Aloha friends,

I hope that you all enjoyed a blessed holiday. Just in case you didn't get enough turkey on Thanksgiving, we found turkey Spam at the Kauai Walmart! I like Spam but this might be a bit over the top for me. Roasted Spam anyone?

Aloha Friends,

Have you tried Hamura's Saimin Stand yet? We tried it recently and loved it! All these years we traveled to Kauai and never tried it. I had the mistaken idea that it would taste like Top Ramen. Boy, was I wrong! This is totally different. These noodles are amazing! Served with chopped ham, fish cake and green onions in a tasty broth. It was so good! You can also order it with tempura shrimp, or the special saimin which has more fixings, meat and wontons. The menu is simple, they also offer udon, barbeque beef (tender and delicious) and chicken skewers.

Hamura's Saimin is a casual, mom and pop type of restaurant with a nice mix of tourists and locals. The prices are cheap! My saimin was $6, the bbq sticks are $2.50, and the special saimin was $9. They make an incredible lilikoi pie which is the perfect way to end your meal. It's a tangy, fluffy chiffon pie with a light, flakey crust topped with Cool Whip. Yummy! They also sell the pies frozen which would be wonderful for the flight home.

Hamura's is located at 2956 Kress Street (just off of Rice Street) in Lihue.

Aloha Friends,
My hubby and I recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary! Surely a honeymoon to Kauai was in order! We had a great time on our little honeymoon. It was short and sweet, just 4 nights. Perfect getaway with my sweetheart.

As I was looking through our photos I noticed a lot of them were of food! You can tell we like to eat! LOL! I do enjoy cooking at the condo. The photo of the fancy looking tuna steak was from a dinner we had at the Hukilau Lanai. It was delicious. The grove of coconut palms is across from the condo on the mauka (mountain side). You can't see them too well in the photo but, there's a heard of tiny goats that graze there. They're pretty cute. All the beach photos were taken at the beach in front of the condo. We love that beautiful beach! Oh, and we saw whales breaching from there! Apparently whales love Kauai too!

Aloha and thanks for reading my diary!

Aloha All,

I'm super happy to share with you that one of our Hawaiian papaya has blossoms...in San Diego! Hopefully these blossoms will produce fruit. I LOVE papayas!

This tree was grown from a seed that I saved from a sunrise papaya. I purchased the fruit at a Kauai farmers market. The tree is almost 2 years old and is just over 5 feet high. I've been growing papayas for about five years and this is the first one to flower. I currently have 3 other trees...with any luck they'll flower too :)

Papayas are easy to grow from seed. They take at least two weeks to germinate so don't be discouraged if you don't see a sprout right away. Once it sprouts the plant grows very fast. They like full sun to partial shade. I water mine every other day and fertilize twice a month.

Our weather tends to stay warm through November. We'll see if it has time to fruit. Does anyone know how long they take to fruit after flowering? 

I'll keep you all posted as to how it does here in San Diego. Wish me luck!

Aloha!

Aloha Friends!

We got a lot of aloha for kalua pork at my house. I make it often. It's delicious, easy to make and you only need three ingredients! I've included a barbeque roasting method as well as oven roasting instructions. Here's what you do...

Take a 2 pound or so pork shoulder roast (also called a pork butt roast) and cut deep slits into it. Sprinkle with Hawaiian sea salt. Rub the salt into the pork. Flip the roast over and do the same to the other side. Place the roast in a heavy duty aluminum baking pan (if you're oven roasting you can use a glass or metal baking pan). Drizzle liquid smoke over the roast, using 1 teaspoon per pound of pork. Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil, make sure it's sealed up real good. My husband likes to barbeque, he places the roast to the side of medium coals. A 2 pound pork shoulder will take about two hours on the BBQ. If you want to oven roast, bake the pork at 350F for 3 hours. Once the pork is done, let it cool for a few minutes before lifting off the foil. Remove and save some of the liquid. The roast should easily shred with a fork. Taste the pork and decide if it needs some liquid added back in or additional liquid smoke.

Make a Hawaiian plate lunch with 2 scoops rice, mac salad and kalua pork. It's also awesome in tacos and sandwiches. And, if you have left over kalua pork it freezes very well. I hope that you enjoy this recipe!

Thanks for reading my diary!

Aloha Friends!

Here's a few photos from the second half of our vacation...

As you can see we really took it easy on this trip to Kauai. On the last 5 days we went to Lydgate beach again, it's a family favorite. The guys can fish (outside of the ponds), snorkeling and swimming is safe and it's lifeguarded! We did a little shopping at the brand new ABC store at the Coconut Marketplace, it's a short walk from the condo. There's also a Farmer's Market there where we picked up more fruit and veggies. The rest of the time was spent on the beach directly in front of the condo...just relaxing. On our last morning we went to breakfast at the Tip Top in Lihue and had a delicious local style meal. We ordered Oxtail Soup, Loco Moco, and 3 Grand Slams with Macadamia Nut Pancakes. You can't go wrong here friends...everything was great, staff was friendly and the portions were ample!

With full bellies we headed to the airport with my son's live betta fish in tow! The TSA guys were super cool and joking about the fish. We had a pleasant flight home to San Diego on Alaska Air. The fish arrived safe and sound :)

Thanks again for reading my diary!

Aloha All,

Feeling great with jet lag pau, it's a good day to share some photos with you from our recent trip to Kauai...

These photos are from our first 4 days on the island. We spent an afternoon relaxing on the beach in front of the condo, went to the Farmer's Market at Kauai Community College, had fun at the Kamalani Bridge Playground and enjoyed a day snorkeling and swimming at Lydgate Beach Park.

I'll share more photos with you in a few days...
Aloha Friends!

Aloha All!

It was a short visit to Kauai...just four nights but, we so enjoyed our little honeymoon!

We took a long walk along the Kauai Path. The wide concrete path stretches about 9 miles from Lydgate park through Kapaa and up past Kealia beach. The scenery is beautiful...

Breakfast with friends at the Olympic Café in old town Kapaa. Good food and good friends...perfect!

We went to dinner one night at the Bull Shed in Kapaa. The prime rib is absolutely delicious! Dinner includes a trip to their salad bar. Their portions are generous so let your tummy beware :) The leftover steak makes wonderful picnic fixings!

Foodland is a great place to pick up locally grown fruits and veggies. We did most of our grocery shopping there and at Longs Drugs.

Every day we spent time at the beach in front of the condo. It's nice to pack a picnic and relax a few hours away...

Wailua is one of our favorite beers made by the Kona Brewing Company. Unfortunately the Wailua is only sold in the state of Hawaii. Another excuse to go back Friends!

Cheers!

Thanks for reading my diary!

Aloha Everybody!

I saw a recipe a few weeks ago for Passion Fruit Bars. They looked pretty tasty and I've been "homesick" for Kauai. Perfect timing for a new recipe! It called for fresh Passion Fruit. I went on a hunt...no luck. I did find Hawaiian Sun brand Lilikoi Passion beverage but, with 3% fruit juice I didn't think it would pass in the recipe. So, when I walked past a bottle of Papaya Delight with 100% fruit juice I knew what I was going to make. Papaya Bars!

I saved the Passion Fruit Bar recipe for another day. The recipe I used to make the Papaya Bars is similar to the Lemon Bar recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I've made Lemon Bars a gazillion times. Here is the tweaked Lemon Bars turned Papaya Bars recipe...

Papaya Bars

1/3 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Flour
1 Egg
1 Cup Papaya Juice
1 Tablespoon Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder

Beat butter and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Mix in the 1 cup of flour till crumbly. Press into bottom of 8"x8"x2" baking pan. Bake in 350F oven for 15 to 18 minutes or till just golden.

Meanwhile, gently boil papaya juice in a small sauce pan on a cooktop until thickened and reduced to about half. You should have 1/2 cup of yummy, sweet, thick papaya goodness.

Combine the egg, remaining sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, baking powder and papaya. Beat well until thoroughly combined. Pour over hot baked layer.

Bake in 350F oven for about 20 minutes more or until lightly browned on the edges and center is set. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars and enjoy!

Here is a photo of the juice I used...and my laundry! Keeping it real for you guys...LOL. It's good juice, made locally here in San Diego.

I hope that you like the Papaya Bar recipe. I would love to try it with fresh papayas. Maybe next time I'm on island. I could puree the papaya in the blender and bake the bars in our little oven. With a peek-a-boo ocean view from the kitchen...it's fun to cook in the condo :)

Aloha!

Aloha Friends!

Remember our baby pineapple from a few months back? He was just a little guy back in March but, look at him now!

We have been watching him grow over the summer. He was still mostly green when we left for Kauai. When we returned home 10 days later, we found that he was completely yellow and ripe!

We harvested our pineapple the following day. The scent of pineapple was heavenly, we couldn't wait to taste it!

After patiently waiting for months we gave it a try...and it was gross. Really nasty! It had a strange flavor...almost like it had gone "bad". Not sweet at all. How could something smell so good, but taste so awful? Do any of you know what may have caused such a foul flavor? Can they over-ripen on the plant?

Though my pineapple was a bit of a disappointment, I'm not discouraged. I'm going to keep trying to grow pineapple here at our home in San Diego. In fact, the mother plant is producing a little baby plant for me transplant. I'm hopeful!

Take care All.