Megablog

I know I've gone AWOL. Life has been keeping me busy, and it won't really settle until I return from visiting family for the holidays. So here's a month's or better worth of things I need to catch up to date...

Santa's Land at the Queen Ka'ahumanu Center - the turtle with the fuzzy red hat reminds me of my logo for the holidays

One of the few pics of me - here with my sister Dana at Makena Beach

Here's Ana'ole - turtle 4 - the hatchling that I named in the contest at the Maui Ocean Center

A sea urchin spiny thingy

One of my hats on display in the gift shop at the Maui Ocean Center

A puffer fish. He's endearingly cute but was about 18"-24" long and has sharp spines on his body that spike out pin cushion-like when he inflates himself

Just a peaceful beach shot

This place has been around since the creation of the islands. It's an institution in Wailuku

They serve onion rings - tempura style - at a chinese restaurant

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Chow Fun noodles. These noodles are actually sliced like carrot sticks and made from potato dough - YUM!

An offering at the Home Maid Bakery shop

Lunch at Leoda's in Olowalu - Spicy (fresh) tuna salad on thier bread with tomato and butter lettuce. Served in a metal pie tin lined with brown paper

Some of the best fries I have ever had! With an aioli - and ketchup of course

Dana's lunch was Fried Mac and Cheese with a marinara - we both had leftovers...

On the road leading to mine, I see a long neck serpent in the grass

Wild lilikoi (passion fruit) flower

The serpent again

This is how my hats were displayed in the booth for the Haleakala Waldorf Holiday Faire. We had a great location - on an end, at the bottom of a hill and by the second entrance to the event - that really helped with traffic 

The hats are all my fabrics - Surf's Up, Seal Pups, Mermaids of Hana Bay, Hibiscus - and the pillow cases - Cotton Couture, Shell Dot and Gingerbreadtown

Mac and Cheese with Peas, please! Red pepper flakes and Kiawe smoked Hawaiian sea salt. The background is Siren Song - color Rainbow

Grilled Shell-on Shrimp  skewered on fresh Rosemary twigs

The morning of October 15 - my mother's birthday 

Comfort food for lunch - when it rains there is quite a damp chill in Haiku and a lunch like this hits the spot!

Rooster Rumble

This wasn't too violent just two roosters plucking the feathers out of one another - but what a display!

These are boneless version of the  bone in ribs I made when Dana was here. Both were preseasoned with the smoked sea salt and crushed black pepper. Next I smoked them over macadamia nut wood then glazed them with Maui Brewing Company Root Beer Bar-B-Que sauce. Last they cooked slowly to dry them out a bit like chinese roast pork.

 Another ornate rooster and hen

One of several gingerbread boy doll fronts drying before construction

Ketchup and Eggs

Ketchup...

OMG! this is the best stuff I have ever had... Do you have a spoon? A chip? A piece of bread I can dip into it?

Homemade ketchup. In my opinion ketchup, in general, is not just a condiment but a comfort food. And as my dear friend Holly would say, "Steak is just a vehicle for eating ketchup!"

I have to agree with her.

This stuff, that bubbles on the stove for over 3 hours is simply amazing, and by experience I have found the longer it sits after being put into canning jars, the better it gets.

The recipe that I found in the New York Times magazine section is the one that I swear by. And it's funny how life sometimes throws you a curve but, with determination and perseverance, one can prevail.

My story: I was searching for the pages torn from the magazine containing the recipe. One day, I finally found them and here's where it goes awry: I lit a small votive candle and left it on the table with the recipes, including this one, that I was sorting through. I've lived on Maui 3 years now and one would think I have learned a few things during that time but apparently not. Mark forgot about the trade winds that blow through every day starting about 1:30 PM and tend to cause papers and small, light objects to gust about. So burning candle, wind blows, makes recipes take flight, ketchup recipe lands on candle... small fire -- no panic, douse it quickly -- and all I am left with just charred and tattered remains of the recipe with singed edge and dashed hopes.

Quick! Google search... a few minutes I found it! Relief...

http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/8571/Spicy-Tomato-Ketchup.html

So today I'm concocting a new batch... with pics, of course!

Here's a plate of spices and condiments that are added to the tomatoes with red wine vinegar. A few included above are charred onion, garlic, tomato paste, brown sugar, raw honey, capers, cardamon pods, cumin, black pepper and allspice berries.

All the ingredients in the pot prior to cooking and reducing for 3 hours.

The simmering ketchup after approximately an hour-and-a-half. Notice how the color is getting deeper and darker as it reduces.

A jar of the finished ketchup.

Angus burgers on the cast iron charcoal grill to be served with oven fries and onion rings and a side of homemade cole slaw. And lots and lots of ketchup!

Eggs...

Here in Upcountry, and perhaps all of Maui - all islands too? - there is a problem with feral chickens. One measure to curb the chickens from making nests, laying eggs and raising broods in the wild is to mark the nests and return weekly to remove the most recently laid clutch of eggs.

These eggs are smaller than what I think of for a chicken egg. Here's one showing the very orange-colored yolk and was later used for onion rings which accompany the burgers and ketchup. Honestly these eggs do taste differently from store bought eggs.

Deviled eggs made from the wild eggs with black sesame seeds.