TOTALLY WAVEY!

The waves yesterday at Ho'okipa were amazing.
The sun may not have been shining but who needs sun with sets like these?
What's that?
NO, I don't surf.

SUGAR COATED

This has become one of my favorite fall traditions... Candied Citrus Rinds. Just make sure you allow enough time for making these. The total time to make this size batch was about 5 hours. (depends on how many lemons you want to use.)

The brown nuts in the back jar are the Macadamia Nuts from our tree. I plan on roasting those in the next week.

By the way... the brown nuts in the back jar are the Macadamia Nuts from our tree. I plan on roasting those in the next week.
I started with about 30 large lemons. I juiced them all and will freeze some of the juice. I will make lemonade with the rest. Use the leftover syrup from the candy to sweeten the lemonade.

Making the candy is fairly easy to do, except for the removing of the pith. That is not all that hard, but it is very time consuming.

First, place the entire rind after you have juiced them into water and boil with 1 tablespoon salt for 15 minutes until the pith is just softened. The salt helps to soften as well as remove the bitterness. Do not over cook or you will end up with mush.

Run under cold water and allow to cool. Cut rind into 1" rings then cut those in half so you have half circles. Lay skin side down and run a very sharp paring knife between the pith and the skin. The pith is the dry white part lining the citrus. Work carefully. Cut those strips into 1/4" strips and place in a pot of water. Boil for 30 minutes, drain and boil once more for 30 minutes. This removes the salt.

Next, take 3 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar and bring to a boil to make a syrup. Adjust to the size batch you are making.
Add cooked peels which look pale yellow and are very soft. Simmer about 45 minutes stirring occasionally... you do not want this to scorch. The peels should now be somewhat transparent and firm... from all the sugar. Remove from heat and cover. Allow to stand at least 2-3 hours, but I allow mine to stand overnight.

Remove peels from syrup with a slotted spoon and place in a mesh strainer over a bowl to allow syrup to drain. Then spread on a cookie sheet. Place in 175 degree oven and dry for about 10 minutes.

Divide into small groups and place in a covered bowl or bag and toss with 2 tablespoons superfine bakers sugar until evenly coated. If not enough sugar add a little more until desired coating is achieved.

If too wet or too much sugar, the sugar will clump instead of dust the surface.Below are 2 images that show just the right amount and too much sugar.

TOO MUCH.

JUST RIGHT.

Place back on cookie sheet and dry in 175 degree oven for another 20 minutes. Remove, allow to cool and store in airtight container. These can be stored in the fridge for several weeks. Bring to room temp before serving. I have never frozen a batch of the full rinds until now. I'll keep you posted as to how they come out.

I like these dipped in dark chocolate but with did not have any chocolate on hand. This was last falls batch. You could lay them all out on a cookie sheet and drizzle with the chocolate as well which would take a lot less time. I will be adding some chocolate as soon as I make it to town.

**** Save the syrup that boils down (now lemon flavored) and store it in the fridge where it will last quite a long time. You can use it to make your lemonade or add it to tea. You will also end up with some very tiny pieces that were broken off during all the cooking. You can freeze these and use them later in cookies, cakes, breads or granola.

PROGRESS - CHANGE - HOPE

Congratulations to Barack Obama, The USA and the World.

V.O.T.E.

LETS MAKE HISTORY.

CAUGHT ON TAPE

Conn and I voted today. We were concerned when we got off the elevator and were greeted with the end of the line! The whole process took an hour, a small sacrifice for the chance to cast our vote.

Well, voting's tough work so we had to refuel our depleted energy with a few of Dad's Donuts! We just can't get enough as evidenced in this pic from Dad's website. Heck, we're there so often that we were shot by the web designer a couple of months ago as she was photographing the shop for the website! So now there is hard proof of our confection addiction. 

Thanks to Marion the designer for giving us the heads up that we are on the site!

PINEAPPLE PASSION CHEESECAKE

Yesterday I made yet ANOTHER dessert. This time I made a Passion Fruit (Lilikoi) Cheesecake with a Pineapple Custard Filling and Coconut Shortbread crust. I still have not recovered from this combo of tart and tangy goodness. This time I made cheesecake bars instead of a pie. This recipe filled a "brownie pan" that measured 10 1/2" x 15 1/2" x 1" perfectly. But it can be made in any baking dish, cake or pie pan.

Topped with passion fruit/pineapple sauce and lemongrass garnish.

Here is the recipe I used, which was adapted from the one I made a few weeks back with Lime.
I did make a few changes in the prep as well. I felt that the custard needed to set up a bit before pouring the cheese mixture on top.

Pineapple custard
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons fresh pineapple juice/pulp

Crust
1 cup butter (softened)
2 cups sifted unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup sifted confectioners sugar
1/4 cup shredded coconut (i used unsweetened that you can find in the bulk section at health food stores)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons fresh passion fruit juice
(you can find passion fruit at most health food stores when in season... look for ones that are all wrinkled and not so pretty. That is when they are at their best)


For lime custard:
Whisk all ingredients in small saucepan over medium heat until custard thickens and just starts to boil. Cook 2 minutes stirring constantly. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally ... mixture will thicken.

For crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix all crust ingredients to blend in medium bowl. Press mixture evenly onto bottom of a pie pan or baking dish. Pierce dough with a fork to allow air to escape. Bake until just set, about 10 minutes. Cool completely. Maintain oven temperature.

Pour custard mixture into crust & smooth top. Let set about 10 minutes until firm.


For filling:
Place cream cheese in a bowl and cream before adding other ingredients. Then add 3/4 cup sugar, eggs & passion fruit juice in bowl and mix well until creamy. Make sure your cream cheese is completely softened so that you will not end up with chunks in your mixture.

Carefully pour cheese filling over the custard. Place foil on rack under cheesecake to catch any overflow as the cake dies rise a bit. Bake until set and center moves slightly when pan is gently shaken, about 45 minutes. Toothpick should come out clean when pierced.


Cool then place in fridge. Serve chilled and garnish with passion fruit pulp and pineapple topping. The passion fruit seeds add a nice crunch and a bit of contrast in color.

FLOWERS FIRST

Here is a new logo and business card I created for Nikki and Justin at Flowers First here on Maui. The guidelines were to somehow use green, purple, circles and maybe orange. Hard to believe I did not get orange in there somewhere. I really wanted to play with the letter "f" somehow since there were 2 of them in the company name. The result was this fuji or spider mum made out of radiating "f's". The back of the cards were inspired by japanese oragami paper and an obi sash. Please check out their temporary website I did for them at Flowers First Wholesale. We hope to have a few more pages up soon.

By the way, Nikki and Justin were the ones that informed us that Kekoa was in "foster care". Mahalo.

FOUL PLAY

Occasionally Kekoa likes to play a little catch me catch me if you can. He starts to flit about and flap his wings, crouch and make low clucking sounds. He always instigates the game , and I willingly join in... chasing him about the yard which he seems to enjoy. Here are few pics and a short clip (color is not close to correct) of us playing around in the yard. And as of today... those long beautiful tail feathers... GONE. What the? He seems to have lost about 4-5 since this morning. I suspect foul play.

Fancy Feathers

Someone's been swimming in my water.

It brings new life to the phrase "Animal crackers in my soup".