“I think we should grill today,” Eric said, looking outside at the robin’s egg sky with fluffy marshmallow clouds.  I wasn’t sure I trusted that sky because over the past week it was filled with a beautiful sun that was deceptively cold then would shock us with massive bouts of hail if we dared step outside.  But as I slid open the patio door, a mild wave of warmth washed over me.  It was actually a nice day, the perfect day for steak! Read more

Another strawberry dessert!  I was needing to use up my strawberries and thinking about what I’d make with them when I walked into our local grocery store and saw angel food cake bars for $1.  I looked at the list of ingredients and was surprised to see that it looked like something I could actually make myself (not a bunch of chemical sounding ingredients).  So for only $1 I couldn’t resist. Read more

This Salmon Cream Cheese Dip is CRAZY GOOD!  It’s a recipe of my mother in law’s that I tweaked just slightly because she doesn’t really measure it and I thought you guys would appreciate some actual measurements of the ingredients.  I first tried this dip when she was helping us with our house and brought it over for lunch.  We were driving to Ikea looking for a bathroom vanity (not the right place to find one!) and my stomach began growling like a mama bear guarding her cubs!  Read more

I had some ground beef to use up the other day, but wanted a light lunch that wouldn’t make us feel stuffed.  I decided to make lettuce cups, a treat my friend’s mother used to make for us when I’d come over.  My friend’s mom is Thai, Filipino, and Chinese, so I wasn’t sure what culture the lettuce cup recipe comes from.  I tried doing some research but found similar recipes for both Thai lettuce cups and Chinese lettuce cups.  I decided that, like most foods in Hawaii, it’s the result of a myriad of cultures living and eating together.  So I’m calling them Asian Lettuce Cups. Read more

Roasting garlic is a classic technique that mellows and enhances the flavor of garlic so much that I want to simply eat clove after clove.  It’s so easy to make roasted garlic, but a lot of people don’t know how to do it, so I thought I’d make a quick tutorial for you. Read more