Happy Turkey Day

Bryan and I are feeling a little under the weather, but we still managed to stumble down to my work to partake in the annual employee Thanksgiving lunch.

I'm so thankful that the company that I work for has their tradition of serving their employees a delicious Thanksgiving lunch.  It's a really nice token of appreciation from the company and our management team.

The food was bottomless and delicious, the beers were free flowing (although Bryan and I stuck to water soda), and the company was good--as always.

I work with amazing people that I am happy to call my friends.  Although Bryan and I were not quite feeling ourselves, we still had a great time sitting down with all of our friends and gingerly eating our delicious Thanksgiving feasts.  You know that we're sick when we both skip dessert.

We're planning on taking it easy for the rest of the day off.  Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can now all focus on the joy of Christmas.  I say this with no sarcasm.  I'm a huge fan of Christmas, but to be honest, Christmas in Hawaii just isn't the same.  Even though I moved out here to avoid the cold and the snow, Christmas isn't the same when it isn't covered in white.

I've already gotten a huge kickstart on my Christmas shopping (and I even did my first "Black Friday" shopping expedition: I purchased a new bikini online!), and now it's time to think of Christmas cards.  Back in October I was very ambitious and was designing a hand drawn card to send out.  I'm not sure if I'm going to stick to it, but I came across this great idea for Christmas cards on Joanna Goddard's super duper cute blog: take a Christmas song lyric and frame a photo inspired by it.  See her blogpost for examples.

Has everyone gotten their Christmas cards together already?  Are people still doing this?  I'm a big believer in snail mail, and it seems that Christmas time brings out the most snail mail of the year.  Huzzah!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family and friends!

edited to add this photo that was taken at the restaurant today:

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Chorizo Egg Scramble with Turnips

Our CSA box from Kula Fields was a Thanksgiving bonanza!  We got loads of veggies perfect for every Thanksgiving side you could imagine.  Along with the usual suspects (kale, butter lettuce, tomatoes), we received turnips, green beans, sweet Maui onions, and a packet of herbs perfect for stuffing a turkey.

I'm not planning on doing too much Thanksgiving cooking this year since the restaurant I work at does a Thanksgiving lunch for employees.  It's been a huge hit for Bryan and me the past two years, so we'll be making a guest appearance next week and then vegetating at home for the rest of the afternoon.

So, I'm putting all these Thanksgiving veggies to good use this week in not-so-Thanksgiving dishes.

{chopping turnips}

{a little fresh kale thrown into the skillet}

{cheesy Chorizo scramble--ready to eat!}

I sautéed half a Maui onion, chopped, in coconut oil until translucent.  I threw in two chopped turnips with 3 minced garlic cloves, and seasoned with salt and pepper, and a smudge of smoked paprika.  I added a small pat of butter to give the turnips a glossy color and of course, flavor.  After the turnips were fork tender, I added my leftover chorizo from my chicken paella and browned it.  I added a little over a cup of chopped kale, and added four scrambled eggs to the skillet.  I scrambled the eggs with all the goodies in the skillet and added shredded mozzarella and chopped parsley before serving.

It came out absolutely delicious.  I can't wait to dig into the leftovers later.

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Adventures in Home Cooking

After gorging myself on stuffed pasta shells and my kitchen scrap pasta for a few days, I committed to eating a little lighter and cleaner at home for the rest of the week, hoping to cancel out my carb and cheese overload.

The following is one of my healthy meals:

My sautéed broccolini with poached eggs and a side of sweet potato is way more photogenic than the mountain of salads I consumed this week, although, they too, were equally delicious.  I also took this short period of clean cooking and eating as an opportunity to cook chicken.  

It was the first time I've cooked chicken in over three years.  And that is not an exaggeration of any kind.

Growing up with a vegetarian mom, I never really got introduced on how to cook meat.  Which is fine.  I did great without it.  And then in college I learned how to make Hamburger Helper.  I was down with ground beef and turkey.  Chicken was never my thing because it seemed a little too complicated, but it wasn't until I began working at my first restaurant job that my true fear of chicken developed.

 In Oregon, in order to work at a restaurant--no matter if you are a line cook, server, host or bartender--you must take a food safety course, usually administered online.  It's a crash course on properly handling, storing and cooking food so it is safe for consumption.  This is where I learned how devastatingly dangerous uncooked chicken can be for your health.  

When I did attempt cooking chicken, which was an incredibly rare occurrence, I was grossed out by handling the raw cutlets--convinced that I was immersing myself in a layer of salmonella, and I grossly overcooked it.  I would rather eat chicken that was as dry as wood chips than risk giving myself food poisoning.

After several anxiety inducing chicken dinners, I just stopped cooking chicken.

Until now!

Just this week, I broiled some boneless chicken thighs and stored them in my fridge as protein for salads the past few days.  It was a very big deal.  Most of my close friends already know about this.  Because I told them.  In great detail.  Kind of like what I'm doing right now.

And then yesterday, I had my second chicken cooking extravaganza of the last three years.  I made the Chicken and Chorizo Paella recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything--the illustrated version.  Don't judge me.  I like pictures.  I'm a visual learner.  And I'm bad at math.  Which is neither here nor there, but it's still true.

Here's a photo of the chicken browning in the skillet:

It kind of looks gross, doesn't it?  Chicken is kind of nasty.  That's why I've avoided cooking it for so long.

Moving on...

Here is a much more appetizing photo of the other ingredients:

...minus the chopped chorizo.  That kind of looks icky too.  Maybe I'm not cut out to cook meat at home.

And then there are no more home cooking photos of the Paella because I managed to burn the holy hell out of my hand.

That is a photo of me squeezing the hell out of a packet of frozen vegetables.  And that's an empty wine glass.  Thankfully, this paella recipe called for a cup of dry, white wine for cooking.  I was very grateful that were still three to four cups of wine left in the bottle to help take the sting out of my burns.

It all began innocently enough.  I was cooking the paella in an oven-safe skillet on the stove top, then moved the paella into the oven to bake for 15 minutes.  When the timer went off, I moved the skillet out of the oven using oven mitts, but when I went to stir in the last ingredients I grasped the skillet handle with my bare hand.  I'm smart like that.

Two hours, three-quarters of a wine bottle, and several episodes of Firefly on streaming Netflix later, I couldn't feel a thing.

Moral of the story: cooking chicken at home is very, very dangerous.

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Cooking with Kitchen Scraps

This is my first blog post from my new computer.  I know that you don't really notice the difference, but I can.  And it's dandy.

Anyways...

I had some odds and ends in the refrigerator, and I was keen on making something for lunch that didn't entail me running to the grocery store to beef up my ingredients.  So, I made Kitchen Scrap Pasta!

Okay, so Kitchen Scrap Pasta doesn't sound that appealing.  How about Pasta in Butter Sauce?  I cooked about 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan over medium high heat with one large clove of minced garlic, chopped chives and a teaspoon of red chili flakes.  When the butter started foaming and browning, I threw in a heaping handful of chopped kale--the last few pieces from the Kula Fields Delivery box.  When the sauce was ready, I tossed in my leftover cooked pasta shells from my stuffed pasta that I made earlier this week.  I drizzled some olive oil over everything, squeezed juice of half a lemon over it all and coated the shells in the sauce.

Delicious.  Decadent.  With a hint of kick.  Not too shabby for kitchen scraps.

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Stuffed Pasta Shells

I've been craving getting a little more hands-on and creative in the kitchen, so I took advantage of my day off to try my hand at a new recipe.  I wanted to make something that I could eat off of for a few days, so I decided on a baked pasta dish.  

I had pinned this stuffed pasta shell recipe a long time ago on Pinterest, and I finally got inspired to follow through and cook it.

I followed the 101 Cookbooks recipe rather closely, except I added in fresh kale into the ricotta mixture.

The homemade marinara sauce is delicious.  I added about a tablespoon of butter as I cooked the sauce down to give it additional richness and a slightly creamy texture.  The kick from the red chili flakes is awesome.

The recipe suggests lemon zest for the filling, and I loved the addition.  It adds a lightness and freshness to the cheese mixture that's unexpected, but certainly welcome.

While my pasta was cooling, I went downstairs to check out the jam session that Will had put together with some of his musician friends.

It was a good night in.

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Snaps from the Second Week of November

Okay, so the second week of November isn't over, but there were some definite highlights in the past few days that need to be shared.

First off, over the weekend, we got some storm action in Lahaina.  This is a major rarity.

I was out and about in town (just came out of the movies) when it began to pour.  I ducked into the bar at Fleetwood's to wait out the rain, and I took that picture from their second story window.  You can see that the storm has already pretty much passed, but look at the sidewalks!  They are sloshing with rain.  The storm was a pretty big deal.  Winter has come to Maui.

Later that day, Lahaina closed a portion of Front Street for "Second Friday."  Every major town in Lahaina hosts a Friday each month where there is music, festivities and activities to draw in a crowd.  Typically, Willie K., a major Hawaiian rockstar comes to play at Kimo's on Second Fridays in Lahaina, but he got cancelled because of the rain.

Bryan, Will and I went into town to support Alexa, our painter roommate, at the Wyland Gallery--and we may have checked out some fancy hats at the new Chapel Hat store on Front Street.

   

{my Kentucky Derby look}

{Will going for the Wild Thing look}

We got more rain over the weekend.  The weather chased poor T-Bone up to our porch where he stayed tucked under the eaves to stay dry.

{He's looking pretty unhappy about the whole ordeal.  He's also absolutely terrified of the wind.  It makes for very entertaining moments up at the house.}

I took a few minutes in my afternoon before work one day to apply this super amazing Fresh Face Mask from Lush.

{Oatifix from Lush.  It looks like someone threw up on your face, but it's so worth the smoothing, soothing after effects.}

Shaina and I made the big trek to the other side of the island today to hit up Wailea for lunch and shopping.

We had an epic lunch at the only place I have ever eaten in Wailea: Monkeypod Kitchen.

We got the pumpkin raviolis to start, the Portuguese bean soup to share and then I wolfed down this Seared Ahi Tuna Melt.

As much as I wanted to murder a piece of cream pie for dessert, there was no room.

After a long, epic day of shopping with Shaina, I made it home just in time to catch the tail end of a killer sunset from my lanai.

Unimpressed with the sunset, T-Bone did some yoga on the lanai instead.

{T-Bone in Downward Dog.  How appropriate.  Yup, those are my toes.  And my trusty Reef flip flops that I purchased specifically for my Maui move before I left Portland three years ago.}

{T-Bone chasing his tail.  Actually, he's going in to take care of a scratch--but the poetry of T-Bone in motion cannot be missed.}

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First Week of November

A few snapshots of the first week of November...

When I was on the other side shopping for the last odds and ends for my Han Solo Halloween costume, I picked up a comic book tee in the men's department at Old Navy.  I took it home and cut it up:

{kitchen selfie--our apartment has so many random mirrors}

The day after Halloween, Bryan and I got lunch at Longhi's.  I had been dying for some of their delish pasta bolognese.  While we were waiting for our food to come down from the kitchen, we snacked on their signature pizza bread and got seduced into ordering mimosas.  Longhi's makes the best mimosas with freshly squeezed orange juice.  Our bartender hooked us up and gave us monster drinks in wine glasses instead of champagne flutes.  It's good to be a repeat customer.

{monster mimosas}

I went to the amazing Doctors on Call at the Hyatt on Sunday to refill prescriptions.  My doctor has an interesting collection of monkeys pinned to his wall:

My housemate Alexa hooked me up with homemade borscht (aka beet soup).  I had some with some organic arugula tossed on top.

{eating colorful, eating clean}

Yesterday on my day off, I did an afternoon solo snorkel sesh at my favorite beach.  It had been awhile since I've been in the water, and it was nice to spy on all my fishy friends again.  I ran into a small honu (turtle) and a spotted eagle ray too.  Epic.

When I was done swimming, I got out and let the sun dry the salt water off me while I finished reading my book.

When I came home from the beach, the most handsome hound dog was waiting for me with his stuffed bunny.

{he's so happy, his tail is a blur--how awesome is that?}

My girlfriend Shaina and I went out for lunch this afternoon at one of my favorite spots, Pineapple Grill.

I got the corned beef brisket sandwich:

And the pineapple upside down cake for dessert:

It's a perfect overcast day, so I'm going to snuggle up with my new book: The Keep by Jennifer Egan.  How's your week been so far?

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May the Force Be With You: Halloween 2013

I made all my nerds dream come true this year and dressed up as Han Solo this Halloween.

Harrison Ford:

Me:

{me and a coworker before the restaurant opened last night}

I was super stoked about how well the costume came together.  I ordered the Han Solo blaster and a cowboy costume holster online from Amazon before we left for Vegas.  When the toy blaster arrived, I promptly gave it to my artist roommate, Alexa.  She did an amazing job painting the thing so it looked more authentic.

I bought the v-neck long sleeve shirt at our local secondhand store, the navy jeans are from Old Navy, the vest was borrowed from my downstairs neighbor, and the boots were a purchase from crawling the malls in Vegas earlier this month.

The hardest part of my costume was making the red racing stripes down each pant leg.

I used red duct tape for the stripes, and then painted on the stripes using a paint pen.  Very tedious work, but so worth it.

The assembled pieces the night before:

Rocking the costume at work the night of:

Definitely one of my more successful homemade costumes!  I had several customers come up and tell me how much they enjoyed my costume.  I earned my geek points with this one.  Even though this was a fairly practical costume to work my restaurant shift in, my new boots still gave me a pinpoint blister on my left heel, and I probably sweat off five pounds by the end of the night.  Long pants, long sleeves, a vest and boots are by far the most clothing I've ever worn to work.

Can't wait to figure out what I'm going to go as next year!  Maybe I'll revisit my Beetlejuice costume.

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

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