Wordless Wednesday : Hilo's Reflections

Moonrise

The moon has been spectacular for the last several nights. It's reflection on the water is incredible, but difficult to capture on camera. It has been just bright enough to show up in these pictures. Here is last nights "moon rise" looking out from our lanai.

Crispy Kale Chips

This is one of my favorite snacks and something that gets immediately grabbed at my dinner parties. It is so simple to make and very healthy too. The crisp leaves of the kale have better flavor than any potato chip you will ever eat! It is also a good way to get kids or husbands/picky eaters to eat their greens. I wish I would have known about this when my kids were small, I had to rely on zucchini fries and fried green tomatoes that we called "Tomato Chips" as disguised veggies.

All you do is take some Dinosaur Kale, also known as Tuscan Kale and toss it is a bit of olive oil sprinkle with sea salt and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. I use a silpat sheet on my baking sheets, but you do not have to, you can also place baking parchment on the baking sheets. If the kale is mature, the leaves are 10-12" long and the rib in the center is quite thick, so you should cut the rib out, making two smaller leaves. If it is young kale, you can leave it in. We have several organic growers that grow the Tuscan Kale and it is available here year round at our farmer's markets.

Roasted Pumpkin, Beet, Onion and Wild Rice Salad

Roasted Pumpkin Salad Recipe

*This is a greatly modified formula which I read about on 101 Cookbooks, a blog I featured last Friday. I added beets and a few other ingredients as well as increasing the amounts and restructuring the dressing.

Salad:

3 cups of pumpkin (or other winter squash), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
extra-virgin olive oil
fine grain sea salt (I use smoked sea salt that I make)

2 heads of garlic with the tops cut off

4 beets peeled and quartered

A hand full of fresh rosemeary, peeled from the stems

12 tiny red onions or shallots, peeled (OR 3 medium red onions peeled and quartered)

2 cups cooked wild rice or wild rice blend ( I use Lindeman’s wild and brown rice blend) cooked in chicken broth

Dressing:

1/3 cup each sunflower seeds & pumpkin seeds
1 cup olive oil divided
Juice and zest of 4 meyer lemons (or 3 regular lemons and one orange)
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Freshly ground black pepper to taste (I like lots)
4 tablespoons honey
2-4 tablespoons warm water
1 cup cilantro, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 375.
Toss the pumpkin in a generous splash of olive oil along with a couple pinches of salt & the rosemary and turn out onto a baking sheet. Do the same with beets and onions on a separate baking sheet. Roast all for 45 minutes to one hour, or until squash, beets and onions are caramelized. The onions will probably be finished first. They should be deeply colored, caramelized, and soft throughout by the time they are done roasting. You'll need to flip both the squash and onion pieces once or twice along the way - so it's not just one side that is browning.

In the meantime, make the dressing. In a food processor puree the sunflower & pumpkin seeds, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and honey until creamy. You may need to add a few tablespoons of warm water to thin the dressing a bit. Stir in the cilantro, saving just a bit to garnish the final plate later. Taste and adjust seasonings.

In a large bowl, toss the wild rice with a few large dollops of the dressing. Add the onions, gently toss just once or twice. Turn the rice and onions out onto a platter and top with the roasted squash & beets (I'll very gently toss with my hands here to disperse the pumpkin & beets a bit). Finish with another drizzle of dressing and any remaining chopped cilantro. Top with toasted pumpkin seeds.

Serves 8-10

* I use a rice cooker to cook my rice, or you can do it on the stove top. Using chicken or beef stock is my choice, but this recipe can also be vegan if you use veg stock for cooking your rice.

Trick or Treat on Honoli'i

Oh my goodness... what a fun night we had last night. Our friends Maria and Ric hosted their annual Halloween Party and it was a doozy. Great food, fun costumes and lots of dancing under t he disco ball! I prepared breadstick "bones" to dip in marinara "blood" and a roasted pumpkin, beet, onion and wild rice salad. Maria made some awesome pulled pork with coleslaw and beans and everyone brought delightful additions to the menu... some were scary! Since pictures can tell a thousand words... I will let you see for yourself here how much fun we had:

Our Hosts, the Dairy Queen and the Milkman

Winner for "best costume"

One Year Ago Today

It was one year ago today that we were here in Hilo for the closing on our house. We needed some furniture and our local furniture store Koehnen's in downtown Hilo was featuring a real deal. If you came in a costume, you got 25% off of your purchase. So, for a small investment of a costume, we were able to save several thousand dollars. We went to Wal-Mart to find a costume and there was only one adult costume left and it was even missing the hat. It was "Big Daddy" a New Orleans Parade style costume in purple crushed velvet. I had brought along a little headband with devil ears on it and Wes had a beautiful lei that was presented to us by our real estate agent when we landed in Hilo, so we had a costume! Hence Big Bad Daddy Devil was born. This year he is going to be a Dalmatian. Here are some pictures from that day one year ago. It seems like a very long time considering all that has happened in the last year.

Spooky Image

Wes in his new chair, which is used every night!

Our salesman ringing up the sale

Next post... this year's Halloween Party!