Aloha from Hawai'i

As you can tell by my lack of blogging, I've be gone for awhile.

Lucky me, I just got back from the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. www.gohawaii.com/oahu

We, my mother in law, and myself were there for four days, three nights, and had a nice relaxing time. We ate well too. For some reason my camera decided to only work about 1/2 the time. So I didn't take pictures of my food but, here are some of the places we went.

We stayed at the Waikiki Beach Marriot Resort & Spa. Very very nice. http://www.marriottwaikiki.com/

Hale'iwa, on the North Shore of Oahu, an historic surfing town. It was a great place to get away from the hussle of all the tourist in Waikiki.

www.gonorthshore.org/

A local woman on our airplane told us we HAD to go to Lanikai Beach, also on Oahu. It was absolutely beautiful!! As you can see from the picture below, the water is amazing.

Cheeseburger in Paradise, a Jimmy Buffet owned chain, was close to our hotel, and was convenient after a long day.

My mother in law and I had the Kobe Burger, it was tasty, although we both ordered them medium and they came well done. I felt bad for our waiter, I could tell he was having a bad night, and I've been there done that so I didn't complain. This place was a good tourist-y thing to do.

http://www.cheeseburgerinparadise.com/



We also found Hanks Haute Dogs, in Waikiki's International Marketplace.

They were featured on the Food Network's Drive In's, Diners, & Dives.

Their haute dogs are all beef Kosher dogs, yum!!

I had the chili dog, no onions, and some freshly cut french fries.

Pat had the Hank's Dog.

http://www.hankshautedogs.com/

While we were driving around the island we stopped at a food truck, Tony's Kahuku Shrimp. There are a lot of them that serve shrimp b/c there are a lot of shrimp & prawn farms on the East side of the island. We had the Garlic Shrimp, a sweet & spicy chili garlic sauce, served with white rice and salad. VERY VERY good!!!



another view of Waikiki Beach



Waikiki Beach, Hawaii



I had to stop in here for a quick Margarita while in Hale'iwa, on Oahu's North Shore.

 

On the second night we were there, we went to Germaine's Luau. It was so much fun. The food, the culture, the location, all wonderfully beautiful.

 We had Kalua Pork, and a giant buffet of other Hawaiian & International Food. It was a great experience and I highly recommend Germaine's. Plus the fact that it is the last family run luau in Hawaii!! Good reason to check it out.

http://www.germainesluau.com/



the women's dancing was AMAZING





the staff pulling the pig from the ground





Waffles, Peanut Butter Style

We had waffles this morning.  Mina told me thats what she wanted and luckily, I have a waffle iron, I hardly use so waffles it was.

 

Basic waffle recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

PREP:

1. Preheat waffle iron. Beat eggs in large bowl with hand beater until fluffy. Beat in flour, milk, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla, just until smooth.
2. Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray. Pour mix onto hot waffle iron. Cook until golden brown. Most waffles irons way some kind of buzzer of light that tells you they are done.

Serve hot.

I topped the girl's with Nature's Organics Peanut Butter, and Maple Syrup. They were yummy and easy. The kiddos love em and they look more glamorous than they really are. 

In addition, I added some chopped pecans to mine. Super good.

Cheers* Happy Waffles

Festive Caramel Apples

I made these caramel apples for a Valentine's party that my girlfriend Lori ( http://nomoresweatpants.blogspot.com/ ) had for our kiddos. A few other friends were there with their little ones and the kids had a blast!!

I was going to make cookies, but I knew the kids were going to be on sugar over load anyways. I also figured that the adults would like these. I mean who doesn't like a good caramel apple??

They remind me of being little at the county fair. Aww the memories.

Add a little holiday sprinkles and you are good to go!!

To make these: I bought some Granny Smith apples. These taste the best I think.

I bought a package of Branch's Caramel, the sticks were included.

I washed and dried the apples, inserted the sticks and began to melt my caramels.

I put 2 tablespoons of water in a medium sauce pan and added in my caramels. This is on medium-low heat. Constantly stirring, to prevent burning. Once it was all melted I turned the heat off but kept the pan on the burner. One at a time, I covered the apples, and placed them on greased parchment paper. When on the paper, I sprinkled them with Valentine's sprinkles. CUTE.
Once they were all covered, I put them in the refrigerator on let them harden.

Thats it, they are really easy. And soo yummy. Enjoy *Cheers

Valentine's Cut-Out Cookies & Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Late Valentine's Day everyone. Hope it was lovely for you. A time of love, memories, and sugar commas.

There's been a lot of sweets in this house lately. It's time for a cleanse. No more sugar for a LONG while. Geeze.

For my daughter's class's Valentine's Day party, I made heart cut out sugar cookies. They turned out so yummy. I absolutely love this cookie recipe.

Roll-Out Cookies:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened,  2 3/4 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar,  2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons Clear Vanilla Extract , 1 egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a mixing bowl, cream butter w/ sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Knead in a small amount of icing color, if desired.

Do not chill dough.

On floured surface, roll dough into balls. At this point I use as much or little dough I need for the cookie cutter to cut out the shapes. Dip cookie cutter into flour before each use.
Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.

Short of time, I used store bought cream cheese icing, dyed dark pink, with red food coloring.


 

Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

My mother in law bought me this cookie book for Christmas. The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book  by Camilla V. Saulsbury (Winner of the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown Best Cookie Recipe).

I finally used it for the first time yesterday. The book's basis is that each recipe starts with either refrigerated cookie dough, cake mix, brownie mix, or ready to eat cereal. Pretty cool if you are short on time. Plus the cookies I made were crazy good. My shortcut was a box of yellow cake mix.

If you really want the recipe, send me a message and I'll get it to you.  :-)



Once again, I forgot to take a picture of my final product. I really need to step up my game. :-)

So why the sam hill did I make cookies, again after a sugary "holiday" like Valentines?

Oh I have a good story for you. My daughter's class makes a big deal of the 100th day of school. Each child had to bring a project of some sort. Be it 100 rocks, seeds, pennies, 100 stickers on a post board, whatever, in 10 groups of 10. This gets the kindergarteners to count to 100. Pretty exciting.

Well, my little miss told her teacher "my mom's going to make 100 cookies for my project" Oh yeah ???

I was blind sided when her teacher called on Friday night and asked me if I was still going to do that. I guess I am, I said. Well, instead of going at it alone, I brought another parent on bored. So she made 50, I made 50 and the girls presented their project together. TEAMWORK!!! Wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. And they were tasty.

Cut-Out Cookies




Blue-Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tacos, herbs, and Valentine's Pancakes, OH MY

Last night we had tacos. Nothing fancy, just regular ol' tacos. But they were good, don't get me wrong.

Ingredients I used: Food Life brand Sprouted Corn Tortillas, red leaf lettuce, grated Cheddar & Monterrey jack cheese, diced tomatoes, and some kind of hot taco sauce we had in the frig. Oh and, Darigold brand all natural sour cream.

I seasoned my ground beef with:

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

I forgot to take a picture of my finished tacos. But Hey tacos are tacos, you know what they look like.

Here's my new kitchen window herd garden. :-) They are already growing.

So for breakfast this morning, I had some bananas I needed to use up and the kids wanted pancakes.

BahDa Bing BahDa Boom. Banana Pancakes. Plus it's close to Valentine's Day, so I thought I'd turn then into V-Day pancakes. It really only took the addition of some festival cupcake sprinkles.

I used a really simple basic pancake recipe. Easy Cheesy. To this recipe, I add my banana mixture. Recipe to follow.

Pancakes:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

3 tablespoons butter, melted

In a large bowl, combine together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Next, pour in the milk, add the egg and melted butter; mix until smooth. Now add the banana puree mixture.

Banana Mixture:

Two very ripe bananas, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract. Once all these things are in my food processor, I puree it very well. Until baby food consistency.

Finally, heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.



my banana mixture



 For the girls, I sprinkled some Valentine's Day sprinkles on the plate first to dress it up. I served the pancakes with sliced strawberries on top and of course maple syrup and butter.



This was the adult version, sans the sprinkles. Enjoy!!





Everytime she goes away..

As you can see by my lack of blogging, I've been gone. For almost two weeks now, I've been dealing with the death of one of the remain two Great Grandmothers I have/had. Her name was Cora Fay Dunkin, and she was a wonderful lady. So sad. As if this stress and sadness wasn't enough, my other Great Grandmother, Ruth Mae, is currently in the hospital, at the age of 89, recovering from Colon/Rectal Cancer surgery. Again, very sad. She is having a difficult time recovering and I have been back and forth visiting her. Unfortunately, many members of my family have not stepped up to be with her at this difficult time.

 Pretty much, it seems like they are too wrapped up in their "busy" lives to be with their ailing 89 year old grandma. Once AGAIN, very sad. Great Grandma Ruth and I have always been close and I will do anything for her, including driving 5 hours to and 5 hours from the hospital to be with her while I can. I've not searching for praise from anyone, I just want to see her recover and go home to live out the rest of her days.

It's my own deal, I can't live with myself if I sat by and did nothing.

That's just me.

Thanks for letting me vent, it feels good.

As for food, I will be baking today.

Most liking with Persimmon, as I have pulp left I need to use in the freeze.

Have a good one, and thanks for stopping by.

*Much love, Kelly

Splash Cafe, Pismo Beach, CA

While visiting family on California's central coast, we ate at the award winning Splash Cafe. Famous for it's Clam Chowder and bread bowls, they also serve fish n' chips, burgers, seafood salads, chili, fish tacos, and much more. We had the chowder in a bread bowl and fish n chips. There is nothing like it.
(I do however really like the fish n' chips at Pismo Beach Fish & Chips, also in Pismo Beach. Just down the street.)

You can find them @ http://www.splashcafe.com. They can also be found on Facebook, Splash Cafe, Pismo Beach, CA.

Here's what it usually looks like, just to get a cup of chowder, I'm telling you it's THAT good!!