Kimo's

Each time my mother visits we try to get over to Lahaina for the opakapaka fish and chips at Kimo's. Unfortunately Kimo's no longer has opakapaka since there is a moratorium on the fishery. so we had to settle for mahi mahi. It seemed every table near us was enjoying hula pie -- oreo cookie crust, macadamia nut ice cream, whipped cream topping, chocolate frosting and syrup. So ....now you see it,


and now you don't! *



* ok, she had a little help....

Mele Kalikimaka

Monster waves at Hookipa;




monster prime rib for the main event;


and a glorious sunset.

Dawn

Lanai from our lanai....

West Maui.

Pretty cool.

Molten Chocolate Cakes (also for Martha)

These cakes are slightly underbaked so that the chocolate center oozes when cut into.

5 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
(I add another ounce or two of bittersweet chocolate)
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I sift it, what the heck, and I hate those little lumps)
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Powdered sugar

Vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 450°F. Double butter six 3/4-cup soufflé dishes or custard cups. (Brush with butter, freeze for 10 minutes, butter again.) Stir chocolate and butter in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted. Cool slightly. Whisk eggs and egg yolks in large bowl to blend. Whisk in sugar, then chocolate mixture and flour. Pour batter into dishes, dividing equally. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill.)

Bake cakes until sides are set but center remains soft and runny, about 11 minutes or up to 14 minutes for batter that was refrigerated. Run small knife around cakes to loosen. Immediately turn cakes out onto plates. Garnish with a dusting of powdered sugar. Serve with ice cream.

For only 2 cakes: 1 3/4 oz chocolate, 3 1/3 T butter, 1 egg, 1 egg yoke, 1/2 c. powdered sugar, 2 T + 2 t flour.

Enjoy!

Starfruit!

We call Alfie next door the Fruit Fairy, since almost every morning we find some lovely treat on our doorstep. This week he has left us longons, papayas, and starfruit. The longons never make it very long, they are addictive eaten out of hand. The papayas usually go into salads instead of tomatoes. But starfruit -- that's a new one. I've eaten them before, also in salads. They have an almost citrus flavor without the acid, a melony taste but the texture of a very wet apple. They also have a very strong floral scent. And now I have a dozen! I've consulted the Internet, and it looks like the most interesting recipe which features the starfruit rather than just adding them to a salad or sauce is for -- pickles! So I'm in the market for some hi ling mui, dried plums with a distinctive salty, sour, sweet taste. Stay tuned....

By popular demand (and this means you, Martha)

Pumpkin Cake

1 large can pumpkin
2/3 yellow cake mix, divided in half
13 oz evap milk
4 beaten eggs
1 ½ c sugar
1 t salt
1 t ginger
½ t ground cloves
2 t cinnamon

Mix all ingredients with 1/2 of the cake mix, place in greased 9x13 pan.

Topping: sprinkle top with the remaining cake mix, 3 T brown sugar, 1/2 c walnuts. drizzle with 1/2 cup melted butter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, plus or minus 20 minutes.

Cool. Enjoy!

Maui waves

Home again. We spent 3 weeks in California getting reorganized after our trip to France and New England, visiting various and sundry friends and doing laundry. We had a couple of visits with my mother, and participated in our neighborhood's disaster preparedness drill, which involved updating and expanding our disaster cache of food, water and survival tools.

Then it was off to Maui, where time slowed down and almost stopped. Lots of naps, lots of sunsets, lots of reading. Tom's brother Bob and wife Lee Ann came for Thanksgiving week. Their trip began in Kauai, so we prevailed upon them to bring us two lilikoi (passionfruit) chiffon pies, a specialty of that island. So our Thanksgiving dinner featured not just turkey and stuffing, but lilikoi pie. For those of you now freezing in the cold snap on the mainland, it was (and is) 83 degrees during the day, and between 63 and 68 at night. And you should hear the whining when dips down to 63!

Since it made the front page of the New York Times, it is apparently not a secret that we are enjoying historically large waves this week. Some are purportedly 50 feet high. We went across the island today to take a look at Hookipa Beach where there are usually surfers and wind surfers. Today the beach is closed completely -- and they meant it. Police cars were posted at the entrance and exit to the beach park to make sure no one could enter. The lookout above the park was open, so we stopped to take a look. We don't think these waves were 50 feet, more like 20 to 30. But they were powerful. We thought about going to Jaws, a famous surfing area not far away, but it doesn't have a beach at all (surfers are towed by jet ski from a beach a couple of miles away). There is a small lookout, and we had heard that a couple of thousand people had walked there yesterday. So we decided that even though the waves might be larger there, we'd seen what we needed to see.