Musings of a wife and mother, born and raised in Hawaii. Far away from home now, but creating and discovering bits of sunshine and paradise in everyday life.
Food
Giant Bakesale Snickerdoodles

Giant Bakesale Snickerdoodles

Sorry for the quietness on the blog lately. I’ve been really busy with the usual house and kid stuff. Use a 1/3 cup ice cream scoop to scoop the dough~ One thing for sure is, if you’ve got kids, you’ve been asked to bake something for a bake sale at school or for extracurricular fundraisers numerous...
Charred Kale Sticky Rice Dumplings

Charred Kale Sticky Rice Dumplings

Kale dumplings! Weekly question for the past several months after looking in my CSA produce box: What should I do with all this kale? I’ve tinkered off and on with making a gluten free dumpling, but never very successfully– until I made these. The flater leaf lacinato kale, also known as dino (dinosaur) kale works much better than...
Honu Sea Vegetable Salad

Honu Sea Vegetable Salad

Summer always makes me think of the Hawaiian Sea Turtles (Honu) frolicing in the warm ocean waters. Young sea turtles are carnivorous, often eating jellyfish and other small invertebrates. Once they mature, however, they become herbivores and eat mainly algae and sea grasses. Until a few years ago, I loved ordering and eating seaweed salad in...
More Pa'i'ai: Green Onion Chili Oil Biscuits and Pa'i'ai Crackers

More Pa’i’ai: Green Onion Chili Oil Biscuits and Pa’i’ai Crackers

Fresh Pa’i’ai on Ti Leaves Before the holidays, I wrote about the traditional pounded taro called Pa’i’ai, from Mana Ai. We enjoyed mini pa’i’ai pizzas, and some wonderfully chewy, satisfying pa’i’ai tortillas. The pa’i’ai also made some very tasty biscuits and crackers which I’m sharing today. Although pa’i’ai can last for months at room temperature,...
Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

The first day of 2014 was a gorgeous sunny day here. Too bad a long, lingering cold bug has been making its way through our household. A good bone broth with vegetables, and toasted mochi to the rescue! Not quite ozoni soup, but very, very good! Can’t forget a little drizzle of shoyu-sugar sauce over...
Wordless Wednesday: Gloomy Day Udon Soup

Wordless Wednesday: Gloomy Day Udon Soup

Roasted Sweet Potato Jack-o-Lantern Faces and Ghosts

Roasted Sweet Potato Jack-o-Lantern Faces and Ghosts

I was so excited to think up of making these jack-o-lantern faces and ghosts with roasted sweet potato slices– something healthy and festive. I didn’t find out until after I had made them, and did a little surfing online, that someone had already done the sweet potato jack-o-lantern faces last year. Oh well, it’s still...
Sacramento Midtown Farmers Market

Sacramento Midtown Farmers Market

There’s a new Saturday farmer’s market in town, the Midtown Farmer’s Market. They even have a free valet bike area with someone to watch over all the bikes. First up, I couldn’t resist the offer of a free strawberry sample. They were organic, and very sweet! Gorgeous carrots and zucchini…. Stunning colored heads of cauliflower,...
Sacramento Library Vintage Cooking Challenge

Sacramento Library Vintage Cooking Challenge

The Sacramento Public Library has a Vintage Cooking Challenge going on this summer. Here’s a glimpse on the info on their Facebook page. They’ve chosen a dozen recipes from vintage Sacramento cookbooks from the years 1890 to 1970. If you make a recipe, take a picture, write a little review and send it in to...
Fresh Herb Noodle Salad

Fresh Herb Noodle Salad

Spring is here in full force, as my frequent sneezing, and itching eyes have been telling me. What better time than now to whip up a light spring salad? I was recently asked to develop a recipe that would be fun for kids in the tween age group to make. As the tween age group...
Lau Lau Flavored Kale and Beet Greens

Lau Lau Flavored Kale and Beet Greens

Lau laus are a favorite island food. Traditionally a pieces of pork and salted fish wrapped in layers of luau (taro) leaves, then ti leaves, and finally steamed in an underground pit (imu) for several hours. Today they are mostly cooked in steamers or even crockpots . The luau leaves end up soft, smoky and...
Cold Poached Chicken Tenderloins with Ginger and Green Onion Sauce

Cold Poached Chicken Tenderloins with Ginger and Green Onion Sauce

One of my favorite Chinese restaurant dishes we ordered growing up in Hawaii was Ginger and Green Onion Chicken. It was a whole, poached (skin on) chicken, chilled, cut into small (bone-in) pieces, rubbed with oil and topped with a chopped ginger and green onion sauce. Oh, so good on top of hot rice. I...