Sonia Tastes Hawaii

Our 2015 in review...

 

The year started nice and easy...and continuing to write on my cookbook project (two and half years and seemed to not be getting anywhere)

 

I don't make New Year's resolutions any longer...hate to break them but invariably, I do...instead I made up my mind to slow down the pace..., I gave up a few self imposed duties and cut back on actively organizing cooking contests and participating as a judge in cooking event... Not all of them in one swell foop, but it was a start...

* One can only see clearly
When one is going slowly
Quick motion creates a life-blur.
~Terri Guillemets

In February we mostly worked in the garden and attended a 'get-your-hands-in the-dirt' class on planting veggies in Tabletop Salad Garden Boxes...

 

Click on the highlighted link to read about this project and links to the complete list of my 'Home Farming Project' articles.

Meantime I continued to write on the cookbook, cleaning, editing and having friends read and re-read to help me clean it up and make it better...and then March brought more gardening and FINALLY time to choose a cover for my cookbook! 

The publisher held a little contest where he showed several photos representing recipes in the cookbook... It was so much fun to see people voting for their preferences...and finally, front and back covers were chosen...

 

To my complete surprise, the news of my to be published new cookbook seemed to spark a little flurry of orders for my original "Tropical Taste" cookbook, and that was fun!

Launching Day for From Soup to Nuts!

Finally the day of publishing was here and we had lots and lots of pre-orders to fulfill... a cookbook signing marathon!

 

The cookbook was reviewed by several people on Amazon, a very nice review by Linda Cicero in the Miami Herald and one in the Ke Ola Magazine - there was also one in an issue of Patricia Rain's (The Vanilla Queen) The Vanilla Company's newsletter in October, but the link to the article and recipes she reviewed is broken...the book was also mentioned in an article in the West Hawai'i Today, but to date I haven't been able to locate a copy.

 

Then came the in-store cookbook signings...that has been so much fun!

 

Also during June, my sister Sandra came to visit and childhood friends of ours came with her... We celebrated my birthday with a fun lu'au at Lele'iwi Beach Park with my sister and our friends, Ana & Jimmy Perez from Miami

Anthony, Sandra, Ana, Jimmy & I also did a tour around the island during their visit...Sandra stayed for about 3 weeks and we had time to show her a few more hidden places around the island and picnic a couple of times...

 

With the help of my sister - and the kick in the pants she gave me - we got "the office" organized and in the "pursuit of organization" was able to finally tackle the piles of magazines and newspapers containing my columns and articles, plus stuff I wanted to save in a 'scrapbook' and managed to sort, clip, and reduce several piles and boxes full into a few three-ring binders!

 

Through the year I also started going through closets and drawers, bookcases and boxes and gave away several boxes filled with a lot of stuff through Freecycle and also sold a few items through a page I set up for my (fabulous) yard sale on Facebook...This worked out to be a lot of fun and even people from the mainland were bidding for items!

During all this time I also received visits from a childhood friend from Cuba I hadn't seen in about 60 years and from Georgia cousins I hadn't seen in a while...

The two Sonias on left  -  cousins Anna and Janet from Georgia on right

Both Anthony and I were judges in this year's Honey Challenge and I helped organize the first ever Honey Festival Cooking Contest

All during the year and with partners, I also got involved in starting a new business...The name of it Orchid Isle Traders and we're "Purveyors of Hawai'i island Grown Spices, Comestibles & Imports"... we're working on a website, but meantime we can be found in Facebook under Orchid Isle Traders

 

 

The plans for it started early in 2015 but we finally did a soft launching in October, testing the waters at the  3rd Annual Liliko'i Festival, with my son Anthony and my business partner Kevan handling the booth as I was again involved in organizing and directing the cooking contest for the event.  Later we participated in the Christmas in the Country event at the Hilo Coffee Mill, the Full Moon Boutique Event in Leilani Estates, the Christmas Craft & Holiday Fair in Waimea and the Christmas Day Parade Craft Fair in Kee'au.

We feature Hawai'i Island grown spices such as allspice, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mace, pink peppercorns, and turmeric; we make our own "Premium" Vanilla extract using Madagascar vanilla beans and sell gorgeous vanilla beans from Tahiti.  

Other products we sell are local dried fruit and mixes, beautiful Maui sugar infused with vanilla beans, kitchen / gardening handcrafted soaps as well as a luscious complexion soap; our offerings at the moment include 3 cookbook titles: my own "Tropical Taste" and "From Soup to Nuts" as well as the beautiful "A Cook's Journey to Japan" - 100 Homestyle Recipes from Japanese Kitchens.  We're looking for more island-grown products and our list of products is growing fast!

Our inventory is expanding to also provide mini porcelain mortar & pestles, appropriate for grinding your own spices as well as nutmeg graters and other useful kitchen type tools.  Eventually we hope to expand to tableware and linens.

 

With everything else happening, Thanksgiving and Christmas got here before I had time to realize it... Our Thanksgiving day was very quiet this year as well as our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day... but we did get to gather with friends, and friends of friends to celebrate our "2nd Annual Christmas Party & Potluck" at Kolekole Beach Park earlier in the month....and in between all of this, I did manage to get together with friends for a fun day of harvesting natural materials for making our Christmas Wreath

Our last event of the year was a lovely afternoon picnic with our friends Brenda, Kevan & Galyn, at the little park nestled between Hilo Bay, Lihiwai Street and the Liliuokalani Park in Hilo...we also got to see our friends Liz & Mike, who dropped by for a few minutes.

 

Today ends a very eventful and fun year... and tomorrow starts what I hope will be a very happy and prosperous one!

Happy New Year!

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Morning Breakfast...

Would you believe I slept in today?  I never do that! I'm usually up between 5 and 6:30 am...this morning I did not open my eyes until 7:20!!! That is almost unheard of unless I'm sick...and I feel fine...I guess my body was telling me it needed a bit of rest.

When I got up my son had the coffee going and had taken a tube of Crescent Rolls out of the freezer - since a couple of years ago, we've kept one or two in there once in a while.  He wanted me to make the little casseroles I had made a few years ago one Christmas morning... 

This time I changed them a bit...I used cream cheese and guava paste as the filling and did not add sugar or cinnamon to the filling or crust, since the guava paste is sweet enough...  

We don't indulge in rich breakfasts too often...we did indulge today and opted for some hot chocolate!

The little 'folding snow globe' was among some gifts inside a gift bag from our friends Jenn & Chris...I already had the little cardboard Christmas Tree which was part of a Christmas card from a friend several years ago.

Fun Christmas morning breakfast!

 

For some reason cream cheese is the best thing to combine with guava paste...It's a very popular Cuban combination and suitable for lots of delicious interpretations..

Christmas Eve 2015

 

The table - tablecloth made and given to me last year by my friend Jorge in Saint Pete, FL... the monogrammed stockings I'm using with the napkins are a gift from my cousin Nancy in GA.  The napkins: outside napkin made by Carol Ersbak, who lives here on the island, plaid sheer inner napkin from Pier 1, bought last year.

The salad / dessert plates are part of a Williams Sonoma 2013 Botanical Wreath pattern and found on eBay.  The tartan plaid dinner plates are from Pottery Barn; Supreme Gold Aristocrat Towle electroplated flatware from 1980 - now considered 'Vintage'.  Glasses bought quite a few years ago from Sur le Table...the plates on the étagère are Christmas Garland by Fitz & Floyd (circa late 1980s or early 90s) and the "green leaf plate" is 1 of 3 left from a set of 8 I bought many years ago through Neiman Marcus.

 

 

The menu: 

Appetizer: Baked Brie topped with Fig & Muscat Jam (both were part of the contents of a beautiful and plentiful gift basket) and caramelized pecans.

 

Salad: Spinach, Mandarin Orange sections &  sliced Granny Smith Apple Salad with chopped celery, cranraisins and caramelized pecans that I found on a blogsite through Pinterest.  I used Vanilla infused Honey Wine Vinegar for the dressing instead of the one recommended in the original recipe

 

 

Entrée: Pork Tenderloin with Hoisin Sauce...a recipe taught by Shirley Corriher of Atlanta, GA, many years ago when I owned a cooking school in Orangeburg, SC, served with "one stick butter rice", a popular casserole rice dish from the 1960s which is being resurrected lately.  I used suggestions made by my friend Kari Lynn and added some veggies to the rice.

 

Pork Tenderloin in Hoisin Sauce

1 pork tenderloin, 1 jar Hoisin sauce, butter, dry white wine and sugar (optional)

Empty a small jar of Hoisin Sauce in a small saucepan, add 2 tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup white wine, and 2 tablespoons sugar (I did not add sugar this time); bring to a boil and turn heat off.  Place the tenderloin in it.  When it cools, transfer the tenderloin and sauce to a Ziploack bag and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the tenderloin from the bag; reserve the marinading sauce. Roast the tenderloin in a preheated oven at 500 degrees for about 9 or 10 minutes, turn over and repeat.  Internal temperature should reach 148 degrees when done.  Reheat the marinade sauce and boil for a few minutes to kill any bacteria.  Cut the tenderloin in medallions and serve with some of the sauce.

"One Stick Butter" Rice Casserole

This version of the recipe is very accommodating; you can use any type rice and any vegetables you want.

1 cup Harvest Medley Rice (combination of Basmati Brown, Wild Rice, Heirloom Red Rice  & Sweet Brown Rice)

1 shallot, chopped 

2 large button mushroom 

2 celery sticks, chopped

5 water chestnuts, sliced

3/4 cup butternut squash, cubed

1 envelope onion soup / dip mix

1 stick butter, cut in pieces

2 cups water

Caramelize the shallots in a tiny bit of the butter.  Add the rest of the veggies, the rice, the onion soup mix, butter and water.  Cover and bake in 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Uncover and continue baking for another 30 minutes. I found I needed to cook the rice just a little bit longer, about 5 more minutes.

Dessert: Turron de Jijona by Sanchiz Mira, a traditional almond nougat confection from Spain, popular during the Christmas Holidays. (not shown)

 

No actual tree this year...our Christmas "tree" was made by wrapping twig garlands, tiny lights and ribbon around the tripod stand of our telescope... Ho Ho Ho!

 

 

Mele Kalikimaka, everyone!

 

 

All of a sudden...it is almost Christmas!

This month is passing by with a flurry of activity...and Christmas is upon us and for the first time in years, I am not quite ready for it to get here yet!

With a business partner, we've started a small company and we've been participating in craft and holiday fairs since mid October.  Meant to eventually be a website store, Orchid Isle Traders had a soft opening just to test the waters...we can't complain, as we've been well received, but it has kept us busy.

Then Thanksgiving  and just this past weekend our "2nd Annual Christmas Party / Potluck" with friends and friends or family of friends...Photos of the event in Facebook Christmas at Kolekole Beach Park 2015 (hope the link works!)

Yesterday, it was Wreath Making Day with friends... some of the photos were taken by my friends

We met at the home of our friend Gail in the Volcano Village area and drove to a couple of empty lots in her neighborhood to start foraging and gathering our greens.  The day was mostly rainy, but it was not a steady rain... we did have some instances of sun in between the drizzles and little showers and even a rainbow...

At this first location we mostly gathered uluhe fern and wawaei'ole fern, which resembles little chenille pipe cleaners... At the second location, on the drier side of Volcano Parks, we found lots of Pūkiawe and 'Ōhelo plants.  They both have berries; the Pūkiawe berries are not edible but can be used as a dye, while the 'Ōhelo berries are edible and juicy but tart.  We added bits of Cryptomaria aka Sugi Pine and some of us also used the lance like leaves from the Acacia Koa tree. 

Traditionally we also add ʻōhiʻa lehua greens, buds, flowers and dried pods, but due to a fungus infestation happening this year on the ʻōhiʻa forests, we did not use any to prevent carrying the 'wilting fungus' from one area of the island to another.

 

 

My finished wreath

Gail's wreath

Liz' wreath

Nancy's wreath

We had a great day. It is always fun to forage, gather greens in the wild and then make our wreaths. We shared snacks and a delicious hot rum grog to keep us warm ...the day was mostly dismal and rainy but the sound of the rain on the roof, the fire in the two fire pits, the friendships shared, and the beauty created is priceless....