WHITE NOW 2.0

Guava

Yesterday's white flower post was just half of the whites we have blooming around here right now. I tried to narrow it down, but there are too many beauties to not share as many as possible. So here are some more...

Female Papaya Flower

Male Papaya Flowers and Male flowers used on a cake. As you can see the males grow in clusters and the females grow as single flowers. I like to use the male flowers because 1, they smell amazing and 2, it's ok to pick the males as they do not produce fruit.

Asparagus Fern. These little buggers are not really a fern and full of thorns that are like splinters. The smell early in the morning when the sun warms them is like hot buttered popcorn.

Madagascar Periwinkle. We have this in about 3 other colors as well.

Now we have been told this is a number of things, but we are pretty sure it's a Yellow Lemon Guava. It bears small pear shaped fruits about 1 1/2" long and tastes like a combo of bananas and grapes.

Spider Lilies

WHITE NOW

Gardenia

Even though it's green here 365 days a year, we don't always have an abundance of flowers that spring forth. Some are seasonal like the gardenia, stephanotis, orange blossom, mac nut blossom and kukui. Here is a selection of what's White Hot right now. I have not gotten a descent shot of the night blooming jasmine though, so these will have to do. Stay tuned for more flowers by color soon.

Shell Ginger

Nandina

Orange Blossoms

Two natives - Naupaka & Kukui

Macadamia Nut Blossoms

Monstera Deliciosa

Stephanotis

Gardenia

PHAMILIAR PHACE?

Many of you might remember Kekoa, the ring neck pheasant we took under our wing in 2008. It's been a little over a year now since we had to send Kekoa upcountry, but we have another pheasant that is almost as good. This is his dad or as we call him, BIG DADDY or Limpy because he has a bum right leg. He has always had a bad leg, but this April we noticed it had gotten worse. He still manages to come all the way across the yard with no problem when I call him for dinner though. Here are a few pics from yesterdays feeding. He has been living in the pine trees next door for at least the last 5 years... maybe longer. As of few months ago he was not so into us. Lately all I have to do is call for him and here he comes... within about 12 feet I'd say. I toss the seed down, take a few steps back and sit in the grass while he eats. Little by little we are getting closer, but we won't be petting or hand feeding him anytime soon. And no Mac Nuts either.  It's just nice to be this close to nature and have them know you mean them no harm.

You can see his right foot is twice the size of his left. This is a new injury.  The 2x4's are braces we made to hold up the banana plants heavy with fruit.

Sharing breakfast with the male Grey Francolin also known as Franky and a slew of Zebra Doves. More on them soon.

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Caldium are also known as elephant ear. I don't know what made me buy these bulbs other than we didn't have any and needed a low growing plant near the water tanks. I've never really been a fan of red and green together, but I have to say these are something else.

BUY THE BOOK

A selection of paintings from the opening.

For those of you that are in or might find yourself in San Francisco, please join our friends Lauren and Derek this Friday,  May 14th (...OH THAT'S TODAY) to celebrate the opening of "Ideal Bookshelves" featuring paintings, prints, and postcards by the talented Jane Mount. Many of the pieces in the show represent Ideal Bookshelves submitted by their friends, both from San Francisco and around the country. Lauren says "It's an amazing and beautiful collection, and it's been endlessly fascinating to check out all the great books people are into these days."

If you can't make the opening. Stop by when you can and buy a book painting.

WHAT: Ideal Bookshelves, works by Jane Mount

WHEN: Opening Party Friday, May 14, 6-8pm.

WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia St.

You can see all the pieces and the amazing sculptures here

We submitted a selection of books and here is the painting of it.
Before anyone gets any ideas and pulls out their checkbook, sorry, but we already bought this one. WE HAD TO. It's the perfect addition to the new office.

The photo we submitted.

And the final painting of our books.

FREEZE!

Orange Ice Cream topped with surinam cherry.

Last week we FINALLY broke down and bought a KitchenAid Mixer with ice cream making bowl attachment. Macy's had a super sale so how could we resist? The colors stocked were not what we hoped, so we settled on the Architect Series which only comes in a stainless steel color. Of course we would have loved the Persimmon or Tangerine, but it works out to be the best color as it matches the other appliances and pretty much disappears on the counter.

(p.s. - while searching out the link on KitchenAid.com, I discovered a special promotion and looks like we will now be the proud owners of a Roto Slicer / Shredder. I never knew that you could go online and get rebates and offers even if you bought at Macy's.)

I made this delicious orange ice cream with oranges from our tree and I might go so far as to say it's knocking my socks off. The process to make ice cream is not quite as simple as one would think. It's pretty easy, but he bowl attachment must be frozen for at least 15 hours to start with. Then you need to make the batter and chill that for up to 4 hours before pouring into the bowl and stirring away. Once in the bowl and the machine is on, you only need to allow it to stir for 20 minutes until it reaches a sort of soft serve consistency. Once that is done you pour it into containers and freeze for at least four hours to finish the process. So much for instant gratification. But it was money well spent considering we can spend $9 on a gallon of Roselani... in our opinion the best ice cream on the planet... well the best in the islands anyway. We will still buy Roselani because it's so freakin' good and we do want to support local business.

The recipe I made up is based on 3 different recipes:

1 1/4 cups fresh orange juice  
(concentrate or packaged would work just as well, but you need the zest anyway, so go with fresh.)
Zest of 4 medium oranges
1 cup sugar
2 cups sour cream
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 inch chunk of fresh or frozen ginger sliced 1/8 inch thick or grated.

After zesting the oranges with a microplane I like to give it a few passes with a mezzaluna to really release the oils.

I placed the ginger and zest in tea strainers and simmer with the orange juice, honey and sugar. While that simmers on low, prepare your sour cream, milk and vanilla. Our favorite cooking honey is by Royal Hawaiian Honey. The one we have right now is the Organic Christmas Berry. It's really smooth and does not burn your throat like some honey can. We are looking forward to trying the Lehua and Mac Nut Blossom soon.

Remove zest and ginger from the orange juice. Allow juice to cool to room temperature. Slowly add to sour cream, milk and vanilla. Whisk vigorously to make sure the sour cream is smooth. Chill the batter for 4 hours.

Turn on the mixer and slowly add the batter to the bowl. Allow to stir for 20 minutes.

Detail of texture when ready.

Pour ice cream into containers suitable for freezing and allow to set for at least 4 hours. When the center is solid, your ice cream is ready. Enjoy.

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Laua'e Fern is a favorite throughout the islands and is sometimes called the Maile Scented Fern.

MONSTER MASH

A few days ago we went to our neighbor's house for a cookout and they gave us this GIANT avocado. The last thing we needed was another avocado since we had 3 at home on the counter. Luckily this monster still had a few days before it was ready to eat. I finally cut it open and made a batch of guacamole with onion, tomato, lemon and cilantro from the garden. I was shocked that one avocado made an entire quart of mashed up goodness... make that a practically free quart of mashed up goodness. As you can see it was bigger than my hand and nearly twice as big as the 5" hamburger buns. We made southwestern turkey burgers and plopped a whole lotta green on top and the next day we made taco's that were overflowing with flavor.  It lasted a few days and we are now scraping the bottom of the tub. Luckily we have a few of our own avocados left that should last a few more weeks. The seed of the monster is in a pot of dirt and should produce a seedling ready for transplanting in a month or so.

Not exactly sure of the variety but it was watery than most hass avo's I have had, but I think it might be a Gwen.
But it could also be one of these Hawaiian varieties. I'll have to find out.

This quart tub was FULL to the top even after we piled 2 heaping tablespoons on top of our burgers.

FINCH FOOD

Now that I have this new telephoto lens, I am obsessed with the birds, well make that MORE obsessed. It's a wonder I get anything done at all. This week the bird in the spotlight is the House Finch. They were introduced to Hawai'i in or before 1870. The colors range from pale straw yellow through bright orange (both rare) to deep, intense red. Of course I am partial to the orange, but all are attractive.

Feale and male

  A females and two males.

 The little guy on the left is the friendliest of them all and comes right up to us, yet this is the only photo I have of him. We have named him Cheeky because of the small growth on his right cheek. We have found out that these finches suffer from a contagious bacterial infection that causes blindness and eventually death. We had noticed last week that the spot had grown and his eye appeared to be affected. He only faces us now with his left side as I think that is the only eye he can see out of. It's sad yes, but just part of nature.

This is actually a juvenile. They are very VERY chirpy.

This feeding station is right outside the window where my office chair is.

They tend to sit still as they shell seeds by crushing them with rapid bites as evidenced in this shot.

The little one in the center of the bowl in the lower right image is actually a juvenile.

It cracks me up when they stand tall like this. When they land on the rail and there is no seed in the bowl, they stretch their bodies up and look all around as if to say "Where's the seed"?

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Check out this link for an amazingly detailed look at the Pincushion Protea.

GARDEN 2010

This is the wide view from the "entrance" We had scrap drywall from our various construction projects so i put it in the central path to block out the weeds. A bit slippery when wet though.

Arugula and leeks on the left, Beefsteak tomatoes on the right.

Celery and roma tomatoes on the left

Swiss chard and red cabbage

Back in January my folks helped us whip the garden into shape after neglect. With all our home-oriented projects going on over the past year (and still going) the garden took a back seat. It finally started producing a few weeks ago and we've been enjoying fresh cucumbers, corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and radish. Still waiting on the leeks, cabbage, swiss chard, japanese eggplant and curly kale. Also we have a few beets and parsnips trying their darnedest to grow. The cukes have been a nice change. I will definitely be planting more of those. Also, fennel is surprisingly hardy in the garden. I have green onions in there too, I swear they must be over a year and a half old, they're just starting to make flowers. It's kind of amazing that we can just go out there grab a bunch where as, if we were to buy them in the supermarket, we'd most likely not be able to finish them, tossing the rotten remainders in the compost. We've been making lots of tomato-based dishes lately, like pasta with red sauce, tomato and avocado salad, tomato chicken soup and grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches. Hopefully in June we'll have more veggies to blog about.

CONTAIN YOURSELVES

I was recently approached to do a new logo design for Gurman Conatiner + Supply Corporation in Terre Haute, Indiana. I love that I get to work on designs as varied as Floral Designers, Wedding Planners, Life Coaching to a Container Supply Company.

The goal was to bring a clean and modern look to the company and my only instructions were to use navy blue and to keep it from looking too cartoony and cheesy. I came up with a more sophisticated blue than what was previously used and kept the light gray as an accent. The challenge was what imagery to use considering the company sells more than containers. After several design submissions Whitney at GC+SC settled on s design that utilized the tops of metal drums. For an alternate design to use in other applications like t-shirts and on the side of their delivery trucks she chose a version that had stacked drums.

When it came time to apply the logo to their existing website, we both felt that the red needed to be changed. This acid green that I used as the web accent was inspired by toxic spills and clean-ups and gives the site just the punch it needed without being too much. I really love the crisp, clean and modern feel of the site now. Sometimes it's as simple as just giving your site a face lift with a new logo or color scheme rather than redesigning the entire thing... especially if the site works well and does not need to be rebuilt. Think of it as a haircut that you get or a new shirt. It makes you feel brand new with just a little change.

The new master logo.

An alternate version for use in other applications.

The new logo applied to the existing site.

The original look and feel of the site with original logo.