It's Saturday! An Award, a Meme and a Foodie Scenario

Oh Saturday! I waited all week for you to get here and you didn't disappoint me. I woke up early with rain coming down and a decision; Farmer's Market or no Farmer's Market? I decided to brave the rain because in Hawaii you are usually about 3 miles or 10 minutes from a change in weather. By the time I pulled into the parking lot for the market, the rain was over and bonus, not everyone was as brave as I was and it was much less crowded when the opening bell rang. Today seemed to be exotic fruit day and I gathered a lot of fun fruits, some I am familiar with and others I have not seen or tried before to share with you over the next week or so. Since it was a hard, long week, I also treated myself to these:

Beignets with some lilikoi (passion fruit) sauce. I don't do it often but they are so good and I deserved it! (OK my soul deserved it, my hips not so much!) A few assorted veggies and some herbs and I was done and out of there as the crowds started showing up. The same was true with my other errands, in and out of Costco, Post Office, Safeway and my neighborhood natural foods store and home by 10:00 AM. A plan in place to spend the rest of the day being lazy and catching up on reading and the Netflix movies sitting on my TV console. My Post Office visit was to pick up my Blogging By Mail Box--what a treat to come home last night and find the package pick up receipt and see: Australia! My BBM box came from the wonderful Barbara at Winos & Foodies and while I love everything in there and I am sure that you want to see all the goodies, you must wait until Monday because I have some slightly delinquent "business" to take care of today: First off, about a week ago the fabulous and funny Cathy from The Tortefeasor bestowed the Kreativ Blogger award on me with the attached "7s" meme. If you have not read Cathy's blog she is incredibly smart, talented and hilarious (I can never look at fennel in the store again without visions of Whitesnake because of this post) so getting an award from her is an honor. That being said, I guess I have to do the meme too, so here goes: ----- 7 things I did before 1. A 3 month stint at McDonald's until I turned 16 2. Worked at a pharmacy through high school, into college 3. Manager trainee at Mervyn's in the Children's Dept. (Note: Summer Super Sale + hundreds of children's swimsuits piled on dressing room floors = 7th Circle of Hell) 4. Training & development manager for department store 5. Office manager for Insurance office (may have been another circle of hell) 6. Store manager and training manager for retail coffee giant 7. Training & HR director for International department of retail coffee giant, opening markets around the world to help them achieve world-wide domination. ;-) ------ 7 things I do now 1. Head up HR for two restaurant brands in Hawaii 2. Partner in our company 3. Try to figure out what I want to do/be when I grow up 4. Cook and eat too much 5. Late night blogging = not enough sleep 6. Am owned and bossed around by a grumpy, very vocal, but still pretty lovable cat 7. Seriously, try to figure out what I want to do/be when I grow up! ----- 7 things I want to do 1. Plant an herb garden 2. Reduce my carbon footprint 3. Study nutrition and natural foods 4. Travel more 5. Do all the little crafty projects and organizing tasks I have saved up 6. Cook more things that intimidate me to challenge myself 7. Figure out what I want to do/be when I grow up! ----- 7 things that attract me about the opposite sex 1. Funny / sense of humor 2. Intelligent and interested in learning new things 3. Height (hey, I am almost 5'10") 4. Self-sufficient 5. Kind to others 6. Nice smile and eyes 7. Good manners ----- 7 favorite foods 1. Chocolate 2. Curry 3. Cheese 4. Fish and seafood 5. Potatoes 6. Mangos 7. Black pepper ----- 7 things I say most often: 1. Bugger! 2. Oy Vey! 3. Not printable 4. Not printable 5. Not printable 6. What do you think is in this sauce? 7. I bet I could make that (OK, at this point I am supposed to tag 7 people for the award and meme but I'll do that at the end of the post). Next up, two more great bloggers Gloria of Cookbook Cuisine (incredible, talented foodie & food writer) and Arlene of The Food of Love (fantastic foodie who lives in a log home--I have always wanted to do that!) both tagged me with the very interesting and difficult Desert Island Scenario: "You are stranded on a desert island for an indefinite amount of time. You can bring along five food items and are allowed one sentence to justify your decision. It is an island, so assume plentiful fish, coconuts, and sea salt. Storage is not an issue, as you also have a large solar powered refrigerator." This is difficult for me because being a Libra, I can never make up my mind about anything and there are so many foods I want to take. I am lucky that I love fish and could eat it daily and am a coconut fan but still I am probably erring on bringing too many spices/condiments and not enough substance. but oh well maybe I can trade / share supplies with the others! ----- 1) Chocolate: Can't live without it and I will need a large selection of both milk and dark chocolate to get by. 2) Curry Powder: With all the coconut milk and fish on the island I will be making and eating a lot of fish curries. 3) Black Pepper: There is salt but I likes me some pepper on just about everything 4) Rice: For the curry--I am bringing a selection; brown, jasmine, wild, etc. 5) Capers: I am going to assume (declare) that this island has lemons and limes on it. I will be making some fish piccata with lemon and capers for some variety. OK now for my 7 wonderful bloggers who get the award for having blogs I find creative, interesting and fun to read. Along with the award, I am giving you a choice of:

1) Take the award and do the "7s" meme 2) Take the award and do the desert island scenario 3) Take the award and do both 4) Just take the award and do nothing (and I won't call you a party pooper I swear!) ;-) 1. Natashya at Living in The Kitchen With Puppies: my good friend who has an incredible blog with lots of wonderful food, beautiful photography and cute puppies. (I know she will share her desert island rations with me--I hope she brings pasta and some kind of meat!) 2. Nate-n-Annie from House of Annie: I got to meet these two at a FoodBuzz sponsored dinner they organized a few months ago. A great team with delicious recipes and incredible photos. I want to see what they bring to the island! 3. Suzie from Munch+Nibble: A fellow Barefoot Blogger from Down Under, I have been really enjoying the recipes, writing and photos on her blog lately. 4. Michelle from Accidental Scientist: I can't leave out my local foodie friend Michelle, excellent writer and adventure companion, who has been bravely taking the Eat Local Challenge this month and is moving to a cool new island pad this week. (No worries about getting the meme or challenge done until you settle down Michelle!) 5. Brenda of Webbie's World: Another Barefoot Blogger's pal, Brenda is one busy woman who cooks and bakes a lot of great food. (And I am getting pretty good at the hangman game on her blog which I have to play whenever I visit!) 6. Kat of Our Adventures In Japan: I am always visiting her site to see what interesting things Kat is doing, the great things she is making or eating and marveling at all the beautiful pictures. 7. Laurie of That's Not What the Recipe Says: Laurie is a great food writer, mother of four, grandmother of 1 and has a blog full of great writing and recipes that I enjoy. OK, hard to choose but those are my 7 award winners and the rest is up to them! To choose the meme, scenario, both, neither... and to pass on the award to some Bloggers they admire.

Hope you all are enjoying your Saturday. See you tomorrow for Souper Sunday and Monday, I reveal the contents of my Blogging By Mail Box! (You know you want to see what's under the scarf!)

Max says "Here's how to enjoy a Saturday!" (Oh wait, make that any day...)

6 Random Things Meme and an Award

T.G.I.F.! Why did it seem like such a long week?! So you don't hate me too much, the weather did not look like this when I left work today--it was actually gray and dumping down rain which is supposed to happen sporadically throughout this weekend. The good thing about Hawaii however is that in between the dumping the sky will be blue with rainbows!

I have been a bit behind with a couple of things, a meme I was tagged with a few weeks ago and an award I received a few days ago. Why not post them both and ease my guilty conscience!

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The Meme:

Tinker from Tinker Culture tagged me with the "6 Random Things About Me" meme. Her blog is great, lots of yummy, mostly healthy recipes and her cat Tugger is pretty darn cute. I think I have been putting this meme off because of the intimidation factor: 1) Does anyone really want to know 6 random things about me? and 2) How to pick six random things that are not "over sharing" and don't make people think of me as that "really strange blogger from Hawaii." Trust me I have A LOT of little quirks!

OK...here goes nothing!
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1) I hate pumpkin! The smell, taste and the texture. (The seeds I like but that is about it) As a matter of fact, people think I am strange because my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving yet I have a dislike of a long list of fall and winter holiday foods: the aforementioned pumpkin, eggnog, gingerbread, nutmeg, allspice, mace, molasses, yams and sweet potatoes just to name a few.

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2) I read Pride and Prejudice every year in January--it's a tradition, along with watching Bridget Jone's Diary sometime during the New Years Weekend. I also own about 5 versions of film adaptations of the book. Jane Austen was a genius!
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3) Two places where I can hang out for hours and spend a LOT of money--good grocery or natural foods stores and bookstores. My overstocked pantry and bookshelves support this fact. Because the grocery stores in Hawaii are not great (except we finally got a Whole Foods this week but more about that later), whenever I visit my family in Oregon, I spend hours visiting the stores there. Actually anywhere I travel I love to go to grocery stores and look at the local/regional items even more than I like to go to museums or historical sites

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4) Although I often can't remember where I parked the car or put my cell phone, I have a strange ability to remember random facts and trivia especially about movies, books, celebrities and pop culture. I kick butt at Trivial Pursuit and any other trivia games. It is so bad that friends and family call me to settle arguments or to ask me who was in such & such movie and the vast majority of the time I can answer them.
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5) I once ate most of a bowl of raw chicken. I was in Japan with some people from work having dinner when a small bowl of thin sliced sashimi on ice was put in front of me. I started eating it and couldn't figure out the texture and quietly asked the waiter what kind of fish it was. He said: "No fish!" so I asked again; "No fish!" I tried one more time; "No fish! Chicken!" Down went the chopsticks--I couldn't help thinking I just ate a bowl of salmonella!!! Nothing happened; actually Japan, home of eating the deadly, poisonous fugu fish is probably one of the safer places to consume raw chicken meat but it was a bit much for me. I had a really hard time eating chicken for quite some time and it still isn't my favorite protein to cook or eat today.

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6) I am an incredibly fast reader. You can't tell since I am slow pretty moving on changing the currently reading and just read gadgets on the side of my blog but usually I am reading 2 to 3 books at once and have finished half a dozen or so before I change the gadget. When I was young one of my older brothers would never believe I actually read books because I finished them so fast so he would read a chapter and "test me" to see if I really read it. Of course by the time he finished that chapter, I was half way through another book--no joke. I read anything and everything and in addition to stacks of cookbooks you'll find all kinds of books of many different genres in the bookshelves and in stacks in my house.

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OK--that's 6 random and very wordy things about me! I am not going to tag anyone as it seems most of my food blogging buddies have done this one. But please feel free to leave a comment and tell me something random about you and make me feel better about my little random quirks!

The Award:

My friend, Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies, presented me with the "I Love You This Much Award".

She said I make her happy and the feeling is oh so mutual! Natashya and I started blogging about the same time and she is a fun, talented blogger who I admire so much for her incredible cooking abilities and photography skills. She has a great sense of humor and we seem to agree on a lot of things! I love to get comments and emails from her and she has really become a good friend. If for some reason you have never visited her site, I suggest you go and check it out here and you will see what I mean!

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Since Natashya passed it on to two of us, I am going to repeat that process and pass it on to two deserving bloggers out of the many of you out there who continue to make me happy by your wonderful blogs and your support and friendship.

The first goes to Teresa at Mexican-American Border Cooking. Teresa is such a warm, friendly and supportive person to so many--she leaves me comments that make me feel happy. I love her site and learn a lot about Mexican cooking, history and culture from it, not to mention the delicious recipes. She has another great site, Mexican Chocolate Lore and More about one of my favorite subjects of course, that you should visit--but be warned, it will start some serious cravings!

The second goes to Foodycat. Like many of you, I started this blog to be able to connect and share my passion for cooking and the comments, feedback and good vibes that I receive really mean a lot. Foodycat is always out there, spreading positive comments and good cheer. She makes interesting and incredible dishes on her site and I love to dash over there for a peek at what she is up to. I have to have a tissue nearby to wipe the drool off my keyboard.

I love the sense of community out here in the food blogging world and these two are wonderful examples of it!

Max and I wish you all a happy Friday and a great weekend!

Chilled Cucumber-Lime Soup, Mexi-Chicken Salad Sandwich & A Musical Meme

Generally I am not a huge Rachel Ray fan--she falls a bit too high on the "perkiness" scale for me most of the time, but I do sometimes like to read her magazine. I saw a recipe for a Cucumber Soup in the August issue and the addition of lime juice and coconut milk made it look all the more refreshing.
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Chilled Cucumber-Lime Soup

by Daisey Martinez, Everyday with Rachel Ray Magazine

Serves 6 / Prep 15 min / Cook 25 min
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2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

3 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped

3 ribs celery, chopped

1 3/4 cups canned coconut water

1 cup canned coconut milk

Juice of 3 limes

1 cup buttermilk

salt

2 Tbsp chopped fennel fronds (optional)

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the cucumbers and celery and cook until softened, about 8 minutes (don't let them brown). Add the coconut water, cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.

Using a blender, puree the soup.

Strain the mixture.

Pressing to extract any liquids; discard the solids.

Stir in the coconut milk and lime juice; let cool. Stir in the buttermilk, season with salt and refrigerate. Top with the fennel fronds, if using. Martinez recommends you make it the day before serving as "it only gets better."

(If you are wondering why the soup looks "frothy" I had it in a Tupperware jug in the fridge to save space and rather than stir it before I poured it in the cup, I shook it like an idiot--oh well it still tasted good!)
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I decided to serve the soup with a sandwich and to play off the Latin flavors by making a quick Mexican-style chicken salad. I used yogurt as the base, added cilantro, toasted pine nuts and a bit of leftover tomatillo salsa (that I bought to make Prudy's delicious dressing here--I'll be posting about that later). I served it open-faced on a whole-wheat crumpet.

Mexi-Chicken Salad

serves 2
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1 cup chopped, cooked chicken breast

1/2 cup plain, Greek yogurt (or drained regular yogurt)

2 ribs celery, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped (plus a bit more to garnish)

1 Tbsp salsa (I used a green, tomatillo salsa)

salt & pepper to taste

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts* (plus a few more to garnish)
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Mix all ingredients together. Serve on a tortilla, bread or English muffin. (*Toast nuts in a dry non-stick pan over medium heat, stirring or tossing frequently to prevent burning until lightly browned).
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Results: The soup was cold and refreshing, the buttermilk and lime added a subtle tang, the coconut milk added a delicate creaminess and the cucumber flavor came through nicely. I didn't have fennel fronds so I garnished it with some chopped cilantro and a slice of lime. The flavors in the sandwich complimented the soup well. I really liked how the celery and the toasted pine nuts in the salad added a nice crunch. A good light summer lunch or dinner on a hot day.

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A Musical Meme:
I was tagged by the wonderful Veronica at Supermarket Serenade for a musical meme. If you don't know her site, its a fun one with great recipes and good product reviews. I love anyone who is as obsessed with grocery stores as I am!
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The rules for the meme are:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your summer (or whatever season). Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to...

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Some people are very talented and have made play lists you can listen to or already have music on their blog but unfortunately I am not so talented. (I consider it a major accomplishment to even have play lists on my Ipod!). So we will do this "old school" with a list of seven songs from one of my play lists that say summer to me:

"So Nice" (Summer Samba) / Bebel Gilberto

"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" / Otis Redding

"Is This Love?"/ Bob Marley & The Wailers

"Put Your Records On" / Corinne Bailey Rae

"Smooth" / Santana & Rob Thomas

"Banana Pancakes" / Jack Johnson

"Somewhere Over The Rainbow" / Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)

Although this is a fun meme (I love music!) I am going to have to break the rules a bit and not send this out to a specific seven people. I don't know that many people out here yet and of those I do know, many have completed this meme and the others I just sent another meme to (and I don't want to piss them off by sending another request so soon!). So if you are reading this and want to play along and post your seven songs please considered yourself tagged and do so! Thanks Veronica for thinking of me!

I Have Been Tagged--My First Meme

There are many milestones in the world of Food Blogs; your first post, your first comment from someone who actually reads your blog, your first Blog Award etc. Apparently I have hit another milestone and have been tagged for my very first meme from Melissa at It's Melissa's Kitchen. So being a good sport (at least most of the time) and being totally uninspired by work today and looking for a little "brain break" this afternoon, I took some time to complete it and think about who I wanted to send it to. Here are my answers and my lucky chosen bloggers below.

1. Last Movie I Saw In A Movie Theater?
Sex and the City (in New York even so I should get extra points I think!)

2. What Book Are You Reading?
About 3--I never read them individually as I think I have ADD. Chez Moi by Agnes Desarthe, Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris and The Balanced Plate by Renee Loux

3. Favorite Board Game?
I like a little Yahtzee and some Scrabble now and again and I kick butt at Trivial Pursuit.

4. Favorite Magazine?
Hard to nail that down but if i had to pick one it is Donna Hay--expensive to subscribe but it is true Food Porn at its very best!

5. Favorite Smells?
Coconut, the ocean, vanilla, fresh, ripe mango

6. Favorite Sounds?
Max's purr, ocean waves, wind chimes, hard rain

7. Worst Feeling In The World?
I think feeling like I have disappointed someone or myself.

8. First Thing You Think of When You Wake?
Do I have to?!?!

9. Favorite Fast Food Place?
Burgerville in Oregon and Southern Washington. Fast food with local ingredients. I try to get a Tillamook Cheese Pepper Bacon Burger when I visit my family and if my timing is perfect a fresh, real ice cream Blackberry Milkshake.

10. Future Child’s Name?
Probably not going to happen at this point!

11. Finish This Statement—“If I Had a Lot of Money,"
I would travel all over all of the time and eat. (then hire a personal trainer to help work it off)

12. Do You Drive Fast?
Sometimes on the freeway.

13. Do You Sleep With a Stuffed Animal?
No need, I have a live one on his blanket on the bottom corner on my bed--when he isn't sleeping in the sink.

14. Storms—cool or scary?
Way cool--unless there is super high wind. We don't get to see too much lightning here, so give me that and some heavy rain occasionally.

15. What Was Your First Car?
A used Honda Civic

16. Favorite Drink?
Tea -- all kinds, hot and iced. Hint flavored water in Cucumber and Mango-Grapefruit

17. Finish This Statement—“If I Had the Time, I Would…"
Travel, read and cook more

18. Do You Eat the Stems on Broccoli?
Not a big broccoli fan--it's not a friend of my stomach so I actually don't eat much of it at all.

19. If You could Dye your Hair Any Other Color, What Would It Be?
Hmm... my hair is light brown with dyed blond highlights now. I have always thought red hair was cool but I don't think I could pull it off.

20. Name All the Different Cities In Which You Have Lived -
Yreka & Redding CA; Tigard, Beaverton & Portland, OR; Seattle WA; Honolulu, HI

21. Favorite Sport to Watch?
Besides Iron Chef?!? Probably hockey or basketball

22. One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You
She has a great blog with wonderful photos and recipes and is very nice (if you overlook the "bitterness" about me living in Hawaii! Just kidding Melissa!)

23. What’s Under Your Bed?
A small area rug for Max, he didn't like it so much when I took out the carpet.

24. Would You Like to Be Born As Yourself Again?
As opposed to what? Mostly yes, but we all have our days.


25. Morning Person or Night Owl?
A total Night Owl.

26. Over Easy or Sunny Side Up?
Over Easy if there is toast to dip in the yolk--I don't like "runny" egg whites!

27. Favorite Place to Relax?
On the beach with a good book or on my couch with a good movie

28. Favorite Ice Cream Flavor?
Vanilla, Chocolate Chip or Mango

29. Of All the People You Have Tagged, Who Is the Most Likely to Respond First?
I have no clue! Hopefully they will just respond!


OK, that was probably more about me than anyone ever wanted to know! I am tagging the following 4 bloggers who I hope will still come to my site anyway! ;-) I tried to pick people who have not done a meme recently.

Kat from Our Adventures in Japan--Expat from Hawaii, totally love her blog and want to learn more about her.

Michelle from the Accidental Scientist--long time blogger and new to Hawaii--yea! Since she is now "in the hood" I want get to know her better.

Natashya from Living in the Kitchen with Puppies--OK she did a meme at the end of June but it was a really short one mind you and she is so creative with her food, she must have some interesting answers.

Jude from Apple Pie, Patis & Pate--Love the blog name, the delicious recipes and incredible photos on his site. He makes things I really want to eat!

If you don't know these bloggers, I encourage you to visit their wonderful blogs and see what they have going on. I won't hold it against any of them if they don't do the Meme--I promise!

The rules from Melissa's blog say: "If you get tagged, answer the questions in your blog, then tag 4 or 5 other food bloggers by listing their blogs on your own blog, then commenting on their blog to let them know they've been tagged! Be sure and let everybody know who tagged you"