Christmas Dinner - Island Style

I was raised in an English family and Christmas Day dinner was a big event - turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc. It was like a Thanksgiving part deux and my mum would spend several hours on Christmas day preparing and cooking the amazing meal.

But this year the hubby and I had three large turkey meals around Thanksgiving over the course of two weeks and well, by Christmas, we were pretty turkeyed out.

Since we live in the islands, we decided to change it up and make it a seafood Christmas dinner. I was a little worried in case the meal didn't feel like Christmas, but I have to admit, it was a blast.
We dined on a macadamia nut crusted Mahi Mahi, stuffed with Alaskan crab and served with grilled shrimp and a lemon coconut sauce.
The recipe for the Mahi Mahi was a loose interpretation/combination of three recipes I found on the web and the lemon coconut sauce was my own creation.

Personally the best part was that it was only an hour from prep to table. I didn't have to spend the whole day preparing the feast. Instead I was able to enjoy Christmas day, only spend an hour in the kitchen, and we still had a wonderful Christmas dinner.

I let the hubby relax while I prepared most of the meal but I did ask him for help on two parts: crushing the macadamia nuts and removing the crab from the hard shell of the legs.

Because the meal was such a success, I have a feeling those large turkey dinners might be a Thanksgiving-only meal in the future.

Mixed Berry & Apple Pie

This pie is amazing. And I'm not just saying that cause I made it. The combination of the mixed berries and the apple is divine - especially hot from the oven!

The recipe is originally from Martha Stewart but I feel she often makes things a little more complicated than they need to be. So I adjusted it and also added my mom's pie crust recipe. :)

PASTRY (makes enough for a pie base and top cover)
2 cups flour - sift into bowl
2 tsp baking powder (omit if you are using self-rising flour)
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup solid Crisco (not the oil in the bottle)
1/3 cup butter
4-5 Tablespoons ice cold water

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into bowl.
Add the Crisco and butter (or 2/3 cup butter or 2/3 cup Crisco if you are out of one of them) and rub into the flour with your fingers until all blended.
Add the ice water.

You can also do this in the food processor. Put the dry ingredients in and add the Crisco/butter. Pulse till they are blended, then add the ice water through the funnel while you pulse.

Split into two balls - one for pie base and one for the cover. Make sure to have lots of flour on the board and rolling pin when rolling.

PIE
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large granny smith apple, peeled and sliced into very thin slices
3 cups of mixed berries (I used a bag of frozen berries, defrosted)
1 ounce (2 Tablespoons) cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375.
Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Add apple slices and berries and toss to coat. Pour filling into piecrust. Dot the filling with the cut up butter. Place top of pie crust over the mixture. (I like to do strips cause it looks pretty). Sprinkle a little more sugar over the top.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until brown.

Enjoy!

A Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

This week we stocked up on all the items we would need for our Thanksgiving. I know what you're thinking - we must be super efficient or super excited. Well, possibly a little of both but mainly it was because we live on an island, and once an item is gone, it's gone. We didn't want to risk having our turkey without cranberry sauce or that green bean casserole without french fried onions.

We had to go to a few different stores to get everything and while at our final stop, there was a deal for a $4 turkey if you spent over $20. Glancing at our cart, we had over $20 worth of ingredients so we picked up another turkey. We'd already bought one earlier that day, but we couldn't pass up the deal. Two turkeys... and a week to go till Thanksgiving. What would you do?

We had a pre-Thanksgiving meal. Yep, we cooked a full turkey dinner complete with stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, candied yams, Molokai sweet potatoes and apple pie. I don't think of this as detracting from next Thursday - I consider it more an extension of the holiday. :)

My favorite part - the apple pie. I love making desserts but this was my first time making a pie. It came out great!
And even though it was my first time making a pie, I decided to be adventurous and do a fancy top. Next time I know to space the strips out a bit more so they are all even. I'm kinda missing one on the end there but not bad for a first run.

The pastry recipe was from my mom and the apple pie was courtesy of the hubby's grandmother. I was a little concerned when I called her for the recipe as she just said it was a bit of this and a bit of that. She does it all by eye and doesn't measure anything anymore. But I must have done pretty good cause the pie was delicious. I just have to remember what I did for next time!

Are you going to eat that?

Other title choices for this post were: "I'm no Andrew Zimmern, but...," "How fresh is your fish?" and "Why is my dinner staring at me?"

I've never considered myself a very adventurous eater. In fact, I've been pretty picky throughout my life, turning down pasta if it was slightly overcooked, or the wrong macaroni shape (I know, I know. I've finally moved past that one). But recently, I've decided to step outside my comfort level and try new foods. There are limits to this of course, but I'm slowly getting there.

On a trip to Hilo a few weeks ago, we stopped at The Seaside Restaurant, known for its fresh fish. And how right the reputation was - the fish was caught no more than five feet from where we sat at our table. How could I turn down the opportunity to have the freshest fish I'd ever have in my life? I couldn't. And I didn't. :)

When the whole fish arrived, I found myself actually excited - unlike a fish meal I had a few years ago... Well, I didn't exactly have it. I ordered it and couldn't bring myself to eat it because it was staring at me. (they didn't tell me that was going to happen when I read the menu)

But my how things have changed. When my meal of pan-fried crispy Aholehole served with daikon-suri arrived at the table, I couldn't wait to dig in.
It was fantastic. The small round dish was filled daikon-suri and per the waiter's suggestion, I added soy sauce and dipped portions of the fish into it. Amazing!

I tried to be polite, as it was a nice restaurant, and use a fork and knife, but after a few minutes it was clear that the easiest way was just to eat with my hands. No one around seemed to mind and at the end of the night, only bones were left on my plate. I give the whole experience an A+.

Yep, I've come a long way from the Pokemon shaped macaroni I refused to eat ten years ago :)

Introducing the puppy cake!

When I made the horse cake two weeks ago, my 12 year old neighbor asked for a cake of her dog for her party this past weekend.

Making the horse had been good practice and I felt pretty confident about making the dog, a Shepard with one blue eye, one brown. In fact, I was pretty excited to try the shape again as I had learned a lot when making the horse.

The beginning went great. I baked the cake in loaf pans, stacked them together and used chocolate frosting as a middle layer and as a glue to keep the pieces together. Then I shaped the cake, carefully cutting with a bread knife to get the desired shape, pictured below.
Using a star tip and vanilla and chocolate buttercream, I began decorating. Then the humidity set in, making the buttercream too soft. October is usually a great month where I live, with cool temps and rain. But the tradewinds decided to stop this week and we were left with high levels of humidity and heat. I began my routine of putting the cake in the fridge for 10 minutes at a time. This worked for a while until I opened the fridge and saw that the entire muzzle of the dog had fallen off and was now lying on the bottom of the fridge - with a white frosting trail on every shelf.

I originally had the nose resting on the feet with a gap below - a major flaw in the plan. The frosting made the cake too heavy and it collapsed and fell forward.

Looking back, it was pretty funny and I should have paused to take a picture of the fridge and the nose at the bottom with the body at the top, but I was so concerned about the time that I immediately focused on fixing the problem.

Fortunately I had cake left over from the shaping so I cut off a large square piece and placed it on the cake board in place of the nose. It made his head look bigger, but also made him look like he was resting his head between his paws and not on them.

I quickly decorated it with the buttercream and the nose turned out great! I know now to be wary of design flaws for the next time.
The eyes and nose were made out of fondant and decorated with my food coloring pens.
My neighbor was thrilled and the cake was a big hit at the party. I think I'm getting the hang of these shaped cakes! I have blog requests for a tortoise and a camel. Stay tuned. :)

It's no cup of noodles...

Growing up, ramen meant the packet of dried noodles that I dumped in hot water or poured water into a cup and waited. What a world I was missing out on. Fresh ramen is amazing.

On our recent trip to Oahu, we stopped at Goma Tei Ramen. We'd discovered this restaurant on a previous trip through the suggetions of Yelp and knew we would be back. When you have a meal this good, you can't help but go again.

I ordered the Chicken Tan Tan Ramen. This picture may be slightly deceiving as the bowl looks tiny but believe me, that spoon is huge as is the bowl. This is not a light meal that will make you hungry an hour later - this a full fledged ramen meal that will fill you up.
Beneath the sliced chicken is a copious amount of perfectly cooked noodles and vegetables - this restaurant doesn't skimp on anything. The broth bursts with a variety of flavors that I can't quite describe but take what you know of the instant ramen and multiply the flavor by ten. It also has a nice texture, letting you know that this is not some watered down meal. This is the real thing.

The waiters offer to fill your bowl with more broth as you eat in case you need more to go along with your remaining noodles and chicken. Wait, a restaurant that actually offers you a "refill" and doesn't charge? Oh yes. This place is that good. And the best part? When you leave, you are full, happy and only minus around $8 from your wallet.

A Horse is a Horse...

My neighbor turned 12 this past weekend and is an avid rider, spending most of her free time at the barn. I offered to make her a horse cake as the hubby and I were going over to their house for dinner on her birthday and she eagerly nodded. Her favorite flavor: Chocolate. Great, chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. That was the easy part.

I was stuck on how to do it. I first thought about doing a sheet cake in the shape of a horse's head, but that wouldn't be a challenge.

So I tried my first 3D cake. After arranging all of my baking pans in different configurations, I finally decided on baking in two loaf pans and four mini loaf pans.
Slicing off the end of one loaf, I added it to make the rise in the head and a curve in the back.
I frosted each portion with buttercream as I transferred it to a decorated baking sheet. I used wrapping paper but then covered that in plastic wrap - I wasn't sure how the paper would take the frosting. At this point, the hubby and I joked that it looked like an alligator.
From watching various cake shows, I knew I should make the ears out of rice krispies but we didn't have any in the house, so I used cornflakes. They worked okay, but I think I would use rice krispies in the future. Unfortunately at this point my battle with the humidity had begun, so the cake was decorated in 10 minute increments, placed in the fridge between segments.
I used fondant for the eyes, nose, mouth and horseshoes.
Even my cat seemed interested by the strange creation on the table.
It wasn't easy and took all day but I learned a lot and I know the next one will be even better - in two weeks when she's having a party with her friends and has requested a cake like this but of her dog. She also pointed out that the back legs of the dog need to have a round bit if he's sitting down. Oy. :) Watch this space...