Maui Flour Child

Balsamic Honey Roasted Almonds with Dried Cherries

July 19, 2012 by Maui Flour Child 1 Comment

From now on I’d like to have a constant supply of balsamic honey roasted almonds on hand. Just in case, you never know when you might need them.

I’m going to be like a sweet little grandma and put them in crystal bowls around my house. By the way, when did grandparents stop putting crystal bowls of candy out? Does anyones grandma still do this? I haven’t seen it in a long time. Let’s bring back that trend with big kid candy!

If you happen to have these on hand then you can give them to your neighbors in a mason jar after you shamelessly ask them to cut a few pieces of wood for you with the very nice skill saw they have set up in their garage. “Hi, I know we don’t know each other, but can you help me with my bookshelf project? I have balsamic honey roasted almonds.” Friends for life.

And if you get invited to someones house for dinner and they tell you not to bring anything (it could happen), you could bring these! They’re not going to ruin anyone’s appetite, or make a mess, or steal the show (can’t promise you on that one). Just an awesome, addicting little pre-dinner snack that happens to be delicious with beer.

So how do we make them…

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Snacks Tagged With: almonds, balsamic vinegar, dried cherries, Honey

Turkey Meatball Sub

July 11, 2012 by Maui Flour Child 2 Comments

All this running is making me hungry. Like I need a turkey meatball sub for lunch kind of hungry!

It doesn’t help that yesterday afternoon my friend Kate from Kailua dropped off fresh, rosemary rolls from Agnes Portuguese Bakery. She is a new friend, but it’s like she’s known me forever. Thank you Kate!

Maybe it’s Oahu that’s making me so hungry. There are so many amazing places to eat here and apparently I intend on finding all of them. I’m like Giada in Weekend Getaways…only much less glamorous and I’m dragging along two kids instead of a stylish tote bag. Touche.

When I was young I would familiarize myself with a new place by finding a record store, a coffee shop and probably a piercing parlor. Now I seem to be on a endless scavenger hunt to find the best places to eat and grocery shop in Oahu. If I know where the prime malasadas and shave ice are, then everything else will just fall into place. Right?

Luckily for me the new Honolulu Magazine is all about must try hole in the wall restaurants. The scavenger hunt continues!

But for now lets talk about meatball subs. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Sandwiches Tagged With: basil, ground turkey, meatballs, mozzarella, sandwich, Tomatoes

Green Smoothies and the R.P.

July 8, 2012 by Maui Flour Child 3 Comments

Well, well, well… if it isn’t my old friend the righteous path. Good to see you again, it’s been a long time!

For those of you who know me, you are probably rolling your eyes right now thinking, “Oh great, here we go again.” (Tori, I’m talking about you.) For those of you who don’t know me, I will fill you in on the R.P.

The R.P, also known as the righteous path, is a way of life I hope to someday master. It is easy for some, hard for others.

I envision it to be a circus tightrope act. The first challenge is climbing the ladder to get to the rope. There are all sorts of distractions and temptations that prevent you from reaching the top. Parties, the beer section at wholefoods, holidays, sporting events, french fries, a strong wind, you get the picture.

Once you’re on that tightrope the first few days are the hardest. Then you get your balance, your resolve strengthens and everything falls into place . The view from here is clear and simple, you got your eye on the prize. It’s easy to see your way through the maze of life. And it’s easy to see the weeds you were tangled in down below.

Here’s how you know if you are on the R.P.

You go for a run at 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning!!!

If you see someones trash blowing into the ocean at the beach, you pick it up, walk it to the trash can while giving everyone who did nothing a “shame on you” look.

You eat whole wheat spaghetti noodles and brown rice. (shudder)

You are full of energy.

You drink green smoothies!

A word of caution, be careful on the R.P. not to walk around with an air of superiority. Always remember that you are better than no one except your non-righteous self.

Spinach and Nectarine Smoothie

1/4 C almonds

1 nectarine chopped

2 strawberries

2 C spinach

6oz coconut water

4-6 ice cubes

If you have a Vitamix start by turning your almonds into almond powder.

If you do not have a vitamix, use almond butter or skip the nuts, don’t break your blender!

Then add the rest of your ingredients and blend until smooth.

Man up and drink it down!

Namaste,

Filed Under: Breakfast Tagged With: almonds, breakfast, nectarines, smoothie, Spinach

White Sauce Pizzettas with Ribbon Zucchini, Arugula and Pine Nuts

July 3, 2012 by Maui Flour Child 8 Comments

Turns out you don’t need a good reason to make fancy pizzettas! I thought you did, so sadly I have been depriving myself and my cravings for about a month now.

It’s not just the food. It’s the cute dress, the ballet flats, the special wine, the nice platter: what am I saving this stuff for?

Let’s redefine what a “good reason” is, shall we?

Here’s what I came up with. Life is short, it’s summer, I love to barbecue, I love Napa inspired cuisine of all sorts. You should always listen to your body and my instincts are telling me that eating miniature pizzas with big flavor in a cute dress with a delicious glass of wine is the right thing to do!

If that’s not good reason, I don’t know what is.

Make these and let me know what your “good reason” is! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Appetizers, Vegetarian Tagged With: arugula, pizza, zucchini

Cinnamon Apple Chips

June 26, 2012 by Maui Flour Child 4 Comments

Along with summer vacation came a new job title for me. Yep, I am officially a 24/7 short order cook for my children. Their constant demands for food, snacks, juice, and water are relentless. They are by far the most hard to satisfy customers I have ever encountered.

And my oldest daughter, god bless her and her very endearing mature palate, does not just want a peanut butter sandwich. She wants handmade by mom tofu summer rolls, cucumber sushi, carrot lentil soup, roasted beets and polenta squares! Seriously??? You are 6 years old!

What they don’t understand is if I am always in the kitchen cooking and cleaning and cooking and cleaning I will never get to the garage to the endless stack of boxes where my sushi mat and immersion blender patiently wait to be unpacked.

From here on out in the name of sanity, I am going to be more prepared. I will spend a little time each morning packing some snacks and sandwiches just like it’s a glorious school day. Ironic because not having to get up and pack a lunch each morning was one of the most exciting prospects of summer for me.

I am tempted to go to Costco and buy a cart full of hot pockets and pre-made rice crispy treats and just let them have a go at it. Unfortunately, that’s just not how I roll. Besides my little gourmet would probably turn her nose up at the over processed “food” and I’d be $100 poorer.

The thing is, I love my kids to pieces and I want to be the best mom I can be. I want my kids to eat healthy. They are growing girls and I feel like right now will set their eating habits for the rest of their lives.

And while fruit is great, sometimes you need something crunchy to satisfy that snack craving. I hear you on that one kids. Thus, drum roll please…Apple Chips! It’s like eating potato chips without all the fat, salt and lack of nutritional value. Ever try to buy apple chips at the store? It’s like $6 for a bag of 10 chips! (At least that’s how it is in Hawaii.) There is no need to spend that kind of money on something so simple to make.

If you are going to be home for a while pop some sliced up apples into the oven and out comes an amazing snack for your hungry little munchkins to attack. Way better than the over-priced kind you buy in a bag at the store! Not to mention your house will smell like you’ve been baking apple pies all day. Bonus!

Make as many as you can fit in your oven, you won’t regret it, they go fast! And they satisfy even the most demanding of customers. At least for a little while that is.

Cinnamon Apple Chips

Apples (whatever kind you got, organic preferably)

Cinnamon

Sugar (Optional)

Apples and cinnamon sugar

Preheat your oven to 200. Mix your sugar and cinnamon together, cinnamon toast style. Wash and pat your apples dry.

If you have a mandolin, great! Use it to make nice even apple slices. If not, no big deal, just use a sharp knife to thinly slice your apples.

Use a small ring mold to individually cut out the center core and seeds. Or use a knife if your ring molds are still in a box somewhere. If you have a apple corer you could core your apples first before slicing but I never have much luck with that method, I always miss the seeds…

Line as many sheet pans as you can fit in your oven with parchment paper. Lay out your apple rings in a single layer and sprinkle with your cinnamon sugar mixture.

Place your pans in the oven and leave it be for about 2 1/2 hours. After you take them out of the oven, your apple chips will become crisp as they cool. Try a few and then try your best to save the rest for your kids. Good luck!

Feeling crazy? Don’t have little kids? Well forget the cinnamon sugar and get creative. Lemon juice, Balsamic vinegar, cayenne pepper, flax seeds? You are the artist, go for it and let me know how it turns out!

Happy summer from one mom to another,

Filed Under: Keiki Food, Snacks Tagged With: Apple, Chips, Cinnamon

Strawberry Papaya and Grilled Chicken Salad

June 19, 2012 by Maui Flour Child 9 Comments

Well here we are! Oahu has welcomed us with sunny days, a fully stocked Target and light freeway traffic. We have even been blessed with visits from friends! I have to say, it is greatly appreciated to see a familiar face in an unfamiliar place.

We are in our new home, although it feels more like camping than a home. The first few days of sleeping on an air mattress and drinking wine out of plastic cups came with a hint of romance. Now it seems my limited kitchen and stiff back are starting to cramp my style. FYI when a moving company tells you it will take about a week for your container to arrive, they really mean 10 days. Plan accordingly.

I miss Maui. Yesterday my daughter took a sip of my perrier and said, “Ewww, it tastes like lipstick!” My mind was immediately flooded with a thousand memories of my own childhood. Sips off my mom’s diet coke, bites off her fork, all accompanied with the subtle taste of Estee Lauder.

I miss my mom.

Definitely time to take a break from peanut butter sandwiches and adult lego projects (thank you Office Max for selling us everything in 1000 pieces!) and cook something that reminds me of home.

This is my moms recipe, she adapted it from an old school Mama’s Fish House recipe. All you need to make this salad is a BBQ, a cutting board, a paring knife and a blender. Check.

One of my favorite things about this salad is almost all the ingredients are local so it’s ultra fresh tasting! Papayas, Oranges, Avocados, Macadamia Nuts, you could practically grow this salad if you’re that type of person.

This is also a great salad to make for a party because you can arrange all the ingredients on a platter, keep it in the fridge, then add the dressing and macadamia nuts just before serving. If you’d like to “beef” it up a bit, lay your ingredients out over a bed of spinach or arugula. Easy peasy.

Did I mention it’s also healthy?

Strawberry Papaya and Grilled Chicken Salad

2 Ripe Strawberry Papayas

2 Ripe Big Island Avocados

4 Local Oranges (I used blood oranges cause that’s what I had)

4 chicken breasts

Salt and Pepper

A handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/2 Cups Chopped Macadamia Nuts

Papaya Seed Dressing (see below)

Season your chicken with salt, pepper and chopped flat leaf parsley. Grill and let rest at least 5 minutes before slicing. Cut your papayas in half and scoop out the seeds saving at least 2 TB for your dressing. With a paring knife, peel off the skin. Slice up your papaya into generous strips and set aside on a plate. Cut your avocados in half and remove the seed. Use a spoon to scoop out the entire avocado and then slice into strips about the same size as your papaya. Cut the skin off your oranges, making sure to get all the bitter white part off, then slice into wheels and add to your plate. If you want to be super fancy you can segment your oranges. Ohlala.

When you’re ready, layer all your ingredients either on a large platter or on individual plates alternating chicken, papaya, avocado… Arrange your orange wheels around and finish with the salad dressing and macadamia nuts.

Papaya Seed Dressing

This salad dressing is amazing. You will never buy papaya seed dressing again. Warning: if you do, you will be sorely disappointed.

Tip: If you wipe a little oil around your measuring cup before pouring in the honey it will slide right out, no sticky mess. (Thank you Michael Chiarello, genius!)

1/2 Cup White Vinegar

2 t Dry Mustard

2 t salt

1/4 Cup Honey

1/4 Maui Onion Chopped

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

2 TB Papaya Seeds

Add the first 5 ingredients to a blender or food processor. Slowly stream in olive oil. Then add papaya seeds and blend until it looks like cracked black pepper.

Filed Under: Salads Tagged With: Avocado, Chicken, Macadamia Nuts, Oranges, Papaya

Mango Bars with Li Hing Crust

June 6, 2012 by Maui Flour Child 12 Comments

I should really be packing right now. In case you didn’t know, we are moving to Oahu in 8 days. You wouldn’t guess it by looking around my house though. Yikes!

As my friend Sarah said, “I’ve always done my best packing like homework- by busting it out through cramming. It’ll get done- you gotta enjoy life!” Sound advice Sarah, I like your style.

I think I would enjoy life more if I was eating a mango bar with a li hing crust and coconut milk whipped cream on top. It is mango mania around here in case you haven’t noticed. Maybe if I had some of those I would feel more like packing. Let’s find out, shall we?

Besides, I certainly can’t let all this food in my cupboard go to waste! Cooking everything in my house should be at the top of my to do list right now. Siri, remind me not to feel bad about making mango bars.

There, that’s better. Now let’s do this.

Mango bars are just like lemon bars but we are going to sub out the lemon juice and add mango puree instead. We are also going to add some li hing powder to the crust just for fun and to give it a little local flare. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the salty, sweet flavor the li hing powder adds! It’s unlike any pie crust I’ve ever tried and now I can’t stop thinking about the world of li hing powder possibilities!

I might even get crazy and see what happens if I whip coconut milk and powdered sugar together. Oh my!

Ingredients

For the Crust:

1/2 # butter, cubed at room temp

1/2 C sugar

2 T li hing powder

2 C flour

For the Filling:

6 eggs at room temp

2 C sugar

1 C pureed mango

1/4 C lime juice

1 C flour

For the Coconut Whipped Cream (or foam as in my case)

1 can of overnight chilled coconut milk

3 T powdered sugar

Directions

First let’s make the crust. Get out your mixer and cream the butter, sugar and li hing powder together with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy.

Then add the flour a half cup at a time. Don’t over mix, it should be crumbly.

Dump all this out onto a clean, floured work surface. Gather it into a ball adult play doh style. Good times.

Then using your fingers press it into a pam-sprayed 9×13 baking sheet making it nice and even and building it up the sides a bit.

Put it into the fridge to chill and preheat your oven to 350.

Take a break, clean up a bit.

Bake until lightly browned. Mine was in the oven for exactly 17 minutes, and I was pretty darn proud of that crust!

Now this is important, let it cool down!

Ok, let’s get busy on the filling. Peel and cube one large Maui mango. Put it in the blender with some lime juice to get it going and puree it up.

In your mixer, wisk your eggs, mango puree, sugar, the rest of your lime juice, and flour together until nice and smooth.

Pour it over your NOT hot crust. You don’t want scrambled eggs. Not here, not now.

Into the oven for about 30 minutes. If you shake the pan you want just the middle to jiggle:)

While those are cooling and smelling onolicious, let’s talk about toppings. I wanted to make whipped cream from coconut milk because that’s what I had on hand and because it sounded like a grand idea.

Instead of getting whipped cream, I got foam, which I ate anyway and was pretty happy with. If I had the time I would have tried again but as you know, I have to get moving. So this is going to be sort of a follow what I say not what I’ve done kind of situation.

Here’s what I recommend you do. Chill a can of coconut milk for at least 12 hours. Chilling the coconut milk will solidify the fat and separate it from the watery part. The fat will rise to the top and that is the part you want to whip. Now here’s where I went wrong. Have you ever noticed how sometimes you have to open a can of coconut milk from the bottom?

Yeah, very tricky!

Take note of how the can must be opened before you put it in the fridge to chill because once it has chilled you can’t shake the can or turn it over.

If you do all this without any problems you can scoop out the fatty part and whip it up with your powdered sugar. Let me know how it is!

Sprinkle Li Hing Powder over the top to finish.

Love,

Filed Under: Dessert Tagged With: Coconut Milk, Coconut Milk Whipped Cream, Li hing Powder, Mango, Mango Bars

Papaya Seed Dressing

March 2, 2012 by Maui Flour Child Leave a Comment

This salad dressing is amazing. My mom gave it to me, it is adapted from a dressing Mama’s Fish House used to make many years ago.

This is enough to feed an army so feel free to half this recipe.

Tip: If you wipe a little oil around your measuring cup before pouring in the honey it will slide right out, no mess. (Thank you Michael Chiarello!)

1 Cup White Vinegar

1 TB Dry Mustard

1 TB salt

½ Cup Honey

½ Maui Onion Chopped

1 Cup Olive Oil

3 TB Papaya Seeds

Add the first 5 ingredients to a blender or food processor. Slowly stream in olive oil. Then add papaya seeds and blend until it looks like cracked black pepper. Keep in the fridge for up to 7 days.

Filed Under: Salad Dressings Tagged With: Honey, Maui Onion, Olive Oil, Papaya seeds