a PhD doesn't qualify you as a good yeast-package opener. A bunch of yeast got stuck in the package and I simply could. not. get. the. little. suckers. out. I eventually gave up, after much cursing.

After about 45 minutes, it looked like this...a little doughy volcano gently starting to ease out of the liquid mess:

Okay, so it didn't seem like that big of a deal that I had screwed up the beginning. I added the rest of "the mix" of molasses, honey, salt and oil (this time I did have the foresight to mix that together before adding it to my sponge). Then, I started adding the "additional" cups of flour and quickly learned that:

You should wear deodorant when baking bread. Sure, I normally wear deodorant (while I may be from hippy dippy Eugene, I'm not a hippy dippy type myself...well, at least not the non-shaving, non-deodorant wearing hippy dippy type...though I do loves me some hippies sometimes). But kneading? That shit is some tough work! I was sweating. My wrists hurt. It was nearly impossible to avoid sprinkling/throwing flour all over everything. Including my camera. And my shoes. And the floor. And the ceiling. Leading me to realize that I should have worn an apron. Did I mention that I also forgot to take the all-purpose flour out of the freezer prior to using it? I'm sure Molly Katzen would have had a heart attack if she knew. I got about 6 of the 7 cups of flour that was supposed to be in it before the darn dough just wouldn't accept anymore. So I started kneading.

After kneading for what felt like an eternity (5 minutes), I kneaded for another 21 minutes. I eventually got most of that last cup of flour in there. Molly - yes, we were on a first name basis after she put me through all of that - says you can't over knead if doing this by hand, only under-knead (which, apparently will turn your bread into solid bricks, something I'm quite good at, but hadn't realized why). So I figured what the hell? If I was going to do this, I might as well knead my little heart/arms/fingers out and see if she was right. Once I stopped pushing so hard that I was tearing the bread (I'm a rock climber! I couldn't help it! I have burly biceps!) and relaxed into it, it seemed like things were going along fine. Until I read Molly's description of what properly kneaded bread is supposed to feel like when it's done: an earlobe.

An earlobe, huh?

I felt my ear with my (sort of) clean fingers. Nope. No earlobe in my bread. So, I kept kneading. After another eternity (5 minutes), I finally gave up, shaped it into a round sort of thing, put it back in my (dirty, floury) bowl and graced it with a few glugs of olive oil. Then I let it rise, trying not to peek at it lest it decide to thwart me further for doing so, and set off to do some work for a while, trying to ignore the thing growing in my kitchen.

After an hour, I went back and peeked under the tea towel (I knew those things had to be good for something after arguing with LB that we absolutely had to put them on the wedding registry). And my bread had somehow - risen. Bringing me to my next lesson.

Punching bread is a far better way to get out your frustrations than punching your significant other (in the arm, of course, after they make a smart-ass remark). And almost as satisfying.

But you have to restrain yourself and only punch it once (or twice). Until it deflates, really. Sort of how your significant other would when you showed him how much you appreciated his smart-ass remark. Then, you have to knead it some more (WHAT?! You've got to be kidding me!). Another 10 minutes. Ug. I thought to myself: Maybe I should take up bread baking instead of rock climbing. It's a similar work out, and you don't get sunburned. I've decided that Grandmas, the ones that used to do this daily, those are women who are far more womanly (and burly) than I.

I also discovered that granite countertops are awesome for kneading bread - nothing sticks to it - and this is all fine and dandy unless you are five feet tall. Like I am. And your counters are a good 4'5" at least. I did most of my kneading standing on a kitchen stool so that I could put my weight into it. Please, don't picture that. Please. Suffice it to say my elbows were reaching far above my head. I divided my bread into two round loaves (I no longer own loaf pans), rolled it just like the pretty little drawings said (well, one of them like the pretty drawings, but I never was good at following directions, besides this way I could tell if my way was better than her way, and...well, her way won), and then I put it on the counter and let the loaves rise again (Oh!! So that's why they use those wooden peels! So that it doesn't stick to the counter and deflate! Oh!! ...oh, sheeeet!!). So much waiting, and sadly...

Patience is not one of my finer virtues.

Finally, finally, I felt it had doubled in size again. Well, close enough. I put my trusty baking stoneware baking sheet in the oven to heat up and tried to find something to "spritz" my bread with so I could get that crispy crust everyone talks about. Well, there are no spritzers in this house. At least not any I can use with food. So, I gave up and decided I would have non-spritzed semi-crusty bread and that that would be just fine with me. I stuck it in the oven. 425F for 15 minutes, then turn it down to 375F. Another 25 and it was done (besides that elusive "thumping" thing).

And what to my wondering (impatient, flour-stained) eyes did appear? Lo and behold, after 40 minutes, I had two crusty, handmade, wrist-demolishing, sweat-producing, patience-testing, almost beautiful loaves of nearly crusty bread, fresh out of the oven - smelling of molasses and yeast and warmth and tradition. And they weren't even as dense as I thought they would be...in fact, they were less dense than the Irish Soda Bread I made a while back. And you know what? They tasted pretty darn good for a first try. Somehow, like Elizabeth Shue in the movie, it all seemed to turn out all right.

But I think maybe I'll go buy that cookbook now.

Forget Meet and Greet, Let's Meet and Eat!

2008-09-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Whew - after weeks of not having a computer, and then running into network problems once I did have one, I think I am finally back in the technological world once and for all! So I want to tell you about something exciting that recently went on in my "food world." Stay tuned, because with all that computer down time on my hands, my pictures have been piling up and I now have lots of "food fodder" ready for the days to come!

Not long ago, I got an unexpected email from a San Jose blogger, Nate, one of the masterminds behind the fabulous blog House of Annie. Nate was inquiring if I wanted to get together with some fellow food bloggers for dinner at a well-respected Japanese restaurant in Honolulu, Tokkuri-Tei. Would I? Of course! Thanks to Nate, I was able to meet and eat (even better than "meet and greet" as far as I'm concerned!) with count 'em 4 other food bloggers! Thanks to Foodbuzz.com we were all able to take advantage of a special program called "Dine on Us" that they provide for their Featured Publishers. Basically, if you are a Featured Publisher (FP) and want to get together with other FPs in your area, Foodbuzz will graciously foot the bill (once each year) for an evening of good food and good people so that you can network and meet the other foodies in the area (if you're interested in becoming a FP yourself, more information can be found here and you can sign up by filling in this little survey) - how cool is that? One other note about this company that I find a big bonus: they're green! They support other environmentally friendly businesses and care about the recent loss of honeybees (they even sent out seeds for bee-friendly flowers). If you don't know about Foodbuzz yet, be sure to check it out - it's a great site for networking and finding new blogs; sort of like Facebook for Foodies!

Nate and his wife, Annie, were in Honolulu visiting family. The other food bloggers that joined us were Albert, from Pizza Therapy and my new foodie friend, Deb, from Kahakai Kitchen.
Like most food bloggers, we could talk the entire night away about our favorite subject of food - which, I have to say, is so nice (normal friends start to tune me out after a while...)! Nate and Annie were both truly enjoyable - Nate's a whiz at the technical stuff and got us all up to date on the newest blogging features. Albert is a whiz with the technology too, and also one of the most genuine people I have ever met. And Annie and Deb and I had a great time discussing favorite dishes and cooking styles.

from left: Albert, me, Annie, Nate and Deb (photo courtesy of Albert)

Tokkuri Tei has an enormous menu, and those of us unfamiliar with Japanese cuisine were a bit daunted at first, but Annie swooped in to the rescue and offered to choose a smattering of several different dishes for the table to share family-style. The wait staff was also friendly and offered several suggestions, including the incredible "spider-poke" (pronounce po-kay) roll, an award-winning combination of ahi tuna, spider crab, and ikura fish roe. The salmon-skin tofu salad with silken tofu and topped with nori strips was also amazing. As was the salmon belly and the hamachi - all of the fish served was excellent and very fresh. All of these dishes were favorites around the entire table. One tip: Don't order everything you want at once - it will all come out at once and there won't be room on the table! Order a few things, then if you are stilll hungry a few more. You can read the other blogger's take on the evening and enjoy their fabulous photos here, here and here (my camera was also having issues, so I'll have to let them do the food porn...).

So, while it's coming a bit late due to the computer issues, thanks to Nate, Annie, Deb and Albert for an incredible evening of good food, new friends and tons of enjoyment. And thanks most of all to Foodbuzz for allowing it to happen!

Resources:
Tokkuri Tei
611 Kapahulu Avenue
Honolulu, HI
808.739.2800
Lunch: 11 AM- 2 PM, daily
Dinner: 5:30 PM - midnight, daily

A Different Kind of Picnic

2008-08-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

How do you imagine the perfect picnic?

Sitting on a brightly-colored blanket covering soft, green grass? Enjoying an unbelievably sunny day - blue sky and just enough white, fluffy clouds to make things interesting? You, sitting and laughing with friends or family (or both), relaxing in the sun-shade border (must be able to get to both depending on the temperature, right?)? Perhaps each of you with a glass of crisp, chilled white wine or rose in hand? Of course there will be delicious, refreshing food, but is it all part of the experience to share your bounty with the requisite ants in attendance? Does your picnic happen on the beach, at sunset? In a mountain meadow under a gorgeous oak tree? Or does it happen in the local park, next to kids playing baseball or friends throwing a frisbee? Does your picnic include fried chicken and potato salad, burgers grilled on a portable grill, or gourmet cheeses, crackers and fresh fruit? Perhaps a bit of all of them?

All of these sound like the perfect picnic to me, but my first real picnic in Hawaii - one where we packed up the most portable food we could find - was not even close to any of these idyllic picnics. Was it better? No, but it was certainly different!

We took our picnic to The Sandbar.

We arrived by kayak.

The Sandbar is located in the middle of Kaneohe Bay. It's a small "island" of sand (yes, only sand) that is exposed at low tide. That is to say, the sand is exposed when there is a tide low enough to actually uncover it. The day we went there, the tide was not low enough to expose the sand, but that doesn't stop the locals (or us for that matter) from heading out there in boats, kayaks and jet skis to play and picnic for the day because the water is still shallow enough that you can stand on the unexposed sand and it will only come up to your waist, or in the shallower places, your shins. We'd heard the hype about it, we just happened to have a couple of kayaks in our garage, and well, we wanted a piece of the adventure too.

On the day of our picnic, we donned our suits, packed up the most portable, eating-in-the-water-friendly (but still fun) food we could think of, loaded up the kayaks and set off to see what this Sandbar place was all about. And let me just say: it lived up to they hype. It was a great day - we threw frisbees and water footballs, drank lots of beer (in cans, because they float!), basked in the Hawaiian sun, and huffed and puffed our way there and back - burning off the calories and struggling not to want to kill each other in our two person kayak.

The Sandbar is crazy, as you can tell by the pictures in the link above (though it wasn't quite as crazy as the day in the pictures, as that was a holiday). There are beautiful people everywhere , from every age group. There are lounge floaties (connected swimming pool floaties that have spots for drinks for each person), floaties with umbrellas, water volleyball, water frisbee and water football games. People bring tables to set up in the water (the water reaching only a few inches below the surface of the table) so that they can set up their grills and grill their hamburgers out there in the middle of the bay. No one arrives without some kind of water game to play, their swimming suit and a bunch of food (and ahem, copious quantities of alcohol). And everyone stays 'till the tide comes in (or the clouds hide the sun for too long - it's kind of chilly to sit in the water all day long with no place to get out!). It's a truly local, Hawaiian adventure. It was a blast, and a perfect picnic.

What did we bring for our picnic? Simple food, good food, portable food. It was the perfect time to participate in this month's Heart of the Matter, where the theme is...you guessed it: Picnics. I scoured the Internet for ideas, and while there seemed to be a plethora of ideas for picnics in all of the major magazines in July and August, many of them simply would not work for our type of picnic - standing, in water that could be up to our waists, in the middle of Kaneohe Bay (and keep in mind that I am a 5'0" woman). Even a cheese and crackers type meal was too complicated. I needed food for 3 people - food we could either eat individually or pass around in a single container. Food that could handle a 35 or so minute kayak trip out to where the picnic would take place. Food that didn't make much waste we would have to cart back and didn't take up too much space on the way out there. Worse, we didn't have time to go shopping beforehand and had to go with what we had in the house, whipping everything together the hour before we were supposed to leave.

I finally found Mark Bittman's 101 Ideas for Inspired Picnics. He had some wonderful and simple ideas that I adapted to work for my picnic, and to be heart healthy for HotM. I made whole-wheat wraps with chicken and an arugula/sun-dried tomato/basil pesto - so that we could eat them, standing in the water, wrapped in waxed paper and not worry about any of the "good stuff" falling out. We had fresh veggies passed about in baggies with homemade hummus, and my adapted version of his three-bean salad. I also took the last of my latest (and much adapted) batch of homemade granola and mixed it with a small amount of brown sugar and honey before forming it into bars and doing as Bittman recommended: calling it "dessert." These granola dessert bars were great too - wrapped up in wax paper, they made a very portable (if sticky - but that's what all that water is great for - you don't even need a napkin!) ending to our picnic.

While everything was delicious, the three-bean salad was the winner of day. And it's so adaptable that you can make it with nearly anything you have on hand. I had a few cans of different beans (oh Costco, you're such a good friend here) and used everything I had that needed to be used up. If you haven't already, please join us in creating an archive of heart-healthy picnic recipes over at HotM's home site. My lovely co-host Joanna, from Joanna's Food, is collecting all of your recipes and will post them together on her site, and on the HotM site, after all the entries are in. There's still plenty of time to join, just send your entries to her by August 25th. Details can be found here.

Heart Healthy 3-Bean Salad, serves 6
inspired by Mark Bittman's 101 Inspired Picnics

1 can of black beans, rinsed
1 can of garbanzo beans, rinsed
1 can of kidney beans, rinsed
kernels from 2 ears of corn, cooked
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if large
1 jalepeno, minced
1 clove of garlic, minced
juice and zest from 1 lime
1 tbsp. fresh oregano, chopped finely (or 1 1/2 tsp. dried)
1 tbsp. good fruity olive oil

It's easy: Just mix everything together and put in a portable container. And don't forget the forks!

My Computer Went Kaput, Kaboom, KABLAM!

2008-08-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been delayed in responding to your comments. Sadly, my computer crashed (um, died is a better word) and we have been unable to revive it as of yet (I haven't even been successful in getting it to turn on, although LB was able to at least get it make that *hello* chime finally - yay LB! - but still, no picture). When did we all suddenly become so dependent on our computers? How did we ever live without them?! And email? I used that computer every single day, for many hours a day - and now I feel so disconnected! It's a strange electronic world, but I can't help but love it. And I miss it! I keep trying to tell myself that maybe this will be good for me. And for getting more work done...maybe...

Hopefully I'll be back up blogging soon, but since I have no where to download my pictures or even a computer to check your wonderful blogs on regularly (work is busy too, but lucky for me today is a holiday so I have the lab, with all its free computers, nearly to myself. Hawaii has lots of extra holidays...I love Hawaii.). I guess what I am saying is: it just might be a little while until I can get a new one. Hopefully not too long. I'm going to try to get my post up for this month's Heart of the Matter (you should join in too - there's still another week left before the entries are due on the 25th!) even if it is sans picture and I hope to be able to at least come around to your blogs and say hello a few times in the meantime. A hui hou, my friends! (until we meet again!)

Got Figs?

2008-08-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Figs are definitely on the list of my five top favorite food and they are certainly one of my favorite fruits. My first taste of a fresh fig occurred while living in northern California when I was house-sitting for my (then) boss - he and his wife had a huge Black Mission fig tree in their backyard and told me to "help myself" to as many as I would like. I did. I had never seen nor tasted fresh figs before then. In fact, the only figs I'd had any contact with previous to that little fig tree and its hanging jewels were (gasp!) Nabisco's Fig Newtons.

But after eating that first fig, I couldn't get enough of them. I cleaned the tree out in a few days flat.

Yep, every last fig.

And that was only the beginning of my affair with figs. They had soft, succulent flesh that went with everything from honey to goat cheese to blue cheese to port. Sweet or savory, the figs fit the bill. They were fabulous whether roasted, baked or scraped off the inside of their tender skins with my teeth. They were like sex: even a bad fig was a good fig. And there were no bad figs that time of year. Later, I remember wandering aimlessly, hopefully, into a tiny, out of the way Mediterranean market in October that year to ask if they ever had fresh figs. The proprietor of the tiny store laughed. He told me to come back next August.

Next August? But that was a whole year away!

And so, there was nothing I could do but wait. The next year, I loaded up again. When I moved to Oregon, I bought my own tree. It was small, and it didn't produce many figs, but each one was like a prized possession. Every August and September, I bought them in quantity at the market, from Freeman. I even went so far as to preserve them in rum.

Well, it really is true: the best things come to those who wait. Figs are one of the few produce items that you simply cannot get in the grocery stores the whole year. And often, many grocery stores don't even carry them. Figs are sweet, fragile and ephemeral. Like a coy lover, they are here one moment and gone the next - leaving your tastebuds longing for more. No wonder they're considered aphrodisiacs. Consider yourself lucky if you have them in your grocery store (and if they're ripe). Scour the farmer's market for them or scout out the neighbor's tree...bring the neighbors cookies or pies if you have to, for trade. Or, seek out a tree near the sidewalk that you can snatch a few from in desperation.

Figs are also somewhat finicky - they don't grow well everywhere. They require wasps to pollinate them. They don't grow in Hawaii.

Or so I thought.

That was until I received a tip from a couple of foodies in LB's office that there had been figs at the Farmer's market in town (Honolulu). I didn't know who the vendor was, but I told LB we were going. And we went. We arrived at 9 AM (it begins at 7:30) and finally found the vendor in question: Blue Lotus (Organic) Farm. We asked if they had any figs.

They laughed at us. They asked us, "What time is it?"

We said, "Almost 10," looking down at our watches. They said, "Come back next week, early. We've been sold out for hours."

And so, we did. We arrived the following week at 7:35 AM and went straight to the booth. No figs. He was already sold out. We got the last 3, very bruised specimens for half price. But oh, they were tasty - heady, even. The first bite transported me back to all the other Augusts when figs had touched my lips for the first time each year...I instantly wanted more, needed more. I put the charm on and worked out a deal with the farmer and he offered to set some aside The next weekend, I called and he was going be out of town...he promised the following week he would be there, figs in hand.

So it took me three weeks to get my figs, but it was worth every moment.

The figs are here, friends. And they're organic!

Go see Greg Yee, at Blue Lotus Farms. Get them while they are still here because before you know it, they'll be gone. Go early and bring something to place these jewels in - a safe, gentle resting place - while you do the rest of your shopping. It'll be worth it when you get them home, perfect and unblemished.

Most of the figs Greg has are Calimyrna figs. They are more subtle and delicate than Black Mission figs; and not quite as sweet or rich as their darker cousins. With the two pounds of figs I bought, I ate many of them simple, fresh and unadulterated. Then I topped these mini mascarpone tarts with them - a modified version of this tart, but scented with Grand Marnier and honey and with a toasted hazelnut and graham cracker crust. I also made a fresh fig, date and ginger (mascarpone) ice cream. Delicious. Seductive. Heavenly.

Resources:
Greg Yee
Blue Lotus Farms
KCC Farmer's Market (Row E - over by the boiled peanuts)

Consequently, Greg also sells organic chicken and duck eggs (prices dependent on size) and even better - whole, free-range local chickens. The chickens are about 6 lbs each and come out at approximately $20 per bird. He didn't have any chicken the day I was there last, but he says he usually does. On an island where local eggs are rapidly disappearing and local chicken is even more rare, farmers like Greg are a blessing and need your support. But trust me, my friends, nothing - and I mean nothing - compares to the figs.

El Premio Arte y Pico

2008-08-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

I feel so honored and humbled...the lovely Deb, at Kahakai Kitchen just awarded me, and four other lucky bloggers, the El Premio Arte y Pico award (and this was even before we met each other! I promise!). I have never received an award before, so I'm blushing, shuffling my feet back and forth, looking down at the floor and just completely beside myself that someone out there would choose to give little ol' me and my little ol' blog an award. Thanks so much, Deb! Since I've been gushing a lot recently about Deb's site, I'll just say go and check it out on your own if you haven't already - and I can tell you from experience that she's as great in person as the posts on her blog and the sweet comments she leaves on other's sites would have you believe. You can see her award and the other bloggers she chose on her post.

Upon trying to figure out what El Premio Arte y Pico translated to in English, I came upon the original site. I'm adding the link to that and the *rules* of the award (though I condensed them...which I probably wasn't supposed to do, but oh well, nobody is perfect, eh?), since they seem to have gotten lost amongst all of the passing on. The phrase itself supposedly translates to something like: "Wow. The best art. Over the top!" The rules are as follows:

Rules:

Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community.
Each award should have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone, and a link to the blog which bestowed it upon them.
The award-winner and the one who has given the prize should include a link to "Arte y pico"blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

Now the best part of receiving the award: getting to choose 5 other bloggers whose sites and posts are a creative inspiration to me. There are so many wonderful blogs out there, and so much amazing photography, but I also wanted to pick bloggers that not only had great photography, but inspired me in other ways too. So here are my 5:

Cookiecrumb, at I'm Mad and I Eat. I've been reading Cookiecrumb's blog now for years (she was, in fact, one of the first blogs I ever read) and she never ceases to inspire me in so many different ways...to eat locally (this woman made her own salt, people!), to cook without recipes, to make the most of what's available to you (even if it's 100 pounds of pears), and recognizing the beauty in the ingredients of the food as much as the food itself. Plus, she makes me laugh every day and there's nothing better than that!
Karen, at Rambling Spoon. Karen's photos and descriptions take you all over the world from New Mexico to Laos, Thailand, India and beyond. Plus, she's a Gourmet contributor, an author of two books (I'm planning on buying both as soon as I get my budget figured out here), and an incredibly humble, intelligent and sweet person to boot. She not only inspires me to cook, but makes me want to travel the world!
Ilva, at Lucullian Delights. Ilva and I started our blogs around the same time and have been visiting online ever since. I love the simplicity and clean lines of her blog, making her incredible pictures center stage. She lives in gorgeous Tuscany and shows her readers a little of her life every day, along with simply prepared and delicious food - showing that even with a few ingredients, you can make a masterpiece. Her site and her ideas are always inspiring!
Tanna, at My Kitchen in Half-Cups. Not only do I love having Tanna visit my site because she leaves such warm and supportive comments, but Tanna's site seems to be different than most of the other blogs I visit. Her background always has to do with what she's cooking up in the kitchen that day, and every post is filled with great quotes, thoughts and often the most beautiful breads. She inspires me to want to bake my own bread every time I read about hers!
Ann and Jack, at Redacted Recipes. Ann randomly stopped by my site one day and I'm so glad she did because then I was able to find their blog! Their pictures are beautiful (they can make anything look delicious) and they are always trying new recipes and participating in all kinds of events - churning out all kinds of fabulous-looking food. They make me want to jump in the boat and join in everything (if I only had the time). Plus, I'm a sucker for their header - it's so cute!!

The Intersection of Blogging and Life: Meeting a Fellow Food Blogger

2008-07-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

If you've ever met a fellow blogger, especially one that lives nearby, then you know the scenario...

You've set the date (yesterday), set the time (7PM), and picked the restaurant (Casablanca) - a fairly new Moroccan place in town that some co-workers had recommended. You know you're taking a risk on a restaurant that neither of you have been to, and realize the extent of that risk when you read the reviews and all it talks about is how sensuous the food is and the sexy appeal of the dark, sultry dining room. This is a first *date* of sorts, after all. But, what the heck? Live life adventurously, right?

And you already know they love food as much as you do.

You've picked out your clothes - not too nice because you don't want to seem like you're trying, but just nice enough that you don't seem like a slob. You arrive a bit early, because you don't want to be late the first time you meet. You're not really sure what your dining companion looks like, because they don't have a picture on their blog, but then again, neither do you. But when you get to the mostly empty restaurant and they seat you front and center, you're sure you'll be able to tell when they walk in.

And you can.

You meet, exchange hello hugs (you've been conversing over email anyhow and feel like you sort of know them already), and take your seats at the (very) low tables. It's really quiet in the restaurant, so you find yourselves whispering at first. You're nervous and thinking, what if they don't like me? Even worse, what if they stop reading my blog after this - that would be awful!? You brought your own wine because it's common here in Hawaii to do so since many places do not have liquor licenses - and you're happy to hear they don't charge a corkage fee. As you open it, you silently hope the transit in the shipping containers didn't ruin it (but of course, like would happen on any first *date,* it did). You're slightly embarrassed at how bad the wine is, actually, but you both laugh it off and decide to enjoy extra helpings of the mint tea instead.

There are a few moments when you're not sure what to say, as in any first meeting with someone you hardly know, but you're relieved to find that the conversation flows smoothly for most of the night. Because you're slightly nervous (you really want them to like you!), you accidentally knock your bread from your plate onto the floor (oops). But the soup is delicious, and you can tell that you're both wondering how to recreate the flavors at home. You talk about how much each of you loves soup, but how hard it is to eat warm soup when it's hot out all the time. You discover that you both read some of the same blogs - and it's like discovering you have mutual friends.

Things get even more interesting when you realize that there is no silverware at this place, and that you have a leg of lamb sitting on the plate between you with only your fingers and hands to dig into it with (no wonder they called it "sensuous" food!). The lamb is tender (if messy) and the capers and tomato sauce surrounding the soft calamari rings has a unique depth of flavor to it. After a while, you even forget that you're eating with your hands - until you drop some of the tasty chicken and cinnamon pastry dish from your fingers onto some of the other plates you're sharing. You apologize bashfully for dropping the food that was destined for your mouth on the mutual plates, and you both start giggling when the waitress arrives and tosses (a somewhat hefty amount of) orange blossom water at the top of your head from a tea kettle before she brings dessert.

By that time, the conversation comes easily now. And as it veers to food and restaurants and blogging, and you see their eyes light up and that they understand how blogging gets under your skin and the community becomes a part of your life, you know that you've found a kindred spirit. Neither of you is impressed with the fairly greasy and sticky funnel cake dessert, so you have extra mint tea instead - the honeyed flavor bringing a gentle end to the meal. Finally, you leave the restaurant with more hugs, deciding to take a cooking class or two from the local community college together, and head opposite directions down the street to your cars. You hope quietly to yourself that she had as good of a time as you did.

As you walk towards your car, you turn and take one last look at the front of the restaurant - "Casablanca" is painted in bright yellow letters against an azure background. You smile, and can't help but think to yourself:

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship..."

* * *

Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting a fellow food blogger - Deb, from Kahakai Kitchen. After "stalking" her for the last month on her blog (once I found that there was another food blogger here in Hawaii whose site I thoroughly enjoyed reading every day, there was no going back), I finally convinced her to meet up with me (wink, wink). So I'm happy to report that she's even sweeter and funnier than I imagined she would be, and I love her easy-going personality, which is also apparent in all of the wonderful things she writes on her blog (not to mention the amazing-looking recipes). I'm really looking forward to taking the culinary classes and exploring some of the foodie adventures that Hawaii has to offer with her. It's great to have all sorts of friends to do different activities with, but knowing someone in the same town that is as big a food dork as you are? Priceless! Thanks for a great evening, Deb!

While the food at Casablanca was good (not stellar; except, perhaps, the soup), and the experience of eating with your fingers, washing your hands at the table and having orange-blossom water thrown at you is its own treat, we both agreed that the $34 price tag for the prix fixe meal was not necessarily worth it and that we would probably only go back in a large group.

Casablanca Restaurant
19 Ho'ola'i Street
Kailua, HI