An Afternoon at the Beach

Three posts in one day!  That's how I make up for not putting anything up for a week.

Bryan and I spent the afternoon at Wahikuli Beach.  It's a small, local beach a five minute drive from the house with good snorkeling and a great BBQ set up.

We arrived and ran into our favorite pooch: T-Bone!  Bone, Will and Jess were finishing up a quick dip before heading home for band practice before the TOLO show at Diamonds.

{T-Bone soaking up rays}

I spent the afternoon soaking up sunshine, reading my new favorite: Four Fish, and diving for seashells.

I'm pretty stoked about my new seashell stash!

{a few more shells from my second foray into the water}

Another beautiful day on Maui.

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Frittata

Bryan and I were given a bunch of farm fresh eggs, so I decided to make my first frittata today for our lunch.  I followed tips and suggestions from The Kitchn, and my frittata came out beautifully!

I cooked down onion and garlic with a chopped sausage, and then threw in my leftover pesto cous cous from dinner the other night.  I wilted handfuls of fresh spinach and topped it all with pecorino cheese, smoke paprika and seven eggs, beaten with salt and pepper.

I threw the oven safe skillet in the oven for about 8 minutes at 400 degrees to finish cooking the eggs.

I remembered how I burnt the hell out of my hand the last time I put my skillet in the oven, so I kept the non-ovensafe handle in an oven mitt after I carefully removed my frittata from the oven.

{safety first!}

So delicious!  And so easy!  This was incredibly quick to whip up, and I love that the variations on this simple dish are endless.  I foresee many more frittatas in my future.

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Earlier this Week

A few snaps from this past week:

I had Monday off from work, so I biked down to the beach in front of 505 and collapsed on the sand for a little bit while waiting to get Happy Hour with a girlfriend.

{an armful of seashell bangles}

{hazy sunset during Happy Hour at Pacific'o}

A few snaps of happy and warm T-Bone:

And then on Tuesday, we had a torrential downpour that trapped T-Bone up on our Lanai.

{rain in Lahaina}

{a very unhappy T-Bone}

He found the only patch of dry ground up on our lanai, and he huddled into it, pressed up against our screen door.  When I attempted to take a video of the pouring rain, T-Bone bolted for the great indoors.  I don't think I've ever seen him move so fast.  Well, maybe that one time when he got chased by a cow up at the disc golf course at Poli Poli.

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Drunken Cabbage Soup and a Silvery Sunset

I was battling a cold earlier this week, so I used loads of veggies from our Kula Fields delivery box to make a cold stopper soup.  And because I added wine to the broth, I dubbed it the Drunken Cabbage Soup.

I threw some chopped veggies in olive oil to let them sweat (an onion, a carrot and a few celery sticks), then cooked down peeled and chopped sweet potatoes before adding broth and water and about 2 cups of Sauvignon Blanc that I had sitting in the fridge.  I brought everything to a boil, then lowered the heat to let everything simmer for a good 10 to 15 minutes to cook off all the alcohol.  While the soup was simmering, I threw in my chopped roasted cabbage that I had cooked last night as well as bunches of chopped fresh kale.

The end product?  A delicious, body-healthy purple soup. 

During one of my days off, I also added to my stack of books.  Seriously.  My book buying is becoming a problem.

On Thursday, I was finally feeling good enough for a little exercise.  Bryan, Alexa and I hit Wahikuli Beach for some sunshine, reading and a swim.

We also caught a killer sunset.

The ocean looked like a mirror, and a huge thundercloud was loosing a torrent of rain over Lanai.

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Happy 2014

I hope that everyone has been having a good start to the new year.  I was lucky to get the first few days of 2014 off from work, and I took full advantage of that time to deeply recover (as best as I could) from a whirlwind of a work week.

I was reunited with Bryan on New Year's Eve, and we got to watch our neighbors light off an impressive smorgasbord of fireworks while sipping champagne.

I got to meet up with friends for lunches and dinners out.

There was shopping, sunsets, smoothies and haircuts!

Here are a few snaps from the first few days of 2014:

{discovered a good quote for the new year while shopping at Sand People}

{started making homemade smoothies}

{finally stopped talking about it, and finally did it: chopped off all my hair}

{I LOVE it!  Thanks to the amazing Ivy at Art & Soul Salon in Lahaina}

{more homemade smoothies while re-reading a favorite book}

{a lovely sunset during dinner at Kimo's with Bryan}

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Merry Christmas from the Rock

This is my kind of Christmas: island style.

Happy Holidays to all my friends and family!

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Farewells and Fine Cooking

I said my farewells to my family this morning over breakfast at Coolers before they drove off to the airport.  We had a great visit filled with sun, sand and delicious food.  It's amazing how quickly a week goes by.  It never seems like enough time.  I'm looking forward to making the trip out to Tahoe over the summer to see them all again.

{Hana, Dad and Mom enjoying the goods at Star Noodle}

After seeing Mom, Dad and Hana off this morning, I did some grocery shopping and then hit the kitchen.  After a week of eating out for every meal, I wanted to focus on having healthy, home cooked meals for this upcoming week.  I made a Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup, Green Bean and Potato Salad, and a Veggie Curry with Kale using the highly recommended simmer sauce from Maya Kaimal.

It's going to be nice to have ready made meals all week as I get back into the grind at work.  It's going to be crazy busy at the restaurant as droves of tourists come to the island for vacation.  I'm looking forward to making big money!

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