Cooking Crab With Lettuce

For our last dinner in California, Art's sister, Kay and husband wanted to prepare a special dinner for us.

They bought some Jonah crab claws and corn on the cob that she knows Art loves.

I made my spinach, watercress, red leaf lettuce, tomato, seaweed salad, red pepper, soba, imitation crab salad with a lemon, sugar, black pepper, vinegar, oil, sesame seed oil type dressing.

Kay wasn't quite sure what would be the best way to cook the crabs.  We thought boiling would take a lot of the taste out of the crab claws.  Finally, she decided to follow a California radio show cook, Melinda Lee's method of covering the claws with lettuce leaves and foil and then baking it at 350 degrees.

It was all wonderful although we discovered that Jonah crabs require a lot of work to get very little meat.  Still, it made every morsel that much more special.

It was a lot of fun for all of us to be in the kitchen cooking together.  It was also a little sad knowing it would be our last meal together until the next time we're able to get ourselves to California.

Hair and Humidity

Whenever we traveled back to Hawaii from Chicago in the wintertime we'd notice the humidity as soon as we stepped off the airplane.  It would take a few moments to get used to it.

This time I noticed something a little peculiar when we were in California.  As I've gotten older, my hair has gotten a little more wavy.  The white hairs are annoyingly kinky.

When I woke up the following morning after arriving in California I noticed my hair had suddenly flattened down to my scalp.  It stayed that way until I returned to Hawaii.

I used my iPhone and iPad to take these photos by myself since Art would probably think I was imagining things.

Can you see the difference?  I tried taking it from both sides.  I used to hear people complain how humidity made their hair frizzy.  I believe it now.  Since my hair is normally pretty straight I rather like the little wave I get in Hawaii.

Art's hair is curly to start off with so I don't think he noticed much difference.  To be honest, I don't think he noticed the difference in mine either.

I know.  I know.  This isn't an earthshaking post.  However, we really didn't do anything earthshaking in California.  It was mostly just a happy family time which was really wonderful.

California Tumbleweed and Oil Wells

You really know you're not in Hawaii when you see tumbleweeds in your driveway...

...and an oil well in a neighbor's yard.

Too bad my sister-in-law has the tumbleweed and it's the neighbors who have the oil well.

Then again, would she like having an oil well in her backyard spoiling her citrus orchard?

Would you?

Well... with gas prices in California almost as bad as those in Hawaii, who knows?

The Corn Meal Cure for Ants

Quite a while ago I wrote a post about having discovered that corn meal would get rid of ants.  We had an ant problem on our patio in Hawaii so we put a few mounds of corn meal in the problem areas as well as by our desert rose where ants were constantly infesting.  In a matter of days they were gone.  We wondered if it was just a fluke, but the ants haven't come back........ so far.

Art's sister, Kay told us that they were suddenly having a terrible problem with tiny black ants that seemed to swarm over the kitchen counter and floor whenever they seemed to smell food.  I was shocked to see so many ants even under their dish rack.

I remembered the corn meal cure and Kay decided to try it right away.

I didn't see the ants hauling the corn meal away but within a couple of days they were down to just a few scavenger ants wandering around.  In another couple more of days there were none.

Kay was using a diluted alcohol spray to kill ants, but the corn meal quickly got rid of ants on the floor too.

It was a little eerie.

Apparently the ants aren't able to digest the corn meal.

Art's sister and brother-in-law are thrilled.  However, I'm looking at my cornbread a whole different way now. 

Corningware Corelle Revere Outlet

I don't know what it is about the Corningware, Corelle, Revere Outlet that draws me like a magnet.

We went to visit Art's cousin, Betty and her husband in Camarillo, California and wouldn't you know they live very close to the Camarillo Outlet!  It's HUGE!

And they have a Corning, Corelle, Revere Outlet store.  I was in heaven until I saw the prices.  It seems everything has gone up.  However, there was a deal to buy 12 pieces of the Open stock and you'd get 40% off.  We also had a AAA discount that took off another $7.00 if you spent more than $50.00.  Woo hoo!

My sister-in-law, Kay had shown me these new divided plates that kept the sauce and drippings in their own place and I liked the novelty of the idea so I bought eight of them.  Ummm... and a few other fun pieces.

They were a little heavy to carry home in my carry-on, but they will be a nice addition to my collection.

Yes, mom thought I'd gone crazy when she saw them.

However, she thinks that it may be a good way to exert some portion control.

My daughter laughed when I told her.

"Mom, you're turning into me," she said.  "You know how I don't like my food to touch."

Hmmm.... I wonder if I was more drawn to them because they reminded me of the divided lunch trays we used to have in elementary and high school.  I sure wish I could taste those shortbread cookies we used to have again.  Sigh...

Which is the Real Meyer Lemon?

One of the things we were most in awe of during our visit to California was Art's sister and brother-in-law's garden-orchard.

They had a little grove of miniature avocado, several varieties of citrus, persimmons and I forget what else.  Here is Kay (sister-in-law) picking some snap peas.

And yes, it was very confusing to have two Kays in the house.


We have two Meyer lemon trees in Hawaii.  Seems to me almost anyone who has a lemon tree in Hawaii has a Meyer lemon.  My sister-in-law, Kay also planted a Meyer lemon tree in California and told us her fruits were so sweet you could drink the juice without adding any sugar.

We were sure she was exaggerating a little because our Meyer lemons are still rather tart though it's supposed to be sweeter.  Kay squeezed a tablespoonful for me and it was like slurping liquid lemon candy!  (OK... maybe I'm exaggerating just a teeny bit, but not much.)  What a SHOCK!  I have NEVER tasted a lemon that was sweeter than the oranges we get in Hawaii. 

This is our Meyer Lemon tree in Hawaii.  We have two of them and they produce a lot of lemons and the fruit is often quite large.

I posted this photo a while ago.  My brother took the photo using his Costco card as a size reference.  It looks like a huge yellowish green orange.

California Kay's tree is bushier.  Maybe it's because she doesn't have mom constantly pruning hers.

And here are her Meyer lemon fruits.  They're gorgeous, but smaller (about the size of the lemons you see at the supermarket) and it has those little nipples at the ends.

I don't know.  Maybe there's a California Meyer and a Hawaii Meyer.  Maybe it's the cold weather California gets that makes them sweeter.

And here are some of the citrus from her grove.  Incredible!  It must be because they are picked only when they are ripe, but we couldn't get over the sweet flavor.  Maybe it's her composting?  Maybe the gophers in her backyard are doing some kind of magical chant?

We ate so many citrus fruits while we were in California that it must have been what prevented us from catching a cold while we were there.  The only problem is that it's spoiled us for what we get at the markets here.

And if all this wasn't enough to get us feeling jealous, look what else she planted!

Yup!  Papayas!

Sigh...

A Californian Italian Celebration

After arriving at my sister-in-law, Kay's house after midnight, our friends, Mike and Jean insisted on treating us to a 40th anniversary celebration dinner the following night.  They came from quite a distance away to pick us up to take us to an Italian restaurant they discovered on Yelp.  We met Mike and Jean in the Netherlands several years ago when we were on the same bike tour and became good friends.

The restaurant is called Baci Anaheim.  It used to be Baci di Firenze Trattoria.  The owner is Vittorio and he was wonderfully friendly and accommodating as could be.

I couldn't decide what to order but settled on a scallop and shrimp dish.

Unfortunately, Vittorio said they had only two scallops left so I'd have to make another selection.

Then the appetizers came.  Mike and Jean had ordered four different kinds of appetizers which Vittorio split up for all of us.

There was Bruschetta Romana, Mozzarella Caprese, an artichoke with pine nuts and another dish that I can't remember.  It was fabulous and I knew I wouldn't be able to eat much more so I asked for a side spinach salad instead.

As Vittorio was passing by he teased me asking if I'd found a scallop under the spinach leaves yet.

Art loves eggplants so he ordered Melazane Parmigiana.   He said it was excellent.

I can't show Mike and Jean since I haven't gotten permission to show their photo on the web.

You can catch a glimpse of my delicious spinach salad here.

The food was amazing!

I've never seen lemon sorbet served this way.  It was refreshing and wonderful.  Art loved it.

Art and I would have shared the sorbet but Mike and Jean insisted I have a dessert also.  I sure did!  This chocolate gelato really made the meal memorable.

The atmosphere, the food, the ambiance... everything had us remembering our trip to Firenze (Florence).

The friendship, the laughter, the easy camaraderie had us remembering the Netherlands.

Mike is a pilot for Continental and would be flying out the next day.

It makes me smile to think that one pilot treated us to a trip to California.  A second pilot treated us to our first sumptuous meal in the Golden State.

It truly started our trip off gloriously!

Traveling With an iPad

When we were preparing to leave for Los Angeles, we debated whether or not we should take our laptop.  We've NEVER traveled without our laptop.  I have all my recipes on our laptop and I would check and write blog posts with it.  Basically, almost whatever I do on my desktop, I could do with the laptop.  We figured this trip to L.A. would be a good testing ground.  If anything failed we could always use my brother-in-law's computer.

Art and his sister, Kay

All in all, the iPad worked out fine.  The best part was the fact that everything that's gone on within the last four years is on my blog.  Art could pull up posts that illustrated to his sister what he was talking about with the tap of a finger.

Our son, Jon had taught me how to install the Google Drive app so I was able to upload all my recipes onto the Google cloud that rains down on my iPad and iPhone.  Photos on my Photostream were a fingertip away.

I discovered that I didn't have to bring my Kindle after all because once I installed the Kindle app on the iPad, there were ALL my books.  Incredible!

The downside is that I found it was difficult to try to post on my blog with the iPad.  I'm also not able to upload photos from my other cameras onto the iPad.  I still need to find some wire thing to do that.   We also need to learn how to print using the iPad. Art says he'll have to look for an app.

There's still a lot to learn, but for short trips, we'll definitely stick to the iPad and leave the laptop at home.  For longer stays in Illinois I believe we'll bring the laptop.

Oh and another thing, you don't have to take out the iPad when you go through the security lines at the airport.  That was great!

By the way, are any of you experiencing problems with people trying to comment on your blog?  A friend of mine just said she was having a terrible time with the editing (preview) and posting of her comments on my blog.  I'm wondering if I need to do a comment settings fix.

Sigh... if it's not one thing, it's another.

The Magic of Flight that Took Us to L.A.

A very long time ago my cousin, Arnold found a Monarch caterpillar in his front yard and decided to raise it himself.

He watched as it spun itself into a cocoon and then emerged to become a butterfly that flew off into the skies.

There was some sort of magic there and it grew into a passion for flight.  One Christmas, he received this airplane.

After watching his dad, he began to make his own model airplanes, then learned to fly a glider.

When he grew older, he joined the army and spent time in helicopters over Vietnam.

Eventually he became a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines.

My friend, Dave Au (that amazing photographer who doesn't charge enough for his work) took this photo of Arnold.  It was a shock for me because I'd never seen Arnold in his captain's uniform before.

I think he looks rather dashing and awfully handsome, but then I'm biased.

After 34 years of piloting big airplanes across the ocean, Arnold's retirement party was a proud, happy, but perhaps a wistful moment for him.  It's hard for him to give up flying those big jets and all the people who worked with him.

To celebrate this milestone in his life, Arnold treated Art and me to a last trip to Los Angeles before his official retirement day.

That is why Art and I have been gone for the past week visiting Art's sister, Kay and brother-in-law in California.

I'll be writing about our precious time together in the coming days.

And to think it all started with a butterfly.

Decadent Doughnuts from Portland

My dear cousin, Arnold is a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines.  Before he flew home to Hawaii, he wanted to pick up something for us to try in Portland, Oregon.

He said they were Voodoo doughnuts which I confess sounded quite intriguing.

I have never seen anything like this in any of our travels.  Doughnuts covered with everything you could think of.  Mom's sweet tooth drew her to these little muchies immediately.  We cut them up and tried a little bite of each.  The bottom middle was the best.  We've got dessert for a week!

And a lot of exercising!

Helpful Ideas

I now have another friend who is sending me some helpful hints.  Her name is Myrtle and I'm rather liking these ideas so I thought I'd pass them on to you.

I'll have to check this out next time we travel.  I usually just bring a multiple plug attachment when we travel.

 

I really like this idea and will try it out soon.  I have often found uneven heating in the microwave.

Art isn't sure he likes this idea because he's worried about leaks.  It  might be better if you put the holes up a little higher, just in case?

We haven't had left over pizza in a long, long time, but I'll try this the next time we get one.

This is good to remember when you're driving.

Art tends to over-pop his popcorn so that he doesn't get as many unpopped popcorn.  However, then you're in the danger of getting that burnt flavor.

I like this idea.  Blue ice can be expensive.

I decided to post this for Art although he hasn't had many problems with this.  He's usually carrying a travel book or flyer to show people at train stations.

And that's it for now until the next time Jean or Myrtle sends me helpful ideas.

Vegetarian for a Day

When we took mom to the Palazzo Ristorante Italiano in Aiea we happened to look out at the small area next to the parking lot.

There was a whole colony of feral chickens.  I'm surprised that I haven't seen them as roadkill.  It reminded me of the mother hen I've seen walking around the Walmart parking lot with her little family of about 5 chicks.  I've seen them every so often, but the other day I saw that they were almost full grown and still keeping together as a family.

I wondered if they felt comfort and love being together.  It made me think of them as something other than the package of thighs and breasts I see in the freezer case.

This Christmas, I tried to stay away from meat when I cooked dinner.  I made a spinach quiche and corn chowder.  Oops!  I did stick bacon in there, but only a teeny bit.

I did break down and make chicken and beef teriyaki sticks for the family party.  I don't think I can ever be a vegan, but I think I can try to be a respectful meat eater. I've never forgotten Kahlil Gibran's poem about eating and drinking.

On Eating and Drinking
 Kahlil Gibran

Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light.
But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother's milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.
And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.

When you kill a beast say to him in your heart,
"By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.
For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.
Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven."

And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart,
"Your seeds shall live in my body,
And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,
And your fragrance shall be my breath,
And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons."

And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyards for the winepress, say in your heart,
"I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress,
And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels."
And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup;
And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress.

Pulling Out the Papaya

Sigh...  Art has given up.

When the papaya trees grew too tall, Art cut the trees down and put a can on it as he was advised to do.  We were hopeful when we saw little shoots growing from the side.

However, eventually worms (maggots) started to eat up the tree under the cans and the tree died a slow death.

Sadly, Art has had to pull them out.  We have another tree starting and are hopeful that it will be as sweet as the other two trees were.

Then again, if they are... there will be a battle with the birds again.

Art is looking for a miniature mango tree.  I wonder if birds eat mangoes too.

Cross the Street at Your Own Peril

I don't know what it is about the mindset of drivers in Hawaii.  They don't stop for pedestrians much anymore.  Times have changed.  There's not a lot of aloha when people are in a rush on this tiny, traffic snarled island of Oahu. 

When I saw this on King Street the other day I was surprised.  The bright flashing lights really caught your eye.  It dared you not to stop.

On the other hand I've seen quite a number of people cross right in front of us in a parking lot and other places without even looking, totally oblivious to their surroundings.  They just assume everybody will stop for them.  I guess you combine those two elements of human nature and you end up with too many sad pedestrian injuries and fatalities.

Art bought me a neon chartreuse yellow sweater for our trips to the early morning farmers markets. It's good to make yourself, visible.  Before we cross the street we try to catch the driver's eyes, just to make sure they're paying atteniton.

Be warned.  If you come to Hawaii, remember what your parents and teachers said about looking both ways before you cross a street. I just want  you to be safe.

Early Morning Walk

Even in Hawaii, the winter days are shorter.  It's also rainier.  I've been missing my walks after dinner and Art is concerned I'm not going to be ready for that 8 mile Aloha Run/Walk. 

Therefore, whenever I get up early enough Art is pushing me out the door to go for an early morning walk.

For some reason I got up at 4:30 so it was really dark when we headed out.

There's something about that early morning time.

It smells different.  The plants look different... magical and there's a quiet in the air making you know everybody is asleep except you.

It brought back memories of my childhood buddy, Diane and I walking in the dark to the bus stop for the long ride into Honolulu.  We were going to the Dole pineapple cannery for our 12 hour shift as trimmers.  We used to trim the eyes and spots off of pineapples that shot out of the machines that took off the crowns and hard outer skin.  It was grueling work and many girls didn't make it through the summer. It was our badge of honor that we worked there for three summers.

It also convinced me to go to college and get a less physically challenging job, not to mention something that got me away from that factory pineapple smell.

But this morning, I just remember being young with an uncertain future ahead.  It made me remember having a friend with whom to share the misery of having to wake up early.  It made me remember and smile.

Loving My Slides

As most people know, Asian cultures generally don't use outside shoes inside the home.  In Hawaii everyone tends to follow that rule no matter what other culture they're from.  I remember one guest we had who kept his shoes on when he forgot something and (rather than taking off his shoes) walked throughout the house to get what he needed.  Ummmm.... That earned him a black mark from mom.  I'm surprised she didn't follow after him with a mop (to clean the floor, not to hit him with).

Even though Art installed laminate flooring with padding underneath, it's still more comfortable to wear some kind of footwear in the house.  I called them slippers before, but apparently they're now called slides.

I've tried several and hadn't found the perfect one.  You have to remember that I am a klutz. Yes it's true.  I've been known to trip over my own feet. 

These Nike slides are OK.  Mom likes them a lot.  I still tended to trip every so often with them.  I must walk with my toe pointed downward or something.

Mom used these, but they broke when the glue gave out so I gave her my pink ones while Art used shoe glue to fix these black ones.

Eventually, it broke again so I switched to these gray Reebok slides below.  The problem with the Reeboks is that I was tripping too often and the rubber was too stiff to be comfortable.  Art was forever worried saying, "Was that you?" everytime he heard a bump.

When I was at City Mill (hardware store) I spotted these raspberry/oyster Croc slides.  A little pricey, but they fit well.  Another customer said she had a pair and loved them.  I added it to my Wish List and my son, Jon's Sarah bought them for me.  I usually use a  size 6.5 but these 7s fit perfectly.  I'd tried the black ones of the same style but they fit differently.  It was tighter.  The only glitch in this pair is that the heel sort of tapers in toward the floor making it more stylish, but not quite as stable.  However, I've only twisted my ankle once so I'll be more careful.  It also doesn't have any stress points to become unglued which is good in Hawaii's salt air.

The Crocs are very comfortable so I'll be keeping my fingers ....  and toes crossed that this will be the perfect pair forever.