My New Favorite Thing

I've been trying to prepare more meals at home so as not to hit my wallet so hard every day as well as to incorporate healthier foods into my diet.

Because of this, I have fallen head over heels for my new favorite thing: a raw Kale Salad!

It's amazing and simple and oh so delicious.  I love using kale for this simple salad, but I recently used red swiss chard instead, and it was a wonderful substitute.  Here's my rough recipe for what I've been making at home.  I do everything to taste and suggest you do so as well.

For the dressing:

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 to 2 garlic cloves depending on how much you enjoy scaring vampires away
• lemon juice (I use juice from the plastic bottle shaped like a lemon, but fresh is better)
• parmesan cheese (I use grated parmesan from the green bottle, but fresh is better)

For the salad:

• A huge bunch of kale

Wash and dry the kale.  Once cleaned, remove the stems.  Cut the kale leaves into small strips.  The more you cut the kale, the more oxygen gets into the leaves and the more the kale "wilts."  This softens the flavor of the kale quite a bit so it's not as bitter.  Put kale into a large mixing bowl.

Prepare the dressing: Mince garlic and crush it with the flat of your knife blade or the back of a spoon.  Put garlic into a shake safe container (I use a small tupperware, but you may have a jar with a lid).  Add olive oil, lemon juice, parmesan cheese.  Put the lid on the container and shake the dickens out of it.

Put dressing over kale and mix well.  Some purists like to mix the salad by hand to "massage" the kale. This softens the texture and taste of the kale even further, but I don't personally do this.  To each their own.

I suggest allowing your salad to sit for a while before serving.  This sitting around time allows the dressing to further enhance the flavor and texture of the kale.

Kale is a super hearty green, so the dressed salad can be refrigerated and enjoyed later that day or served the next.

I have enjoyed eating this kale salad as is with nothing else on it, but I have also done this salad with red swiss chard and topped it off with poached eggs.  

When I made this salad today, I added a diced avocado and quartered artichoke hearts with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar on top.

There are endless ways to dress up this salad, but even at its simplest, this kale salad is delicious and amazingly good for you.

Enjoy!

Photo from "She Knows" website

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Blast From the Past

Remember when scrapbooking was all the rage?  OK, I'm sure in some households the scrapbooking fad has never died, but it got a little too much for me.  I felt that my scrapbook pages weren't crafty enough or had enough journaling in them, so I gave up and just used photo albums.  Unfortunately, all of those photo albums are stashed in my parents' garage, and I don't have any photographs at hand anymore except here online or floating around in facebook where only the very, very flattering photographs of myself are still tagged.

Of course, I still have a huge stash of photographs stashed on my computer since my senior year of high school, and I though I would start trucking them out bit by bit.

Here's just a small preview of the gems hidden away on the hard drive of my Macbook:

High school friends and me playing around in the school cafe.  We all happened to be wearing red sweaters that day.

Me and Margo at Franktown Meadows after a dressage competition.  I believe this is the event where Margo reared up in front of a galloping Fressian during our warm up.

Idgie in bed with Dad.

Idgie after a bad haircut.  She looks so forlorn.  It's as if she knows we took away the Idgie-essence by letting an overzealous groomer buzz off her gorgeous curls.

Mom and Dad visiting me during my semester "abroad" in NYC

Blowing out the candles on my 18th birthday cake, lovingly made by Grandma.

There are still lots and lots of photographs to re-share with all of you, and I'm thinking of trickling them out here and there in between current events here on the blog.  I'm hoping to parcel them out in groups to tell different stories: my semester in New York City, summer vacations, college life and then, maybe a flashback to my visit to Maui in 2008 when I decided that I could see myself living here.

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Beach and Bug Adventures

Bryan and I both had last Friday off, so we spent the late afternoon at Airport Beach.  It was another gorgeous day in Paradise, with crystal clear skies that offered up marvelous views of majestic Molokai.

We weren't the only ones at the beach:

The crowd pictured above is not a typical sight.  Bryan and I were lucky to find a parking spot at the beach parking lot.  

We think the big monster waves at this typically very mellow beach brought out all the sun bathers and boogie boarders.

Bryan in the waves.

Kenny (Bryan's roommate) and Bryan about to dive through an oncoming wave.

Bryan trying to catch a wave in.

The waves were daunting.  We watched quite a few people get bowled over as they tentatively tried to get into the ocean.

It's do or die, people.  With waves of this size, there is no hesitation.  You need to hustle through the shore break and prepare to launch yourself through the waves.

It may seem hard to leave the beach and get into the water with waves blasting onto the beach, but I think the more difficult task is getting back out when you're done playing in the water.

Beach Morning Glory: a salt-tolerant creeping vine.  They grow in huge clusters and create a dense mat along the top of a sand dune.

Last night Bryan and I went to the newly opened Spanky's Riptide bar at 505 Front Street.  We met up with our friends, Amanda and Chris, but they weren't the only ones we ran into there.  When we walked through the bar it seemed that all the Lahaina locals were at Spanky's.

It didn't take us long to find out why: it was Taco Tuesday.

While we enjoyed our $1 tacos and cheap beers, I spotted this 2 inch long Praying Mantis hanging out on a plant by our table.

This praying mantis wasn't the only wildlife we spotted at the bar.  Spanky's mascot is a chocolate lab named Spanky.  Spanky hung out under our table most of the night hoping that one of us would drop a beef taco into his mouth.  We were all too greedy to share.

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Hair!

I got my hair cut last Thursday by Ivy at Plush.  I was having the hardest time capturing a good self portrait of the cut, but just know that it's awesome and that I'm incredibly happy with it.

If you are ever in town and need of an amazing stylist, Ivy is a miracle worker!  I had such a wonderful consultation with her.  I told her that I was looking for a stylish cut that would look awesome without me having to do anything.  No blow drying, hair straighteners or products.  I wanted something that looked great out of the shower.

I thought it was a pretty tall order, but Ivy delivered.

The cut is shorter up front around my face, but the style maintains a lot of the original length in back.  When Ivy dried my hair at the salon she used minimal products (just an anti-frizz cream to calm my hair before blasting it with a dryer since I haven't used one in months) and did minimal styling.  It was important to her that I walked out of the salon knowing that my cut would look the same at home after I washed and dried my hair myself.

I love the new look!  When I went to work after my weekend, EVERYONE complimented me on my "rockstar" haircut.  Even the guys said something.  Actually, it was the guys that had the most to say.  Who says that men don't notice these things?

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Made It!

A few days old...but a photo of me at the top of the Iao Valley hike I did with girlfriends last Wednesday.

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Spooky Passenger

I spotted this spooky passenger in a parked van on my way home.

Lahaina is awesome.

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Iao Valley

Amanda, with her friend Cynthia, picked me up in Big Red (her monster truck) this morning to drive to the other side to hike Iao Valley.

The last time I was in Iao Valley was with Alex's family when they were visiting last winter.  I remember the rain was falling in thin sheets of mist, and I felt cold the entire time I was there.

Today's visit was very different.  The girls and I arrived at Iao Valley sometime before noon, and the air was thick with humidity.

Iao Valley (pronounced "EE-ow") is a lush, heavily forested valley cut by a stream that runs down from the mountains.  What most people come to see is the Iao Needle.  It is a lava remnant rising 1,200 feet from the valley floor or 2,250 feet from sea level.

It is hard to ascertain scale in these photographs, but the mountains rocket up from the valley in sheer cliff faces.  You feel very small standing in the valley.

Ti Plants

My hiking companions: Amanda and Cynthia

Palapalai ferns

Wild raspberry plants dotted the lower trail of our hike.

Our hike up was STEEP!  My photos don't do justice to the true incline.

Uluhe Fern Shoots

Almost to the top!  I felt like I was standing at the bottom of a very deep bowl with the sides of the mountains reaching upwards into the clouds.

Amanda (and I) stopping for a photo break.

Made it!!  The top of the trail is a small plateau where you can look out over the valley.

Cynthia found a pair of abandoned Aviator sunglasses on her hike up.  She chose to try them on over her existing pair.

A little hiking graffiti.

I need a plant and flower guide to Maui stat!  I want to know what that purple flower is.

More curling Uluhe fern shoots.  The shoots are about the size of drinking straws.

Uluhe fern unfurled.

Iao Valley looks over Wailuku.

More hiking graffiti.

There were strawberry guavas at the end of our hike.

We proceeded very cautiously on the way back down.  Did I mention this hike was steep?  We slowly edged our way down the path by clinging onto trees--as demonstrated by Cynthia.

Coffee beans!

We decided to pick them...

...and store them.  Amanda, Cynthia and I want to see if we can roast these coffee beans.

An upturned tree on our hike back down.

Another unidentified flower.

Wild raspberry!

Wild raspberry flower

Cynthia braved a small cloud of bumble bees and brought back two handfuls of these berries to try.  They were orangey red!  They are not as sweet as the ones sold in the grocery store, but I liked that they were so watery--not juicy, watery.  Important distinction to make. 

About halfway down.

I'm not standing on a rock in this photograph.  I'm just a few paces behind on the same trail as Amanda and Cynthia.  As I said, this hike was steep!

Iao Needle

After hiking, we went to Tiffany's for lunch.  I had never been, but it was clearly a favorite place for both Amanda and Cynthia.  It didn't take long for them to decide that this was the place to wolf down some food.

Tiffany's looks like a dive from the outside, but it's much nicer inside--although very dark!  Probably so there is no glare bouncing off the many TV screens inside.

The menu is extensive with lots of local eats.

I got the Bi Bim Bap bowl with lots of satisfying veggies over rice, and I sampled plenty of Amanda's Mochiko Chicken.  If I make it to Tiffany's again, I'm definitely getting that next time!

After fueling up at Tiffany's we had an epic shopping afternoon at Ross and Walmart.  I'm excited for the new set of sheets I got for my bed. They are lavender with stripes of satin.  I've washed the sheets and put them on my bed.  I can't wait to test them out...hopefully very, very soon.  I'm exhausted!  I'm not sure if it's the hike that did me in or all that shopping...

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