Sonia Tastes Hawaii

A tea party for six...

At first I had thought to host a small tea party at home to celebrate my birthday...but in the last month or so, too many things were happening and I was feeling overwhelmed.

My son suggested holding it somewhere else...so I started scouting for a good location... I went to town in search of the perfect place and the first one struck out...the second place was closed and the third one fell in place so perfectly, that I knew it was meant to be.

My birthday was last Sunday (19th) , which was also Father's Day...so I chose to hold the tea party yesterday afternoon instead.   Five of my girlfriends and I met in the Tea Room in back of Perfect Harmony in downtown Hilo. 

We had a cozy corner and 'perfect service'... I had selected 'Lemon Ginger' and 'White Peony' as the two teas we would enjoy during our party.

 

My niece and godchild, Madeline (*aka Ming) baked and decorated the most beautiful 'tea themed' cookies...in Miami...and shipped them (each inside a little sealed cellophane bag to keep them fresh)...and they arrived just in time!  She also sent me the little boxes, which I put together, in which to give cookies for each of my guests to take home.

 

 

My friends all brought a little something to share...Brenda made her 'award winning' Cold Avocado Cucumber Soup, Fran brought delicious salted brownies, Georgia brought lemon meringues, Linda brought an assortment of nuts and Gail brought some lovely bubbly...and as Brenda pointed out...our menu was 'from soup to nuts'... (insert cookbook promotion here ;-) ...Kidding!

Our cozy little corner setting!

 

 

Gift cookies in the little white boxes... 

 

 

My sister Sandra made and embroidered the napkins / tea towels for each guest to take home...Did I mention that the Rose is the flower for the month of June and Pearls are the gem stones...?  Yes, I wore pearls and was given roses!

 

Cupcakes were made by Teena Barry of TeenasCakes...she decorated them with Sonia Roses and my favorite summer flowers, hydrangeas and sunflowers! Sorry, Teena, although I was very careful transporting them, some of them shifted in the boxes and caused little mishaps...but they were still gorgeous and delicious!

 Brenda's delicious Cold Avocado Cucumber Soup

 

 

Everything is coming up dozens of roses!  Mahalo Linda for the red ones and Mahalo Brenda and Kevan for the peach ones...

Not only are they lovely, but they smell delicious too!

Thank you Ming, Sandra, Brenda, Gail, Georgia, Linda, Fran & Perfect Harmony for helping me celebrate my 79th in style...

Fathers' Day & Birthdays...

Tomorrow is Fathers' Day.  Tomorrow is my birthday.  

My birthday and Fathers' Day are always tied in my mind, since they're usually either the same day or very close to each other...most times on the same weekend.

Depending on where I was living, my birthday and Fathers' Day was also shared with my brother-in-law (his was a day after mine) or the husband of one of my cousins who shares the same day with me. One year, we had a huge celebration for all three birthdays and Fathers' Day combined.

Since I moved to Hawai'i, I haven't had a combination birthday party with other family members, (except my 60th, which was celebrated at my sister's in Miami) but I still have Fathers' Day to share it with.

My father died in an accident when I was 13 years old and I miss him to this day. He lives forever young in my heart.

Five years later I gained a stepfather.  I could not have picked a better one. He and my mother were together for 54 years.

 

None of them are still here with us and I find myself the oldest member of my family.  

I am not a daughter any longer, but I am a mom, a grandmother, a sister, an aunt, a great-aunt and amazingly enough...a great-great-aunt!

I wanted to write and share about how Cubans celebrated birthdays when I was growing up, but...thoughts of past shared celebrations kept intruding.  Ghosts of birthdays past...

So, I will just share this photo for now.  My 21st birthday - the only photo I have left of any of my birthdays celebrated in Cuba ..sorry it's so small!

Sometime soon, I will share about how Cubans celebrate birthdays...just not today.

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads in my family and to any of my friends who are dads!

 

 

How does my garden grow...today?

Cloudy, soft on and off rain...the garden is just slurping and loving the moisture.

Everything is thriving, including the weeds...I am almost giving up on them.  I need to bring in loads of mulch but am worried about 'importing' little red fire ants...so far we don't show signs of having any, but they're in the area.  Might just have to shred newspapers and use ingenuity to mulch...not enough leaves from our own trees to shred and use at this time.

At the East Hawaii Master Gardeners plant sale a few weeks ago, we bought some green bean starter plants and were given a new-to-me variety of tomato plants called Big Zac to play with.  UH School of Tropical Ag was giving them away if you signed up to enter the "Big Tomato Contest"...so we did....We got 2 of them and planted them the very next day.

The Big Zac can grow to 3 or 4 pounds with larger tomatoes not unusual at all.  We normally can't grow large tomatoes due to our rain (the fruit splits almost before ripening) and critters, so I am really interested in seeing how this big boy will respond to our conditions.

The following photo is taken from the Internet and it is of a Big Zac - I would be pleased if I get one to the perfect to pick ripe stage even half that big!

The stalks are sturdy and straight...they would have to be, to be able to hold these beauties...and we have each of our plants planted inside a sturdy tomato cage.  So far so good

At this point, we have two growing fruit, one on each plant, and some blooms, which we're selectively allowing to grow, but will monitor to make sure not too many of the tomatoes grow close together or from one stem.

Big Zac 1

Big Zac 2

 

and we have Green Beans!

 

...and this is how my garden grows...today!

Cooking in a clay pot

 

I cooked a whole chicken in one of my clay pots for last night's dinner, and shared a post on Facebook.  It generated comments about cooking in clay...I thought I would share some of my 'learnings' about the use of clay pots for cooking.

I have two different sizes of clay pots. The smallest is made in Italy by a company name of National Silver and it is called a Tuscan Oven.  The inside of this one is glazed.

The other is a Römertopf ("Roman pot"),  a German company but actually made in Mexico and is the larger of the two.  The inside of this pot is not glazed. It has a #113 stamped in the clay on the bottom.

 

I prefer the non-glazed one, even if (sometimes) I have to scrub a little bit more to loosen food particles that stick. It seems to cook better, although the glazed one is more convenient sometimes.  My use of either actually depends on the size of whatever I will be cooking in it.

Here are some tips about using a clay pot, regardless of the brand:

Before each use, immerse them in water so the clay can absorb as much of the water as possible. This helps keep the meat juicy.  The way I do this, is I invert the lid in the sink or in a small tub in the sink, fill the sink or tub with water, then start filling the lid with water and place by nesting the bottom of the pot inside the inverted lid.  Both top and bottom will then start absorbing water at the same time.

There is no need to add liquid for cooking, only what you need for flavoring; usually splashes of wine, beer, Sherry or sometimes the juice of one big lime and a few dashes of soy sauce...sometimes liliko'i juice (passion fruit), Worcestershire sauce or hot sauce...it all depends on what flavor I'm looking for.

Have all your ingredients mise en place - pronounced  ​[mi zɑ̃ ˈplas] a French kitchen term that means to put in place or have all ingredients ready before you start, this is so the waterlogged pot does not start drying out while you're filling it with the food to be cooked.

Place the filled pot in a cold oven, turn it on to desired temperature and cook until done.  It all depends on the contents, but I usually check after one hour.

To clean after each use, scrub with either a sponge made specially for them or a rough plastic scrubby (I don't like to use a stainless steel scrubber because I don't want any microscopic metal residue to be left behind)

If food sticks to the bottom or sides, just fill the pot with water and let it sit a bit to loosen up; then scrub as mentioned above.  Rinse well.

Never use soap in them since the clay will absorb it.  

Important, and bears repeating, rinse well.

Do not store it while wet or damp.  Let it dry completely before storing.  If stored damp it will encourage mold to grow.

My kitchen is small and storage is at a premium, so to save room in my cabinets, I invert the lid of the larger one and nest the bottom inside it, then I do the same with the smaller and sit the smaller inside the larger one.  This way I store both pots in the same amount of space.

For last night's dinner, I placed the whole chicken on a bed of fresh rosemary sprigs, with potatoes, onion and garlic , lime juice and soy sauce, salt & pepper...I also stuffed some rosemary inside the cavity.

Here are earlier posts with 'recipes' 

December 2008 - Cornish Hen in the Clay Pot

August 2015 - Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Dec 2014 - Chicken in the (Clay Pot)

I always save whatever juices accumulate in the bottom, plus the bones and skin to make a fresh batch of chicken stock, which I can later use to make soups or stews or anything else calling for chicken stock.

After I get the flavor I'm looking for, I pour it through a sieve, let it cool, skim off the hardened fat (which can be stored in a lidded container in the refrigerator and used for cooking!...makes a great roux), and save the liquid in 1 cup measurements in freezer bags.  Lay them flat in the freezer shelf and stack them after they freeze.  This way they barely take up room in the freezer...or if you prefer, pour into glass pint jars, cover tightly and freeze.