Category: Hawaii

Hot Diggity Dog!

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Whew! That week went by in the blink of an eye. We hope you all enjoyed our adventure with Kosher cooking. We know we sure did. I imagine we’ll revisit Kosher food at some point along this adventure again. Until then, many thanks to Tori for our first introduction to it. Incidentally, Tori just won the IACP People’s Choice Best Culinary Blog or Website for 2012! Congrats! It’s well-deserved.

Now before we get to our next international cooking adventure we wanted to wrap up our stateside culinary tour of Hawaii. This last dish doesn’t really have a recipe per say. We didn’t whip up any original ingredients, or make any fancy homemade sausages. Nope. We simply wanted to see how authentically we could recreate our favorite treat from Hawaii, The Puka Dog!  Continue reading →

A Moment Changes Everything

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Before we wrap up our Greenlandic recipes next week, we thought we’d toss in our stateside cooking adventure for the week. We’re still focused on Hawaii…nothing like prolonging the vacation a bit, even if it is from our own kitchen.

Vacations, at least for Mike and I, are always a time of reflection. We like to spend some time looking back on what brought us to this particular point – the challenges, the joys, the decisions (both spontaneous and well-thought out ones). It’s always interesting to go back and look at the turning points we’ve faced and the random series of events that have led us to a certain place, or brought an interesting person into our lives. It’s really quite remarkable how things have a way of coming together sometimes.  Continue reading →

Another Tourney Contender

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Don’t you just love a good idyllic day – especially in the midst of chaos and stress? The kids and I had one of those days today. It was just a sweet, happy and an all around good day. Nothing particularly of note happened, we didn’t travel anywhere exciting or do anything out of the ordinary. It was just one of those good days that reminds you what it’s all really about.

I had one of those moments in Hawaii too. I went for a run one morning and on the return trip I was running toward the ocean. The view, as you can imagine, was breathtaking. I was soaking it all in when a whale jumped out of the water right in my line of vision. It was incredible and again one of those moments that serves as a gentle reminder that while it’s the little things in life, life is also so much bigger than my daily stresses and hurdles. After that run I sat and stared at the ocean for quite sometime. It was a perfect morning.

My perfect morning was then followed by a trip to our favorite breakfast place where I enjoyed some delicious Hawaiian-style French toast. So what better recipe to include as our next contender for the best French toast, but Hawaiian French Toast?! We first gathered our ingredients which included eggs, milk, vanilla, fresh pineapple and macadamia nuts. So far so good right?!  Continue reading →

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

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First and foremost I want to offer a brief, but sincerely heartfelt, thank you for everyone that left comments or sent me messages this past week. It’s been a difficult time, but the warm words and support were truly helpful. Thank you.

As I mentioned in our last post, Grandpa would not have wanted us to mourn for long. So it’s time to get back in the kitchen, and I know he would have enjoyed this next stateside series…It’s time for our recipes from Hawaii to begin!

Over the next few weeks we’re going to try to replicate some of our island favorites. This particular recipe was hands-down the one I looked forward to recreating the most. The first time I came across this dish was at the Kalaheo Cafe & Coffee Company. I wanted something fresh and light to contrast the heavy resort and restaurant food we had been enjoying, and the Anahola Granola looked perfect.  Continue reading →

Mahalo…A Hui Hou

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We returned from Kauai on Sunday evening well-rested, sun-kissed and happy. It was a much-needed, relaxing, utterly beautiful and fabulous vacation. We’ve been fortunate enough to have taken many vacations over the course of our marriage, and even quite a few since the kids have been born, but I honestly don’t remember another time I came home this peaceful and relaxed. I didn’t even have my post-vacation “it’s over” sadness, just utter contentment. I suppose someplace as beautiful and magical as Kauai can do that to you.

Dawn of a new day.

Mr. N and Miss A even fully immersed themselves in the relaxation of this trip. With the exception of a few minor meltdowns from Miss A (which frankly were nothing in the grand-scheme of things – pretty remarkable for a three-year old) and a few initial protests about an activity from Mr. N, both of the kids were absolutely in-tune with each other, us and the vacation.  Continue reading →

Aloha! Our Epic Cooking Journey to Hawaii

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Last week Mr. N took us to Indiana for our  mid-week stateside adventure. This week it was Miss A’s turn and she went for a more exotic destination – Hawaii! She’s been quite fascinated with the state after learning that mom, dad and Mr. N were there before she was born and that we’re trying to plan for a trip there again next year (fingers crossed!). The first choices for our dinner were obvious – a Tropical Fruit Salad and the nonalcoholic version of the Lava Flow. Mr. N and I indulged quite frequently in this delicious little drink on our last trip to the Big Island, and he was very excited to try them at home. As for our main course, after a little digging through internet recipes we decided to try the Manapua. Coincidentally the manapua recipe was brought to the Hawaiian Islands by the Chinese – so it’s a good fit for our international theme this week too.  Continue reading →