FEEDING FRENZY

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Now that it has come and gone, the food will continue for days. As well it should, since it took an entire day to cook, not to mention prep time.

We have a few things that are considered traditional but we always mange to shake things up and play with our old favorites.


This years menu was:

-BACON WRAPPED TURKEY BREAST
-BRUSSELS SPROUTS SAUTEED IN BACON AND GARLIC
-ROASTED SWEET POTATOES WITH GARLIC AND ROSEMARY
-GOOD OLD FASHIONED CORNBREAD
-DRESSING W/DRIED CRANBERRIES AND LAVENDER
-ORANGE CRANBERRY SAUCE
-CHOCOLATE CARAMEL MACADAMIA NUT PIE

Bacon wrapped turkey breast

(stuffed with orange, rosemary, garlic, celery)
Star Fruit and onions were cooked around the turkey and towards the end I glazed it with orange juice and maple syrup.
It was very good and not at all salty.
A slight smokey flavor and not at all dry.

I did my own take on this recipe from Martha Stewart for a chocolate crust pie with a layer of chocolate then macadamia nut caramel, then an orange infused chocolate ganache topped with toasted coconut and a drizzle of white chocolate. If I keep this up I will be toothless by 50.

This was the "lunch" John made for me today. 1/4 of a turkey and cheese sandwich. Yes... that was the actual presentation. But it was just what I needed.

AUTUMN IN MAUI

Kekoa showed up earlier than usual this morning and decided to break from his eat and run routine. John said he must have had a rough Saturday night because he lounged on HIS chair for about 5 hours today. Here are a few pics from a busy yet relaxing Fall Sunday in Maui.

One of the banana patches
Almost ready. This bunch is about 3 feet tall and 18"across and about 50 lbs.
Looks like about 200 bananas to me.

A view into the gulch with a juicing orange tree just right of center.

Another view into the gulch and another orange tree. This one is a navel orange.

TAKING OUT THE TRASH

John and I saw this on Nightline last night.
These are 2 women after my own heart. If we could only be as awesome as the lady that has one can per year I would be thrilled. I honestly don't know how she does it.
John and I have at most a 1/2 bag of garbage (one of those big black 28 gallon bags) every 2 weeks.

We always refuse the bags at the grocery stores which is great because we get 3-6 cents credit per canvas bag we bring in depending on the store. We are also lucky enough that we can compost all of our food scraps and most paper products. Lining flower beds with newspaper is a great way to keep weeds out. We recycle all cans, bottles and cardboard which is great because we get 5 cents for every plastic bottle or can marked HI5 on it. You pay the 5 cents at the store as a deposit so why not drop it off at recycling to get it back? Otherwise you are literally throwing money away. That is our mad money that we plan on putting towards something fun like a zip-line adventure.

here is the link to enviromom blog

TOTALLY WAVEY!

The waves yesterday at Ho'okipa were amazing.
The sun may not have been shining but who needs sun with sets like these?
What's that?
NO, I don't surf.

SUGAR COATED

This has become one of my favorite fall traditions... Candied Citrus Rinds. Just make sure you allow enough time for making these. The total time to make this size batch was about 5 hours. (depends on how many lemons you want to use.)

The brown nuts in the back jar are the Macadamia Nuts from our tree. I plan on roasting those in the next week.

By the way... the brown nuts in the back jar are the Macadamia Nuts from our tree. I plan on roasting those in the next week.
I started with about 30 large lemons. I juiced them all and will freeze some of the juice. I will make lemonade with the rest. Use the leftover syrup from the candy to sweeten the lemonade.

Making the candy is fairly easy to do, except for the removing of the pith. That is not all that hard, but it is very time consuming.

First, place the entire rind after you have juiced them into water and boil with 1 tablespoon salt for 15 minutes until the pith is just softened. The salt helps to soften as well as remove the bitterness. Do not over cook or you will end up with mush.

Run under cold water and allow to cool. Cut rind into 1" rings then cut those in half so you have half circles. Lay skin side down and run a very sharp paring knife between the pith and the skin. The pith is the dry white part lining the citrus. Work carefully. Cut those strips into 1/4" strips and place in a pot of water. Boil for 30 minutes, drain and boil once more for 30 minutes. This removes the salt.

Next, take 3 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar and bring to a boil to make a syrup. Adjust to the size batch you are making.
Add cooked peels which look pale yellow and are very soft. Simmer about 45 minutes stirring occasionally... you do not want this to scorch. The peels should now be somewhat transparent and firm... from all the sugar. Remove from heat and cover. Allow to stand at least 2-3 hours, but I allow mine to stand overnight.

Remove peels from syrup with a slotted spoon and place in a mesh strainer over a bowl to allow syrup to drain. Then spread on a cookie sheet. Place in 175 degree oven and dry for about 10 minutes.

Divide into small groups and place in a covered bowl or bag and toss with 2 tablespoons superfine bakers sugar until evenly coated. If not enough sugar add a little more until desired coating is achieved.

If too wet or too much sugar, the sugar will clump instead of dust the surface.Below are 2 images that show just the right amount and too much sugar.

TOO MUCH.

JUST RIGHT.

Place back on cookie sheet and dry in 175 degree oven for another 20 minutes. Remove, allow to cool and store in airtight container. These can be stored in the fridge for several weeks. Bring to room temp before serving. I have never frozen a batch of the full rinds until now. I'll keep you posted as to how they come out.

I like these dipped in dark chocolate but with did not have any chocolate on hand. This was last falls batch. You could lay them all out on a cookie sheet and drizzle with the chocolate as well which would take a lot less time. I will be adding some chocolate as soon as I make it to town.

**** Save the syrup that boils down (now lemon flavored) and store it in the fridge where it will last quite a long time. You can use it to make your lemonade or add it to tea. You will also end up with some very tiny pieces that were broken off during all the cooking. You can freeze these and use them later in cookies, cakes, breads or granola.

PROGRESS - CHANGE - HOPE

Congratulations to Barack Obama, The USA and the World.

V.O.T.E.

LETS MAKE HISTORY.

CAUGHT ON TAPE

Conn and I voted today. We were concerned when we got off the elevator and were greeted with the end of the line! The whole process took an hour, a small sacrifice for the chance to cast our vote.

Well, voting's tough work so we had to refuel our depleted energy with a few of Dad's Donuts! We just can't get enough as evidenced in this pic from Dad's website. Heck, we're there so often that we were shot by the web designer a couple of months ago as she was photographing the shop for the website! So now there is hard proof of our confection addiction. 

Thanks to Marion the designer for giving us the heads up that we are on the site!

PINEAPPLE PASSION CHEESECAKE

Yesterday I made yet ANOTHER dessert. This time I made a Passion Fruit (Lilikoi) Cheesecake with a Pineapple Custard Filling and Coconut Shortbread crust. I still have not recovered from this combo of tart and tangy goodness. This time I made cheesecake bars instead of a pie. This recipe filled a "brownie pan" that measured 10 1/2" x 15 1/2" x 1" perfectly. But it can be made in any baking dish, cake or pie pan.

Topped with passion fruit/pineapple sauce and lemongrass garnish.

Here is the recipe I used, which was adapted from the one I made a few weeks back with Lime.
I did make a few changes in the prep as well. I felt that the custard needed to set up a bit before pouring the cheese mixture on top.

Pineapple custard
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons fresh pineapple juice/pulp

Crust
1 cup butter (softened)
2 cups sifted unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup sifted confectioners sugar
1/4 cup shredded coconut (i used unsweetened that you can find in the bulk section at health food stores)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons fresh passion fruit juice
(you can find passion fruit at most health food stores when in season... look for ones that are all wrinkled and not so pretty. That is when they are at their best)


For pineapple custard:
Whisk all ingredients in small saucepan over medium heat until custard thickens and just starts to boil. Cook 2 minutes stirring constantly. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally ... mixture will thicken.

For crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix all crust ingredients to blend in medium bowl. Press mixture evenly onto bottom of a pie pan or baking dish. Pierce dough with a fork to allow air to escape. Bake until just set, about 10 minutes. Cool completely. Maintain oven temperature.

Pour custard mixture into crust & smooth top. Let set about 10 minutes until firm.


For filling:
Place cream cheese in a bowl and cream before adding other ingredients. Then add 3/4 cup sugar, eggs & passion fruit juice in bowl and mix well until creamy. Make sure your cream cheese is completely softened so that you will not end up with chunks in your mixture.

Carefully pour cheese filling over the custard. Place foil on rack under cheesecake to catch any overflow as the cake dies rise a bit. Bake until set and center moves slightly when pan is gently shaken, about 45 minutes. Toothpick should come out clean when pierced.


Cool then place in fridge. Serve chilled and garnish with passion fruit pulp and pineapple topping. The passion fruit seeds add a nice crunch and a bit of contrast in color.

FLOWERS FIRST

Here is a new logo and business card I created for Nikki and Justin at Flowers First here on Maui. The guidelines were to somehow use green, purple, circles and maybe orange. Hard to believe I did not get orange in there somewhere. I really wanted to play with the letter "f" somehow since there were 2 of them in the company name. The result was this fuji or spider mum made out of radiating "f's". The back of the cards were inspired by japanese oragami paper and an obi sash. Please check out their temporary website I did for them at Flowers First Wholesale. We hope to have a few more pages up soon.

By the way, Nikki and Justin were the ones that informed us that Kekoa was in "foster care". Mahalo.

FOUL PLAY

Occasionally Kekoa likes to play a little catch me catch me if you can. He starts to flit about and flap his wings, crouch and make low clucking sounds. He always instigates the game , and I willingly join in... chasing him about the yard which he seems to enjoy. Here are few pics and a short clip (color is not close to correct) of us playing around in the yard. And as of today... those long beautiful tail feathers... GONE. What the? He seems to have lost about 4-5 since this morning. I suspect foul play.

Fancy Feathers

Someone's been swimming in my water.

It brings new life to the phrase "Animal crackers in my soup".

A WEEK ABROAD

Here are some pics from my trip home to see family. I was especially glad to spend time with my dear friend Chrystine and her 15 month old, Stephen. What an adorable, smart and funny child. He was just picking up words left and right. Such a sweet boy.

That is until later that night, when his first molar decided to show up! I guess it's painful to have a giant tooth breaking up though your gums as illustrated by his blood-curdling screams!

Needless to say, Chrystine, my mom and I didn't get much sleep because we would immediately run in to help out. Chrystine felt so bad for waking up the house, he had been a very easy sleeper up to that point. But mom relished the opportunity to spend even more time with him and frankly so did I. We commanded Chrystine get some sleep before her long drive back down to NJ later that morning while we stayed up with the cranky baby boy. We let him run around and explore every nook and cranny of the house and just generally made silly fools of ourselves. It reminded me of the summers I was home from college when my nephew was that age. Trying to get that child to take a nap was quite the endeavor.

Which brings me to the other major reason for my trip home, to see my nephew before he went off to college. Yes, TO COLLEGE! Where did the time go? I had a chance to go up to Vermont with my sister's family so we all got to spend some quality time together. And I got even more fall foliage action travelling up through the Adirondacks. The leaves of brown came tumbling down, remember...

HI HI BIRDY

That's right... He's back!
We were sound asleep this morning when at 7:00 John suddenly woke up and said "Oh My God!". I of course thought that we had slept until noon at that exclamation. To my surprise he then said, "He's Back!". Yes sir... there he was ... pecking away at the grains we had been leaving out for all the other birds. We headed outside to greet him and he was just as calm as could be. It was like he never left. After eating his fill of grain... and yes macadamia nuts, he hopped up on his chair for a nap and has now wandered off for the afternoon.

He looks great and has grown several inches in height an length. He has also put on a few lb's and his new plumage is rockin'! When we last saw him he had just a few white feathers around his neck. Now it's a full fledged ring. His beak looks a bit worn down, which we suspect might be a result of rubbing it on the wire of the coop he had been in. That happened when we had him in the coop as well. But it will heel in a few weeks. It looks like he was pretty well taken care of by his "foster parents".

Now that we have a new camera with a video feature... we will get a vid up soon.
Stay tuned.

FOSTER'S HOME FOR WAYWARD PHEASANTS

Last week I posted about Kekoa being M.I.A. We got some information a few days ago regarding his whereabouts and it goes a little something like this:

Our friends Nikki & Justin who have met Keoka were talking with a friend of theirs who had recently moved somewhere down near us. He said that there was this couple who had found a pretty tame pheasant a few weeks ago and they took him in. Nikki and Justin were not believing what they were hearing and told their friend about us and our adventures with Kekoa. They went to show him pictures here on CFC and they were doubly shocked when they saw the "Have You Seen This Bird?" post.

So their friend took our info and was going to try and get the couple to call us for a return of sorts. Well 5 days have passed and we have heard nothing.... That is until now.

Nikki just informed me that Kekoa was set free 2 days ago and their friend saw him out and about down the road.

I tried putting a positive spin on things by saying that maybe they were meant to look after him while we were gone. Foster parents if you will. I hope that is true. And I can't imagine what he must look like now. We have missed out on his terrible teenage phase. In any case John and I are thrilled that he has been set free again... where he should be. It was great knowing that he was ok... but troubling knowing he was cooped up in a pen.

Come and see us soon Kekoa... we will have mac nuts waiting for you!

Stay tuned right here on CFC for more adventures of Kekoa.

RECORD SOLUTION

This post might be odd coming from someone who delights in turning old record covers into other things. But I can't ignore a good design solution when I see one. Especially when it minimizes clutter and aids in the preservation of a near-extinct medium. And it helps that it involves a good friend too. Enter, the Atocha Design Record Cabinet. Sleek and modern in design, warm and inviting in materials, it takes your old vinyl (and cd's too) off the shelves and stowed away for safe keeping. They were in the New York Times magazine a few weeks ago too. Hot stuff!

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BIRD?

We know it has been awhile since we gave you all an update on Kekoa. I wish we had something to tell you, but we don't.

You see, just 2 days after we bought him a fancy auto-feeder he disappeared on September 15th. We saw him that morning and have not seen him since. That was one week before we went away. His days spent on the lanai were getting shorter and shorter, and the last few days he only came for breakfast around 7:00 AM and dinner around 4:30 PM. It is sad not having him around, but he is a wild bird and out on his own. It was always our intention that he be returned to the wild to fly and roam freely. Who knows, he may show up again one day... maybe with a new family. If and when that happens, you will be the first to know. Below are a few pictures from the last visit.

Taking a bath in his water dish.

He seemed to like the new feeding system while it lasted.

A detail of his amazing plumage.

I PRACTICED A COUPLE OF ZINGERS WHERE I CALL YA' JOE

MEET JACK

Still in Indiana and very much looking forward to heading back to Maui in a few days. Too cold here. I am sitting in a Starbucks so I can connect to the internet... DON'T ASK. My cousin Jenny and her husband John welcomed a new baby last week. Here are a few picks of my new 2nd cousin Jack. So tiny at just around 7lbs. Very cute. This is how I spent about an hour and a half last night.... with him sleeping on my chest. I think he will fit in my carry on.