The Cuis-Zine

Come out, Come out, Wherever You Are....

2007-07-09T07:33:00.000-10:00

Calling all readers, skimmers, lurkers, and commenters! For all of you who have stumbled across my blog and have taken a peek for the first time and for those who regularly keep tabs on my cuisine consumed- I would like to know!

I am curious to know who reads and enjoys this blog and would like you to leave a comment here on this post and on you favorite post so far to let me know how I'm doing. As much as I like to write, I'm not doing this blog just for myself, I'm doing it for you! So please reciprocate the love! I always enjoy hearing from fellow bloggers/bakers/etc.! Also if you've tried a recipe of mine, I'd love to know how it went!

Hope to here from you!

(photos courtesy of my Mango Tree at my childhood home)

The Willows- A Restaurant Review

2007-07-07T06:51:00.000-10:00

I went to The Willows with Randy a while ago with one thought in mind... To preview it as a possible place for our rehearsal dinner for our wedding next year. Because we may book the place, our meal was complimentary. I had eaten there only once before and didn't really pay much attention to the food, so I was very gracious for the time to closely scrutinize the dishes.

The ambiance and surroundings of the restaurant are amazing. The moment you step inside you are no longer in the busy University area of Honolulu, but are transported to a place where tropical meets Asian, and where lush waterfalls and streams meet brightly colored foliage. It truly is a place for aesthetics and if I were to book based on atmosphere, I wouldn't have a second thought. There is even a chapel where people get married- At the restaurant! Randy's favorite was the jumping fountain that sprays water vertically out of the cement, 8 feet into the air, in patterns and designs that are random. I have been told children love to run through it and get soaked. My favorite was the small barge like platform in the middle of the koi pond. It is a special seating area for no more than 10 but gives one the feeling that you are floating down a serene river.

Unfortunately though, the food was hit and miss. I had high expectations from everyone about the food, but I found myself somewhat disappointed. We went for the weekday lunch, a limited buffet compared to the dinner buffet spreads.

I liked the salad spread and I headed there first. I really enjoyed my three choices from there, shown in the upper left corner of my plate are the Bean Sprout Namul, a tomato salad, and what seemed to be like a Greek salad. Though it mentions online that the Greek salad comes with pita bread, I didn't see any, but that didn't matter much. The salad was lettuce, chick peas, cucumber, onions, tomatoes, and feta cheese with a great Italian-like dressing. Come to think of it, that was probably their house salad. But it sure had a lot of ingredients and was really good!

The entrees were so-so. My two favorites that I got seconds of were the Misoyaki butterfish and the Mochiko chicken. (shown bottom/middle of plate) I was looking forward to making a bowl of curry and adding all the condiments, but it wasn't that good either. Even with my favorite toppings added (raisins and mango chutney), the flavor was average and I wasn't compelled to even finish my mini cup. (shown below)

I was really looking forward to the quality of the Hawaiian food because many of the wedding party (Randy's family) will be from out of state and will have never tasted Hawaiian food. This is what my decision was banking on, and I have to say I was unimpressed and disappointed. Poke (raw fish salad) is one of my favorite foods and the poke here didn't have much kick to it in regards to flavor. Also, the raw fish didn't look too fresh in it, maybe because it had been sitting out in the buffet line for a while. Let's just say I enjoy the poke made from local supermarkets better than this one. The flavor of the lomi salmon was a little "off" as well- meaning it didn't taste like the traditional Hawaiian style I love. I enjoyed the poi and the savory lau lau (chicken wrapped in taro leaf and slow cooked), and if all the other Hawaiian foods had been up to par with them I would have been happy. Another downfall was the Kalua Pig (salted smoked pork, essential to Hawaiian luau food). The pig didn't have the almost-too-salty-to-bear flavor traditional of the dish and that is what makes it signature- the fact that you must eat each bite with a scoop of rice.

Finally onto the desserts! There were bite sized pieces of several different choices that all were average if best. (sorry no picture) I am such a dessert person that its sad when I don't feel compelled to eat all of the serving I take, and that is what happened with most of the desserts on my plate. I was excited to try the fried Haupia (coconut custard, almost the consistency of creamy thick jello), but found it flavorless and unappealing. The bread pudding with pineapple was pretty good in flavor, but somewhat dry with too much bread and not enough pudding. The soft serve ice cream machine was out of order (which made me sad-that's usually my favorite) and I wasn't impressed with any of the following: chocolate mousse cake, tiramisu, and cheesecake. My favorite on the dessert tray was the fresh fruit, interpret that how you will.

I'm glad the lunch was complimentary because unless I was treated by someone else, I'm not sure I would go again. Though the setting was lovely and a few dishes shined, the majority was not the quality I had in hopes for my future in laws and their first taste of the islands.

Just a Little Bit Patriotic...

2007-07-05T06:08:00.000-10:00

Hey everybody, I know I'm a day late, but I still have a special 4th of July treat for you to make. So, you can wait until next year, or make it with all the strawberries and blueberries you have left over from your flag cakes.

This is a little patriotic, a little healthy, and very tasty! You can substitute frozen berries for fresh ones but make sure they're 100 percent still frozen when mixing them in, or you'll get colored batter. The cake will still be a small bit doughy around the strawberries because of the moisture, but its not too bad and it's barely noticable. If you want to fix this, maybe leave the cake in a little longer than suggested but keep checking the consistancy after every few minutes so you don't overbake.

Red, White, and Blue Breakfast Cake

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 generous cup fresh blueberries
1 generous cup fresh strawberries, sliced or halved
1/2 cup milk

Topping:
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter or margarine

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.
2) Cream softened butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg.
3) Place blueberries and strawberries in an additional small bowl and dust with a small amount of flour mixture. Toss to coat.
4) Add remaining flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed butter mixture, mixing after each addition. Gently fold berries into batter.
5) For topping, mix flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly.
6) Spread batter into a greased and floured 8 in. square baking dish. Sprinkle topping over batter. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until topping is golden brown and toothpick comes out rather clean. Cut into squares and serve warm.

Serves 9

Who Makes Tiramisu Without the Alcohol?

2007-07-03T06:48:00.000-10:00

For a friend's birthday a couple months ago- yeah that's how behind I am. I chose to make a chocolate tiramisu cake (because that is one of her favorite desserts). But when I got into the recipe, I found that it didn't call for any alcohol! What? That's the whole fun of tiramisu! (I'm a big fan of the Tiramisu at Bucca Di Beppo that is so alcohol laden that you get up from the table almost feeling tipsy.) So I decided to experiment.

I added about a shot (maybe more) of kahlua to the molten lava cake mix and a tablespoon of rum to the "frosting". I got this recipe from an All You April issue - and it was awesome! Not too rich for my tastes but it was for an 18 year old's birthday so some of them thought it was a little too rich and alcohol heavy. Maybe for an adult new years party it would be good, or you could omit the alcohol all together. I baked it towards the longer amount of time suggested so the outside of the cake was a little tough, like the crust of a brownie. For a softer cake and more molten inside, I suggest using the shorter end of the baking time window.

Rich Chocolate Tiramisu Cake

1 package (9.4 oz - I think mine might have had more) chocolate molten lava cake mix, prepared according to package directions (but not baked)
2 oz of Kahlua added to prepared lava batter
8 oz light cream cheese
1/4 cup strong coffee, brewed then cooled
2 Tblsn sugar
1Tblsn rum
White chocolate and dark chocolate for garnish

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-in springform pan and line bottom with parchment paper.
2) Pour prepared lava cake batter into pan. If separate fudge sauce packet is in box, squeeze sauce onto batter. (Mine did) Bake until just done, 25 to 30 min. Cool completely on a wire rack. Run a knife along inside of pan to loosen cake. Remove pan sides from cake and gently pull parchment to slide cake off pan bottom. (I just left mine on pan bottom for fear of breaking the cake)

3) In a medium bowl stir together cream cheese, coffee, sugar, and rum. Spread onto top of cake.

4) Hold white chocolate bar and dark chocolate bar over cake and using a vegetable peeler scrape shavings onto cake. If chocolate starts to melt stick it and the peeler in the freezer for a couple minutes. Refrigerate cake until ready to serve.

Gettig to know you....er me!

2007-06-22T06:28:00.000-10:00

Several weeks ago I noticed this interview meme on Cheryl's site and asked to be interviewed...and I feel bad for taking this long to answer it. But here it is...none the less...now take notes, cause there WILL BE a test! lol

1- What is the best and worst thing about living in Hawaii?
The very best thing? Everything! Well at least the environment/surroundings. I think Hawaii is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and about as close as you can get to heaven on earth. It has everything you could want from a snowy capped mountain, desolate desert area, to lakes, jungle, and of course the beach! I live for the water and because I grew up only 2 blocks from one of the most uncrowded, crystal blue beaches on the island, I'm spoiled and will not be able to survive very far from the ocean (which is why I'm moving to LA and not Idaho). Included in the surroundings are the people- the perfect mix of every culture brought together in paradise to make one big melting pot. And what comes out of the melting pot? Food! The selection here is mind blowing from authentic regional cuisine to unique local creations like the manapua (pork filled steamed or baked bun) and loco moco (see earlier post).

The worst is being on an island that is the most remote island (farthest from any large land mass) in the world. That means our gas and food prices are high (because they have to be shipped here). When I was growing up, my biggest complaint was that no bands that I liked ever made it out here, and that holds true today. A few of my many favorite musical groups have made a once in a lifetime appearance (to put on a concert here) but it's rare. I was a pop-lover (back in Jr. High) and I had to wait 8-9 years to see the Backstreet Boys live in concert. Other than that though, my complaints are minor. I get a little itchy to travel every so often, but I wouldn't change my HOME for the world!

2- Everyone is getting this question, just because I wanna know! If you were told that you could only have 5 foods and 1 beverage for the rest of your life - what would they be?
Hmmm...This is hard.

The first would have to be ice cream....this was always named as my favorite food growing up. But don't make me name a specific flavor. If I had to pick it would be one of these: Gold Medal Ribbon (from Baskin Robbins-simple never tasted so good), coffee fudge ripple, Birthday Cake Remix (from Cold Stone Creamery), or either Fish Food or that Oatmeal Cookie Batter with Chocolate chunks (from Ben and Jerry's).

The next food (I'm assuming I can name dishes as well) would be a perfect Waldorf salad with mixed greens, crisp apples, sweet grapes, crunchy candied walnuts, feta cheese, and a great dressing. My two favorite places for these salads are Dave and Busters and California Pizza Kitchen.

I would have to include my step dad's Eggplant Parmesan, that I have yet to perfect. He is Italian and his grandparents are from Italy. His recipe is a family tradition and I still haven't figured out how to slice the eggplant oh so thin that it falls apart in your mouth. Oh, so heavenly!

I would have to show my local side and mention my love for raw fish. Either as sashimi or in the local sea-salad poke, it is a great weakness of mine, and if I were to live on only these foods, I would have to have some protein somewhere. I love a nice cut of fresh ahi sashimi straight or on a ball of rice as sushi with a nice shoyu (soy sauce) based sauce to add a touch of flavor and saltiness. Seared is alright, but I could clean a plate of the raw sashimi in no time!

I have to name another sweet-since I am a dessert gal...and that would be chocolate anything. Actually, I would just eat it plain- but none of that white or milk stuff...that's too sweet for me to eat plain. Give me a semi sweet, or a 70% cacao dark bar of good quality chocolate that will soothe me with just a taste. Dark chocolate has me by the soul and it won't let go.

For a drink, I'm going to be practical and name something that is a necessity for the last food listed, milk. An ice cold 1 or 2% glass of milk is perfect to wash down a rich bite of Godiva. I grew up having a 'sip' of milk to calm me before I would go to bed at night as a child (I think it got started when my mother was weaning me), but ever since then I've had a love for this wholesome drink. And I could add this to my first choice in food (ice cream) and get a milk shake...another favorite drink of mine! Okay-for the record, if I wasn't being practical, and chose an alcoholic drink, I'd pick a Bellini with Chambord on the bottom.

3- If you got to work for the Food Network, what would your show be called and what would it be all about?
I not only love the Food Network, but I also love the Travel Channel, so it would be a mix of Samantha Brown's Passport shows, Taste of America with Mark DeCarlo, Giada's Weekend Getaways, and Rachel Ray's Tasty Travels. That's to say I would love to get paid to travel to different places and taste the local cuisine, review the areas, and learn about the cultures and their food. It wouldn't be as crazy as Bizarre Eats with Andrew Zimmerman, but I would like to step out of my comfort zone. It would also give me an excuse to travel and wander past the tourist friendly sights and get to know the people of the area. I don't know what it would be called though, maybe something like "Tasting the World with Anuhea".....hehehe.

4- Tell us your worst baking/cooking disaster, and your biggest success.
Well since this is so fresh in my mind, I'll share with you what helped to make my day yesterday so horrible. I had been given a bag of Chinese candied coconut and had wanted to do a variation of a coconut and lime cupcake including the coconut pieces in the batter and adding a little bit of coconut rum to the frosting. It was a great idea.....only, I decided to improvise on a recipe I found and instead of using 1 and 1/2 cups homemade yogurt, I used 1 cup and added 1/2 a cup of sour cream. I definitely learned my lesson. The cupcakes came out dense and almost rubbery and stuck to the paper cupcake cups when I tried to taste one. The taste wasn't bad, but the texture was and I was so upset that even though my fiance said he liked them and would eat them all...I had already wasted 2 1/2 cups flour and 1 1/2 cups sugar and would not waste more to attempt and fail at frosting as well. Though I've added too much butter or too little sugar in other baking experiments...disappointments like these are as bad as they get and I haven't had a huge "disaster" yet (knock on wood).

When I cook (since I've only been doing it for about a year now), everything that goes right feels like a giant success because I'm so new at it, but then it also feels like I shouldn't take credit because I'm just following directions. I think one of my biggest successes was when I made crepes for the first time (that's a post that will come in a few days). From what I heard, it was hard to make the paper thin pancakes, but I found it amazingly easy. Another thing I was exceptionally proud of was my Black Bottom Apple-Banana Creme Pie since I made that recipe up myself and it tasted so amazing.

5- You work in the travel industry, what has been your favorite place you have ever visited, the worst? And where would you like to go that you haven't?
Every place I have visited has a special place in my heart. It's because I tend to fall in love with the things that make that place unique. I have had the luxury to travel at least once a year growing up, and it's hard to pick a favorite. I really enjoy Mid-California where I spent a couple weeks with my fiance last year strolling around Carmel by the Sea, exploring wineries, biking in Monterey, and riding roller coasters on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I also love playing in the snow in New England, mountain cabins in Georgia, horse back riding over rolling hills in Wyoming, and all the beautiful National Parks I've seen like: Grand Canyon, Zion, Yellowstone, Sequoia, Grand Teton, Yosemite...to name a few. I really love the beauty and culture I found in Australia, and though it was only for a little over a week, I explored rain forests, held a koala, took in the amazing Sydney Harbor, and ate crocodile. Other fabulous out of country destinations I have been are: Bali in Indonesia, Tijuana in Mexico, and Sweden and Denmark (when I was five- so I don't really remember). I can't say I've had a worst place...there are good and bad things everywhere, but what really saddened me the most was the living conditions in Tijuana. (I was there 3 different times to do mission work and build houses with my high school youth group.)

I would want to visit Alaska, the Caribbean, South America....to name a few. But the thing I most want to do is tour Europe. I would love to spend a couple months just exploring France, Italy, England, and most of all Scotland and Ireland. I love foreign accents (they make me melt), and to be immersed in so much beauty and culture would be a dream of mine.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEW MEME
1. Leave a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. Beware, I'm not shy of asking personal questions! Please make sure I have your email address.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Cream Liquors

2007-06-17T13:55:00.000-10:00

I love alcohol that doesn't taste like alcohol, and some of my favorites are the cream liquors. I'm sure you are all familiar with Irish Creme and some may know the delish new flavors Caramel Creme and Mint. Not many people know of the following though, and I hope that they will become favorites of yours as well.

Amarula Cream liquor is a unique drink that is made from an African tree fruit called the Marula fruit. It is harvested and made into marula wine which after two years is mixed with fine cream to create this rich, succulent, and sweet aperitif. It tends to be a little pricey (selling for a little under $30 for the bottle shown), but if savored it can last you a while; this particular bottle lasted me about a year and a month. Once refrigerated it can stay good for two years and alcohol content is 17% or 34 proof. It is wonderful alone, in mixed drinks, over ice cream, and with other desserts. I definitely recommend trying this exotic treat!

Take a look at this cute video that shows what happens when the wild African animals consume the fruit. It really happens!

This pretty pink drink on the rocks is none other than Tequila Rose, a creamy strawberry flavored liquor. Another drink that's perfect alone, mixed, or in desserts, this is a mix of strawberry creme liquor and tequila. It tastes just like strawberry creme, and you can't even tell there is tequila in it! The alcohol content is 15% or 30 proof and it lasts awhile as well (refrigerated of course). The Tequila Rose company also has Java Cream and Cocoa Cream products as well, but I haven't tried them. This a perfect girls night out/in drink, but my fiance can't say he doesn't enjoy it as well. For any strawberry fan, try some of this, you'll be hooked!

Here are some posts that I'm working on that will be put up soon:
Strawberry filled crepe recipe
Chocolate Tiramisu cake
Mele Mac cupcakes
Maui Tacos Restaurant Review
The Willows Restaurant Review
The Original Pancake House Restaurant Review

Using Up Apples

2007-06-17T07:00:00.000-10:00

If ever you have too many apples, just look for recipes online. They are such a versatile fruit and bake so well! Here are a couple things that helped with my apples.

These Almond Apple Bars were something I saw on several foodie blogs and I had to try it. The bottom crust of almond flavored shortbread-like cookie was nice and crunchy and contrasted with the creamy cheese layer. I don’t think I used enough cream cheese, but it was still very good with the soft cooked apples and nutty almond topping. It was very crumbly when I cut it though and I lost a lot of the topping.

You can find this recipe for apple bars at Alpine Berry's blog.
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This next dish, a rich apple pudding pie was first made in the fall/winter and my fiancé and I both fell in love with it. It is a mix between a streusel crumb topped apple pie and a warm bread pudding. I highly recommend this as a comfort food, but only if you have people to share it with…because I know how easy it is to consume with only three people.

Apple Pudding Pie
Adapted from a Better Homes and Gardens Recipe

Ingredients:
1 unbaked 9-in pastry pie shell
3 eggs
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup fat-free vanilla yogurt
1/2 a cup granulated sugar (or 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup sugar substitute Splenda)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 slices bread cut/tore up (about 3 cups)
2 medium apples (I used Braeburn or fuji)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 AP flour or whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons margarine

Directions:
1) For crust, line unbaked pie shell with a double thickness of foil. Bake in a 450 degrees F. oven for 8 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for 4 minutes more. Remove from oven. Reduce oven temp. to 350 degrees.
2) For filling, peel, core, and slice apples. In a medium mixing bowl stir together eggs, applesauce, yogurt, granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon. Stir in bread and apples. Set aside.
3) For topping, in another mixing bowl stir together 1/4 cup brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in nuts. Pour filling into the prepared pie crust and sprinkle topping over filling. Cover edge of crust with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 30 minutes more or until top is golden and fruit is tender. Serving suggestion, serve with vanilla ice cream.

Makes 8 servings

This Place Has Soul - Dining Out Review

2007-06-14T07:03:00.000-10:00

I have never been to Cuba, or had Cuban food (except for maybe a homey version of Cuban Chicken), so I couldn't wait to come here and expand my horizons.

Inside the tiny restaurant are maybe 10 tables with chairs and a bar, enveloped in deep earthy red, gorgeous and funky artwork, and high ceilings. Some of the tables are bar tables with tall rattan chairs that give the casual feeling of being out doors at a tropical Cuban cafe. There are many different art pieces including several different brightly colored renditions of Mary, and bold paintings of an African feel. On two televisions on opposite sides of the restaurant are black and white slide shows of personal pictures of Jesus Puerto, the owner and founder of this restaurant.

His story, written out on the backs of the menus, is nothing short of amazing. It tells of his dream of owning a restaurant getting crushed when he was diagnosed with spinal meningitis and told that he would either die, or lose his sight or hearing. Miraculously he recovered and set out to do various volunteer work to make something of this life he was grateful for. While spending time in the Peace Corps he worked with various restaurants which eventually gave him the skill and drive to realize his dream of starting a restaurant. This is his second location, his first being in New Haven, Connecticut.

While we were eating, a nice group played live music and after asking for suggestions, played our request of Santana's "Smooth". I wasn't facing the window, and after a few drinks the guitars and ambiance had transported me to somewhere completely different.

We began the meal with drinks, a Mojito for my dad (that was too strong for my taste) and an enjoyably fruity El Presidente for myself. We also ordered the Soul Sampler as an appetizer. This came with 'Deviled crab', fried crab meat in a crispy shell; Emapanadas, one beef and one veggie; and some 'Camarones Bailando' or dancing shrimp marinated in a Cubano-chinois sauce (not pictured). We each had our favorites, mine was the empanadas drizzled in a slightly sweet sauce, my father enjoyed the crab, and Randy is always the shrimp lover.

We each ordered different entrees promising to share. I saw many things on the menu that came with some type of fruit relish and I love the idea of a sweet fruity sauce on a savory entree. I had my eye on the Pollo Soul de Cuba (that I had heard great things about), but because someone else wanted it I went for the fish cooked with the fresh mango salsa served over white rice with black beans and fried bananas. The fish had a good flavor and though I was really excited about the mango salsa, I was dismayed to taste the strong flavor of cilantro. As some of you may know...cilantro is my nemesis, I can't stand the flavor, so I had to hand this dish over to my father. It was fate too because both the other dishes were awesome! My favorite part about my plate and everyone else's were the fried bananas. They were so amazing, crispy on the outside and sweet and soft on the inside. I thought it was such a clever plate garnish.

Randy got the Pollo Soul de Cuba, and the plate was just as bright and colorful as mine was. His entree consisted of a breaded and fried chicken breast topped with a beautiful salsa of mango, guava, pineapple and rum. Though the salsa was delicious and gave texture to the dish, the different flavors didn't stand out against one another, but blended in a sweet relish. I thought that because it was fried it would be oily and fatty, but instead it was good and crisp. Each dish came on a bed of fluffy moist rice that was way too much for anyone to each but gave a nice background for the colors to pop out on and soaked up the juices and flavors nicely.

The dish my father ordered was (I think) the fricassee de pollo, another chicken dish that included chicken marinated and sauteed in green peppers, onions, and Spanish olives and stewed with spices. This meat had the best flavor of all the dishes despite the lack of tropical fruit. It was moist and a bit oily, but very tasty with a nice golden color. We took this dish home, but it was savored the very next day.

For dessert we indulged and got two dishes and a dessert drink. The drink was made from one of my favorite liquors, Amarulla, a creamy sweet drink made from the African Marula fruit tree. The drink was silky and satisfying, and though it was pricey I would recommend trying it at least once. My dad got a key lime cheesecake slice that was tart and rich, and Randy and I shared the guava empanadas. The empanadas were warm and had a smooth and sweet filling of guava puree, but I wish there had been more filling, or a bigger empanada. It came with plantain rum ice cream that was barely sweet but very refreshing. Neither flavor (banana or rum) really popped out, and that was a little disappointing.

The prices for dinner are pretty reasonable but I think I would come back for lunch instead. It was a nice experience with the combination of the great service, exotic ambiance, and live music. I would recommend this place to anyone who is curious about the Cuban experience.

You'll Get Pie in the Sky...

2007-06-13T07:22:00.000-10:00

Summertime really is time for pies. I mean my mother didn't cook much, and as I was growing up, the only real time I had pie was around Thanksgiving, but lately I've seen pie recipes blooming up all over! I guess for you people on the mainland, that's because spring and summer is berry season, and what's better for pies than berries...right? But here in Hawaii, it costs us at least 5 dollars for a tiny pack of fresh blueberries, and since we have all these tropical fruits here, we don't really go with the berry/pie craze like people on the mainland do.

With that said, I don't think I have ever tried strawberry pie. A restaurant here is famous for them, but when I went there to try it, they hadn't made any because it wasn't strawberry season (see how much I know about berries?!). So before I could replicate my sub-par trip to try it, I cam across a lovely recipe at Claire's blog, Cooking is Medicine.

Because I gave you the link above, I'll just let you go to her site to get the recipe, but she not only gives you the recipe for the pie, but for the crust as well (unfortunately my crust was pre-made)! I LOVED this pie and won't be going to any restaurant to have a strawberry pie, for I am a firm believer (even though I've tried just this one) that THIS is the best strawberry pie EVER! I loved the lightness of it and I did use diet 7-up, though I can't remember if my jello was sugar free. Anyways, for a great lip-smacking summery treat, try this recipe. I might just do it again because Costco has a big sale on strawberries!
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For a Savory Pie....

I turned to my Better Homes and Gardens - 75 Years of All Time Favorites cook book I found at a garage sale (so far it's supplied DELICIOUS recipes). This recipe debuted in the magazine in 1974 and though it doesn't use very many fresh ingredients, it still tastes amazing. I tinkered with it a big, and the recipe you see below is my finished product. I can see this becoming a favorite in a family with kids, but we didn't have to have kids to mark this as a repeat! Let's just say in a family of three, I was looking forward to having some as leftovers, but by the time I got home from work, it had disappeared!

Spaghetti Pie
Ingredients:
6 ounces packaged dried spaghetti
2 Tblspn. margarine
1/3 cup (or more) grated Parmesan cheese
2 well beaten eggs
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped green bell/sweet pepper
1 cup (7 1/2 oz can) tomatoes, cut up
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
dash of salt (to preference)
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1) Cook the spaghetti according to package directions; drain (should have about 3 1/4 cup cooked spaghetti). Stir margarine into hot spaghetti. Stir in Parmesan cheese and eggs. Form spaghetti mixture into a "crust" in a buttered 9 to 10-in pie plate.
2) In a large skillet, cook the ground turkey, onion, and sweet pepper until meat is brown and vegetables are tender. Drain well. Stir in the undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, oregano, garlic powder, and salt. Heat through.
3) Spread cottage cheese over spaghetti mixture in pie plate. Top with the meat mixture. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degrees oven for 20 minutes. When done baking, sprinkle mozzarella cheese over top and bake 5 minutes more, or until cheese on top melts.

Makes 6 servings

What to do with Jack Sparrow? Cover him in ice cream and smother him with more rum!

2007-06-13T06:50:00.000-10:00

I just thought I'd share with you an idea for dessert using the Jack Sparrow Rum Cake (from a previous post). Now this is a dessert guaranteed to knock your socks off; not at all a dessert for the kiddies or the light-weights.

I have made bananas (and pineapple once) foster several times, enough to know that it would be amazing with vanilla ice cream and this already rum heavy cake. So unless your smart enough to stay at home when eating this, you might truly take a....

Walk Off the Plank Bananas Foster Dessert
Ingredients:
2 Tblsp. butter (I use margarine or low cal butter- not like it helps much in this recipe)
4 bananas, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup dark or spiced rum (I like using Captain Morgan Tattoo Dark rum)

Vanilla ice cream

Four generous slices of Pirates of the Caribbean Rum Soaked Cake

1) Melt butter in skilled over medium heat. Add brown sugar and stir until dissolved.
2) Add bananas and cook 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
3) Pour rum over bananas. Using a match, carefully ignite liquid, basting bananas until flame dies out. (You don't have to ignite, just pour the rum over and baste)
4) Pour bananas over one slice of cake and vanilla ice cream in individual serving dishes.
5) Make sure you're seated when you enjoy! :)

Serves 4

I got to use my pastry bag and tips!

2007-06-07T07:55:00.000-10:00

I used this recipe to make mother's day cupcakes last month, but I would definately make it again. I gave these cupcakes to everyone, and everyone liked them! I used box mix and a store bought frosting (to use it up), but I bet if you made it from scratch, it would taste a lot better.

I followed the recipe on the back of the cinnamon swirl cake mix box for an orange cinnamon swirl cake, and improvised with the Duncan Hines (?) cream cheese frosting adding triple sec liqour. The non-sweetened orange rind curls on the top were a nice bite of bitter flavor amonst the sweetness of the frosting. The cupcakes themselves were very aromatic and smelled deliciously of cinnamon, orange, and cream cheese. (Oh and I liked this cream cheese frosting much better than the betty crocker one). The cake was very moist and fluffy and I enjoyed eating and giving these cupcakes!

Cinnamon Orange Cupcakes with Tipsy Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
1 Box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Cinnamon Swirl cake mix
1 1/4 cup orange juice
2 tsp grated orange peel
Vegetable oil and eggs as called for on cake mix box
1) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pan.Make, bake, and cool cake as directed except use orange juice instead of the water and add 2 tsp of grated orange peel.

For Frosting:
Just add 1-2 teaspoons triple sec liqour slowly to one container of Cream Cheese Frosting (I used Duncan Hines) and bit by bit, stirring after each addition (to make sure the frosting doesn't get too liquidy.) Color frosting with equal (I used a little more yellow than red) amounts of yellow and red food coloring. Shave small curls of orange rind for decoration on top of cupcakes.

This is a funny picture of what our orange turned out looking like after using curls and zest for the cupcakes:

**Please check out a new post I made (and had saved as a draft) on 05/24/07 about yummy pasta dishes**

The Mainland's Take on Chinese Food

2007-05-28T06:28:00.000-10:00

I had read a poor review in a newspaper (I don't remember which one) about P.F. Changs shortly after it had opened, and it lead me to a good point. Why go to a mainland-owned Chinese chain restaurant when we are much closer to China and have great authentic local Chinese cuisine? But my co-workers (both originally from the mainland) wouldn't stop raving about how much they loved the P.F. Changs on the mainland and how they were glad it finally took up shop here in Hawaii. On top of that, one of them gave me a gift card to the restaurant for my birthday. I had no plans to go this restaurant until I was given the opportunity to decide for myself which hype to believe.

(Sorry for the pictures, I wasn't prepared and only had my camera phone on me-I will put in more photos from elsewhere)
If nothing else, the inside of the restaurant is beautiful. The color scheme is great, done in bright and warm hues that match with the golden light coming from Asian lanterns. Separating the bar area from the rest of the restaurant are large blown glass figures strung on poles that look to me like giant vertical beaded necklaces. We sat as far away from the entrance and outdoor dining area as possible in a booth.

(From the Honolulu Advertiser)
Our waiter was pleasant enough, though nothing to rave about, and we decided on an appetizer to split while we sipped on a Reisling (Randy's choice) and Gewurtstraminer (my choice). The wines were great and went well with our appetizer choice, Seared Ahi Tuna. The description the menu gave was that the tuna was rolled in Chinese spices, wok seared, and served cold with spicy mustard. This was the best dish by far, and the tuna was cooked great leaving the inside with a nice sashimi texture, though it may have worked better if they were warm instead. The generous drizzling of the mustard could have been lighter, but the flavors went well together and were balanced nicely with the sweet wines we had ordered. It came with a little sprout salad which Randy didn't care for, and I felt indifferent about.

(Seared ahi)
I should stop here and make a point about the bugs. As soon as our dishes were placed in front of us, the bugs came. I did happen to mention that we were as far away from the open seating as possible in the restaurant, but the bugs came anyway. They were irritating little flying things, sort of like fruit flies, that would buzz around our plates and faces. I found this very unfavorable as I have eaten in countless restaurants both indoor and outdoor and have not had this problem (maybe a few normal flies, but only when I was truly outdoors). We told the waiter and he asked us if we would like to move, but where would we have gone? Closer to the outdoors and the flies? He mentioned it might be because of the trash they put out and it left me thinking that they should keep better control of their trash so as not to bother diners.

For and entree we shared the Cantonese Roasted Duck (something that I had been wanting to have-Duck with plum sauce, but was having a hard time finding it on local Chinese menus). The duck was served with steamed wheat buns, cucumbers, scallions, plum and hoisin sauces. The buns were good, and the duck had an alright flavor, but was too try for my personal liking. The cucumbers and scallions were good garnishes, but the sauces weren't to my liking. I had tried plum sauce at The Elks Club before, and liked it much better. This version didn't have the sweetness I so enjoyed from plum sauce.

We got a vegetable to accompany this main dish and decided on Coconut Curry Vegetables. The dish was a mixed vegetable dish that was stir fried with tofu and peanuts in a coconut curry sauce. To me this dish tasted more Thai then Chinese, because of the peanuts and curry. Though it was pretty good, the coconut flavor didn't really come out and this was a dish that we couldn't eat too much of because the flavor got tiring (do you know what I mean?). We had to take it home and I ate it the next day.

(from Waikikinews website)
I think what I enjoyed most about the restaurant was the large Chinese stylized horse statue out front- that is to say I probably won't be returning. I am grateful for the giftcard and chance that I had to try this restaurant out, but even with the card, we paid a steep bill for the mediocre meal we had. My friend has dined twice there and said though the first time was below average, the second was great and changed her opinion about the place. Too bad for me there won't be a second time. This just goes to show that my reviews are my personal opinion and you never know how things are gonna go until you try it yourself! With that said, I think the flies should have helped with the bill because they enjoyed it more than us.

In honor of Jack Sparrow...

2007-05-25T06:36:00.000-10:00

Last night I made a rum cake in the honor of the new movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Unfortunately I didn't go see it, but the cake was good! Maybe I'll go today. If anyone knows the first two movies, Jack Sparrow is always wondering why the rum is gone, and now I know! 'Cause I put it all in this cake!

I didn't take a picture, but as I was looking for photos to accompany this recipe, I came across a Caribbean product called Tortuga Rum cakes. In the movies, Tortuga is the infamous pirate-run island that Jack visits many times (evident by his many lady friends there). Not only does it exist, but it makes rum cakes!

I first tasted this particular recipe at church and being the cook/baker I now am, asked my mother to get the recipe from the lady who made it (she knows almost everyone at the church). I finally got it, but to my dismay, it just listed ingredients and a few steps- leaving out several things. So I made it up as I went and it turned out very well. The cake is soft and moist, and the soaking sauce gives it a feel somewhat like the tres leches cake (as the bottom is soaked through with the rum sauce). The rum sauce called for 1 cup of butter, but I reduced it, and you could reduce it even more if you wanted. Also it maybe would get denser and more soaked if you left it overnight. Another thing about the sauce, it is VERY rum heavy in flavor, you may want to reduce that as well since it doesn't get cooked out. But I liked it!!!

The Pirates of the Caribbean Rum Soaked Cake
1 box butter pecan cake mix
1 package (4 serving) instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs well beaten
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark rum (I used Meyers)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional-I didn't put these in)

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bundt pan with pam spray or butter. Sprinkle nuts on bottom of pan evenly.
2) In large bowl mix all ingredients with an electric mixer until well combined. Scrape bowl occasionally. Pour into prepared pan.
3) Bake for 38-40 minutes (I did for 38 minutes-this kept it very moist on the inside and outside). Cool for 5-10 minutes in pan.

For Rum Soaking Glaze:
3/4 cup butter
1/4 cup of water
1/3 cup sugar (I used partially Splenda)
1/2 cup dark rum

1) Melt butter over medium heat. Stir in sugar and water, bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in rum. Once cooled, poke top of cake (while still in bundt pan-so technically it will become the bottom) with fork or knife all over, 1/2 in from each other. Pour rum sauce slowly over top, allowing it to soak into cake. Let cake sit a couple more minutes before inverting onto serving plate.

I hope this recipe works well for you! Have a piratey day!

Italian at Heart

2007-05-24T16:59:00.000-10:00

I love pasta and most Italian food but unfortunately I don't eat it as much as I'd like for fear of the deadly carbs. When I do, I like it interesting full of yummy add-ins like veggies. Here are a few pasta dishes I made in the last few weeks.

This dish was discovered on a fellow foodie blog, and it's called Drunken Pasta. Now WHO can resist a name like that? I followed the recipe and minimized the salt, but at the end, found that I needed to add more. I guess it's better than having too much salt by putting it in throughout the recipe. Alongside is a sugar snap pea salad with onions and lemon. You can find the recipe for the pasta here.

For a deliciously light and healthy pasta dish with shrimp, I found this great summer recipe in a Good Housekeeping May 2006 issue. It is chock full of fresh veggies like asparagus, carrots, and snow peas, plump pink shrimp, and a surprisingly light cream sauce. The only problem I found was getting the sauce to reach all the noodles and ingredients, it tended to sink to the bottom of the serving dish, so make sure you toss well, or continuously.

Pasta Primavera
Ingredients:
1 package (16 ounces) medium shell or bow-tie pasta (I used spiral/rotini pasta)
4 medium carrots, sliced diagonally into 1/8-inch-thick slices
2 cups broccoli florets (half a 12-ounce bag) and/or 2 cups 2-inch pieces asparagus (8 ounces)
6 ounces snap peas or snow peas, strings removed, or 1 cup frozen peas
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel
Salt and coarsely ground black pepper
1 pound uncooked frozen or fresh shelled and deveined large shrimp, with tail part of shell left on if you like
3 plum tomatoes or 2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 cup loosely packed mixed fresh herbs such as basil, mint, dill, and/or parsley leaves, coarsely chopped

Directions
1. Heat large covered saucepot of salted water to boiling over high heat.
2. Add pasta to water in saucepot; heat to boiling over high heat. Cook pasta 3 minutes. Add carrots, broccoli, and snap peas to pasta; heat to boiling. Cook pasta and vegetables 3 minutes longer. Remove 1/2 cup pasta cooking water; set aside. In colander, drain pasta and vegetables; set aside.
3. In same saucepot, heat cream, lemon peel, reserved pasta cooking water, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to boiling over high heat, stirring occasionally. Add frozen shrimp and cook 5 minutes or just until shrimp turn opaque throughout. (If using fresh shrimp, cook only 2 to 3 minutes.)
4. Add pasta and vegetables to shrimp mixture in saucepot. Add tomatoes and mixed herbs and toss to combine; heat through.

Yes I know the Muffin Man...

2007-05-23T16:46:00.000-10:00

Hello all, ready for some more delayed and belated recipes? I love muffins, and always like experimenting. Several weeks ago I was browsing through my recipes as I always love to do, and found a lemon poppy seed bread recipe. I had just bought some poppy seeds and decided to give it a go, but I wanted personal sized servings, so I instead turned the bread into muffins. Because I used the same recipe, the muffin was more dense and less moist and fluffy than regular muffins, but they still were very good. I got inspired by another food blog to put half a strawberry in each before baking but wasn't prepared for the surprise explosion that resulted in holes through the top. They were still tasty and I look forward to modifying the recipe someday.

The next muffin is now famous throughout the food blog circles. It is called the Snickerdoodle Muffin but now affectionately renamed The Refund Muffin. Peabody, being the most amazing baker she is, originally posted these delectable muffins. To everyone's shock, someone had the audacity to write Peabody saying that it was a horrible recipe and they wanted a check for the money they spent making it!! I am now submitting my official approval that these muffins are THE BEST and that person was completely out of their mind! Peabody deserves all the credit for these muffins so please visit her site for the recipe. They were moist, cakey, and tasted exactly like the beloved Snickerdoodle cookie. My whole family adored them!

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I must post another recipe on here that fits the "breakfast" theme. It is a great recipe of a dish I see popping up in every cooking magazine, Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes. These are made with a chunky blueberry sauce and are very healthy, not to mention delish! The ricotta taste didn't stand out but kept the dish soft with almost a creamy texture inside, and the blueberry sauce had just enough sweetness.

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons canola oil divided (I used extra virgin olive oil)
3/4 cup fresh or frozen (not thawed) blueberries

1) Whisk whole wheat flour, AP flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and nutmeg in a small bowl. Whisk ricotta, egg, egg white, buttermilk, lemon zest and juice in a large bowl until smooth. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.
2) Brush a large nonstick skillet with 1/2 tespoon oil and place over medium heat until hot. Using a generous 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake, pour the batter for two pancakes into the pan, sprinkle blueberries on top of each pancake, and cook until the edges are dry and bubbles begin to form, about 2 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes more. Repeat with remaining oil, batter, and berries, adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent burning. Keep finished pancakes warm in a 200 degrees F oven if desired, while cooking the rest.

Makes 4 servings, 2 pancakes each

Chunky Blueberry Sauce
(good on yogurt, ice cream, or cottage cheese)
2 cups fresh or frozen (not thawed) blueberries
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Stir together blueberries, honey, lemon zest, and juice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, at least 15 min. Let cool for 10 minutes; serve warm.

Viva Mexico!

2007-05-20T11:20:00.000-10:00

Cinco de Mayo was so much fun, and VERY tasty and I'm sorry I took this long to post it. I made a beef (using turkey) taco skillet, baked tortilla chips, and my first ever Tres Leches cake. We had yummy margaritas too, and I love Mr and Mrs T Margarita mix.

I pulled this recipe from a magazine, it was part of a Campbell's add. This was super easy to make, and so amazingly delicious, we all LOVED it!

Ranchero Taco Skillet

1 lb ground turkey
1 can Campbell's tomato soup
1/2 cup salsa (I used a peach pineapple salsa of medium heat that gave each bite a hint of sweetness)
1/2 cup water 8-9 small corn tortillas (or 6 six inch flour tortillas), cut into one inch pieces (strips or triangles-I did both)
1/2 cup (or more) cheddar cheese (or mixed cheese blend, I used cheddar and Monterey Jack)

1) Cook turkey in large skillet until browned, stirring to break up meat. Pour off fat.
2) Stir in soup, salsa, water, and tortillas. Heat to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 min. Stir, and top with cheese. Makes 4 Servings.

I made my tres leches cake from a recipe I found on the website "Diana's Desserts". There were two different was to make a topping for the cake, and I chose to make the whipped cream topping instead of the Meringue. This cake was very moist and the texture of the milk soaked cake reminded me of tiramisu. It was a little difficult to measure because I wanted to third the recipe since I really didn't need or want 9-12 servings hanging around. I used a small loaf pan for the cake and it turned out fine. You can find the recipe here.

These are My Obsessions

2007-05-17T12:08:00.000-10:00

I have been in a love affair that has lasted almost a year in a half now, and whenever I am near them I just melt into pure bliss. Who, do you say gives me such heavenly pleasure? It's not who, but what.....Dates. I am in love with these natural candies of the dessert and buy them whenever possible. I have tried a couple different brands, but my heart belongs to Sunsweet Pitted Dates. Just biting into one makes me feel relaxed and almost as if I am in a dessert oasis with the warm breezes caressing me as I savor the sugary goodness of each succulent fruit.

My new favorite snack and way to eat them is dipped in or stuffed with just the right amount of cream cheese. This is how I first tasted dates and was amazed by the contrast of the sweetness with the rich creamy flavor of the cheese. You need to try this, all of you, and discover why I ate 12 of them in a row when I got home from work yesterday!

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Another new beloved addiction of mine has become Caribou Coffee Granola bars. They taste like dessert, but are only 140 calories. I have tried the mocha, caramel, and the mint. These are granola bars made by General Mills, and they are just amazing. Each bar has the aroma and taste of coffee, complimented by the chewy and crunchy granola and accompanying flavors. The top is drizzled with a flavored "icing" of sorts, and the bottom is dipped in dark chocolate studded with ground coffee beans. The Mint Condition flavor smells like coffee and has a hint of coffee taste, but truly tastes like a bar version of mint chocolate chip ice cream. So if you're on a diet and are missing the sweet flavors of those coffee house Frappuccinos, pick up a box of Caribou Coffee Bars and never miss out again!

Texas Time and Splendaville- Dining Out Reviews

2007-05-15T10:22:00.000-10:00

I'm sorry I don't have pictures of my own, but I thought I needed to do a couple small reviews to clear the backup of posts I have waiting to go up. In the last couple weeks I have been to several places including these in posts to come: P.F. Changs and Soul De Cuba Cafe.

Molly's Smokehouse- Texas Style BBQ, Wahiawa
Randy the fiance is from Texas and ever since the sad close down of Deb's Soul Food in Kailua, we had been looking for a southern food place to chow down at. When I found this restaurant online and read the reviews, I immediately put it on my list of places to go, but because it was way out in Wahiawa, it had to wait for a day trip to the North Shore. We went a couple of weeks ago, late morning, with our stomachs prepared and eagerly rumbling. To my surprise the place is sit down and though it boasts southern hospitality, the dining room was rather sterile and plain to me. The one standout addition was the large black meat smoker outside, in the front of the diner, that released smoke with a savory aroma.

Photo of Sweet Tea from Chowtimes.com
We wanted to try a bunch of different things (including the kolaches that had been written about in several newspapers), so we ordered a combo plate of spare ribs and brisket that came with sides of cole slaw, corn bread, baked beans, and corn on the cob. We also ordered an extra side of fried okra, and 3 kolaches "to go". To drink, we shared a large sweet tea. The first to come out was the warm corn muffin, and though we were splitting the meal, it would have been nice if they would have given us two without us having to ask. The cornbread was average and the sweet tea was perfect in Randy's Texas opinion, but too sweet for me; so much so that I had to water it down. The good thing about it was that there was free refills!

When our meal came, we were ready to eat. The meat smelled good and had a good flavor. I liked the smokiness of the beef brisket, but didn't care much for the ribs. I love BBQ sauce and unfortunately this sauce was too spicy for me. Actually I was expecting the meat (especially the brisket) to be a lot more tender and fall apart, but it was tough and because of this, I didn't really like either entree. Randy agreed that they weren't as supple as the slow cooked brisket he had at home, but he still loved it. The sides were my favorite, I liked them better than the meat. I guess that's because I'm not a southern girl. The corn was average (it would have been nice if it had been Kahuku corn), but the cole slaw was fresh and not too soupy, it had the perfect amount of the sweet cole slaw dressing. The fried okra was really great, I hadn't had some if so long and I think it might have tasted better with some sort of a ranch dip. My favorite side was the baked beans that were both sweet and savory, and went very well with the corn bread muffins.

Of the kolaches, I really enjoyed the pulled pork. I had never had a kolache before and though the flavoring of the meat was different (and WONDERFUL), the bread texture and slightly sweet flavor reminded me of a baked manapua. The sweet kolaches on the other hand (we got blueberry and cream cheese) tasted like a bun version of those prepackaged danishes you can get at gas stations and continental breakfasts. Because of this, they didn't stand out to me as something I would order again.

Would I come back? Probably only for the savory kolaches, and only if I was out at that side of the island to begin with.
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Sweet Nothings Bakery
Randy and I have discussed many times the possibility of the military (or some other organization) tapping our brain and stealing our brilliant ideas. This happened first with Randy's idea of different kinds of butters made out of seeds and nuts (like peanut butter). And sure enough there is now sunflower butter and cashew butter (I think). With the advent of Splenda, the baking sugar substitute, I thought it would be a great idea to make a sugar-free bakery that offered sweets accessible to people with diabetes or on diets. And sure enough, today I discovered a bakery called Sweet Nothings.

This bakery located less than a block away from Ala Moana sells only sugar-free items (except for a couple of soft drinks) including some commercial candies and snacks that are sugar free. Made in the bakery are pies, cakes (including cheesecake), chocolate dipped strawberries, turnovers, muffins and cookies. Along with this spectacular line up were napoleons of puff pastry filled with a generous piping of luscious white cream and several flavors of chocolates that are (of course) sugar free.

Randy and I were so interested in what the items from this shop would taste like (since I use Splenda a lot at home), that we had to order a couple things. The products are a little more expensive than their full-calorie counterparts but we didn't mind too much. He ordered an eclair and I ordered a raspberry pinwheel. The raspberry pinwheel was an adorable shape, made out of crispy pastry dough and filled with a tart raspberry jelly like filling. There was also a really sweet drizzle of icing over the top and I couldn't tell at all that it was sugar-free at all! The eclair was light and airy and the chocolate was sooo good, very dark and sinful. The cream filling was so creamy and flavorful, and I only detected a hint of Splenda. It seemed like the entire flavor of the pastry was focused on the flavors of the eclair rather than sweetness that often comes with pastries.

You guys should definately go check this place out!

Some Banana Lovin'

2007-05-13T06:14:00.000-10:00

A couple weeks ago, it was my step-mom/Godmom's birthday. And every since I was little I have remembered that she loved banana cream pie. If ever we were at a restaurant and she felt like dessert, that's what she would order.

Now that I am cooking and baking I thought it would be a great surprise to show her that I remembered that. I found a recipe I liked on Recipezaar, but I wanted to make it my own, so I incorporated her other favorite, DARK CHOCOLATE. I came up with a dark chocolate bottomed banana cream pie, and then put ANOTHER twist on it by using apple bananas (shorter, more tart version of a banana). And then, I decided this really need to be a banana cream pie, not just a cream pie with sliced bananas, so I mashed in a banana with the homemade cream pudding.

Everyone RAVED about it. Unfortunately it had been refrigerated overnight with the whipped cream on top so it was oopy goopy when we tried to serve it, but it tasted heavenly. Here's the recipe for you to try:

Black Bottom Apple-Banana Creme Pie
Makes 6-8 Servings

3/4 Cup sugar
1/3 cup AP flour
1/4 tspn salt
2 cups milk (I used skim)
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 Tblspn butter or margarine
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 ripe, large banana
4 firm apple bananas
1 graham cracker or Nilla premade pie crust (or 9 in baked pie shell)

Favorite Ganache recipe

tub of cool whip or whipped cream to garnish

1) In a saucepan, combine sugar, flour, and salt; stir in milk and mix well.
2) Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil; boil for 2 minutes.
3) Remove from heat. Stir a small amount of cream mixture into egg yolks to temper them; return all to saucepan.
4) Cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly; remove from heat.
5) Add butter and vanilla; mix well so that butter melts, and allow to cool slightly. Mash 1 regular banana and mix well into cream mixture.
6) Make ganache, allow to cool and pour and spread over pie shell so bottom and sides are covered. Slice the apple bananas and place evenly over the chocolate in pie shell. Pour cream mixture gently over bananas.

7) Cool in refrigerator until more stable. Before serving garnish with whipped cream or cool whip, an apple banana slice, and a shake of cocoa powder.
8) Refrigerate any leftovers...but I can promise you there won't be!

A Quick Recap of April Recipes...

2007-05-09T07:48:00.000-10:00

I am so behind in this thing its not even funny. I'm afraid though, that if I post something new, nobody will read the older posts...so don't forget about them. There are some lovely other posts in this blog, including a GREAT one about CHEF MAVRO.

I am just going to post some pictures of some great recipes I tried towards the end of April. And as you can see, I changed layouts...hope you folks don't mind...I wanted more room for pictures and with the other layout I had to squash them significantly.
This is a photo of Apple Cider Stuffed Pork Chops with Apple and Cinnamon Raisin (the homemade bread I made) Stuffing. The plate on the left shows the inside of the pork chop and the plate on the right shows it smothered in that saucy dressing. This was really an outstanding recipe and the apple cinnamon raisin stuffing was just sweet and savory and perfect with the flavor of the chops. I only made two pork chops that night which is why my gravy was so chunky; I made the full amount of stuffing.

Pork Chops with Apple Stuffing
4 Boneless pork chops
6 Tblspn butter or margarine, divided
1 medium onion, chopped
3 slices cinnamon raisin bread, crumbled in large bread crumbs
1/2 a lagre apple, peeled and chopped (can use pears too...that might be good)
3/4 tspn salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup water
2 Tblspn all purpose flour
1 cup apple cider

1) Cut pockets in chops, set aside. Heat a large skillet over medium heat; add 3 tablespoons butter. Add onion; saute until tender. Remove from heat. Add raisin bread, apple, salt, pepper, and egg; mix.

2) Spoon stuffing into pockets, reserving 1/4 cup. (If your pockets cut all the way through, secure unwanted holes with toothpicks.) Secure pockets with toothpicks or kitchen twine. Heat a large heavy skillet over medium heat; add remaining butter.

3) Add chops to skillet and cook for about 3 minutes per side. Add water. Cover and simmer, turning once, over low heat for 30 minutes or until chops are tender. Remove chops, keep warm.

4)Blend flour into skillet drippings. Stir in cider and reserved stuffing. Cooking, stirring continuously, until thickened. Serve over chops.

Serves 4

These were my birthday pancakes. Regular pancake batter with shredded apple and pear in the batter. With a little bit of Spiced Apple Butter on top, these were heavenly!

This was another amazing dinner (I'm always still surprised when something I cook turns out great). It is Apricot Chicken and next to it is the Double Corn Cornbread Muffins from Peabody's site. This meal was another one both sweet and savory and the slow cooker made the chicken just fall apart on my tongue; heavenly!

"Super-Easy" Apricot Chicken
Adapted from the Magazine "All You"
Ingredients:
12 or more (I probably used 16) dried apricots
8 medium chicken thighs (about 2 1/2 lbs)
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbspn unsalted butter
2 Tablspn vegetable oil
1 onion, sliced
1 cup chicken broth

1)Rinse apricots and scatter them in a slow cooker. Pat chicken dry; season with salt and pepper. Melt butter in oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook thighs until golden brown (3-5 minutes per side). Brown in batches to avoid crowding skillet. Arrange over apricots in slow cooker.
2) Pour off all but 1 Tbspn of fat in skillet. Add onion and cook until just soft, 2 to 4 minutes.
3) Add broth to skillet; turn heat to high. Bring to a boil, loosening browned bits stuck to pan from chicken.
4) Pour contents of skillet over apricots and chicken. Cover and cook on low heat for 4 hours (or high heat for 2).
5) Carefully transfer thighs to a serving dish (they'll tend to fall apart easily); cover with foil to keep warm. Pour remaining contents into a saucepan. Boil, stirring often until reduced and thickened, about 10 minutes. Pour over chicken.

Serves 4
Per serving: 380 cals, 23g fat

I also did a half recipe of the famous Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes for a bunch of birthdays (not mine) that were around the middle/end of April. These are great, not too sweet and the Nutella makes a great frosting. I'm assuming everyone loved them, but I only heard from Randy who managed to eat the first one. Almost every food blog recipe site has this recipe posted, but you can find a version of the recipe here: BakingBites

The Long Awaited Chef Mavro Post also known as The Best Meal of My Life

2007-05-03T16:55:00.000-10:00

For those of you who don't live in Hawaii, I pity you. For those of you who do, and have not yet made it to Chef Mavro, I pity you as well. I hope that all of you at one time in your life will get to experience that which is the Magic of Mavro. For those of you who have been, with you I share this precious secret and I hope that your experience was in every way as wonderful as mine.

This restaurant is located on king street, right around the corner from a gay bar, and in the company of such restaurants like Jack in the Box, and mom and pop local food walk ins. This is very literally, a diamond in the rough. You'll know by the many month long waiting list and valet only parking that this is not a place to wear your beach clothes to. This is quite possibly the fanciest restaurant in the state and has been voted by Fodor's as one of the top ten restaurants in the world. It has also been named by Gourmet Magazine as the one place you should go if you had only one night in Honolulu. I was so excited about going, I could hardly sit still and the entire time I dined, I could NOT wipe the stupid smile of anticipation and childish delight off of my face.

Inside it is cozy, maybe less than 20 tables, and it is decorated in deep warm hues of rose, mauve, and pumpkin with splashes of green foliage against a stark white. The windows are frosted in an abstract design, preventing diners from seeing the average bustling street outside, and transporting them to a place where tastes are the main event. During the course of the evening, we were never once left ignored by a waiter as there were 5 different waiters attending to us throughout the night. They were very accommodating, polite, gracious, and everything a server should be. They were knowledgeable about the food, where it came from, how it was prepared, and about every wine that was paired with our courses. They said their knowledge came from the menu trial when the chef would cook up all the different menu items, and then as a staff they would taste several different wines with each dish and vote on the best pairing. These was never a moment that our water glasses were empty and it only took a few breaths before our cleaned plate was taken from before us.

Each season the Chef comes up with a new menu that features a 3-course, 4-course, and 6-course price fixe menu. There is also a possible Chef's Table dinner that features every single item from all the price fixe menus in an 11 course tasting dinner in miniature quarter portions. Wines are paired with each menu and since it was my birthday and the dinner was a gift from my dad (God Bless him), I did as he said and took the opportunity (that I may never have again) and splurged. Let's just say, the bill was well over $400 for my fiance and I; but it is something I will NEVER forget.

The first thing to arrive at our table was an amuse bouche of cool carrot soup with creme fraiche topped with a sprinkle of cumin powder on the top. This was served in an adorable little shot glass with a thick straw to "slurp" it up (yes they instructed us to slurp at a fancy restaurant). This was creamy and the tiniest bit sweet and the cumin gave a great kick at the end. Let's just say it was VERY slurpable. Another thing about the restaurant, each dish comes with a new plate and all the courses come previewed and paired with a lovely wine. (except the amuse bouche and palate cleanser)

The first "course" was a Beignet of Oyster flavored with Garam Masala, served with White Gazpacho, with a Tomato and Fine Herbs Relish. The gazpacho was a bit salty and I tried to figure out what it was..cauliflower perhaps. Whatever it was had a creamy texture, almost like a bisque, and the light drizzle of oil and crisp diced cucumbers on top balanced the flavors wonderfully. A beignet is usually a French doughnut found in New Orleans, but this wasn't sweet at all and the outside almost had the texture and look of a hush puppy. Inside was a warm juicy oyster that slid down my throat with aphrodisiatic passion. The relish beneath the beignet was made with tomato and herbs and maybe even some onions and tasted similar to the saltiness of lomi lomi salmon (a Hawaiian salmon salad dish with similar relish ingredients). The wine served with this was one of my evening favorites, it was a Cuvee Anne-Laure, 2005 Gewurtzraminer, from Alsace France. It was sweet but not overly so, and it went well with the oyster flavor.

For the second course we had Spiced Bigeye Ahi seared, with a Salad of Sumida Watercress, Hearts of Palm, Red Radish, and Garlic Watercress-Essence. This was one of my fiance's favorite dishes. The seared outside of the fish was dusted with curry powder that unless you put it in your mouth just right, overpowered the sashimi taste of the raw-melt-in-your-mouth-like-butter ahi. Eventually I got it right. There was a green pesto(I really should have taken notes instead of relying on my memory but I was so intent on savoring every moment that I didn't want to cloud it with worrying about every tiny flavor) and though I'm not a big watercress fan, I rather enjoyed the salad. The wine paired with this dish was a Grof Degenfeld, 2004 Muscat Lunel Tokaji, from Hungary.

This meal was full of firsts for me, including my first time having Foie Gras. This course featured a Foie Gras Wrapped in Nori, Yuzu Kanten topped with a Ruby Grapefruit-Korean Pear-Shizo Pickle relish, and garnished with a Brioche Crust. Now the foie gras (said the waiter) was prepared in a slightly untraditional way (my stupid memory forgot what was the difference), but I was very surprised how much I enjoyed it. The nori wrapped around it gave it a slightly fishy taste that I didn't care for after a while, but the flavor and richness of the foie gras was incredible. It literally tasted like a meat version of butter and disintegrated likewise on my tongue, melting away in indescribable goodness. Yuzu Kanten was something else I had never tried and it was a jelly like substance that was very sweet and sour. It had a strong flavor and went well with the foie gras. The brioche was nothing more than a light crisp and gave a little crunch to the dish. The wine with this was a very sweet Dr.Pauly Bergweiler 2005 Riesling, from Mosel-saar-ruwer, Germany.

Course number four was a Day Boat Catch (sorry-blanking out), Fish Chicharron infused with Anise Seeds, Fricassee of Baby Fennel, Zucchini, Maui Onion, Lemon Thyme and a Greek Aioli. This was my least favorite of the two fish dishes (the next one coming up), its taste wasn't one I preferred and the texture was a bit like scallops. Though I don't love garlic, the sauce went well with fish and the vegetables underneath were some of my favorites. The fricassee of Fennel was a little bit salty, but tasted wonderful and the fish skin was crisp and interesting. The wine with this was a Chateau de Tracy, 2003 Pouilly Fume, from Loire, France.

I loved this fish dish! It was a Confit Hamachi Escabeche with Baby Carrot, Turnip, Shallot, Marinated with Coriander, Garlic, Thyme and Chervil, with Fried Celery Leaves topping the dish. I have discovered that I adore ANYTHING confit, tomatoes, duck, etc., they are all so flavorful. In this case, the fish was in an acidic sauce that complimented the tiny mushrooms and vegetables perfectly. The fish fell apart when I cut into it with my fork and the crispy leaves of celery tasted delightfully like celery with a light-salty chip like taste. The wine that paired with this was a Black Bart, 2005 Marsanne Kabinett, from the Stage Coach Vineyard in Napa.

The last seafood dish was a Keahole Lobster a la Coque with Sauteed Leeks, Garlic Shoots, White Asparagus, Avocado Mousse, and Star Anise Lobster Essence. Ironically I liked the green parts on the plate better than the lobster, though I am not huge on lobster and crab. To eat this dish you had to pull the meat out of the shell. It was very good and the fun lobster foam gave an interesting addition and deflated in my mouth. The reason I loved the vegetables and avocado mousse was the very obvious lime flavour that came out in both dishes. It was a great contrast to the buttery lobster flavor with sharp citrus notes and the different textures of smooth mousse and slightly crunchy sauteed vegetables. The wine served was one of the sommelier rare wine selections, of a Domaine Paul Pillot, 2004 Chassagne Montrachet, from Burgundy France.

This was my second favorite dish and my fiance's favorite. It's funny because usually I would prefer duck (though I've only had it a few times) and he would fall for the beef. This outstanding course consisted of Roasted Sonoma "Canette" Duckling, with Gingered Baby Beets, Kumquats, Beet Tops, and Citrus Duck Jus. This was so amazing with a warm (as opposed to bright or sharp) citrus taste that was deeply sweet and came from the kumquats (another first for me). The sweet flavor of the beets really matched the citrus well and the warm, thin, tender strips of duck were a perfect marriage with the fruit salad. The small strip of skin attached to the duck gave a great texture to the meat. The wine was another sommelier rare wine selection of a Vincent Girardin, 2002 Pommard 1er cru "les epenots", from Burgandy France.

This course was without a doubt, the star of the night. It was indescribable in flavor and consisted of Snake River Farm Kobe-Style Beef, as Roasted Bavette and Braised Short Rib, Pancetta Brussels Sprouts, Truffle Accented Celery Root Puree, and a Pinot Noir Sauce. The short rib (pictured on the right) was juicy and was beautiful in flavor with the pinot noir sauce. In the center of the photo are the brussel sprouts, something ELSE I had never tried, and I liked them and the saltiness from the pancetta brought out the flavors in the beef. The BEST part is pictured on the left and consisted of a slow cooked cut of beef that fell apart in my mouth with the most seductive flavors imaginable. It sat upon a celery root puree and had a garnish on top that only furthered the incredible taste it had. The rare wine paired with this is a Jordan 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, from Alexander Valley California. Lets just say I could have eaten this dish for the ENTIRE meal, and it brought me to a savory version of a chocolate mouth-gasm.

This was my other least favorite dish (that's not to say I didn't like it) but I don't particularly like the flavor of lamb itself. I let the waiter know about my aversion to this meat and though he said it was a cut of lamb that had less of the intense flavor, he would substitute a different dish if I didn't like it or didn't want it brought at all. But what kind of foodie would I be if I didn't take daring steps into the unknown. This was a dish of Roasted Mountain Meadow Lamb Loin with Spiced Green Olives, Chickpea Puree, and a Confit of Big Wave Tomato. I guess this was the chef's take on a Greek/Mediterranean inspired dish with the chickpea (hummos like) puree, lamb, and olives. The sharp olive flavor and smooth subdued chick pea flavor helped me to enjoy the lamb more than I would have if I had eaten it by itself. I saved the tomato for last and it was so soft, juicy, and sweet-savory from being cooked for 14 hours to perfection. It left an amazing taste in my mouth that went well with the rare 2002 Lalande de Pomerol wine from the Bordeaux region of France.

Sorry the picture is so dark. The last savory dish was a Big Island Goat Cheese Mousse with Fougasse Croutons, Granny Smith Tomato Marmalade, Basil Essence, and a Baby Greens Bouquet. This mousse had a very strong flavor that my fiance didn't particularly care for, but I liked when it was paired with each flavor in the plate. There were flecks of herbs in the mousse and the wafer thin croutons sandwiched it insuring a crunch in every bite. I loved the sweetness in the marmalade and it took away some of the unfavorable flavors of the Goat Cheese. The wine paired with this was a red wine of Tardieu-Laurent, 2001 Saint Joseph Vieilles Vignes from France.

This palate cleanser came in a small chilled glass bowl and consisted of four fresh and juicy watermelon balls suspended geometrically in a champagne jelly with miniscule strips of mint. It was light and very refreshing.

Here were the three wines served with dessert. From the left we have my other favorite wine from the evening, a Coppo 2002 Brachetto D'Asti from Italy. It ironically was a wine that I had bought from The Wine Stop, a small wine boutique shop where I often go for tastings. I had bought it around Valentines day to save and open on my birthday. The nose is pure strawberries, as is the taste, light, sweet, and bubbly. The middle wine is from Blandey's, a Malmsey Madeira, aged 5 years from Portugal. It had a sweet spicy flavor that went well with its food pairing (to come). That final wine on the right was a 1995 Layon-Chaume, from Chateau Roulerie in the Loire region of France. It was very aromatic and sweet, and tasted a bit like a sherry I have, but stronger and richer with deep flavors of caramel and fig.

The first two (of many desserts) are shown here. On the left there is the Cherry Clafouti resting in an Orange Blossom-Almond Milk topped with Hawaiian Vanilla Infused Creme Fraiche. On the right is an adorable Lilikoi Malasada (the Chef's specialty dessert) with Guava Coulis and Pineapple-Coconut Ice Cream. I had never had Clafouti before though I have encountered countless recipes for various fruit variations (including a cherry one). It had the texture almost of a bread pudding, though softer, and there was a sweet brittle on top. The milk it was soaking in was lightly flavored with almond and only faintly sweet and balanced out the tart tang of the cherries. Malasadas are a Portuguese doughnut fried and rolled in sugar, that have a less cakey inner doughnut texture. This mini Malasada had a filling and flavor of Lilikoi (a tarter version of Passion Fruit), though not as much filling as I would have liked. The sweet guava sauce balanced out the likikoi and tart-sweet pineapple of the icecream. This was a perfect harmony of all the tropical flavors I love.

The other dessert on the menu was a White Chocolat-Raspberry Parfait accompanied by Chocolate Marshmallow, a Dark Chocolate Ganache Sauce, and an Orange Crisp atop the White Chocolate Parfait. This was my favorite dessert and though I didn't care much for the marshmallow (it was fine, I just wanted all the parfait) I adored the white chocolate raspberry and traded my portion of the marshmallow for Randy's bites of the raspberry partfait. The parfait was a carefully constructed log of mousse like white chocolate filled with a tart raspberry filling. This tart and mild sweetness was wonderful with the dark rich chocolate of the ganache. I savored every moment of this bite. According to Randy the marshmallow was denser than commercial marshmallows and had a very subtle chocolate taste.

This is not a good picture of the things to the right of the chocolate dessert which were complimentary candies: a Caramel, rose flavored Turkish Delight (I had never had this before), and two Dark Chocolate Truffles. The caramel wasn't intensely sweet but was milkier, the turkish delight was unbelievable in flavor and had a texture that was a mix between chichi dango mochi and jelly/gummi candy, and it dissolved in my mouth with a touch of rose. It was funny because as I was eating the Turkish Delight, I kept thinking of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, "This way for your num nums.." The chocolate ganache truffles were positively sinful and tasted like the ones I made for Valentines day with Chambord, but without the raspberry flavor. Randy said that the ones I had made were better and though I am in love with Chef Mavro's cuisine, I would have to agree. I liked the truffles so much that I wished that I had saved them, to be the last rich taste in my mouth as I left. While I was in the bathroom, Randy mentioned this to the waitress and when I returned there was another set of the truffles to fulfill my wishes.

As an additional birthday treat, the waiters brought out an Opera Gateau Cake like dessert with a candle, and though they didn't sing, it WAS a surprise. I was having such a great time I had forgotten I was in a real restaurant and that restaurants do special birthday things. It was good but nothing like the other desserts and my favorite part of it was the dark chocolate topping. The only thing that could have made the night better would have been to meet the master behind all the culinary magic, but he had left the building earlier in the evening. I don't blame him...it took us an entire 3 hours to finish this meal. I LOVED it! Just to sit back and go through this adventure that changed with every course and left me breathless. I didn't check the clock once, and by the time we left I was pleasantly full and just a bit tipsy. Let's just say I will remember this my whole life long and it was one of the best birthdays EVER!

I'm Such a BrownieBabe!

2007-04-28T16:51:00.000-10:00

I have to say...events are fun...especially when I've made something already and I can just post it! I wanted to find a way to use up all the leftover Easter candy we had, and brownies were a perfect way!

This event is hosted by Myriam at Once Upon a Tart, and because I LOVE chocolate, I couldn't pass it up!

I used the bakers unsweetened chocolate recipe from the back of the box, modifying it a little by subbing some of the sugar for Splenda and adding some whole wheat flour. I also put in some vanilla centered Hershey kisses and chopped chunks of a Cadbury dark chocolate bar (see previous Easter candy post).

Triple Chocolate Brownies with a Hint of Vanilla

4 squares Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
2 cups sugar (Or 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup baking sugar substitute-I used Splenda)
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
About 3 oz coarsely chopped semi-sweet chocolate
1 to 1 1/2 cup of vanilla centered Hersheys kisses

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Line 13x9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Grease foil.
MICROWAVE chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour; mix well. Mix in kisses and chopped semi sweet chocolate. Spread into prepared pan making sure chocolate additions are spread evenly around pan.
BAKE 30 to 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgey crumbs. (Do not over bake.) Cool in pan on wire rack. Remove brownies from pan, using foil handles. Cut into squares. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.

NOTE: Because I used whole wheat flour, I got a few small grainy pieces in the brownies, but once I realized what it was it didn't affect the taste, and there wasn't that much of it. Also, you can add whatever "stir ins" you want but I don't like nuts in my brownies, just a bunch of chocolate! The fudgey-er and richer, the better! These weren't as rich as I'd like (they would be perfect who likes an average density brownie), but I loved the dark chocolate chips and the hidden surprise of vanilla in every few bites. Let's just say they were so good I had to give most of them away because my fiance and I started inhaling them!

Waiter there's something in my...BREAD!

2007-04-24T06:30:00.000-10:00

This is my first blog event ever...hooray for me!
I made my first ever rising bread with yeast, and I am pretty happy with the results. Andrew over at Spitton Extra announced the theme for this round as bread, and because I hadn't made REAL bread before, the task loomed before me. I found a couple recipes (one to follow) that would use this Healthy Cinnamon Raisin Bread, and got to work!

Mostly Whole Wheat Raisin Bread
(adapted from BakingBites formerly Bakingsheet)

1 Tblspn active dry yeast (1 package)
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/4 cup buttermilk, room temp. (I had none so I added a tspn of lemon juice to regular milk)
1/4 cup of honey (I used a bit less)
2 tspn salt
2 1/2 tspn cinnamon
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups AP flour
2/3 cup raisins
1 tspn sugar

Up to 1/2 cup AP flour while mixing/kneading

Directions:
1) In a large bowl combine yeast and warm water. Let stand 5-10 min until foamy.
2) Mix in buttermilk, honey, salt, cinnamon, sugar, and whole wheat flour. Stir well.
3) Gradually mix in AP flour by hand (or with a wooden spoon) until dough pulls away from sides of bowl.
4) Put out on a lightly floured surface, adding flour as needed to prevent it from sticking, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5-7 more min. (Original recipe note: It wont get quite as smooth as breads made with other flours, but it will still be a bit stretchy.)
5) Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with first plastic wrap, then hand towel. Let stand in a warm area for 1 1/2- 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
6) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
7) Turn bread out onto a lightly floured surface and gently beat to deflate. Shape into a rectangle, than form a "log" by folding short ends into the center and pull long ends up and pinching them together. (Or just mold dough to desired loaf pan shape.)
8) Place dough seam side down into a greased 8 x 4 in. loaf pan. Let ride for about an hour until volume has nearly doubled again.
9) Bake at 375F for 35-40 minutes until outside is golden brown and crispy.
10) Remove from pan and cool completely before slicing.

Makes one loaf

Note: My bread came out a little dense at the bottom but I think that was because I didn't let it completely cool before cutting into it; I was too excited to taste! I find that turning on the dryer and placing the bowl with the unrisen dough near the area that gets the warmest from the dryer's heat, helps my dough to rise quicker. Also you don't have to use your hands to do the mixing, but since you'll be kneading with your hands anyway, I find it best and faster than using a spoon. Also I get to feel like some Medieval peasant.

And of course I couldn't just enjoy the bread by itself, I HAD to make something with it. Not only did I use it for the Apple-Cinnamon Raisin stuffing in some pork chops last week, but I also made a French Toast Strata for breakfast!

This was so good, like a bread pudding for breakfast. Because it was made with Splenda, it wasn't too sweet, but it got an extra kick of sugary goodness from the fresh sliced apples. There were also bits of cream cheese, a hint of rum, and a bunch of sprinkled cinnamon on top! The tasty recipe can be found here at the Splenda website.

Its my birthday and I'll eat if I want to....

2007-04-20T06:22:00.000-10:00

Yep....my birthday has arrive, well actually it was yesterday...and I turned the big 22! I had to go to school and work but I had an interesting time eating wise.

For breakfast my fiance and I invented these apple cider pancakes that included shredded apple and pear topped with apple butter....SO GOOOd-and healthy.

For lunch we went to Ruby Tuesday (Okay, so now I'm so over that place and probably wont go again). I had a coupon for their tall cake (with ice cream) if we bought an entree so Randy got the triple prime burger (you know the one they keep advertising in commercials) but it didn't taste too special to me. In fact the burger at Nicos Pier 38 is so much better! I had the salad bar, which went alright at first but I discovered a sharp and hard piece of plastic in the cottage cheese. That turned me off, maybe forever, and I'm glad they didn't make us pay for the salad bar. Now we took the tall cake home, and I was disappointed to find that it was an average chocolate cake with average chocolate butter cream filling, with average chocolate and caramel sauce, and average vanilla ice cream. Do not be fooled by chain restaurant desserts that look amazing, because chances are that they're not.

I came home to discover some Papa Beard cream puffs that my dad had been given, Randy and I had one each and froze the rest. For dinner I attempted my favorite dinner that my mom used to cook for me when I was little. Pork Chops with Tomato Rice Casserole. I substituted and added a few things and it came out just as good, if not better! I also made a broccoli casserole thing that was similar to a broccoli cheese bake we have around thanksgiving. We had special wine I had bought and my 2 person cake from cold stone for dessert, but I was tired and didn't want to waste the special-ness, so we will have it on Saturday. I instead had another cream puff...and was proved yet again that everything is better (or just as good in a different way) frozen!

THE WHOLE REASON FOR THIS POST IS TO BRAG! I get to go to Chef Mavro tonight (named one of the 10 best restaurants in the world by frommers, or fodors, can't remember which)!!!!!! I will be having their 11 course tasting menu where everything is small portioned and paired with wine. It will be quite an event!

One other great meal I'm looking forward to is the champagne brunch I will have on Sunday morning....but I'll tell more about these later! Have a good weekend folks!

Good Morning Star-Shine...

2007-04-18T17:24:00.000-10:00

The Earth Says Hello!

50 monopoly dollars to anyone who can tell me where the above quote comes from! This post is all about breakfasts...that get you out of bed and into the dining room.

The first breakfast on our list is something I made on Easter morning. It's called a Boca Sausage Skillet, made with soy protein boca sausages. This is really good and before you get all scared over using a meatless product, try it. In this skillet it tastes like real sausage because its mixed in with so many things. You can find the recipe here. It is supposed to serve 6 but it only served 4 people at my house because some of the guys HAD to have seconds. I made a few modifications to the recipe. Instead of using egg product, I used actual eggs, I added chopped plum tomatos, and I stupidly forgot to add the cheese at the end. This is almost like a breakfast pizza and it tasted really good with ketchup on it!

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The other breakfast food I made can also be eaten as part of a light spring/summery lunch. It is a chilled fruit soup that I saw Paula Deen making on the Food Network. The recipe is simple and the presentation is adorable, you can even add a little strawberry on top of the cour cream dollop for a bigger "cuteness factor".

Paula's Fruit Soup
Ingredients:
2 cups coarsely ground cantaloupe
2 1/2 cups fresh strawberries
1/4 cup seedless green grapes
3 cups coarsely chopped apple
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup orange juice S
our cream, for garnish
Orange rind strips, for garnish

Directions:
Combine cantaloupe, strawberries, grapes, apple, sugar, water, and lemon juice in a large Dutch oven; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Pour half of fruit mixture into blender. Blend until smooth. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Add orange juice to fruit mixture, stir and chill.
Spoon into bowls, garnish each serving with a dollop of sour cream.

Flavor/Taste Notes: It tastes almost like a smoothie but not as cold, and with a more complex flavor, considerably more texture, and less of a creamy/milky feel. It also reminds me of other cold soups I’ve had like vichyssoise, but a fruit version. I could taste and feel the apple’s texture, and the flavors of the strawberry and grape really came out. Randy’s comment was that “it tastes kinda like applesauce”. The lite sour cream gave a cool creaminess to whatever bite it seeped into.

Midterm Tomorrow

2007-04-16T17:53:00.000-10:00

So this is how I spend the night before a midterm is due....avoiding it by talking about food. Hehehe. Anyways, just thought I'd make an amendment about my Jackie Chan's Kitchen post and say that I've found a BETTER batch of Sweet Potato fries at Ryan's Bar and Grill at Ward Center. The fries (though more expensive) are not too salty and have a special Jamaican Jerk Spice blend on them. These sweet potato fries also come with a dipping saucy that is creamy with a kick....an appetiser that goes perfectly with any fruity drink. My poison of choice...a combo of two of my favorite drinks, A Cosmo Bellini.

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I spent Saturday evening at a Caledonian Society event with my step mother tasting 5 different blends of Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky. The price range was from $25 dollars a bottle (I think) for the Red Label to $200 dollars for the Blue label. I actually prefered the Gold Label ($50 a bottle) to the most expensive Blue Label. It was smoother and had less of a bite going down.

Here's a picture of one of the members pouring the Blue Label:

Homemade Pizza, Two Ways

2007-04-16T17:23:00.000-10:00

I found a recipe for whole wheat pizza dough on a fellow foodie blog's site (can't think of whose at the moment-if it is you, please speak up), and proceeded to make two incredibly delicious (and healthy) pizzas over the last week and a half.

The first of them I stupidly deleted off my camera so I do not have the lovely pictures of, but I will give you the basic recipe gist. It was a tuna (yes-strange I know) pizza but it tasted like my mothers open-faced tuna melts, only on pizza dough. After rolling prepared pizza dough to desired size, take 2 small cans (10 oz) of tuna, 1/2 cup minced onion, 1/3 cup mayo (I used light), salt and pepper, sliced tomato, and 4-5 slices of American cheese. Mix the tuna, salt, pepper, onions, and mayo together, spread over crust. Arrange tomato slices in 3 rows leaving space between rows (for proper cooking I assume). Bake on 425 degrees F for 10-12 min. Cut American cheese into strips and place on pizza once done and let stand for 5 min so cheese can melt. We all loved this recipe!

Oooh...oooh....Randy took a crappy picture of it with his cell phone....its not that clear, but it's a picture nonetheless!:

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The other pizza was an improv. pizza that is supposed to be similar to a BBQ chicken salad. In fact I'm sure and improvement would be a drizzle of ranch dressing. I spread the pizza dough with BBQ sauce and topped it with canned chicken, a frozen southwestern veggie mix (broccoli, black beans, red bell pepper, corn), more corn, chopped tomato, and shredded cheddar cheese. This was SO GOOD, and my fiance couldn't keep his hands off it! I call it my Southwestern BBQ Chicken Pizza!

Eating on Saturdays

2007-04-16T16:08:00.000-10:00

The last two Saturdays I have made visits to two new eateries, The Patisserie and Lox of Bagels (on Kathy's recommendation).

The Patisserie
This diner/bakery is located in Kahala mall and is a bakery by day, but by night they feature amazing, hard-to-find European dishes. Honestly, the atmosphere/location/inside isn't much at all, but who can blame them, they are mostly a bakery for the mall's day shoppers. It is fairly clean and well lit with a humble row of tables and chairs pushed to one side of the wall opposite a large display case of the daily bakery specials. On the evening we went there was a selection of cheesecake, chocolate "rum cake", bakalava, a few fruit tarts, sacher torte, and a couple other things. I had been searching for a place where I could try some German food without paying an arm and a leg at The Chef's Table at Hawaii Kai. I am so glad I came across this place that has not only German dinners and pasta, but Hungarian Gulash (something else I've wanted to try-I AM part hungarian, after all). The menu was small, but well priced with all entrees below $21 and all coming with a salad and fresh baked assorted rolls and butter. Another great thing was that though they did not serve alcohol, there wasn't a corkage fee and we grabbed a bottle of wine from the neaby Longs.

The bread was hot and fresh, and very good. One of them (I only had a bite) was almost like a sweetbread but I didn't get to investigate further because it was devoured right away by the other members of my party. The salad was average, no fancy ingredients, but the dressing tasted significantly of ginger and was very pleasant.

I was quick to be adventurous and ordered the "Chef's Specialty" (as quoted on the menu) of Hungarian Gulash. It came with fettucini noodles, tangy red cabbage, steamed vegetables, and a fanned pickle on top of the meat. I don't care too much for spicy/hot food, but this was an exception. The flavor of the meat behind the spice was so good, I couldn't stop eating it. The noodles helped to take the heat away from my tongue. I may just be a wuss, but all I know is that my nose was running by the time I switched plates after eating half of it. I also enjoyed the cabbage which had a nice flavor and I finished not only mine, but my fiance's as well. I would recommend this to anyone who likes spicy food.

My fiance's dinner was the winner. I absolutely loved his order of Saurbraten and this is without a doubt what I will order when I come back someday. Now being ignorant, I always thought a "braten" was a sausage, but this was no bratwurst (which I haven't had either). There were 4-5 slices of beef flank that had been marinated in a red wine sauce with rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves, then stove-top braised (took this from the menu). It was served in the savory gravy created by its cooking and was accompanied by a dollop of sour cream, spaetzle (a wonderfully flavored Parmesan tasting noodle), veggies, and more of that cabbage. This meat not only tasted incredible-similar to the Osso Bucco I had at Ka Ikena, but the meat just fell apart in my mouth. It was so wonderful that my fiance didn't even want to give it up.

Now for the desserts! My fiance got the rum cake and I ordered the sacher torte. They were beautiful to look at, but unfortunately taste-wise they were hit and miss. The sacher was very good and the rich chocolate ganache layer on the outside and inside complemented the moist cake that was the body. Now I didn't know that Sacher is traditionally made with apricot preserves (so I may have tasted that) but the man behind the counter said it had raspberry, and I definitely didn't taste that. The mini rum cake didn't taste like rum whatsoever and the chocolate outer layer wasn't even a ganache as much as it was that tasteless outer layer of a Hostess HoHo. Inside was a thick paste that was hard to swallow that didn't even taste much like chocolate. It had the consistency and slight taste of azuki bean paste, only not as sweet and thicker. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture because the owner was rushing us out; it was the store's closing time. Something that I did get a taste of that I would like to try more of next time would be the Rahm Schnitzel, a veal sirloin in cream sauce; but I think I'll skip the desserts.

Lox of Bagels
I was excited to come to this bagel shop on Sand Island Access road because of the great review that Kathy (a Passion for Food) gave it when she was home for spring break. When we arrived there was a line (of 3 people) in front of us and the few tables and chairs inside were already taken. They have a WIDE selection of bagels from a Hawaiian inspired pineapple bagel, banana and walnut bagels, blueberry bagels, to a few different puffs (circular bagels with fillings). I decided that we needed to try unique things (not your average onion bagel) and proceeded to order a blueberry bagel danish, a peanut butter puff, a chocolate puff, a strawberry guava bagel (with guava cream cheese), and a cinnamon sugar bagel (with cinnamon walnut cream cheese). They were all out of the banana walnut which was my first choice, but eventually was glad I had picked the sweet cinnamon bagel. Another gripe I had was that they didn't even ask if we wanted ours toasted even though they were clearly toasting the bagels of the customers before us. We took our bagels to Ward Centers with a quart of milk, but we didn't even make it before we were tempted by the brown paper bags and had to pull out the blueberry danish bagel.

This was one of the better items, though it seemed a little strange to me. A deflated bagel ball (filled with cream cheese) was covered in cinnamon and sugar and had a good helping of blueberry danish filling in the deflated crater in the middle of the ball. This medley of flavors was a little too much for me I think. If it had been just the blueberry and cream cheese (maybe even the sugar-but NO cinnamon) I think I would have liked it better. But the flavor combination was somewhat more cacophonous and less harmonic. In the pastry's defense though, it was my fiance's favorite.

Next we tried the puffs. These are an ingenious idea and probably make bagel eating a lot easier (you don't have to deal with all the cutting and spreading). The first one I tried was the peanut butter puff that was plain bagel dough with a filling of cream cheese and melted peanut butter chips. This was really good, one of my two favorites in fact. Next time I have plain bagels I am definitely going for the peanut butter cream cheese combo. The two fillings hadn't mixed much, but they were softened and smooth when I took a bite. The peanut butter (I guess because of it being made with peanut butter chips) was slightly sweet and it almost tasted like something I would eat as a dessert. Being the chocolate lover I am, I was more than slightly chagrined in the chocolate puff. It seemed as if ordinary hot fudge or hershey's syrup was squirted in there with the cream cheese and I didn't care for this one much at all.

The bagels we had to save for lunch because we were so full on the first items. The strawberry guava bagel didn't taste like guava and the accompanying cream cheese wasn't much better. I thought that the pair would taste good together but the cream cheese didn't have much of a guava taste and it was barely sweet at all. I was disappointed in this and came to the realization that the philly commercial cream cheese with strawberry was tastier. The cinnamon sugar bagel turned out to be the right choice and other favorite of mine. The sweetness and flavor was that of cinnamon-sugar toast and the cinnamon walnut cream cheese went well with it (not being sweet in the least). I think that I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the banana walnut bagel with the cinnamon cream cheese because it wouldn't have been sweet enough.

Maybe my expectations were too high, or maybe I'm just used to more savory bagel options at home (onion bagels with plain cream cheese and lox), but I think it will be a while before I make a special trip out to this shop.

Delayed Easter Candy

2007-04-14T07:00:00.000-10:00

Okay here is my review/post on Easter Candy. And no, it didn't take this long because I have been eating for this long. It took my fiance and I no time to clean up the Easter spoils. Pictured above is my Easter Basket, lovingly prepared by my fiance. It holds many of my favorite goodies (minus dark chocolate): Whopper Robin Eggs, Reeses Pieces, Chocolate covered marshmallow (egg), peeps, and my most FAVORITE non-chocolate candy ever, Rasberries and Blackberries by Jelly Belly. Has anyone had these? They are amazing little red and black jellies (which are usually not my piece of cake) that have these flavors that are indescribable (Randy says they remind him of what really good smelling soap would taste like, but that just makes them sound bad). They are covered in sprinkles and remind me of childhood and candy stores.

I know you're all familiar with Cadbury Creme Eggs (personally not my fave, or even close), but what about Cadbury Chocolate bars. I finally got my missing dark chocolate from my step mom. She also gave us a bar of Irish Creme filled milk chocolate. As you can see we finished the milk off pretty fast. The little chocolate squares (to break off) were filled with pockets of ooey gooey irish cream that taste very much like the liqour. It was so good and surprisingly not THAT sweet. We tried to drink a little of the liquour with it and the REAL Bailey's Irish Cream was sweeter. Anyways, it was heaven. The dark chocolate was very good as well but we didn't use it all because I'm saving it to make a Easter candy cookie/brownie later. (I know I said I didn't have any left over but I was talking about the candy I couldn't keep my chocolate stained paws off. I'm stashing some vanilla filled kisses, regular kisses, the reeses, and 1/2 of the dark chocolate bar.)

I didn't have a lot of time and money to go out and buy a bunch of Easter goodies for my fiance, so I decided that it would be a lot more special if I made him some Easter candy. While he was sleeping on saturday (last), I melted some Nutella and milk/creme to attempt to make some dipping chocolate according to a recipe I found online. It didn't turn out like I wanted it to, smooth and silky liquid perfect for dipping like a regular dark chocolate would, but instead became kind of pastey. Maybe because of the nut-component. Anyway, I couldn't dip, but sort of ended up frosting the Nutella on with a spoon. It still tasted wonderful and I had trouble keeping my hands to myself after he had opened them on Easter.

My True crowning glory was peanut butter fudge. My fiance (and I) LOVE peanut butter and I decided to use some to make some fudge. Since I have only made rocky road fudge, I searched for a recipe online. Now the only peanut butter fudge I have had were from stores at malls and touristy places (on the mainland), and they were only tastes at that, but I was shocked at how much mine tasted like the real thing! The recipe was so easy and the fudge came out thick and rich, sweet and peanut buttery, just like store bought fudge. I got GREAT reviews on this and the only qualm I had was the amount of oil that appeared to be on the top once it had cooled. I tried to blot it off but not much came off...oh well, it didn't affect the taste at all!

Easter's Favorite Peanut Butter Fudge

Makes 30 pieces (I halved my recipe so we didn't have too much yield and get fat!)

Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter
2 and 1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
3 and 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Directions: Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and milk. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Pour over confectioners sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat until smooth, pour into an 8 x 8 dish or pan. Chill until firm and cut into squares.

Springtime Cakes

2007-04-11T15:56:00.000-10:00

This week was very eventful food-wise for me as you will be able to see from the next couple posts. My sweet tooth led me to try out a couple cake recipes that I have had my eyes on. The first was a kraft foods recipe that can be found here.

As you can see (or not cause I was too embarrassed to take a picture of the finished product before we cut into it) it didn't turn out to pretty. But I'm going to blame it on the fact that I was very tipsy/drunk, we didn't use store bought angel cake, and our knives are dull so the cake started to fall apart as I tried to cut it into layers. This is the way its supposed to look:

The cake itself is an angel food cake that I made from a box mix with a filling and topping of cool whip, crushed pineapple, and vanilla pudding mix. It was really sweet but very good and my taste-testers loved it. It was even better frozen. Not like that's a suprise though, becuase I like most of my desserts frozen. Here is the angel food cake cool upsidedown like it said to on the package. It looked kinda funny, expecially because of the alcohol in my system.

The second cake I had planned to try was a Carrot Cake Roll I made for Easter. It was my first carrot cake and my first roll cake and it could have turned out worse (but also better). I took half to my step-mother's Easter gathering and the other half to my mother's dinner (where I got to have half a piece). Taste wise it was wonderful. The cake was very moist, fluffy, and light. And the frosting was thick and rich (WAY better than store bought frosting). The top/outside is decorated with walnuts and mini carrot designs piped on with colored frosting. I took lots of pictures to document my first semi-difficult assembly cake. I didn't adapt the recipe much at all except for using some splenda and some whole wheat flour in addition to the normal ingredients.

Carrot Patch Cake Roll
Taken from Woman's Day 4/05

Ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (I used 2/4 cup ap flour and 1/4 cup whole wheat)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 large eggs, at room temp.
White from one large egg, at room temp.
2/3 cup granulated sugar (I used a little under 1/3 cup splenda and a little over 1/3 cup reg sugar)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 and 2/3 cup finely shredded carrots
Confectioner's sugar for dusting

FOR FROSTING
6 oz cram cheese, not softened
3/4 stick (6 Tbspn) butter, softened (I used 4 tblspns margarine, 2 tblspn butter)
2 and 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Green, red, and yellow food coloring

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
1) Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat bottom and sides of a 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 1-in rimmed baking sheet (or jelly roll pan) with non stick spray. Line bottom with wax paper; spray paper.
2) Have ready a medium or large fine meshed strainer or sifter. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl until combined.
3) Beat eggs, egg white, granulated sugar, vanilla and spices in a large bowl with a mixer on high speed for 8 to 10 in until thick and tripled in volume. Fold in carrots. Holding strainer or sifter over bowl, shake or sift flour mixture over egg mixture. With a rubber spatula gradually fold into eggs until just blended. Spread in prepared pan.
4) Bake 15 min. or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes or until pan is cool enough to handle.

5) Meanwhile lay a clean kitchen towel (not terrycloth) on countertop. Dust confectioners sugar evenly over towel, covering area the size of the cake. Invert cake on towel, remove pan, and carefully peel off paper. Dust cake with confectioners sugar. Starting at narrow end, roll up cake and towel. Place on wire rack, cool completely.

6) Meanwhile make frosting: Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl with mixer on medium speed until blended and smooth. On low speed beat in confectioners and vanilla until blended; increase speed to medium and beat one minute. Remove 3 Tblspn to a cup; cover and refrigerate remaining frosting 30 minutes to firm.
7) For carrot decoration: Spoon 1 Tblspn frosting from cup into another cup, tint green and scrape into a 1 quart zip top freezer bag. Tint remaining 2 Tblspn frosting orange using red and yellow food coloring. Scrape into another ziplock bag. Seal bags, refrigerate until use.
8) To assemble: Carefully unroll log. Spread evenly with 1 and 1/3 cup frosting. Roll up same end as before using towel as an aid. Carefully transfer to a platter, coat with remaining frosting and sprinkle with nuts. Rerigerate 20 min before piping carrots onto nuts. (I had a little trouble with the cake sticking to the towel, you might want to put a lot of powdered sugar on the towel especially towards the edges and corners)

9) To decorate: Briefly warm refrigerated bags of frosting between hands. Snip off corner of each bag and pipe carrots and carrot tops randomly on cake. Refrigerate until serving.

Serves 12

Mac N Cheese Chili and Banana Fosters in a Muffin

2007-04-06T10:17:00.000-10:00

Even though I will be making a lot more over the next few days: Manacotti, Angel Lush Cake, Carrot Cake Roll, Soup, etc. I wanted to post two successful recipes that I made this past week.

The first is from a Kraft Food and Family Recipe Magazine. I liked it a lot, it pairs two of my favorites: Mac and cheese, and chili, into a dinner that is only 370 cals per serving! My family liked it so much that my dad said I could make this every night of the week and he would be happy. It is really comforting and makes a hearty, filling meal with just a few steps.

Chuckwagon Chili Mac

Ingredients:
1 pkg (Kraft) Macaroni and Cheese Dinner

1 lb extra lean ground beef (I used ground turkey)

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 can (14.5oz) stewed tomatoes, undrained

1 can (about 16oz.) kidney beans, drained

Reduced fat or light cream cheese, for serving suggestion

2% milk shredded reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, for serving suggestion

Prepare Dinner as directed on package, using margarine or light butter and skim milk.

Meanwhile, brown meat with chili powder and cumin in large non stick skillet on medium heat. Add tomatoes with their liquid and the beans, ; simmer 3 min., stirring occasionally.

Stir in prepared dinner, cook 3 to 5 min more or until heated through, stirring occasionally. Top with dollop of sour cream and sprinkle of cheddar cheese.

Makes 6 servings.

**************************
I had a couple of bananas browning in my kitchen and I hadn't made banana bread or muffins in a while so I decided on a recipe card I had from a while ago for banana nut muffins. In the middle of making them, I had a quick idea that turned these into a healthy version of a classic dessert in a muffin.

Banana Fosters Nut Muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar (I used Splenda sugar substitute)
1 Tblspn baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup dark rum
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup mashed banana (my 2 bananas made a little more)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1) Preheat oven to 400 degreesF. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt into medium bowl; make a well in center.
2) Mix milk, rum, egg, oil, banana, and walnuts in a small bowl. Pour mixture into well.
3) Fold banana mixture into flour mixture just until moistened; do not overmix.
4) Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 15 min.

Makes 12 muffins

For optional drizzle: 1/3 cup cofectioners sugar and 1 Tblspn skim milk, stir together, add 1/2 tsp rum for flavor, stir until smooth, flavor more to taste. Drizzle over warm muffins.

Note: They turn out very moist and good for breakfast. These muffins have a profound rum taste but aren't significantly sweet; their muffins, not cupcakes. That is why I made the drizzle, but it doesn't do much. I will experiment by making banana fosters cupcakes sometime, but if anyone comes up with a recipe for that before I do, please share it with me!

Spring Break was Campy

2007-04-06T09:17:00.000-10:00

I love camping...it's just so much effort to set up everything, take down everything, and then unpack it when you get home. Especially if its raining when you set up and take down. Nonetheless, we had a good time camping last weekend for 2 days and 2 nights at the windward beachside location of bellows. And now that I'm a wannabe chef, it was fun to see what we could concoct on a camping budget.

The first night, as you can tell, it was raining and we had a little trouble completely cooking our beef kabobs. They were still delicious, so soft and tender, even though they were a bit rare in the middle. We paired them with mushrooms, bell peppers, sweet onion, and carrots. We had rubbed and marinated the meat in this special kona coffee meat rub my stepdad gave us (he is a Kona coffee roaster) and the flavor of the spices and coffee really came through after being cooked. We also had Jim Beam steak sauce for the cooked meat and some went on the rice that we had bought pre-cooked. For dessert we were going to grill bananas (in their peels) and put melted chocolate in a slice in the middle of the banana, and put it over plain mcdonalds icecream, but since it was raining we had to have the banana raw (which was still good). We also tried the McDonalds Haupia pie (like the apple pie but with coconut custard filling) and the filling was tasty, just like Haupia!

The next night we had friends over and Randy and I made Hobo Packs. I learned how to make these while camping with my highschool church youth group. You take any type of ground meat and combine it with your choice of fresh or canned veggies, and spices, and wrap it all up in foil and throw it on the grill. By the time the meat has cooked through, it is nice and juicey and you have yourself a stew. The best part about it is that each time its different and you can customize it however you want. This time we used ground turkey, fresh carrots, fresh onions, fresh celery, canned corn, canned tomatos, canned mushrooms, and a bunch of different spices. For dessert we stayed in the giant tent my friends had bought and used their propane gas grill for s'mores. We made them the only way I like them, and the only way to keep them from being too sickly sweet- with dark chocolate!

With the dawning of the next day, we had pancakes and mimosas. My friends made pancakes with bisquick and for extra flavor and texture we added crumbled up graham crackers. Maybe next time I'll experiment with putting chocolate chunks in it and use pre melted marshmallows and have s'mores pancakes.

I had never had a mimosa before, so we used left over champagne from the night before and mixed it with orange juice for a nice "wake me up".

Ala Moana Restaurant Hopping

2007-04-06T07:35:00.000-10:00

Last week for our "meal out" we decided to splurge and loll around Ala Moana (our biggest mall). It was fun, and the food was good, but don't even make me remember how much it cost cause I'd rather have a fine dinner at the price we paid. We First started with pupus and drinks at Mai Tai's, an open air lounge with an island feel. I had to wait forever for my fiance at a table that seats four, so I nursed a drink and finished off a whole mini-bowl of Maui onion potato chips (complimentary) while listening to Fiji live. I got a Li Hing Mui martini, and also a Tropical Mojito. The Mojito was good but the only thing that was li hing mui about the martini was the bland and poorly made li hing mui powder on the edge. Randy on the other hand got a really amazing apple-melon martini (which is cliche, I know) but had apple vodka, midori, and grenadine. It looked beautiful and I can't wait to try and duplicate this at home.

The appetisers we ordered were only five dollars each, and though they gave me a small tummy ache (too much fried stuff) they were really good. We ordered the Calamari Fritti that came with chili ancho sauce. (Actually two sauces, one opaque and spicy and another creamy one with a kick) Not only were there calamari pieces, but there were also fried chunks of red bell pepper, and some fried jalapenos. (We didn't know what they were until we took a bite...and realized they were peppers! Yowza!) The only thing I would have changed with this would be the size of the calamari. They were pretty tiny, and I felt that there was almost more batter than squid. The other appetizer we ordered was the recommended coconut shrimp. There were five shrimp on skewers, battered and dipped in toasted coconut. It came with a sweet and spicy cajun marmalade sauce. I liked them a lot, but I wished there had been more since we fought over the last one. I also enjoyed dipping the calamari in the cajun sauce meant for the shrimp. Breaking the rules, as always!

Next we went off to the Italian, Romano's Macaroni Grill for "dinner". I really wanted to go there because I've eaten there a couple times and have always got the Insalata Rossa, and it has become one of my favorite restaurant salads (next to the CPK Waldorf chicken salad). I have been doing my research on California restaurants and I have come to find that all LA Macaroni Grill's don't have this salad on the menus! :( So I had to have it "one last time". Since we were getting full from the pupus and drinks we shared one of my favorite drinks in the world (so glad I found a recipe), the Raspberry "leaning" Bellini. This drink is a little pricey but it is pretty huge and seems to be the special of the restaurant. It comes in a beautifully etched glass with a sketch of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. This is a Bellini (champagne and peach puree blended with ice) with a swirl and bottom of Chambord (one of my fave liquors). It is rather sweet, but so good.

Then we shared my salad! It is a little on the sweet side; I love salads with fruit and sweet vinaigrettes. It has a base of mixed greens (mostly spinach), thinly sliced red onions, feta (?) cheese, sliced strawberries, shreds of chicken, and a strawberry vinaigrette. The chicken was on the cool side, which was alright because the rest of the salad was 'cold' items. The dressing drowns out the sharpness that would have belonged to the onions, and lends itself as a great sauce for the chicken. We had no problem scarfing this down. Unfortunately we had reservations at our next destination so we didn't have time to pop in the bathroom, which is my favorite part of the restaurant. They have an audio playing in the bathroom that teaches you phrases in Italian. It definitely beats the elevator music found in other restaurants!

We waited for our 8:30pm Jackie Chan's Kitchen reservation and since being addicted to all my fellow foodie bloggers there have been some curious cookies (?) dancing around in my brain, begging me to try them to find out what all the fuss is about. There was a small cafe near both restaurants (that served various tea concoctions and blends) and it had a couple of varieties of macrons. Now I always thought of macaroons when I see this word typed out, those coconut covered ball like cookies (that I don't care much for). But all the pictures that I have seen on other blogs look nothing like the coconut cookies. I HAD to see what all the hype was so I ordered one guava (though I would have liked to try their green tea one also). Randy and I split it and I was surprised to find the wafer like consistency gave as soon as I bit into it. Keeping these two light sandwich sides together was a thin spread of cream that had a light flavor of guava. Honestly, it was good, and I would like to eat some more, but it just isn't something that has me completely enraptured. Now to find the mystery behind the madeline!

Our last adventure lay at the Jackie Chan's viewing party for LOST that happens every Wednesday night. Jackie Chan's Kitchen is a Asian fusion restaurant with hip decor. It features the founder and namesake by Jackie Chan memorabilia and having tv screens around the restaurant play his movies at all times. Except for Wednesdays. Every Wednesday night they offer pupus with LOST inspired names and turn of the normal movies to simultaneously view LOST. At commercials there are trivia questions with prizes. We ordered a mojito (it was actually barely sweet and rather unpalatable) and a Jim and coke. And even though we were full, we HAD to try their sweet potato shoe string fries. Sweet potatoes, as fries???? What a genius idea! Sweet potatoes are some of my favorite veggies (10 times better than any other potato) and we just were dying to know what they were like in fry form. They came out thin and half crispy/half soft, just how I like them. The sweetness of the potato was really good, but there was too much salt that took away from the potato's taste. If I ever go again, I will ask for no salt, or salt on the side.

The coolest part of this night was watching lost next to one of the assistant directors of the show. It was neat having him watch our reactions and having him confirm some of our curiosities. Randy and I had a couple of debates going on about the lyrics to Charlie's Driveshaft song, "You are Everybody", and who it was that was the doctor that came in when Claire's mom was dying. Randy seems to think that Claire's dad is also Jack's surgeon father. Some of these debates remain, but others have been put to rest. We probably won't go back for another party, but I might at least attempt to make the sweet potato fries at home!

Loco Moco...Zippy's style

2007-04-03T13:06:00.000-10:00

I have another post to write, about last week, but that will have to come later because I just had a delicious lunch of the returned Zippy's chili loco moco. For those of you who don't know what Zippy's is, it is a local chain diner that has a cult following (including me) of their incredible chili. It is not hot and spicy like a proper Texan chili (or so I'm told) but is sweet and sinful with pieces of portuguese sausage mixed in to the meat sauce. Now a loco moco is rice, a hamburger patty, egg, and gravy all stacked up in a bowl and is the local comfort food. I must not be very local because the last time I had one was over 3 yrs ago. But I have good reason...the last one i had was from L & L and had not one, but two hairs in it...DISGUSTING!

Anyways...this meal was tweaked (and improved) by zippys to where the gravy was replaced by their oh-so-good chili and a layer of "secret sauce" (the mac salad sauce) covered the rice. MMM My fiance and I split one and we were satisfied...so it was pretty big. The patty didn't have much flavor but thesweet chili and salty "sauce" added enough flavor and the different textures of rice, sunny side up egg, and chili with beans were perfect.

Let's just say I have a happy little bulge in my tummy right now. Too badI have to work, otherwise I'd slip into a long food-coma. :)
*Thanks to food blogger "The Tasty Island" for pictures...I didn't have my camera on me*

No Pho, Dessert for Breakfast, and My Recent Kitchen Creations

2007-03-27T20:38:00.000-10:00

Hello folks, well I have continued to extend my list of blogs I read, mainly adding the recipe blogs I find interesting and tasty. I am hoping that as I increase my number of posts and make more connections with others, MY readers will increase.

It is now spring break and I have two restaurants that I have been to in the last week: Pho Saigon and Cinnamon's in Kailua.

Pho Saigon

I had been wanting to revist a pho place because the last time I tried this Vietnamese noodle dish was at least 5 years ago. My memory was that I didn't really like it, but now that I am trying to be more epicurious, I decided to try again. And my memory served me correct.

My fiance and I went to Pho Saigon across from Walmart last tuesday. I wanted to try a couple different things so he ordered a pho with meat balls and strips of beef, and I ordered spring roll and chicken on top of cold noodle salad. The waiter was very helpful in explaining the different things we could have in our pho, and as we waited for our order, we experimented with the different tastes of pastes and hot sauces that are used to accompany various dishes. When our meal came out, the pho came with a big plate of sprouts and (much to my dismay) a heaping pile of fresh cilantro. Randy started on the pho and I dug into my spring rolls which were very good, especially dipped into the lightly sweet sauce with shredded carrots that was brought with my dish. The chicken was a little spicy and had peanuts on top but I enjoyed that as well. Unfortunately, because I was sharing, I had to give half of mine to Randy and eat some of his pho. Even without the cilantro, I did not like it very much. The beef and meatballs didn't have much flavor, and the taste of the broth simply didn't sit well on my tongue. Needless to say, now I have learned my lesson and will stay away from pho next time I eat at a Vietnamese restauramt. I did end the meal plesantly by buying a melon flavored bubble tea drink for us to share.

Cinnamon's Restaurant in Kailua

Being raised in Kailua, I have eaten at Cinnamon's many times for breakfast, and each experience has been very plesant. This time I went with my mother for breakfast on Saturday morning. The inside of the restaurant is nice and homey with a country feel and a large gazebo like stucture in the middle of the main dining room that you can sit inside and look down on the rest of the restaurant. The best part about Cinnamon's is their daily pancake (and now french toast) specials. I have tried (and loved) their carmel banana pancakes and another time their holiday themed gingerbread pancakes.

My mother had already eaten breakfast and I knew I wanted my usual, but we both wanted to try the specials. The gracious waitress allowed us to order just one of each (pancake and french toast) even though on the menu they come in stacks of two or more. My mother chose the french toast special of Sweet Bread French Toast with a Orange Cream Sauce and Fresh Strawberries and Blueberries. I only had a bite, but I wish that I could have eaten more! When it came out, it looked so beautiful and colorful with fresh fruit and a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of powdered sugar. I don't particularly like french toast but this was amazing! The sweet sauce went delicately with the fruit and it tasted almost like a dessert. I could see flecks of orange zest in the sauce and there were also orange slivers to accompany the other fruits. My mother savored every bite and said it was heavenly.

I ordered one pancake of the daily pancake special and when it came out it filled the plate it was so big! (Sorry no picture on it) The flavor was pumpkin with a haupia (coconut) and cheesecake cream sauce. It wasn't presented very fancy like the french toast; it was a slightly orange color pancake with what seemed to be two separate flavored sauces smothered on top. This tasted even more like dessert than the other one and I am glad I ordered something else to balance out the sweetness. But oh, it was soooo good. The pancake was moist and fluffy, a perfect texture, and the sauces were sweet and delightful. The haupia flavor definately came out but the cheesecake flavor tasted more like a cream cheese frosting. I didn't mind though, I nearly licked my plate clean, and my mother had more than a few bites of the pancake.

The other thing I ordered was a half order of a Veggie Sunrise (?). This was a half an english muffin with fresh spinach and a slice of tomato on top, all covered in a rich cheddar sauce. This order came with one scrambled egg and a side of homestyle potatoes. I can be picky when it comes to homestyle potatoes, but these had just enough onions and herbs to give them flavor and I relished the taste with a healthy addition of ketchup. The cheddar sauce is really what makes this dish and its sharp taste is savory but not too overpowering that you can't taste the fresh veggies.

Overall this was a fantastic breakfast and I wish I could taste their daily specials every day so I wouldn't miss one of their original winning flavor combinations!

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I made a couple things worth noting this weekend. The lesser of the two I won't provide a recipe for since you can pretty much use any meatloaf recipe you have. Becuase we haven't been food shopping for a while, I was looking for something that didn't require many ingredients and that could use up the 1/2 a lb of ground turkey in the freezer. The solution? Mini meatloaves. I mixed the meat with oats, a bit of bread crumbs, a dash of wostershire, some ketchup, and herbs, and put them in four muffin cups of a 12 cup muffin tin. Like the recipe I was basing my dinner off of said, I made small indentations in the top center of the mini loaves before baking and filled the indentations with a squirt of ketchup. I wish I had taken a picture, but that is a testiment to how good they turned out; I didn't even think about the camera!

The next recipe is something I made for my mom and step dad on friday night, but I had made once before so I knew how it would turn out. I made a carb-concious recipe of zucchini lasagna that replaces the pasta in lasagna with thin strips of baked zucchini. Trust me on this, this recipe is so delicious and has become one of my new favorite homecooked meals. I love zucchini as a vegetable and anything that is low in calories and fat and lets me eat cheesy, tomatoey, zucchini-goodness without having to worry about pasta calories is my new hero. So without further ado, the recipe:

Zucchini Lasagna

Serves 8

Per serving: calories 265, 13g fat, 21g protein (for regular recipe-not my lowfat variation)

Ingredients:

4-5 medium-size zucchini OR 3 zucchini and 2 yellow summer squash

1/2 tsp dried Italian herb seasoning (or improvise on herbs like I did)

1/8 tsp salt plus 1/2 tsp

1/8 tsp black pepper plus 1/2 tsp

2 Tbspn Extra Virgin Olive oil

1 and 1/4 pounds ground turkey

2 cups prepared low-calorie chunky mushroom pasta sauce, like Healthy Choice

1 container (16 oz) 1% low fat cottage cheese (I used nonfat)

1 cup fresh basil leaves

2 large egg yolks

1/4 cup grated Parmasean cheese

8 (or more) Tbspn packaged Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1 package (8oz) shredded part skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1) Heat oven to 425 degrees. Coast two-three baking pans with non stick cooking spray. Trim the ends of zucchini and cut lengthwise into slices about 1/4 inch thick. Spread on prepared pans in single layer; season with Italian seasoning, 1/8 tsp pepper, and 1/8 tsp salt.

2)Bake zucchini slices in 425 degrees oven for 25 minutes, turning over once halfway through baking.

3) Meanwhile, in large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add ground turkey and cook, stirring to break up clumps until no longer pink. Stir in 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, and pasta sauce; cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

4)Remove zucchini slices from oven; set aside. Reduce oven temp. to 375 degrees.

5) In food processor, combine cottage cheese, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, basil, egg yolks, and 2 tablespoons grated parmasean. Pulse until all ingredients are combined and mixture is smooth.

6) Assemble: Aprinkle 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs in bottom of 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish. Top with half the zucchini slices, covering bottom of dish. Spread zucchini with cottage cheese mixture. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons bread crumbs. Top with remaining zucchini slices. Sprinkle with remaining breadcrumbs. Top with ground turkey mixture. Spread mozzarella cheese over turkey layer. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons grated parmasean.

7) Bake lasagna in a 375 degree oven until cheese is browned and sides of dish are bubbling, about 35 min. Let stand at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes to cool before serving.

Nico's, Paddy's, and the I missed Donna Day Cheesecake

2007-03-22T19:55:00.000-10:00

It's so funny that Kathy would post about Nico's right when I'm about to, but that is a testament to the awesomeness that is Nico's at Pier 38. Long have I waited to try the infamous burger and furikake ahi that Reid so adoringly reviewed on Ono Kine Grindz. And finally, last week thursday, I made it there. (I don't have pics of my own so I am borrowing from Kathy's A Passion for Food blog)

When I walked in, there was a line coming practically out the door to order, all the seats under the awning were full, and I was surprised to see those pager things usually given at restaurants at malls like CPK and Ruby Tuesdays. When it was my turn to order, I knew just what I wanted: a double cheeseburger medium rare, and furikake ahi plate medium rare.

When the food was ready I was nearly quivering in my seat because everything smelled delish. I carefully cut the burger in half so things would be fair between my fiance and I, and I took a bite. Now I'm not a big burger person, but when I have had one I like, I REALLY LOVE it! Currently my top burgers have been at In n Out (cali), and Teddy's Bigger Burgers. And this one is now ranked up there with my faves. The pattys were juicy and melted together with just the right amount of cheese. The sauce (not sure what it was, I scarfed the burger too quick to tell) was dripping from the savory soaked buns. The veggies were just the right amount and my optimal consistency between being too crunchy and fresh that the flavors don't mingle well with the burger, and being too soppy you can hardy tell they were veggies. I usually don't like onions (raw) but the onions on this burger weren't overpowering.

The french fries were actually just how I like them...soft but not too thick. They reminded me of a grownup version of mcdonalds fries. They weren't overly salted, and I ate them with ketchup before realizing (a little too late-I had only a few fries left) that they tasted wonderful in the ginger cilantro sauce.

Now to the ahi. I love fish, but don't eat it as often as I like because we don't buy it for home cooking (unless as poke) and I only go out to eat once a week. I was really looking forward to this ahi because of all the hype I heard. The ahi was cooked exactly how I love it, seared but not til dry on the outside, and juicy as sashimi on the inside. I love furikake on a lot of things and it went perfectly with the fish (with its hint of sweet) that I barely used the ginger cilantro sauce on the fish at all. Now speaking of the sauce, I was VERY hesitant to try it because I absolutely DETEST cilantro. So I made my fiance try it first, and he said you couldn't even taste the chinese parsley. In fact he was right! The flavor was a light touch of all the different components (cilantro, ginger, garlic) but not so much that you could really distinct one flavor from another. Needless to say, I enjoyed it very much, especially on my rice. The nalo greens were good as well, with the sweet dressing (that could have been a little less generous); maybe I'll ask for it on the side next time.

Did it exceed my expectations? Without a doubt, and I am counting the days until I can go back. Next time (though I would like to try something new-these items were so good I think I'm in a rut), I want to sit on one of the few concrete tables outside next to the water. I left with a giant grin on my face and my belly bursting with goodness.

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St.Paddy's day was spent just like it should for a 21 yr old Irish girl. I started the day off with blueberry and golden raisin scones (using the last of the blueberries from my mom's cheesecake) and a modified Irish coffee using sweet Irish Mist liqour instead of Irish Whiskey in my coffee. For lunch we went green wine/beer tasting and also had some corned beef and cabbage at our favorite little wine shop "The Wine Stop". Then we went to "Tamura's Fine Wines and Liqours" and picked us up a bottle of Bailey's!

And what did I use the Bailey's for? Well as you can see, it was for an Irish style dessert. I searched the internet for a Bailey's cake, and found one that used white cake mix, jello chocolate pudding, and chocolate chips. It also had a glaze to drizzle on top. But I didn't have white cake and since I am a chocolate lover anyways, I switched to chocolate cake mix, omitted the chocolate chips (because I thought it might be a little too much), and decided to frost the cake instead. Now I know for next time not to use cream cheese store bought frosting because compared to the frosting I made for the pink pumpkins (previous post), it tasted too sweet and not as cream cheesy as I would have liked. I mixed Baileys in with the frosting, but after tasting a bit, decided that the whole cake didn't taste enough like the liqour so I drizzled....okay poured it over the cake. Maybe I was a little tipsy by that point. My sister had brought over Irish Cream with a hint of mint which we finished off that night....the three of us.

I also had for dinner a savory Guinness shepards pie that I made with ground turkey (instead of beef or lamb). It tasted pretty good, especially with some ketchup, but the sauce was too watery. I followed directions, it said I could add the marinade to the meat mixture before putting it in the oven, and though I put some cornstarch in, it didn't thicken like I'd hoped. Also the added Guinness sort of drowned out the other flavors of the fresh herbs and wostershire sauce I put in.

***Note to self, chambord is good with irish cream and ceme de cacao***

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Hey, Hey, What is Donna Day?

I read several recipe food blogs now and see this universal themed thing called Donna Day...I have come to assume that Donna is a revered chef, even though I have never heard of her. Since I had been seeing all these blogs with a cheesecake theme for Sat.'s HHDD, and I was already making cheesecake for my mom, I thought, what the hell, I'll enter too. But no, I became nervous and wondered if these foodies would think I was butting into their event and since I didn't even know anyone, I just kept my post til later.

And today is later. I made, in addition to the wannabe pumpkin bars, a delicious cheesecake that was part recipe from a Woman's Day mag, and part make-up-as-I-go-depending-on-whats-in-the-cupboard. It was a no-bake, and I was wary, but it turned out so good that I'm glad I left it with my mom because I probably would have binged on it had we taken it home. The tart citrus blend went very well with the sweet blueberries. This is so easy and yummy, I will definately be making this (or a variation) again.

No-Bake Blueberry Topped Citrus Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 Nilla premade cookie crust

2 bricks Neufchatel cheese (lowfat cream cheese) I was short 2 oz and it still turned out fine

3/4 cup sugar-I used splenda

2 Tbsp lemon zest

1 cup plus 1/4 cup OJ

1 pkt unflavored gelatin

Citrusy or your choice jelly (I used a local lilikoi-passion fruit)

Canned/frozen/or fresh fruit for topping-I used canned blueberries (NOT pie filling) but fresh would probably have been less runny

Directions:

1. Freeze Nilla crust while preparing filling so crust becomes/stays firm. (easier to work with)

2. Beat cream cheese, sugar, zest, and 1 cup orange juice in large bowl until smooth

3. Sprinkle gelatin over remaining orange juice in a small saucepan. Let stand a couple minutes. Stir over medium-low heat until steaming and gelatin has completely dissolved. Take off heat and slowly incorporate gelatin mixture into cheese mixture while beating on low (or gently). Proccess until blended.

4. Spread enough jelly over chilled pie crust so that it thinly covers very bottom. Then pour in cheese mixture. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 5 hours until firm.

5. Up to an hour prior to serving, garnish/cover/decorate top of cheesecake with fruit as desired.

The Pyramids Lunch Buffet, Pink Pumpkins, and my weakness for cream cheese frosting...

2007-03-15T16:20:00.000-10:00

Hello world, not that many people read this anyway. I am sitting here after binging on my pumpkin bars (frozen) with cream cheese frosting, which I will tell you about later. But first I need to get my review done.

The Pyramids

Recently I went to Pyramid's Restaurant (Last Friday to be more exact), and I had the lunch buffet. For $10.95 it was good, but I wish they had more dishes so I could get a better sampling of the Mediterranean food I've never tried like baba ghannouge, grape leaves, and moussaka. I did eat my fill however, and liked everything about it.

This is part of the interior which is very pretty. There are hieroglyphics painted on the walls which are designed to look like a pyramid (blocks). They have these intricate lanterns hanging down and other decor items as well.

My friends and I started with the cold items. There was fresh delicious pita bread cut into small triangles, very smooth hommus, yogurt sauce, a greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, some sort of vinegarette, and feta. They also had tabouli which is made with (i think) parsley, bulgur wheat, tomatoes, and green onions, and it seemed to me like a Mediterranean version of lomi salmon (the texture and use of onions and tomatoes). They also had falafel balls which I was excited to try because I had never had them before. I liked them a lot, especially with a little yogurt sauce, but the flavors were hard to place. It reminded me of a Greek version of a hush puppy.

(In the picture clockwise from top we have...beef/lamb strips; roasted chicken; yogurt sauce; pita strips with hommus; falafel; stewed okra over basmati rice.) I was nervous about the meats. The chicken was good and had an interesting smokey flavor, but I don't like lamb and the little buffet label said beef and lamb. I took a couple strips to my seat and looked at it. Some looked darker than others so I assumed it was the lamb. I took a bite and it tasted only slightly like lamb but not so much that I didn't like it. I was plesantly suprised and asked the waitress which pieces were the lamb. She said that it is ground (?) lamb meat mixed together with ground beef so the product is only part lamb, which explains the subtle taste. SUCH a good idea! I enjoyed putting the strips of meat on the pita triangles with some hommus and yogurt sauce...it made a mini gyro. The okra stew was my least favorite. The sauce was a little spicy and the flavor was alright though the runnyness of the soup like sauce didn't seem to let the vegetables hold in much juice. It went well with the rice though.

The check came in a pretty box, and I took this picture to show the detailed place mats that were under the clear table top. That's the rice pudding to the left which was not your average kozy shack pudding. The pieces of rice were smalled and more round in my mouth, and the flavor wasn't as creamy as kozy shack. I also detected maybe a hint of coconut flavor and the top was sprinkled with nuts.

Overall this was a great lunch where I ate until I was full and had a good time trying different and familiar flavors in a nice Eqyptian atmosphere.

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Yeah so, onto recipes...my mom's birthday is tonight and I have this recipe book that claims "Family Favorites Made Lighter". So far I haven't done too well on the recipes from there, but I thought I'd try dessert. I made these pumpkin bars/squares with splenda (not thinking that they might be done earlier than the book said because of the splenda). They came out drier and harder than expected, but maybe its because I was thinking more along the lines of the softness of lemon bars. I made a cream cheese frosting (using real sugar) and lemon zest that was so good, but when I was about to add more vanilla (I was distracted by my fiance) I instead added red food coloring! You know how they all look the same in those little brown glass bottles! So...I had somewhat dry pumpkin bars with pink as a rose frosting. *sigh* Which is why they are pink pumpkins and why I won't post a picture of them. They were less than 90 cals each, and somehow I got it into my head that I could eat the last two that I had reserved for me after getting home from work today...I don't know what it is, but that frosting is so dang addicting...even if it is pink!

So I made also (because the bars didn't come out too great), a no bake citrus cheesecake topped with blueberries....a recipe I invented out of my silly little head. We'll see how it goes and I might just post the recipes and pics tomorrow.

There is one thing that turned out pretty good, the beef tenderloin with port wine sauce and puff pastry. Well...the beef wasn't my fault....it had wonderful flavor, but the meat was somewhat tough and gristly, but I'm sure that if we had bought a more expensive roast it would have turned out perfectly. I had flavored the roast with some spices and rosemary, and added port, beef brother, onions, and rosemary to the sauce. The port wine sauce on the other hand was to die for! I had never made a sauce so sweet, so savory...I am still impressed. It made the whole dinner good...tough meat and all!

....To come...my review on Nico's Pier 38, and my cheesecake recipe. Also, my exciting cooking and drinking plans for St.Paddy's!

Places I've Dined in the Last Couple Months and My Recent Kitchen Experiments

2007-03-11T07:39:00.000-10:00

The first picture is of a yummy apple breakfast bake (cake) that was topped with apples and had small pieces of apples on the inside. I didn't leave it inside the oven for long enough so the middle was a little soft, but I kind of liked it that way. I used part whole wheat flour, part all purpose, and also put oats in it. It actually smelled and tasted very similar to the apple cinnamon nutrigrain bar...very tasty.

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The second picture is of a recipe I modified from Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals on the Food Channel. It was Chicken Marsala (with three types of mushrooms-button, shitake, and portabello) with a savory tomato-y sauce (that was not like any tomato sauce I had ever had) made with butter, garlic, chicken stock, tomato paste, and wostershire. The pasta I used were shells, but I cooked them too early so they sat in the pasta pot until the rest was ready which resulted in them being a little too soft and stuck together. Also, I put a little too much pepper in the pasta. The marsala sauce and mushrooms, however, tasted amazing and I put shredded spinach on the top for garnish.

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The third picture is of something I made this morning because I had some yummy pears I wanted to use in sort of a muffin/breakfast thing (but I'm not supposed to be making/eating desserts for lent). I modified a streusel apple muffin recipe from the food blog Bakingsheet, and I used pears chopped up instead of grated apples, and oats instead of walnuts. It is very good...relatively low in cals (205 per muffin). The flavor of the muffin part itself isn't significatnly sweet, but the streusel topping is, and a light pear taste is apparent when you bite into the soft chunks. I used a splenda blend of brown sugar (1/2 splenda, 1/2 brown sugar), and half whole wheat flour, half all purpose. The recipe was only supposed to make 8 muffins, but turned out 11 for me.

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The next picture doesn't do the meal justice! I made a grilled veggie open faced foccacia sandwich. MMM! I used a sundried tomato and cheese foccacia mix (firenze blend from Ross) that was actually rather bland by itself, but paired with the veggies, spread, and cheese, it was just fine. I used provolone cheese melted on the foccacia and then spread with a homemade (by me) cumin mayo that was not too spicy but had enough of a kick to layer the flavors of the sandwich. I grilled eggplant, bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, and onion. It was supposed to have a top (which would have helped it stay together), but the veggies piled so high that I left it open-faced. I would definately repeat this recipe!

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Flan...this was supposed to be a pumpkin flan, but upon looking at the frigerated pumpkin, it was moldy, so I just made the flan sans pumpkin. It was pretty good, the bottom (when in the oven, the top) was a little hard (more rubbery than hard-not supple like the rest of the custard), and I think in an attempt to melt all the sugar, I may have burnt the caramel a little resulting in it being not as sweet. Overall I think I will try another recipe next time.

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The last pic is of Lemon Broccoli Chicken made with cream of broccoli soup and fresh lemon. The flavor was suprisingly VERY lemony....maybe a little too much so, and I think it overpowered the broccoli taste a little. Also in the picture is Risotto Primavera with chopped zucchini and peas. This was good, especially blended with the sauce from the chicken, but was a little bland on its own. I also wished it had been creamier like the other risottos I like.

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Places I've Eaten at in the Last Couple of Months

Kaka'ako Kitchen
I love this place! The price for the quality can't be beat and the food is soo fresh and delicious! I don't remember what my fiance ordered, but I had the calamari spinach salad with sweet chili dressing. I never remembered whether or not I had liked calamari before this, but I loved it! I usually stay away from anything with the name "chili" in it, but the dressing was a harmonious blend of sweetness with a bite. It was the perfect size and filled me up without making me feel too full. MMM can't wait to go back!

Gordon Biersch
This place was alright...i wasn't really impressed. I had some cocktails which were hit and miss. My first one was a tropical cosmopolitan which was not too sweet and very delicious. It was made with Skky melon vodka, midori, pineapple juice, and cranberry juice. I could really taste the melon flavors at the end! YUM I also sipped (and liked it so much I drank 1/2 of it) my dad's pomegranate mojito which I expected to be really tart, but the rum balanced out the pomegranate flavor and it was very good. After not liking or drinking the sangria (could barely taste any fruit) or the rasberry martini (which almost had the taste of cough syrup) I found another drink I liked which was the Cran Bluberi Lemonade. This drink was so good, I had never had any blueberry flavored alcohol at all and this was a perfect blend of Stoli Bluberi Vodka, sour mix, and a splash of cranberry juice with just the hint of the blueberry flavor found in a blueberry muffin. The food wasn't really bragworthy either, I had a gorgonzola pear salad that had barely sweet and too crunchy slivers of pear, and this huge hunk of gorgonzola that was way too much so I had to crumble off bits myself. At least we were treated by my dad. We went on Mardi Gras and the music and crowds were pretty loud so I might not be inclined to go back.

TGI Fridays
I used to come here a lot when I was a kid with my parents, in fact this was where I learned to love baby back ribs, but more recently when I had been (about a year ago), I had ordered a new fave, the Jack Daniels flat iron steak. I'm usually not a big steak person but the barely spicy, sweet jack daniels sauce is amazing. But this time that I went, my fiance and I both got the appetizer, entree, dessert combos. First of all, just one appetizer/entree/dessert combo was enough to share for two, and we ended up taking much of it home, resulting in dinner that evening. We started with drinks (the ones in my profile picture)-GIANT servings of Mojito (my fiance's choice), and mango strawberry (I think) margarita. I asked for it on the rocks, not blended, but the waitress got it wrong so the bar floated extra tequila on the top...so good!

For an appetizer I got the bean fries with cucumber wasabi ranch dip. These were so good, especially with the light hint of wasabi in the dip. They were addicting! We also got fried mac and cheese and potato skins. They were both pretty good, I like the idea of the fried mac and cheese, but they couldn't stand up to the bean fries.

For an entree I went back to my old favorite of the ribs, and my fiance got the pulled pork jack Daniels sandwich, that I tried but didn't really like; it was too spicy. Actually, mine was spicier than I remember it but the sweetness in the sauce offset it just enough that I finished them (with the help of my fiance) in finger licking-pleasure. By the way, I really like the salty spice blend they sprinkle on the french fries, and they go great dipped in the Jack Daniels sauce. I think these ribs are way better than the ribs from Chilis.

We had one dessert at the restaurant (sharing the chocolate angel swirl cake) and took the cinnabon cheesecake home. The angel swirl cake was very light and a good ending because we were so stuffed, but I was kind of disappointed because it only came with a couple strawberries instead of the big fruit medley they show in the picture on the website. I personally liked the cinnabon cheesecake better, that had the delicious taste of cinnabon and the sweet drizzle of the icing, but still had a cheesecake taste. Not that there's a problem with the Cheesecake Factory's desserts, but the one cheesecake I tried from there around Halloween time was really good (peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake...or something), but didn't taste at all like cheesecake. At least this Cinnabon cheesecake still tasted like it was supposed to.

Overall this meal overdid me on the fried-foods, making me feel slightly sick to the stomach, so I think we won't order so many fried foods/appetizers.

Recent Eats- Satura Cake Tasting, Ka Ikena, and Super Bowl Spread

2007-03-06T15:22:00.000-10:00

Wedding Cake Tasting at Satura Sakes
These cakes were very delish, but I want something dark and sinful at my wedding (temp. date summer 08). All these cakes were very light on the palate and the "cream fresh" was yummy and not very sweet as a frosting, but like I said, not what I would choose since my sweet tooth is unsatiable. I tried a shortcake with fresh tropical berries and vanilla cream, a chocolate cake with rasberry cream, chocolate cake with caramel and mocha cream (the flavors were faint but blended well), shortcake with mango coconut cream (by far the sweetest-which wasn't saying much, but very tropical and coconut), shortcake with mango-passionfruit cream and red currants (this was by far the most delightful, I had never had currents before and the sharp tartness was pleasantly unexpected), and finally my favorite the gently flavored green tea.

Lunch at Ka Ikena-KCC Culinary School Restaurant
This was the best meal I have had in many months. It was fantastic!!! Firstly, I paid a set price (no tip allowed since they are students) of $15 dollars per person (includes roll, coffee or tea, and 3 courses), and secondly the food quality was amazing, I wish I had taken more pictures of the food, not just desserts. Though the service was slightly lacking, the food, price, and beautiful view of Hawaii Kai made up for it.

I started with a duck confit salad with 3 pear slices and my fiance got the vissysoise (wrong spelling i bet). The salad was no more than 8 bites set up nicely in a margarita type glass but it was very tasty, and the cold potato soup was perfect. For an entree I had ordered some dish that they were out of (I think it was Salmon and shrimp or something) so I settled with shrimp and scallops and my fiance got the Veal Osso Bucco with risotto. I have absolutely NO complaints! My entree was presented nicely with 5 shrimp and 3 scallops drizzled in a delicious creamy sauce on top of a puff pastry with sauteed mushrooms on the side. There were garnishes of red fish eggs and all the flavors were delicious and not too heavy. But my fiance's entree was my favorite and was so savory I couldn't get enough! I had never had Osso bucco, let alone veal and the meat was so flavorful and fell right off the bone, melting in my mouth, and the risotto was perfect, just how I like it, creamy and cheesy.

If you take a look at the photos you will see the crowning glory of the meal, the desserts. The presentation was art as you can see on the opera cake there is a shaving of gold and a golden design on the dark chocolate piece of musical notes. The other dessert, my Alaska had a glistening sugar spiderweb topping the white/golden mound. Even though I am a chocoholic, I ordered the baked Alaska (another first) and I prefered it to the chocolate opera cake. The lilikoi and rasberry sauces were the perfect tart compliment to the sweetness of the icecream and the sweet mereingue (spelling again im sure).

Super Bowl Spread

I made a "Dip Fest" table for my super bowl get together. Very fun (yet took a long time) to prepare. I had dark chocolate dipped chips, pretzels, and dried fruits, fresh fruit with yogurt dip, veggies with lemon basil and chive dip, margarita jello shots, and that adorable layered dip set up to look like a football field. (i'll show a more in detailed photo if requested)

Old Post From Xanga- 11/17/07

2007-03-06T15:18:00.000-10:00

My Kinda Cook
I'm just getting a feel for this new pair of shoes
The shoes that bring good smells into the house
And new tastes that put a smile on your face
Someday I have dreams of being the perfect housewife
Cooking up storms
But I am just now testing the water
Getting my feet wet with melted butter and cream anglaise
I'm the kinda cook that has to watch what she's doing
Or I'm liable to add too much butter, too little water
I'm the kinda cook that thinks most bake recipes taste better as dough
I'm the kinda cook that can never stick to the way a recipe is written
And has to add my own spice, veggies, or other thing that makes it oh-so-much-better
I'm the kind of cook that thinks any kind of soft dessert is better after being frozen

...more like ice cream!
I'm the kinda cook that gets worried if something goes wrong
Gets giddy if something works right
The kind that hoards recipes until that "someday" when I will attempt it
I am a cook that may be like you...may be like the top chef inside
Who just wants to put a smile on your face and something yummy in the tummy

*********************************************************************************************

Things That Have and Have Not Worked

BAD:
-Experimenting with food is great but when baking do not change oil content...I added peanut butter to a normal brownie recipe and ruined it...they were hard and tasted awful
-Do not use unsweetened baking chocolate for chocolate chip cookies....the dough is yummy but not when baked
- when making cookies, watch ingredients CAREFULLY for rum raisin oatmeal cookies I put twice as much butter and though the dough was yummy...they turned out as flat as pancakes and tasted too much like butter
- with crock pots...make sure they work and don't burn the curry
GOOD:
-Cabernet Marinara sauce with frsh cooked veggies (and or meat) added is delicious over pasta
- Pumpkin stew with rice was awesome (a recipe from Emril live Halloween cookoff)
- mixed berry cobbler/coffee cake was very yummy
- lemon poppyseed cake layered with lilikoi butter was good...a little too lemony though
-even though i added too much butter, dark rum soaked raisins add a yummy twist to oatmeal raisin cookies
- Mom's curry recipe with sherry is good and can be salvaged even if burned and lumpy
- various stir frys of vegetables work well....
- home made steak marinades (ketchup, bbq sauce, steak sauce, wostershire, and spices) and bbq sauce on broiled steak is great
- stuffing is yummy when chopped apples, raisins, and celery is added in

Anna Miller's -Old Xanga Post 10/16/06

2007-03-05T16:48:00.000-10:00

Anna Miller's 24 Hour Restaurant

Okay, so yesterday was traumatic....and I hope the eggs in my fridge aren't spoiled. We had an earthquake and power was out until 1am this morning so we went out to eat. Because I had heard so much about Anna Millers strawberry pie, I wanted to go there...and that area had power while we didn't.

Sorry for no pictures, but in the midst of tragedy, I didn't think to bring my camera.

The best part of this restaurant was the atmosphere. The inside was decorated with a 'country style' painted designs above the windows that reminded me or swedish designs. The waitress' outfits were cute but a little short (they all seemed to be tugging the fabric down so it would cover more) and reminded me of a mix between a bar maid and a german hillside country girl.

I ordered a side of soup which was corn chowder and a chicken salad stuffed tomato on salad with cornbread. My fiance had the steak and eggs..scrambled with hashbrowns.

The soup and cornbread came out first and they were steaming hot...I loved it, since it was raining outside I was a little cold. The soup was good, but a little watery for my tastes...when I have chowder I like it thick. The cornbread was pretty good and the soup came with a roll which was also hot and very yummy dipped in the soup.

The chicken salad was piled high in a tomato sliced longways from the top but was attached at the bottom so it opened like a flower. I liked this idea a lot. The chicken salad was overall good with pieces of celery mixed in, but I think they could have used a little less mayo. Underneath the tomato was a heaping bowl of generic iceberg lettuce salad with shredded carrots garnished with one hard boiled egg cut in half and a small sliver of cucumber. The salad was to say the least...dissapointing. The pieces of lettuce were browning and had brown 'old spots' on most pieces, I honestly could have gotten a better salad for a dollar at Mcdonalds. But by this time I was full and didn't really care, so I didn't eat it.
My fiances food was what he paid for. The whole plate came out to 11 dollars so the steak was pretty chewy and had a large slice of fat attached to it. It was also pretty dry so he drowned it with A-1 sauce. He said the flavor reminded him of the steaks he would get out in 'the field' in the military...which honestly to me doesn't sound very appetizing. The eggs were average and I think the best part of his meal was the hash browns which were 'just the way he liked it'.

Much to our dissappointment, the strawberry pie wasn't in season, so we got a piece of cherry pie to go. The bill was pretty pricey when it all came down to it, a little over 30 dollars. We had noticed that the pie was somewhere around $3.25 for one slice and as we were leaving, much to our dismay we discovered we could have gotten a whole pie (5 more pieces) for just 5 more dollars!

When we were home and not as stuffed, we had the pie which was very good but was a pretty small piece for what we paid for. Will we go back? Maybe once the strawberry pie comes back in season.

Mexican Cinna Crisps

2007-03-05T16:46:00.000-10:00

Mexican Cinna-Crisps

I tried this recipe I saw as I was standing in line to check out at a grocery store...it turned out great though next time I might use a different oil...or maybe light butter to make it healthier.
Ingredients:
Cinnamonsugar (or you could make your own...I used premade and added splenda and cinnamon)
Nutmeg to flavor
tortillas (I used two whole wheat tortillas)
Olive oil
1. This is just an appetizer so you can tailor the recipe to however you want. Turn stove on med/med-high and put some oil in a medium frying pan/skillet
2. tear up tortillas into chip size and one pan is at optimum heat (the 'chips' sizzle and spat when they go in the oil) put about 7 'chips in the oil of the pan.
3. Let each 'chip' cook for about 2 minutes or until crispy and toasty colored then flip to the other side.
4. Once done with that batch you may need to put more oil in for the rest of the 'chips' and repeat until you have crispy torilla chips.
5. in a ziploc baggie add all the powdered ingredients and shake to mix, then put the cooled tortilla chips in the bag and shake to coat them with the cinnamon mixture.
6. when all is coated and sparkling with flavor...enjoy! You have your own version of Taco Bell cinnamon twists!
*note: This is good for tortillas that are left over or expired after the shelf date, or the ones which edges have gotten hard in the fridge. You can also coat them with a cocoa mixture, cheese mixture, spice mixture, or just use them as you would any tortilla chips for dipping or on top of other recipes!*

Old Xanga Blog- 09/27/06

2007-03-01T09:57:00.000-10:00

Formaggio Wine Bar

This is one of my new favorite places to eat. It is located in Market City Shopping Center by Ben Franklin and is a small hole in the wall treasure.

This Restaurant is quaintly decorated with bar tables (those high round tables), wine decor and rustic orange stucco walls reminiscent of Italy. The low lighting and live music (last night was a local guitarist/singer playing Hawaiian and 80's 90's soft music) makes this a perfect place to come, eat, chat, and unwind from the day. The noise level can get a little loud since the place is small and (comfortably) busy, but its not unbearable.

Because this is a wine bar, they specialize in their array of wines and liquors. The first glass I ordered was a Pinot Gris that wasn't dry , yet still crisp and had tastes of pear and apple. The second glass I ordered with dessert was a German Reisling and it was good, and sweet.

The food here is incredible for the price. It took a while for it to come out of the small kitchen, but the quality was unexpected and for no more than 12 dollars for an entree was great. They are smaller portioned, which is good, you can have an entree and still have room for a dessert. We started out with crab cakes, there were only two but the sauce and cakes were good and they were complemented by a small arugula and baby greens salad with a tomato relish dressing. All three entrees were wonderful! I ordered from their panini menu a grilled vegtable panini with eggplant, red and yellow peppers, zucchini, onions, some sort of special mayonnaise like sauce, and Havarti cheese. It was cut into 4 strips (I couldn't finish it all) and came next to a small baby greens salad in a vinegarette. My fiance had what is now my favorite (well they are all my faves) a Kobe Beef panini....all I can say is excellent. My father had a very tasty, creamy lobster bisque..not too soupy, yet not too rich. To finish off...we shared an order of tiramisu...light and refreshing, and an order of bananas foster (without the presentation) in which the icecream was a little hard but the taste of the sauce and warm bananas made up for it!

I highly recommend this place for dinner, dessert, or even just wine, but I know I will definitely be back many times!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did go back, a few times since then, most recently for Valentines when I was too sick for the $100 a plate price fixe dinner with wine pairings at 21 Degrees North (Turtle Bay Resort, and I am still kicking myself for that). Here are my thoughts on the food that night...

We started the dinner out with two great glasses of wine, a pinot grigio and I had a sparkling wine. For dinner we shared the lobster bisque, and then Randy had the Kobe beef panini and I had the grilled vegetable napoleon. I have experienced the unwavering great quality of the kobe beef, but while I enjoyed the veggies and bruschetta bread, there was far too much strong blue cheese that it overtook a lot of the other flavors. Enjoy the pictures!

Old Xanga Post - 9/26/06

2007-03-01T09:26:00.000-10:00

For some time now, I have been getting into the tastes and textures of the world. I have always loved eating, and trying new dishes...and now with my lack of food (I've been one a prolonged diet) and my growing intrigue with cooking and the Food Channel, inspired by the blog 'Ono Kine Grindz, I decided to make a record of the culinary road I have travelled.

Because it is just starting, I will briefly summarize the places and home meals I find notewothy, but in the future I hope to be a source of Restaurant and Dish review and a database for good recipes.

If you have any questions on the below, please feel free to ask me to elaborate.

Recipes I have liked and tried recently:

BBQ baked chicken

Frozen pudding

funfetti cupcakes with jello flavored cool whip frosting

sloppy joe with ground turkey, carrots, celery and cheese

cabernet spaghetti sauce with fresh veggies

splenda cranberry orange muffins

apple banana bread with splenda

Places I have Eaten:

Diamond Head Cove Health Bar- I ordered the Acai Bowl which is a surprisingly filling health dish. With fresh fruit, almost a rasberry tasting tart sorbet of the brazilian acai berry, and chewy costo granola, it is worth the price for a feeling of body freshness and healthy lo cal fullness.

Hiroshi (Restaraunt Row)- This is a Tapas bar which I originally wanted to visit because of the cheap 'foam martinis' (which are just Martinis with a slight topping of foam...nothing special) But ended up loving another drink, and enjoying the dip yourself caesar salad, the house version of bread: rice cakes and wasabi dip was AWESOME!

Moose McGillicuddys- If not for anyuthing else...the drinks are fair and the food is fair...but the drink prices are to die for! Cheap as can be! Started tasting down the drink menue with an electric blue something and a melon electric something else.

The Hano Hano Room (my birthday 06)- The place was amazing...the price was well worth it....the view and music were romantic...don't remember what I ordered though.

Kincaids (anniversary 2006)- Service was horrible at first...didn't get bread or drinks for the longest time. But once things shaped up it was a nice experience. Highly reccomend the macadamia encrusted warm brie...I could eat that as a meal! Also the salad was alright and the wine sauce with the fish was great. As always the complimentary dessert is very welcomed, and it was their signature Creme Brulee on a 'happy anniversary' plate.

CALIFORNIA:

Olive Garden (salinas)- If I thought Kincaids service was bad, this was on a WHOLE nother level. We waited 2 hours for our food! But the salad was alright (that took forever to be refilled too) but the minestrone was pretty poor.

Britannia Arms- Because we don't really have English/British fare really in Hawaii, I was dying to go to a British pub. Almost went to another one, but glad I didn't. We ordered a beer (note to self-when you know you don't like something, don't order it hoping it will grow on you cause its a waste of money), but the entree was wonderful! I ordered the Beef braised in Guiness which was a PERFECT tasting beef stew with vegtables cooked into it and a slice of bread, in an almost perfect size. It tasted so good I almost wishes I hadn't filled up on the average tasting salad.

In and Out Burger- This place needs no review...I'm sure that you all know that, but just in case...the fries are good but the burgers are some of the best I've ever tasted...note to self...try the burgers 'animal style'

The Grill at the Pebble Beach Resort- Felt awfully ratty here since this was a high class country club resort. They got the order of onion rings wrong, which turned out okay, the chicken sandwich was fair and I liked the rasberry lemonade. A good place to stop after biking 7 miles.

Krispy Kreme- YUMMY!

Bixby Bisrto (at the Barnyard shopping center, Carmel)- This was a perfect choice to eat at before touring up into Carmel Valley's wineries. I started with a bay strimp cocktail which was mini shrimp spooned into a martini glass with cocktail sauce. Then for an entree I had the Bistro House salad which was a nice salad with spiced walnuts and champagne vinegarette. I also had a half sandwich which was okay but the REAL treat was my fiances Kobe beef sliders. These mini burgers were so yummy I wanted to trade. The things that made them good were the onion jam, white cheddar and roma tomatoes. They were served with yummy spiced fries. We visited again for dessert after going up the valley, and ordered the peach cobbler with vanilla icecream...mmm a PERFECT end to the afternoon.

The Sea Lion Cafe at Pier 39 (san fran)- This fun atmosphered restaurant over looked the bay, alcatraz and the bridge, and more importantly a large array of entertaining wild sea lions, sunning and splashing around wooden docks. Along with the great show was a wonderful breadbowl with a seafood bisque. A yummy (captain's) cocktail was huge enough to split between two.

Ghirardelli Ice Cream Shop (san francisco)- This is the best place ever to have a famous sundae. Unless your in a rush. Take time to eat slowly...enjoy the sickly sweetness and tour the 'factory'. The first time I came I had their signature brownie sundae, but the second time was eating a cable car sundae on the run. It was too sweet, even for my taste with rocky road ice cream, fudge, and marshmallow sauce. And as we walked briskly, it melted briskly. :(

Hello World!

2007-03-01T06:55:00.000-10:00

Yes I am breaking out of the Xanga shell I have been in since god-knows-when...into a bigger, and better place! I am a groupie, not just a food and wine groupie, but a people groupie and I want to share my thoughts and eats with more people and I want to discover other's food blog as well, so that is why I have migrated. I was currently known by few on xanga as, quizdasaige, but I am now here...so remember where I am!

I have become a self proclaimed foodie and wine-afficionado since the middle of this past summer. I had always loved food before, and eating out, and alcohol, but until then I hadn't made it my goal to seek out new, interesting, and excellent cuisine. Also this fall I became chef extrodinaire (not really, but I attempted) as I plowed through hundreds of dinner, snack, and dessert recipes, teachin myself how to cook, and being plesantly suprised at the tastes and responses from others I got. For Thanksgiving I gave out rocky road squares, for christmas I tried 12 different cookie recipes and gave them as gifts, and just recently I made 3 different kinds of chocolate truffles as Valentines for my friends. I have now become addicted to The Food Channel and various other foodie blogs I read, I pour over pages of local newspapers for recipes and restaurant reviews, and its seems I cannot get enough of my newly-found passion. A few things do stand in my way and make it hard for me to live the lush life I could, my never ending quest for a thin and shapely body (I am not naturally thin like those lucky asians), and my college student budget.

So sit back, relax, and let you tummy rumble with hunger as you partake of this blog. I hope to entertain and inform you of new recipes, eateries, and anything thing else that strikes my food-bone silly. I will post up in the next few days my past posts from Xanga (I don't want those to go to waste), but soon I will be posting current places and menus I have tried. So look out, here I come.