Father and Son Bake Off

Jon asked Art to teach him how to bake a banana cream pie.  He also wanted to learn how to do a crust like his grandmother in Honokaa made it.  Art's mom was famous for all the delicious pies they used to bake at their restaurant.

Art is showing Jon how to measure shortening by referring to Archimedes' Principle of water displacement.

Remember, these are two guys with science degrees.

"Are you really using butter, Dad?" asked Jon.  Yup!  We're back to butter now.

"Gently... gently!"  admonished Art.

After mixing the sifted flour, salt and baking powder with the butter and shortening, Art had Jon combining the mixture to a mealy consistency.  Art dropped in a little water at a time to get the right feel.

After they got the right consistency, the mixture was lightly pressed into a ball shape.

Sarah and I took photos to remember the occasion and to remind them of how it was done.

While Jon rolled the dough between two pieces of waxed paper, Art checked his mother's family recipe.

Art then showed Jon how to flip the crust onto the pie plate and trim off the excess.

The next step was to flute the edges.  I could never get my crusts to look pretty, but Jon got the hang of it quickly.

The beautiful work of culinary art went into the oven to bake a while and then we were ready for the filling.

They used vanilla pudding as a shortcut instead of the magical concoction that Art's mom used to make.

Jon cut bananas to add to the pudding.

It was really looking fabulous!

Then into the refrigerator for about and hour and we were ready for our dessert.  We topped it with some whipped cream and  I must say, it was delicious! 

I can just picture Art's mom proudly looking down on her son and grandson as they carry on her legacy.

Our daughter, Tiffany?  I have a feeling she prefers getting her pies bought at Baker's Square or Anna Miller's... like her mother.  It may not be as delicious or satisfying, but it's a whole lot less work. 

Jon and Sarah

Having Jon and Sarah with us in Hawaii is like having a whirlwind around, sucking you up from your everyday routine to drop you into different places, trying different things.  They are exhausting, but force you to try experiences you normally would not do.

Jon and Sarah's rock climbing gear

We wouldn't have gone all the way to Hana on Maui, if it weren't for them.  We wouldn't have gone whale watching.  We are drawing the line at scuba diving, surfing and rock climbing although they say they've got something else they want us to try.  We'll see how that something turns out.

It's hard for me to relate to their lives.  My daughter, Tiffany follows a life routine that I can identify with.  Jon has just never followed the beaten, safe path since his arrival in the elevator.  Tiffany has always told me that he's lucky he's met a woman who is of the same mind and stamina. 

They'll be leaving us next Tuesday unless we can tie them up with their mountain climbing ropes and keep them with us.  After several months in Ecuador learning Spanish, they'll be moving to the East coast for graduate study at one or two of the university options of the many prestigious places from which they've received numerous acceptances.

Once they get their advanced degrees, they plan to live abroad.

Arrghhhhhh....

Why are they moving farther and farther away?

They've been together for 10 years now and whenever they leave us we're never sure when we might see them again.  We have just three more days to make the most of their stay.  What's next?

How about shave ice?

POSTSCRIPT:  Make that green shave ice!  Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody!

The Son Also Cooks

Jon and Sarah told us they wanted to prepare dinner for all of us.  They went out to get all the ingredients and went right to work.

Jon put two racks of ribs in a pan of water, tented it with foil and slow cooked it in the oven  at 250 degrees for about 4 hours.

Jon sliced the bottoms off the asparagus, coated it in olive oil and salt and peppered it for grilling.

While he cleaned the corn on the cob, Sarah washed and chopped the Swiss chard that she was preparing with garlic and chicken broth.

Jon says this is how he prepared asparagus at the Fire House when he worked at Los Alamos as a fire fighter.

Poor Art had to watch and bite his tongue while Jon grilled the veggies to perfection.  Mom really enjoyed this new way of eating asparagus.

While Sarah worked on boiling the corn on the cob and cooking the Swiss chard, Jon prepared the ribs for grilling.

Jon says the fire house had a huge grill that made it easy for grilling ribs.

I noted that fire fighters must eat pretty well.

Jon used a mixture of Tony Roma's and Kraft Spicy Honey barbecue sauce.

He continued to baste it while it seared.  It really was grilled to perfection and nearly melted off the bones.

The Swiss chard was really delicious and the corn on the cob was super sweet.  I know Art is already planning to buy more soon.

We also had fresh tofu straight from the factory and watercress with mayonnaise and soy sauce.  We ate the tofu cubed and served with soy sauce and grated ginger root.

There was so much food, but we managed to eat quite a bit of it.  I think we're all gaining weight while Jon and Sarah are here.  Mom was amazed at how delicious everything was.  She was very proud of  the good cook that her grandson had become.

And when dinner was over, Jon and Sarah did the clean up.

Actually, each evening Jon will nudge in and insist on cleaning up the kitchen.  It's such a fabulous feeling!

We're really going to miss them when they leave for South America.

I guess we'll just have to visit them on the East coast when they return.

Dinner at Ichiriki

My nephew, Barry and his wife, Miho invited and treated us to dinner at the Ichiriki Nabe Restaurant in Honolulu near Ala Moana where he works.  I can see why Barry would be an excellent server.  He's just the kindest, sweetest, helpful, most adorable guy around... not to mention cutest.  If you ever go there, tell them Barry's Auntie Kay sent you.

The dinner starts with a nabe or cooking pot that is brought to the table and placed on a burner.

A plate of meat, seafood and vegetables is brought for each person.

 

Barry expertly showed us how to cook our food.  This was such a different dining experience for us in Hawaii.

POSTSCRIPT:  I forgot to mention that these bamboo scoops hold a mixture of meats (sort of like a sausage without the skin).  You're supposed to spoon off little sections into your broth which produce tasty little meatballs.

The restaurant is set up as semi private rooms with two tables each.  The whole atmosphere really reminded us of being in Japan.

Sarah got to be a real expert at cooking her nabe ingredients.  

Barry reminded us not to overcook the meat.  We removed cooked food and placed them in bowls to eat with our rice.

Bear says he really likes nabe cooking because even when you've eaten a lot, you don't feel bloated when you're done.  He says he's seen celebrities come to the restaurant and act like "ordinary" folks.

Here I am with my son, Jon and Barry's wife, Miho.  I wish mom could have come, too but she was feeling ill and needed to stay home and rest.

That's OK... we'll just have to go back again on another day.

Breakfast with Mom

Mom and I had this discussion a few days ago when I went down for breakfast.

Mom:  I had nightmares last night.  War is such a terrible thing.  People turn into animals.  I was watching a video about all the cruelties before bed and it brought back memories....

Me:  Mom!  Stop watching those videos, stop reading about them!

Mom

Mom:  I have to learn about them.

Me:  No you don't.  You know enough about it.  You suffered enough through it.  You should focus on happy things.

Mom:  It's my duty to know how others suffered.  Their spirits won't rest if everybody forgets about them.

Me:  They don't want you to torture yourself either.

Mom:  But I need to research all of it so somebody knows.  History is important to study!

Me:  No!  You don't need to do this.  If you were going to write a bunch of Letters to the Editor or a book or something where you can make a difference, it would be good to do this research.  However, if you're just making yourself unhappy it isn't necessary.  Too bad you can't do a blog.

Mom:  But, people have to learn about this so it doesn't happen again.

Me:  But you're not writing or doing anything to change anybody's mind.  Your learning more of this is just making you miserable.  So stop already!

Mom:  I guess we both have a difference in philosopy.  I can't stop needing to learn more and you want to be happy.

Me: Yes.  I do want to be happy.

Honolulu Hapalua Half Marathon

Art had signed up for the Inaugural Honolulu Hapalua Half Marathon last year before he knew that Jon and Sarah would be coming to visit at this time.

Art wanted Jon to race with him since they'd never run in a race together.  Jon was hesitant because he'd not run such a long distance in a long time.   Art said he could just run slowly with him and do it for fun. 

So here we were again getting up at 3:45 in the morning on Sunday to head out to Waikiki for the 6:00 Start Time.  Poor Sarah is still battling her cold, but wanted to be there for the father and son event.

I was amazed that Sarah was able to pick them out in the 2,600 runner crowd.  After the race started, Sarah and I went back to the car and fell asleep.  I can't believe we actually fell asleep!  We got up JUST in time to rush over to the finish line to see Jon come in.

Jon's official time was 1:51:19.  He placed 285 of the approximate 2,600 runners and 48th out of 159 men in his age group.

A little later Art came in flashing his special sign for his granddaughter in Illinois.  His official time was 2:13:45 and he placed 577th overall and 13th of the 30 men in his age group.

Here they are together... elated and laughing about the wind pushing them back as they ran up a hill at the 9 mile mark.

We are continuing to have unseasonably harsh weather in Hawaii.  We really dodged the bullet in Maui and were so sorry to hear about the devastation on Kauai.

The cool weather for the Hapalua was ideal for the racers, but the wind made it a challenge.

 

Wearing their medals, they were able to receive their freshly cooked malasadas, bananas, iced coffee, bagels, shave ice and oh yeah.... water!  We sure didn't receive goodies like this at the Great Aloha Run or the Honolulu Marathon two years ago.

Kapiolani Park was packed with runners and supporters!  It was fun to feel their excitement.

They stretched a bit and then we headed back to the car.

Since we still had over an hour on the meter, we decided to walk along Waikiki where we almost never go.

We stopped at the Duke Kahanomoku statue where the race started earlier.

 

We saw mountains of sand where the city was working on dredging sand from the ocean and putting it back on the beach.

We headed back to the car and headed to Zippys restaurant to have our celebration breakfast.  The rest of the day was spent recuperating.  

Jon and Art both soaked their legs in Epsom salts and are feeling quite fine.

Heaven knows what they all want to do tomorrow.  I'm exhausted and I didn't run at all.

A Whole Lot of Whales

Wednesday was our last day on Maui.  The skies seemed to clear up just for us. 

I was surprised and pleased to see that the Maui Coast Hotel had a book of Buddhist teachings and the Bible in the nightstand.

What I liked best about this hotel was the refrigerator,  coffee maker and sink.  We were able to grab a quick breakfast without going out.

We decided on the Pacific Whale Foundation ocean tour.  They are a nonprofit organization to educate the public about whales.

The skies were still bright and sunny before we boarded The Liberty behind us.
 

They  guaranteed that we'd see a Humpback whale and kept that promise.  We saw a lot of females with their "escort" and often with a calf.

 They dropped a hydrophone into the ocean and we could hear the whales talking to each other.

The oceanographers told us that the whales' tails were like their fingerprints.  Our whale tour was 2 1/2 hours long but the time flew by quickly.

Our next stop was Sam Sato's in Wailuku for saimin noodles.  They only open until 2:00 and we managed to just squeak in.

Sam Sato's is known for having the regular wet saimin noodles...

 and the dry type which is just noodles with the broth served separately.

The next stop was the Iao Needle.  I got this from Wikipedia:

"The Hawaiian god Kāne is considered to be the procreator and the provider of life. He is associated with wai (fresh water) as well as clouds, rain, streams and springs. Kanaloa, the Hawaiian god of the underworld, is represented by the phallic stone of the ʻĪao Needle."

 This is when the rain started in earnest.

 These Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese gardens were in the same area but we didn't get to see them all because of the rain.

We had a couple of hours before our flight so we stopped by the Wailea resort area and did the beach walk.  It was a wonderful way to escape the rain.

This is another kind of Akulekule (ice plant).

We saw this Mejiro  (Japanese White-eye) sitting on a sprinkler.

It was a wonderful trip but we were all extremely tired.  Unfortunately, Sarah has caught a cold.  The funny thing is she began coughing on Thursday evening while we were watching Contagion together about a worldwide pandemic.  I'm hoping she's able to fight this cold before they have to leave for their journey to South America. 

I think we all need to just get to bed early and rest!

Please forgive me for not being able to visit for a few more days.

Tomorrow's post will be about the Honolulu Hapalua Half Marathon yesterday.  So much for rest.