Adventures in Paradise......Day 2

Waimea Canyon

So if you like to go hiking Kaua'i has the best hiking in the most stunning places. Kaua'i has miles and miles of hiking for such a small island. One of the best things about hiking in the Hawaiian Islands is that there are no snakes so you can walk anywhere and not have to worry about what is hiding in the brush. Big plus for me. I hate snakes and creepy crawly creatures. Kaua'i has hiking trails for all levels of hiking ability. The Kaua'i Guidebook was so great as a guide for hikes. It gives maps, tells you the difficulty, where to go to catch the trails, any warnings and what to wear. I carried it in our backpack when we hiked.

Looking down on the Na Pali Coast, as I said the picture doesn't do it justice

We decided to hike the Pihea Trail to Alaka'i Swamp. Actually let me rephrase that, I decided where we were going and the Money Man started walking. Let me say that a walking pole is really an added plus for a lot of these hikes. I had brought our collapsible poles in our suitcase. The hike would have been a lot more difficult without them. You also need a really good pair of hiking shoes with good gripping soles. Long lightweight pants, a hat and a light raincoat is also good. This area rains approx. 450 inches of rain a year. Thank goodness for us it did not rain on the day we went. It sprinkled but didn't rain.

The trail doesn't look to bad here.

This got a bit more tricky. Very up hill, rocky and slippery wet.

To get to Pihea Trail you drive to the very end of Waimea Canyon Road. Driving Waimea Canyon Road is an adventure in and of itself. Waimea Canyon, the Little Grand Canyon, is spectacular. Be sure to stop at the lookouts for the Canyon on your way to the top. You need to start this adventure early in the morning, by 10:00 anyway. If you wait too much longer the clouds start rolling in and obscure the views. When we started I really had every intention of doing both trails-Pihea and Alaka'i. It would have been about eight miles. As we got going I realized that if we could get the approx. 4 mile Pihea Trail done it would be good. There were times had my husband not been with me to pull me up the the rocks and over the tree limbs, I would have been crawling up on my hands and knees. It would be so much easier if I didn't have such short jeans/genes.

Then there was the mud swamps to navigate.

This was looking down on what we climbed up. I don't think you can tell, but this was a steep incline climbing up rocks

Me trying to climb around the mud and over a three foot tree root.

I thought this was so cool. It's a tree stump in the middle of the trail that has been worn smooth by everyone using it to pull themselves over the mud.

 The reason I wanted to do this trail is because it is one that gives you views down into the untouched Na Pali Valley and Coast. You hike through the rain forest and the swamp. There is truly no way to adequately describe the views and I don't know if the pictures even do it justice. It is really breathtaking and moving to look down on a land that nobody has touched because you can't get to it. Walking the Pihea Trail is like walking up with the clouds and sometime they roll in around you. It took us about 5 hours to do the 4 miles round trip. To do both trails you would need to start at first light. These trails are not trails you would want to try to navigate in the dark. Make sure you take a backpack with water, lunch and snacks. There is no place to sit and have a picnic, but standing and staring at the view....priceless!

Another view of the Na Pali Coast

After the clouds roll in.

The rain forest.

Adventures in Paradise.....Day 1

Many of you know we went to Kaua'i last Friday and got back on Wednesday. We were going for our thirty fifth wedding anniversary which was February twentieth, but with the Money Man's schedule last Friday was the first day we could get away. Kaua'i is the third island we have visited in the Hawaiian chain and very different then the rest. It was five days of relaxing and unwinding from a very busy few months.

First of all let me say if you are going to Kaua'i, Oahu, Maui or the Big Island you need to invest in Wizard Publications guidebooks. One of the Money Man's clients gave us the Kaua'i guidebook when he found out we were going. It was invaluable. The maps are very accurate, it was all we used to get around. The information in the book includes: restaurants, beaches, activities, hiking, sight-seeing, golfing, grocery stores, adventures, hotels, car rentals and almost any thing else we needed to know about Kaua'i. I read it cover to cover and marked things as I went along. I like to have a plan. You can get the book at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It will be the best  $20.00 you spend for your trip. For more information you can find their website at: http://www.wizardpub.com

We flew Hawaiian Air to get there. They are a really great, friendly airline. The service has always been good. After reading the guidebook I decided to use a local car rental agency, one of the little guys. Seemed reasonable to support the locals. We rented from Kaua'i Rent A Car. When I called to make the reservation I wanted something like a Jeep. They had a Jeep Cherokee at about $100.00 less than the big guys were for a compact car. So I rented it. A transplant from the Mainland named Pete owns the company and he and his wife work the business. She was very good about telling me that this was not a new Jeep and it had almost 100,000 miles on it, but it runs good she said. Perfect we will look like the locals. Pete made picking it up and dropping it off very easy as they are off site in Kapa'a. Well, it was a was wonderful adventure in our old Jeep. It made it everywhere we needed to go even though it wasn't much to look at. If you would like to rent from Pete on a visit you can find them at: (808) 246-1881.

Our trustee rented Jeep

 We stayed in a condo in Princeville. We like to rent houses when we travel and I use homeaway.com to find them. Well I stumbled on a gem of a place for our stay. We stayed at a studio condo at Pali Ke Kua. It is in one of the quietest areas of the island. It is a long way off the Highway so there is no traffic noise. The Highway in Kaua'i can be quite busy. The condo has an ocean view with a beautiful view of the setting sun over the Na Pali coast. Pali Ke Kua also has it's own private access to a beautiful beach. The condo is great for two people as it is a studio. It has a kitchenette which has a two burner stove, sink, small frig, microwave, coffee pot and toaster. It is also fully stocked with pots/pans and dinnerware. It was perfect. The people that own it live in Paradise, CA part of the time and in the paradise of Kaua'i the rest of the time. The best part is that it was  $99.00 a night. If you stay for a week it's $89.00 a night. The one downside for some might be that there is no washer/dryer. I didn't have a problem with that. I had taken enough clothes and the one time I did have to wash something out I did it in the sink and hung it in the shower to dry. The one thing I loved, beside the ocean view was the Jalousie windows. I am trying to figure out where I can put those in my house. If your thinking about a trip to Kaua'i check out Jeri Bills website for the condo at:
http://www.vrbo.com/22715

Front door and kitchenette. I was making pan-seared salmon, rice pilaf and steamed asparagus our first night.

The bathroom

Shower

Great room area

HDTV for watching the Giants play baseball. That's part of relaxing for the Money Man.

The other thing that is really nice about the condo is that there is a Foodland grocery store back out on the Highway about 5 minutes away. It's a great store, just make sure you ask for a Makai card. It is their savings card. They have great fresh vegetables and I didn't think the prices were all that bad. A great place to get papaya and pineapple is at Moloa'a Sunrise Fruit Stand at the 17 mile marker heading back toward Kapa'a. We ate lots of papaya and pineapple. We only ate out twice. Dinner with our own ocean view...priceless.

We would sit and watch the whales spout and surface.

In the morning I would take my coffee outside to just sit. I was greeted every morning by the most wonderful coffee companions. It was the delight of the morning. You are asked not to feed them. So they didn't come to be fed, they just came to see me for the morning. That's what I told myself anyway. I need to find out what there names are. The only ones are know are the Nene.

He looked like a Myna bird

Hawaii's State bird- Hawaiian Nene

I don't know what he is, but he hopped on my table twice.

Let me just say that if you want night life, Kaua'i is not the place for you to go. Everything closes here by seven except the grocery stores and restaurants. Some of the parks even close earlier than that. But, if you want to go relax, do some hiking and enjoy the beauty that only God can create, then this is the place for you. Kaua'i is full of some of the most beautiful scenery you see no place else on earth. I hope you get a sense of some of that as I continue to post.

Company's coming....dinners on!

OK, so as a whole I do not buy cookbooks. Most of the time you spend twenty five dollars for a couple of recipes and the book sits collecting dust on a shelf you could use for something else. So last week while I was in Oklahoma I ran across this cookbook and I bought it. It's called "The Pioneer Woman Cooks". It is written by a Oklahoma housewife. She and her family live on a horse and cattle ranch. It's a meat and potatoes kind of cookbook.

The thing that intrigued me about the book and the reason I bought it was because it had a lot of recipes from the mid-west and south. Some reminded me of recipes my mom fixed when I was little. So, what's another twenty seven dollars I thought and I bought the cookbook. It is a fun and entertaining cookbook with lots of pictures. Tonight I made dinner with two recipes out of the book. Oh my! My husband's words, "I think this is the best dinner you have ever made, I know the potatoes are". I am not normally a big mashed potato girl, but these, I could have eaten the whole pan. This is NOT a low calorie dinner, but if you got company coming and you want to impress 'em, this would be the dinner. I hope you enjoy and don't forget to give me your thoughts.

Perfect Pot Roast with Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Perfect Pot Roast

3 Tblsps. olive oil
kosher salt & pepper
one 3 to 5 pound chuck roast
2 onions (cut in half from tip to root, cut off tops and bottoms and peel off skin.)
6 to 8 carrots (cut off ends and then cut in about 2 inch chunks)
2 to 2 1/2 cups beef stock
3 to 4 fresh rosemary sprigs
2 to 3 fresh thyme sprigs

Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add the onions  and brown on both sides. Remove from oil. Next put carrots in the hot oil. Toss them around until slightly brown. Brown them but don't cook them. Remove from pan. Salt and pepper the meat and then put in pan of oil and sear on both sides. Remove and put in crock pot.

To the hot oil add 1 cup of beef stock and whisk constantly to deglaze the pan. The point of deglazing is to loosen all the burned flavorful bits from the bottom of the pot. When done pour over roast in crock pot. Add enough stock to come halfway up the meat. Tuck in the herbs so they are down in the juice and put in carrots and onions. Cook on low for 6-8 hours depending on size of the roast. Serve with Creamy Mashed Potatoes.

(Note: I adapted this recipe to make in the crock pot because it's easier using my crock pot when I work. If you get the book it tells you how to do it in the oven.)

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

5 pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes
1 1/2 sticks of butter, cut in pieces
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Cook the potatoes in boiling water until you can pierce with a fork. Drain and put back in pan. Add butter and mash until mixed. Add cream cheese and mash until mixed. Add seasoned salt, salt, pepper and half and half and mash until smooth. Put in a 2 quart casserole dish and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

(Note: I also made gravy from the juices of the roast. It made fabulous gravy. And can you really have roast beef and potatoes without gravy?)

Have you seen the muffin man......

I had been on a quest for years to come up with a good muffin recipe. Muffins are notoriously high in calories and not much nutritional value. You can blow two meals calories in one muffin and not get much for it. So I set out trying to create a muffin recipe that will feed your body with good things to start your morning out right. I came up with three. Below are two of the recipes. I will post the other one at a later time. The calorie content is still high, but so is the protein, fiber and calcium. These muffins get you through the morning and they taste good too! I hope you enjoy them.

Lavender Lemon with Blueberries

Lavender Lemon Muffins

1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. McCormick Lavender
1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats (put through food processor until coarsely chopped)
1/2 cup nuts
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup lemon yogurt
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. lemon extract
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 and spray muffin tins with cooking spray. Combine sugar, lavender and lemon zest in a food processor. Process until lavender is chopped fine. (Remove 2 Tblsps. You can either discard or sprinkle on top of muffins right before cooking.) Combine sugar mixture, flour, oats, nuts, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl mix cream cheese until smooth. Blend in yogurt, buttermilk, oil, lemon extract and egg. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Bake for approx. 30 minutes.
(variation-add on cup of blackberries or blueberries once everything has been stirred together.)

Banana Nut Bran Muffins

Banana Nut Bran Muffins

1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats (put through food processor until coarsely chopped)
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup nuts
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 bananas (quarter banana and then sliced thinly)
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 and spray muffin tins with cooking spray. Combine sugar, flour, oats, bran, nuts, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together banana, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and egg. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Bake for approx. 30 minutes.

Note: I bake my muffins in large muffin tins so if you use smaller tins you might have to adjust the cook time. Recipes make approx. 6 big muffins. Also, if you find you like these muffin process enough oats to last a while and then just keep them in the freezer.

These cookies are a snap to make...and they taste good too!

So I have a friend who loves cookies. He bowls on my husbands bowling team. I try out new cookies recipes on them and they tell me yes or no on whether to make them again. The first time I made these cookies he said they were only a nine because they didn't have any nuts in them. Tonight I made them for him and added the nuts. Tonight they were a "10". He had surgery on his shoulder yesterday, so I was wondering if it was just the drugs talking, so I tried them out on the rest of the bowling team and they agreed they were "really" good. So this weeks recipe is a "really" good "10" cookies recipe. I hope you enjoy them too.

Chocolate Snaps

1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tblsp. water
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar. Place balls 2 inches apart on parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 9 minutes. Cool 2-3 minutes on cookie sheet before removing to wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 4 doz.

If you make them let me know what you think.

If it's raining it must be....Soup!

Okay, so I found this recipe the other day in our local newspaper. One of the best soup recipes I have ever eaten. Everybody that has tried it loves it. It makes a really big pot, so it would be great for company or you could freeze part of it to use later. The best thing is that it is so easy. Put it with a salad and sourdough for a fabulous dinner.

Lasagna Soup

2 pounds ground Italian sausage
4 cups diced onions (I put through the food processor)
2 cups diced carrots
4 Tblsps. minced garlic
8 cups chicken broth
2 large (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (15 oz) can tomato paste
4 cups sliced mushrooms
1 cup campanelle pasta, uncooked
2 cups fresh spinach
shredded mozzarella cheese
shredded parmesan cheese

Brown meat, onions and carrots with garlic. Add broth and crushed tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Add tomato paste, mushrooms and cook until pasta is al dente. Add spinach and cook until wilted. Serve soup with mozzarella and parmesan on top.
(Rhonda's note: When I made this I was a half cup short of 4 cups of onions. I had some asparagus left over from the previous nights dinner. I put it in the food processor with the carrots and put that in the soup too. I think you could play with this recipe a little if you wanted to add different vegetables. Kids probably wouldn't even know.) Enjoy!!

The Tea Party......with recipes.

Paula, Doris & Melody

Okay, so I have had several request to blog my Tea Party I had last week. My friend from church helped me give it and it was a wonderful time with some wonderful ladies. I felt like it was a tea party fit for the queen, unfortunately she didn't show up. She missed out. I did some research online to find out what to serve at a traditional tea. The following was our menu:

Spinach Salad with blackberries, feta and raspberry dressing

Tomato/Cucumber & Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches

Tuna Salad Sandwiches

Egg Salad Sandwiches

Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

Blueberry Scones & Mandarin Orange Scones

with Lemon Curd and Devonshire Creme

Lavender Pound Cake

Mini Rum Pecan Tea Cakes

Chocolate Snaps

We had teas that I order from a company called Octavia Teas. I love their teas and they come packaged in little tins. We had a Red Tea- Hibiscus Peach, a Herbal Tea- Berry Cocktail, a White Tea- Raspberry Champagne, a Green Tea- Tropical Green and a Black Tea- Grand Earl Grey. These are all wonderful teas, but the favorites were the Raspberry Champagne and the Berry Cocktail. We had asked those that came to wear wonderful tea party hats with the best hat winning a prize.

Deenise helped me give the party

My sister , Norma and niece, Sherie

CeCe Byrd

Sara, Lisa & Mona

Deenise and I

The winning hat was made by my sister. We have dared her to wear it for Easter. We'll see. She won a heart bowl gift basket filled with tea, a tea mug, Godiva chocolates, candles and a heart dish towel. It was really a lot of fun. I am already thinking about the next Tea Party.

And the winner is....

I always thought scones were hard to make, so I had never made them until this party. They are actually quite easy and so yummy. Here are the two recipes I used for the scones.

Blueberry Scones
2 3/4 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 Tbslp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
6 Tblsps. cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 Tblsp. white vinegar plus enough milk to make 1 cup
1 cup fresh blueberries

1 tsp. orange peel

1 egg, lightly beaten
1 egg white & 2 Tblsps. sugar

1. Heat oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add butter; mix with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gently stir vinegar-milk mixture into dough along with blueberries, orange peel and egg, just until combined.
3. Using a standard ice cream scoop (about 1/2 cup), drop heaping scoopfuls of dough onto prepared sheet, about 2 inches apart. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Note: these kept for about 6 days in the frig.)

Mandarin Orange Scones
3 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 stick of unsalted butter
zest of one orange
1/2 cup mandarin oranges sliced very small (I used fresh mandarins cause their in season here)
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 to 3/4 cup buttermilk
Mix together flour and sugar. Use pastry cutter to cut in butter. Mixture should resemble coarse cornmeal. Add zest and oranges. Fold in orange juice gently. Add enough buttermilk to make the mixture come together. If mixture is too dry add more buttermilk until it holds together. Turn out on a floured board. Pat out to 1 inch thick and cut with small biscuit cutter. Bake in 400 degree oven for 12-20 minutes until golden brown. (Note: Because I'm lazy, I didn't want to do the whole board-cookie cutter thing. So I used a medium cookie scoop and did them drop style. Worked for me.)

I served the above scones with the following recipes.

Devonshire Cream
1 8oz. pkg softened cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 freshly squeezed lemon
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sour cream
In a small bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, lemon juice and vanilla. Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Fold in sour cream. (Note: Will keep in frig and week.)

Lemon Curd
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest
3 eggs
Melt butter in microwave for 1 minute. Beat eggs in a glass bowl with electric mixer until frothy. Mix in butter, sugar, lemon juice and zest. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Beat again until smooth. Microwave on high for another 3 minutes. Beat mixture again until smooth. Refrigerate until set/cool. Lemon curd will keep up to 2 weeks in frig, if it lasts that long.

Enjoy these and if you saw another recipe from the menu you would like me to share, let me know and I will add it.I think it is now time for me to go have a cup of tea.