{Christmas 2010} food

Christmas food for us is all about tradition.  Well, sort of.  For the past few years we always had our fancy Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.  It started out that way because we had to travel the day after Christmas and didn't want to deal with dishes and leftovers.  But since we weren't traveling this year, we decided to switch things up a bit.  Our fancy dinner (white bean tuscan soup followed by beef wellington) got moved to Christmas day, making room for a new tradition on Christmas Eve: Santa-boli!

Santa-boli is our usual stromboli with a couple dough cut-outs in holiday shapes.  (We discovered that cookie cutters are an excellent way to make a favorite meal into a holiday meal.)

For dessert, we had Christmas cookies:

Corn Flake Holly "Wreaths" (These will be getting a post all their own tomorrow)

Roll-out cookies with piped royal icing

I tried something a bit ambitious for the roll-out cookies this year... piping and flooding with royal icing.  They turned out great, but I don't know if I'd do it again next year because, holy moly, was it a pain in the rear.  I started with homemade white royal icing, then colored it in batches of green, red, and blue.  I thought I'd save myself a lot of hassle rinsing out the piping bag by using little squeeze bottles, but actually getting the icing into the bottles took forever.  There was also a lot of planning involved because I had to do all the piping first, then dilute the icing with a tiny bit of water to do the flooding.  If I wanted to pipe on top of flooding I had to make sure I hadn't already diluted that color.  Despite all this, I was still pretty excited about how each one looked as it was finished.  Very fancy and professional.  Not to mention delicious.  But I'm guessing next year with a 6 month old baby I'll be lucky to slap on some buttercream and sprinkles. :)

{Christmas 2010} decor

It's hard to believe that Christmas is already over!  So sad.  Overall, it was the best Christmas yet... the first in our new house, and the last we'd spend just the two of us.  (Well, the two of us and one very excited dog.)  Here's a recap of how we decorated this year:

The first step was to decorate the outside of the house.  We might have been a little excited.  We might have been thinking about how we'd decorate for the past year.  We might have driven through our neighborhood last year before we moved in to check out the competition.  Shhhhh.

The next step was to decorate the inside of the house.  This year, my approach was to try to make things look really festive, but to not spend a lot of money doing it.  So I loaded up on ornaments and ribbon and went room to room adding little touches of red, green, silver, and white...

After putting up the tree (we're traditionalists and go real every year, and probably always will) the last step was to find a nice way to display the many wonderful Christmas cards sent to us from family and friends.  After outgrowing a couple different locations, we finally settled on displaying them on the buffet in our dining room.

Up next... the food!

Fluffy White (the best frosting ever)

My mom has been making cakes with this frosting for pretty much my whole life.  For a girl who has a mild addiction to marshmallows, it really doesn't get any better than Betty Crocker's Fluffy White.  It's got a marshmallow fluff flavor but the texture is so light and well, fluffy... more meringue than melted marshmallows.  It's seriously, blissfully good.  But out of nowhere several years ago groceries stores stopped carrying it!  We searched high and low but couldn't find it anywhere.  (This, of course, only added to its appeal.)  So after a couple years of going without it I decided enough was enough, and scoured the internet for a retailer.  Thankfully, Amazon came through for me - the catch: I had to buy a whole case, which I gave to my very excited mother that year for Christmas.  It's is apparently the only way you can get the Fluffy White goodness anymore.  But of all things to have to buy by the case-ful, you could do a lot worse than this frosting.

While I was home for a few days in mid-December, my mom made sure to make our favorite childhood foods, including yellow cake with Fluffy White frosting.  This time, I documented the occasion...

One of the many beautiful things about this frosting is how easy it is to make... all you do is add boiling water to the mix, beat in the mixer, and voila - frosting perfection.

After much beater and spatula licking, it was time to frost the cake.  My mom put a layer of frosting between the cakes, then frosted the whole thing, making vertical stripes along the sides with the frosting spatula.

She topped off the cake with some coconut and raspberries to give it a nice holiday feel...

Dinner was great, but the cake was even better.  Trust me... order a case.  You won't be disappointed.

big news...

I mentioned in my last post that life has been a little chaotic lately... well, that's because about 2 and a half months ago Jared and I found out that we're going to have a baby!  :-)  We're feeling extraordinarily blessed, a smidge overwhelmed, and most of all - really excited.

My first trimester was pretty rough in terms of the morning sickness, but by some miracle I still managed to get my Etsy shop launched, finish a scarf, and sew a couple Christmas presents.  (I'm secretly hoping that Jared will develop a strong urge to cut out pattern pieces for me, because my back ain't havin' it much longer.)  Now that I'm in my second trimester I've started getting really excited about all the fun DIY projects we'll be taking on over the next 6 months (Baby S is due June 14th).  I already got a baby knits book and my friend Sarah gave me Handmade Beginnings for my birthday.  We should find out the gender toward the end of January (yes, I'm definitely finding out), and once we know that the nursery, sewing, shopping insanity will commence.  Stay tuned!

PS... I should mention that the above accomplishments (shop, scarf, sewing) would not have been possible without the help and support of my amazing husband.  He was a lifesaver during my first trimester - making me lemonade, eating super bland meatless dinners every night, stepping up around the house because exhausted/nauseous me couldn't get off the couch, generally proving day in and day out that he's going to be an awesome father.  This picture is for him:

martha's super fudgy brownies

Sorry for not posting much over the past few weeks!  Life has been a little chaotic.  More on that later... Right now, it's brownie time.  Super Fudgy Brownie time, to be exact.  I first tried this recipe a couple years ago when I challenged myself to make brownies from scratch (the box kind is so tasty there seemed little need to go through the all the effort of homemade.)  If you've never had brownies from scratch before, the best way to think about them is like how you felt about cupcakes from scratch the first time you tried them.  Richer, denser, more luxurious... excellent, but lacking in the nostalgia of the ones your mom made courtesy of Duncan or Betty.  That being said, I haven't made brownies from a mix since I started making these, so that should tell you something about how good they are.

The name of these brownies couldn't be more accurate - they're like fudge in cake form.  So if you like fudge, you'll definitely like these brownies.  Here's what you'll need:

  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (see my note about chopping the chocolate in Step 3 below)
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs

To make the brownies:

1 ) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter.  Line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides. Butter paper, and set pan aside.  (This step may seem like Martha's just over-complicating things, but I promise it's worth it.)

2 ) In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

3 ) Place butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes; remove bowl from pan.  (I've experimented with several different ways of chopping the chocolate and I've found the best way is to leave each square in its wrapper and give it a good whack with the flat side of a meat tenderizer - then empty the contents of the wrapper into the bowl and repeat with the next square.)

4 ) Add sugar; mix to combine.

5 ) Add eggs, and mix to combine.

6 ) Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened (do not overmix)

7 ) Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top.

8 ) Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes.

9 ) Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper).  (This is the point when you'll be glad you went through all that effort of prepping the pan!)

10 ) On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

Enjoy!  :)

thanksgiving redux

If I had to score our Thanksgiving dinner this year I'd give it a solid B+.  There were a few things that could have been better, but I feel like we're getting much closer to a solid t-day lineup.  Here's the menu:

Bonnie's Cheese Ball...

I don't know if this is the real name of the recipe but we got it from my mom's friend Bonnie and that's what we've always called it.  It's so simple, yet so delicious.  I love any and all cheese, but this cheese in particular works really well as a Thanksgiving dinner warm-up act.

Basically all you do is mix together green pepper, onion, pineapple, and cream cheese then roll it in chopped pecans.  Easy peasy!

Here's the recipe:

  • Ingredients:
    • 2  8 oz packages of cream cheese
    • 8 ¼ oz can of crushed pineapple (drained really well, using paper towels or a potato ricer - this step is very important or the cheese will be watery)
    • ¼  cup chopped green pepper (chopped small)
    • 2 tablespoons chopped onion
    • ½  teaspoon salt
    • Chopped pecans
  1. Bring cream cheese to room temperature.
  2. Add all ingredients.
  3. Roll in chopped pecans.

Makes one big or two small balls.  Can be made up to 2 days in advance of serving.  Also freezes well.

Creamed spinach...

The mashed potatoes were kinda m'eh, so I won't bother writing about them.  We'll try again next year with those.  Onto the creamed spinach...

I've never been a big green bean casserole or brussel sprout fan, so I set out this year to find a good alternate green.  I hadn't really thought of spinach as an option, but we had creamed spinach during our amazing dinner at Lahaina Grill in Maui, and when I saw it listed under the Thanksgiving sides on Food Network I was sold.  The only thing I'd change about this recipe for next year is to use half of the red pepper flakes.  I like heat, but it overpowered the dish and left a pretty strong after burn.  Other than that, though, the dish was super tasty and I definitely plan to make it again next year.

Luby's Cornbread Dressing...

My friend Sarah is going to be disappointed to read this, but I wasn't crazy about this stuffing.  I prefer my stuffing to be more bread-like, with visible chunks of moist bread, and this was more like a casserole or egg bake (you add eggs to mixture before you pop it in the oven.)

Maybe I just didn't make it right, I don't know.  The flavor was really good, I just wasn't crazy about the texture.  I think for next year I'll go back to the last year's stuffing, Tyler Florence's Carmelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing.

Cranberry Sauce...

I grew up eating canned cranberry sauce, so I wasn't quite sure what would be involved in making the real stuff from scratch.  Thankfully it was super easy.  The orange zest overpowered the cranberry flavor a bit more than I would have liked, so next year I'll probably reduce it to half an orange.

Parker House Rolls...

I loooove me some Flaky Grands, but when I saw this recipe in Food Network magazine for pull-apart dinner rolls from scratch I had to try them.

Oh man were these good.  They were so tasty and filling... like a little meal all by themselves.  The recipe made at least double the rolls we actually needed, so if you're not cooking for a lot of people I recommend halving the recipe.

Turkey...

Jared added a twist to his Simon & Garfunkel butter this year... bacon.  That's right - parsely, sage, rosemary, thyme, and bacon.  Yum!

After the butter was shoved under the skin, Jared popped it in the Big Easy for about an hour and a half... and voila!

Deeeeeelish.

Random Order Coffeehouse pies...

I know what you're thinking... store bought pies?  I have a blog about all things DIY and I went and bought pies instead of making them myself.  But I firmly believe that every good DIYer needs to know when to admit that something is over their head.  I don't know what it is about pie... I've made pies in the past and never been wowed.  Maybe it's the crust, maybe I'm just not patient enough.  I don't know.  But I do know that Random Order here in Portland makes a heck of a good pie.   In addition to ordering these bad boys for Thanksgiving day, we also stopped by earlier in the week to pick up a few pieces of their Oregon Cherry pie and man oh man... these people know their way around a pie.  If you're ever in Portland I highly recommend stopping by and getting a piece.  Of anything.  I don't think they make a bad pie.

Anyway, where was I?  Oh right, thanksgiving pies.  Here you go...

I had never actually had Pecan Pie before this Thanksgiving... crazy, huh?  Well I am a convert.  Holy moly was this pie good.

So there you have it.  Thanksgiving 2010.  I'm full all over again.

{made for dinner} tortellini soup with spinach & tomatoes

This first recipe in my {made for dinner} series is as easy as it is tasty, and perfect for a time-crunched weeknight. It's one of the first recipes we made from The Scramble and has been one of our go-to dinners for the past 3 years. Here's what you'll need:

  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil (not pictured)
  • 1 tsp. minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
  • 32 oz. chicken or vegetable broth
  • 9 oz. regular or whole wheat cheese tortellini
  • 15 oz. diced tomatoes with their liquid
  • 1/4 tsp. black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. dried basil
  • 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
  • 3 cups baby spinach
  • 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, or to taste

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute the garlic for one minute, then stir in the broth. Bring it to a boil, then add the tortellini, tomatoes, pepper, basil, and oregano.

Reduce the heat to keep it at a low boil for 7 minutes, then add the spinach. Simmer it for 2 more minutes, then remove it from the heat and serve it immediately, topped with Parmesan cheese.

Prep + cook time = 20 minutes

Servings = 4 (approximately 254 calories per serving)

a belated blogiversary

Oops! I was so caught up with the Etsy shop launch that I totally missed the 1 year anniversary of my blog! I can't believe how much has happened since I started blogging... here's a little recap by the numbers:

  • 55 blog posts
  • 102 comments (thank you!)
  • 47 completed sewing projects
  • 2 Yudu projects (here and here)
  • 12 recipe posts (much more to come in year 2)
  • 1900 dollars saved by DIYing our dining room
  • 9 amazing days in Maui for our first wedding anniversary
  • 365 days of feeling insanely grateful to have a husband that unconditionally supports my passion for sewing, crafting, and DIY

A big thank you to everyone who's read, commented, and supported this blog. It really means so much to me. Here's to loads more projects and recipes in year 2! :)

the binder

This is the binder. It's not pretty, it's not fancy, but it's where we store all our recipes... and over the years it's become a sort of litmus test for whether or not a recipe gets our nod of approval. If we know we won't make it again, it doesn't go in the binder. Simple, efficient, the binder represents one of the more blissfully organized aspects of my life. (Trust me, there aren't many.) It's organized into 10 different tabs: Chicken, Pork, Beef, Fish, Vegetarian, Pasta, Soup / Chili, Side Dishes, Breakfast, and Dessert, and clear sheet protectors help to keep the recipes splatter free while we're cooking.

Jared and I started collecting recipes early on in our relationship when we found ourselves cooking dinner together most nights. To help us get started we signed up for The Six O'Clock Scramble, an online seasonal weekly menu planner. Every week they sent us 5 new meals and a grocery list, and we could swap out any meals we didn't like. It was really helpful and I highly recommend it if you want to cook dinner at home more often but aren't sure how to get organized. We started supplementing The Scramble recipes with ones we got from Food Network and Martha Stewart, and it didn't take long before we had amassed enough recipes that we needed a way to keep them all straight... hence, the binder was born.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, it seems to me like the tradition of home-cooked weeknight family dinners has become a bit of a lost art. In the age of processed and prepared foods, I think a lot of people choose not having to think about it over flavor and nutrition. But what those people don't realize is how easy and quick dinner can be if you just take a little time to plan our your meals. So that's why I'm sharing our process with you. It works really well for us and maybe it'll work well for you, too.

Here's how we tackle meal planning... every Sunday morning we sit down with the binder, a notepad, and pen. We take a quick inventory of what we have in our fridge and pantry from last week's meals that we didn't use up (usually things like tortillas, heavy cream, chicken stock, and veggies) and use that as our starting point for meal selection. Meals that feature ingredients we need to use up or already have get chosen first. Then we look for stuff that we haven't made in a while or that will be quick if we have something going on a particular night that week. We also try to pick meals that feature seasonal ingredients (Epicurious has a great tool for finding out what's in season where you live.) The final list of meals for that week goes on a magnetic pad that we keep on our fridge. As for which meals get cooked on which nights, we usually decide that day based on how we're feeling.

So there you have it... the binder, our system, and my two cents about the benefits of cooking weeknight dinners. I'll be posting recipes and tips for some of our favorite dinners in a new regular feature called {made for dinner} (I know, real original) so stay tuned.

the made by bird Etsy shop has LAUNCHED!

I've spent so long thinking about this and planning for it that it's hard to believe the made by bird Etsy shop has actually become a reality.  A huge thanks goes out to my incredibly supportive family and friends.  I could never have pulled this off without their endless encouragement.  And thanks most of all to my husband, who has been my sounding board, my rock, my everything a husband is supposed to be but rarely is... he had more faith in my ability to do this than I had in myself, and I probably would have given up on this whole idea a long time ago had it not been for him.  Okay, okay, enough with the gushing.  Time to celebrate... not only did I finally open my Etsy shop, but in doing so I crossed the last item off of my five for 2010 list with two months to spare.  Woohoo!!!  :-D

{maui} day 9

It was our last day in Maui and we were determined to make it a great one.  We got up at the crack of dawn and made our way down to Makena Landing in South Maui for a sea kayaking/snorkeling trip with Maui Kayaks.  Jared and I shared a tandem kayak and were 2 of only 7 people in our group.  Our guide, Griff, was super nice and extremely knowledgeable.  His passion for the island and respect for the marine life were contagious.  We went to three different snorkeling sites and saw huge sea turtles at each site.  (We saw lots of fish, too, but the turtles really stole the show.)

(btw, all of these photos were taken with a Fujifilm Quick Snap waterproof disposable camera... we were pretty impressed with the quality compared to other underwater disposables we've tried)

If you're ever in Maui and want to take a snorkeling trip, I highly highly recommend Maui Kayaks.  When we went to Australia for our honeymoon we took two different charters out to the Great Barrier Reef, and while the charter boats are less work, kayaking gives you access to sites the big boats can't get to, and going out in such a small group made the experience even better.

After our snorkeling trip, we headed back to the hotel, took a nap, and went down to the pool for our last afternoon of sun, sand, and swimming.  I'm not going to lie, it was really really really hard to leave that pool.  Those last moments of warm sun were so bittersweet.  Oh, who am I kidding - they were just bitter.  We live in Portland.  The sun won't shine like that until next July.  That's TEN MONTHS AWAY!  What?  No, I'm not crying.  Must be - uh - sand in my eye.  Or something.

Anyway, we got all gussied up and set up out on the lenai to watch the luau until it was time to leave for dinner.  The hotel doesn't usually have luaus on Saturday nights, but we got lucky - a cruise ship had pulled in that day and booked a private luau.  Did I mention that the cruisers were nearly all retirees?  Have you ever seen retirees try to hula?  Well take my word for it - it was fantastic.  Truly truly fantastic.  The actual dancers were pretty great, too... particularly when they busted out the torches.  I don't know how they don't burn themselves to a crisp, but I guess that's why they're the pros and I'm the girl watching from her lenai 5 floors up.

The luau ended at 8, just in time for us to make it to Lahaina for dinner.  We decided to have a belated anniversary dinner on our last night in Maui (the chili dogs were great, but not exactly the romantic celebratory dinner we're accustomed to) and everyone said Lahaina Grill was the place to go for such a dinner.  Those people were not wrong.

Our dinner was aaaaaamazing... easily one of the best dinners we'd had in a long time.  We were the old farts of our section (everyone else was on their honeymoon) but the hostess took pity on us and gave us a card signed by the entire staff, and took a customary couples picture of us...

Here's what we had:

  • Bufala Salad (olawalu tomatoes, bufala mozzarella, truffle oil, aged balsamic vinaigrette, alziari extra virgin olive oil, and black kilauea sea salt)
  • Sauteed line caught local mahi-mahi (kula spinach, herbed mashed potatoes, gorgonzola pancetta bits, and chardonnay beurre blanc) -> this was the best mahi mahi we'd ever had and we d-e-v-o-u-r-e-d it.
  • Kurombuta Pork Shank (pork shank with black currant demi-glace, pearl onions, asparagus, creamed spinach mixed in with mashed potatoes)
  • Triple Berry Pie (raspberries, blueberries, and black currants with whipped cream and strawberry sauce) -> this pie was insane!  Absolute pie perfection.

We rolled ourselves back to the car after dinner and took a quick stroll on the beach at the hotel before spending the rest of the night out on the lenai, playing cards and getting tipsy.  Despite a relatively early flight the next day, we didn't go to bed until 2am or so to try to delay the inevitability of going home just a little longer.

And with that, our amazing vacation and this series of posts have come to an end... thanks for reliving the adventure with me!  :-)

{maui} day 8

We slept in the morning of Day 8, had a late breakfast, and trekked out to Black Rock for more snorkeling.  The fish were abundant and similar to what we'd seen the day before at Honolua Bay.  We'd been snorkeling for nearly an hour when we had our second sea turtle sighting.  They're so much bigger than everything else in the water that it's always such a surprise when come out of nowhere and are suddenly mere feet away.  We saw another turtle after that, and then a HUGE ray!  Turns out it was a spotted eagle ray, like this:

It set my nerves off a bit (I'll admit, I had brief flashes of getting Steve Irwined), but it was so beautiful and graceful I couldn't help wanting it to swim back toward us so we could get another look.

After snorkeling we set up by the pool for a few hours of sunbathing and swimming - a combination that never seems to get old.  Another late afternoon nap, followed by the sunset cliff dive on Black Rock, and we headed out to Lahaina to do a bit of shopping and to get some dinner.

We grabbed some beers and burgers at Cool Cats (voted the "best" burgers in Maui.)  The service was a tad slow, but nothing like what people griped about on Yelp.  The burgers were delish, as were the fries and onion rings.  They had a guy playing classic rock tunes, who was a delightful change of pace from the island music we'd been hearing for the past week.  He played The Weight for us, which was excellent.

After dinner we stopped for our 3rd and final shave ice of the trip.  This one was BY FAR the best.  The girls at Ululani's were chatty, but it didn't detract from their ability to make some damn good shave ice.  First they shave the block of ice like snow then they pack it down and aerate it with a straw before pouring on the syrup.  We got 1/2 pineapple 1/2 strawberry (hey, we know what we like when it comes to sweet treats and we stick to it) and the taste and texture were far superior to any of the other shave ices we'd had so far... each spoonful melted instantly in our mouths.  Mmmmm, it was so good.

Next up for Day 9... our last day in Maui.  :-(

{maui} day 7

After a luxurious night's sleep in our king size bed, we grabbed a bit of breakfast at the hotel buffet, and drove up to Honolua Bay for some snorkeling.  The coral was sparse at first, but once we found the reef a bit further out we quickly discovered why this was considered such a great snorkeling spot.  There were a ton of very colorful fish, some bigger than we saw in the Great Barrier Reef.  Then - out of nowhere - a sea turtle was swimming right in front of us!  Sea turtles are my 3rd favorite animal on the planet (behind sea otters and orangutans), so I may have freaked out a bit.  We followed it for a while until it disappeared into the deep.  Those few minutes were easily the highlight of the whole day. We spent the afternoon by the pool, cooling off with fruity drinks and dips in the pool.  When we'd had enough sun, we went back up to the room for what was supposed to be a short nap, but I guess we were liking that bed a bit too much because we slept right through the alarm.  What was supposed to be a 7pm dinner turned into 8:30pm.  Oh well.  Totally worth it.

We had dinner on the beach front patio at the Hula Grill (also in Whaler's Village.)  The food wasn't anything special, sort of bar food with a tropical twist, but it really hit the spot.  The live music was surprisingly good, and our fellow tourists were unsurprisingly annoying.  (Apparently the patio at the Hula Grill is a hot spot for frat-type vacationers.)

After dinner we went back to the room for a lazy movie night.  We watched Cyrus, which was pretty funny.  John C Reilly can do no wrong and Marisa Tomei was great as the quirky oddball mom.   But even days later I found I couldn't get the shots of Jonah Hill's creepy staring out of my head.

See?  Creepy.

Day 8... even more snorkeling, sea turtles, and sun.

{maui} day 6

After a lazy morning at the Sugar Inn, we packed up Betty White for the last time.  Saying goodbye was bittersweet - she was our home for 5 days and enabled us to do so many amazing things we just wouldn't have been able to do in a rental car... but we were ready for some good old fashioned resort time.  Dreams of fruity drinks poolside, an air conditioned room, a bed, fresh towels, and sleeping in carried us all the way to Ka'anapali. We were a bit early for check-in so we drove in Lahaina for lunch at Aloha Mixed Plate.  The service was a bit slow, but the food was delicious.  Back at the hotel, not only was our room ready - but they'd upgraded us to a Deluxe Ocean Front Suite!  Thanks Starwood!  We knew from the website that this was one of the nicest rooms at the whole resort, but imagine our excitement when we discovered that it was pretty much the polar opposite of Betty White.  (No offense, B-dubs.)  The shower alone was bigger than the Westie.  Here's a little 3 minute tour of our room, in case you're interested:

After unpacking, we went for a quick dip in the ocean, had some girly drinks at the Cliff Dive bar, and headed back to our room to watch the sunset cliff diving ceremony at Black Rock from our lenai.  The twice weekly luau was taking place on the lawn below our room so we got to take in some traditional Hawaiian dancing before leaving for dinner in Whalers Village.  We ate at Cane & Taro, which was pretty good but still not the mind-blowing island seafood experience we'd been hoping to find in West Maui.

On our way back to the hotel, we noticed that the full moon had a multi-colored halo around it, but sadly didn't have our camera with us to document the strange sight.  It turns out it was a lunar corona, and looked very similar to this (but ours was more colorful):

We ended the night with some wine, beer, cards and tunes out on the lenai.  I know what you're thinking... how did they endure such hardship, such stress?  Well it wasn't easy, but we managed.  ;)

Up next for Day 7... snorkeling, sea turtles, and sun.

Heather & Alex's table numbers

IMG_4140-copy.jpg

I mentioned last week that my dear friend, Heather, was getting married... well I'm happy to report that the wedding was perfect. I know I'm biased, but she was one of the most stunning brides I've ever seen!

See?  GORGEOUS!  She and Alex are such a great couple and I was so honored to be a part of their big day.  In addition to being a bridesmaid, I also had the pleasure of making a small design contribution to their reception.  Heather came to me several months ago saying that she'd seen the perfect table numbers in Real Simple Weddings but couldn't find a good picture online to show me.  My natural curiosity has led me to be somewhat of a master Googler and I love a good searching challenge.  This was the link she sent me that had the page from the magazine:

 

The table numbers she wanted are the center pic in the cluster of 9 on the right... kinda hard to see, right?  BUT, I noticed that if I hovered over the picture there was a photo credit for Angelica Glass.  So I went to her website and - voila!

Heather and Alex were having a black & white wedding, so I set out trying to replicate the table numbers using black and gray ink on white cardstock.  (I decided to use a clean edge for the circles instead of scalloped because I felt it matched the style of their wedding a bit better.)  I was able to find the exact font used for the primary numbers: Cast Iron, available for free from DaFont.  I used PowerPoint to create the design (I'm telling you, people, it's for more than just presenting!) and sent it off to Heather and Alex for their thoughts...

They loved it!  I was so relieved.  I designed the rest and printed them at home on medium weight cardstock using my highest quality printer and ink settings.  Thankfully, our friend Sarah had this super handy circle cutter so they were pretty easy to cut out.  I cut out two of each number and used Zots to glue them back to back (so you could see the number no matter where you were sitting at the table.)  Here's how they looked!:

How amazing are those flowers, by the way???  Apparently Alex came up with that idea.  Pretty impressive!  If you're making your own table numbers and want to try this style (or tweak it to make it your own) here's the download for my PowerPoint file, complete with table numbers 1-9, and instructions for putting them together.  Enjoy, and please let me know if you end up using them!  I'd love to see pictures of how they turn out!

[dm]5[/dm]

PS... you'll need PowerPoint to be able to open the file, though it might work in Keynote.  You'll also need to download Cast Iron from Dafont if you want to use that font.

Supplies:

  • Medium weight cardstock
  • Home printer (or you can take them to a print shop)
  • Circle cutter
  • Double sided tape or Zots
  • Stand with photo/paper clip (the hotel provided Heather with these, but you could probably find them at a craft store or Target)

Instructions:

  1. Print out 2 of each table number using the highest quality settings your printer will allow.  I recommend printing test pages on regular paper before trying it with your cardstock.  Play around with the ink settings if you feel it's drying too dull.  Make sure it's set to heavy or a slower drying time (depends on your printer.)
  2. Cut out the table numbers using a circle cutter, making sure to cut just inside the border.
  3. Attach two of the same table numbers back to back using double sided tape, Zots, or similar.  Repeat until all of the table numbers are attached.
  4. Stick the table numbers in the stands, and you're done!

Have fun, and please let me know if you have any questions about using or downloading the file!

 

 

{maui} day 5

After a thankfully dry night's sleep, we headed out from Camp Olowalu to complete our final leg of driving. Later that day we'd be able to say we drove the entire island. Pretty cool. And tiring. Our first stop of the day was Makalua-Puna Point. The lava here was much lighter than we'd seen so far and the waves had eroded it into sharp points in places. The views from here were spectacular.

Next up was the Nakalele Blowhole. This was easily one of the best stops of the whole trip. After a bit of a trek down to the water, we reached the blowhole, found a nearby rock, and sat there mesmerized by what we were seeing. Over time, the ocean undercut the lava shelf that shapes the shoreline and when the waves crash against the shore, the water shoots up through a man-sized hole in the lava.

It's hard to really appreciate the natural wonder of the Nakalele Blowhole without seeing it in person, but here's some video in case a crazy Maui adventure isn't in your future:

We could have stayed at the Blowhole all afternoon, but we had to keep moving. Fortunately, our next stop was also pretty fantastic - the Olivine Pools. The hike down to the pools was a bit of a beast, but totally worth it. The rocks have little bits of olivine encrusted in them, making them glitter in the sun, and the pools were so wonderful to swim in.

After a long dip in the pools, we got back on the road, picked up some more banana bread at Julia's, and purchased a few souvenirs at the wonderful little Kaukini Gallery. Our very last stop before completing our journey around Maui was the Lower Makamaka'ole Falls. Though we couldn't get up close, they were still pretty beautiful from the highway. (The point at which I get sick of seeing waterfalls is the point at which I need to chuck my iPhone out the window and seriously reevaluate my life.)

We felt a huge sense of accomplishment as we drove back into Kahului. It tooks us 5 days and 314 miles to see and do everything we wanted to do during the "adventure" part of our Maui vacation, and in spite of the sunburns and dirty feet, it felt seriously awesome.

We'd already decided that we didn't want to camp another night... as much as we loved Betty White, we were in desperate need of a real bed and a hot shower. So we called Kat at the Sugar Inn in Pa'ia and booked a room. She was so nice and our room was exactly what we needed. We dropped our stuff, had a much needed scrub down in the shower, and hung out on the lenai until dinner.

For dinner that night we went to Milagros in Pa'ia, which was good but not great. Thankfully, the same can't be said for the post-dinner gelato we got at Ono Gelato.

Ono Gelato makes their gelato right there in the store and uses local, organic ingredients. These facts were a nice little bonus, but I don't care what they use as long as they keep making unbelievably delicious gelato. That cup of 1/2 pineapple 1/2 strawberry was as good, if not better, than the gelato I had in Italy. I definitely need to add gelato to my frozen treats repertoire.

After some more hang-time on the lenai, we crashed fairly early. To say we were exhausted would be a HUGE understatement.

Day 6... we bid a fond farewell to Betty and try our best to adjust to the harsh realities of resort-life.

{maui} day 4

The sunrise the morning of Day 4 was so beautiful it nearly made us forget the awful, stormy night we just had.

We even had another rainbow sighting over the Seven Sacred Pools.

Another breakfast of oatmeal and banana bread in our bellies and we headed out to drive the southern coast of Maui and make our way up to Haleakala.  Past Kipahulu, the landscape abruptly went from lush greenery to dry desert (complete with stray cattle and mountain goats), and the road became even windier and narrower than usual.  Several stretches were unpaved, or used to be paved and are now simply a mosaic of pothole patches.

After an hour or so of driving we started making our way up Haleakala.  The road to the summit is essentially 20 miles of switchbacks, climbing up to the visitor center at 7,000 feet, and then higher to the summit at 10,000 feet.  Betty did surprisingly okay and the views made up for the nausea.  (There were points at which we could actually see turbulence in the clouds as we climbed above the cloud line.)

We finally got to the Leleiwi Lookout (around 9,000 feet and a few miles from the summit) and it became very clear why we'd endured all those switchbacks - Haleakala Crater was vast, impressive, and stunning.  The temperature drop was very noticeable at this altitude, so I was even colder than usual.

We made our way up to the summit, which I thought wasn't as impressive as the view from the Lookout.  Don't get me wrong, it was still beautiful, but the view from the Lookout felt more like we were in the crater.  Still, looking out into the crater it was hard to believe that it was all once an active, lava-filled volcano.

We also saw these cool plants called silverswords.  The summit of Haleakala is the only place they exist in the entire world, and - like salmon - they only spawn once in their lifetime before they die.

After a lazy lunch at Hosmer Grove (the campground about halfway up Haleakala), it was time to tackle the switchbacks again.  Going down the mountain was much much worse.  There wasn't a gear low enough that made it possible to not ride Betty's brakes the entire time.  The smell of raw brakes greeted us as we got back to civilization, but the old girl came through for us.

We made our way back to South Maui to tour the beach towns that stretch from Kihei to La Perouse Bay.  There were some very nice houses and hotels, but the towns themselves lacked a lot of the character we saw in Central and East Maui.  The lava fields we saw down at Cape Kina'u were probably the best thing we saw along this stretch.

After that it was more driving - this time back up the coast to Hwy 30 and West Maui.  It was here that we finally got closer to real shave ice at the Olowalu Market.  It was much bigger, the ice was more finely shaven, and the syrup was much more flavorful.  Jared had been driving for 10 hours at this point so he probably would have welcomed anything that was cold and sweet, but it was a nice little bonus for the shave ice to be so good.

We struggled to find a good spot to camp for the night, and after getting stuck in the sand at one beach, and weirded out by the chickens and stray cats at another, we decided it was best to fork over the $20 to park Betty at Camp Olowalu for the night.  I was finally able to get in a short military-style shower, which was cold but extremely enjoyable.  We cooked up another dinner of hot dogs and Kraft Mac 'n Cheese and settled in for the night.

On the menu for Day 5... we finally complete the trek around the entire coast of Maui and visit one of the best sites of the whole trip - the Nakalele Blowhole.

{maui} day 3

Day 3 in Maui was our 1 year anniversary!  We woke up very early to drive to the Venus Pool because the views are supposed to be spectacular at sunrise.  We missed it by about 30 minutes because the drive back there took a bit longer than we anticipated, but it was still beautiful.

We popped a squat on a hill overlooking where the pools met the ocean and had a little breakfast of banana bread.  We had the whole site to ourselves, which is extremely rare for any sightseeing spot along the Hana Highway.  We didn't even mind when a light rain started to fall.  Which led to finding this when we got back to the car...

It was tough to leave this beautiful site, but we were in need of more supplies so we headed back to Hana to stock up.  On our way back to Kipahulu we wound up at Hamoa Beach for an early morning swim and to watch the surfers.  We were there at the perfect time... it was just us, the surfers, and a few locals doing some sort of traditional Hawaiian blessing on the hills above us.  It made for the best beach experience of the trip thus far, despite nearly drowning twice when I got pummeled by huge waves.  Seriously.  Absolutely blasted.  It wasn't pretty.

Back at Kipahulu, we managed to nab our same campsite and fixed up a snack.  The rain had come back a bit, but it had been falling on and off all day so we decided to continue with our plan to hike the Pipiwai Trail.  The first falls along the trail, the Makahiku Falls, sadly weren't falling.  Based on what the book said, we had high hopes for taking a swim in the Infinity Pool but it also wasn't flowing and was covered in mosquitoes.   It still made for some pretty pictures, though...

There were more pretty pools and vegetation along the trail, leading up to an amazing bamboo forest that was like another world.  When the breeze would blow the bamboo would knock against each other like a wind chime.

Now comes the part of this hike that I debated about including in this post... It was around the bamboo forest that we got stuck behind two female hikers.  Two insanely slow, oblivious hikers that walked even slower when they talked to each other about stupid unimportant things like cats and how one of them doesn't like stairs.  I wish I was kidding.  The hike at this point was just a narrow boardwalk, making it impossible to walk around them.  Now, I've been on dozens of hikes in my life and I assumed it was common knowledge that the proper hiking etiquette is to step aside and let faster hikers pass you.  And when I say common knowledge what I really mean is common sense.  I've really never experienced anything quite like it.  Which is why I felt the need to write about it... so that no one I know and love will ever have to experience the misery that was the last mile and a half of that hike.  So here's my little PSA: if you're on a hike and two very nice, non-aggressive people are clearly walking faster than you, please step aside and let them pass.  Sorry to get all preachy.  I'll move on now.  Oh - one more thing!  Feel free to apply this same common sense rule to driving in the left lane.  If you're not actively passing someone, please move over.  No matter how fast you think you're going, there's always someone who wants to go faster.  Thanks.  Okay, now I'm really moving on.

Thankfully the payoff at the end of the hike made that last mile and a half totally worth it - the Waimoku Falls...

It's hard to get a sense for the scale in this picture, but the falls are 400 feet tall and you can sort of see the size compared to the person in the blue in the bottom right corner.

Jared took a quick dip in the pool under the falls, then we headed back down the trail toward the campsite.  We dropped our stuff and went for a swim at the Seven Sacred Pools.  It was so nice and refreshing and a much needed opportunity to get off the last of the sand from Hamoa.  The sun showers were still falling on and off, so we ended up spending much of the rest of the afternoon stuck inside the camper.  We made a nice lunch and Jared settled in for a nap while I engrossed myself in Little Bee (I highly recommend reading it if you haven't already.)  Not long after after lunch, the biggest, brightest, and most complete rainbow I've ever seen started to appear over the ocean.

It continued to get stronger, and then...

DOUBLE RAINBOW!  OMG!!  :-)  It was very exciting.  We pretty much spent the next 2 hours transfixed by this rainbow.

Here's what happened in between this last photo and the next...

The monsoon finally stopped and the double rainbow reappeared.  By now it had gotten so big I had to walk clear across the campground to be able to fit half of it in the frame.  (That's Betty in the bottom right...)

It was awesome in every sense of the word.  Sadly, more rains arrived (probably still Jared's fault) and didn't seem to be letting up this time.  We made hot dogs and chili for our anniversary dinner, then got boozy and played cards while we waited for the rain to stop.  It didn't.  The rain and wind gusts lasted all night long.  Nothing says Happy Anniversary like having a terrible night's sleep in the top bunk of a VW camper because you left the back open during a rain storm and the regular bed got soaked.  Good times.  :)

Day 4 couldn't come soon enough after such a crappy night... up next - we see more rainbows, summit Haleakala, and head west toward better weather.

{maui} day 2

We woke up early on our second day in Maui to very light rain sprinkles.  Getting rained on in paradise is way better than getting rained on in Portland, so we didn't really sweat it when the rain turned monsoon-like about an hour later.  We broke out the stove and cooked up a small breakfast of oatmeal while we waited out the storm.

After taking our last hot shower for the next 3 days, the rain stopped and we packed up and got back on the Road to Hana.  Our first stop was Aunty Sandy's in Ke'anae.  (I should mention that we were religiously following the advice in Maui Revealed, a must have if you're going to Maui and a total lifesaver for us.  The author is a BIG fan of the banana bread in Maui, and it wasn't hard to see why once we had our first taste of the stuff.)

One of the handful of things my dad is really spectacular at making in the kitchen is banana bread from scratch... I haven't had it in years but I remember it being insanely good.  He said the secret was using overly ripe bananas.  The warm banana bread we got at Aunty Sandy's was even better than my dad's.  Far and away the best banana bread I've ever had.  I really can't put into words how moist and delicious it was.

Aunty Sandy's is located where it is because there also happens to be a great little stretch of coastline there that tourists flock to for photo ops.  It was here that we got our first up-close glimpse of the lava rocks that make up the majority of Maui's beaches.

Back on the Hana Highway we stopped at a blink-and-you'll-miss-it gravel lot on the side of the road beneath the Wailua Valley State Wayside.  The steep flight of stairs to the Wayside were definitely worth the climb, as once we got up there we had sweeping views of the Pacific below us, the tiny village of Wailua and several small taro fields.  Behind us was a great view of Haleakala.

The next stop was the Upper Waikani Falls (also called the Three Bears Falls.)  They were pretty, but it was a really busy stop so we didn't stay long.

Pua'a Ka'a State Park a little further down the road was a surprisingly pretty stop and slightly less busy.  It was here that I finally figured out the settings for getting a nice waterfall pic, which got me super excited.

The book makes a big deal about a little community down the road a bit called Nahiku - going so far as to say "As you stand there in your own private paradise, you can't help but wonder if there's a more beautiful place in the world."  Well, Mr. Doughty, you need to book yourself a week at the Thala Beach Lodge in Port Douglas, Australia.  Or stand on the cliffs in Capri, Italy looking out onto the Mediterranean.  Nahiku was pretty, but not nearly as impressive as the book makes it out to be.  For one, the road to the actual beach is closed to non-residents (a result of being mentioned so enthusiastically in the book, no doubt.)  There were plenty of tourists who disregarded the signs, but we parked at the head of the road and walked through the town and down to the beach.  The swimming holes the author highlighted were all dried up, and the beach itself wasn't really anything special compared to elsewhere in Maui.  This was once of the few places where the book led us astray, and if you're taking the Road to Hana, I'd recommend not bothering with this stop.

Our next stop was Wai'anapanapa State Park where we had a picnic lunch on the beautiful black sand beach.  There was also a cool little cave / lava tube there that we explored.

After the black sand beach we went to a red sand beach at Ka'uiki Hill, which was also beautiful but we were hot and desperate for a beach where we could do some swimming so we picked up our first Shave Ice and got back on the road.  Not all Shave Ice is created equal, and this first sampling was basically just a slightly tastier snow cone.  Thankfully the cooldown we were looking for was only a few miles away at Koki Beach.  It was one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been to and we got in some much needed bodysurfing in the warm clear water.

Back on the Hana Highway we skipped a few waterfalls and the Venus Pool (we'd get to them the next day) to nab a good campsite at Haleakala National Park in Kipahulu.  The campground was busy since it was a Saturday, but we were right along the coastline and the views were unreal.

About 200 yards from our campground stood one of the best sites of our whole trip: 'Ohe'o Gulch (aka Seven Sacred Pools).  We got there just as the sun was starting to set, which made the water appear several shades of blue.

A dip in the pools would have to wait, since daylight was fading and we were starving.  On the menu for dinner: hot dogs and Kraft Mac 'n Cheese.  Low in nutrition, high in sodium, and completely delicious.

Up next for Day 3... our anniversary, sunrise at the Venus Pool, bodysurfing at Hamoa, 400 ft falls, and a massive double rainbow.  OMG!  :)

{maui} day 1

After a very bumpy flight into Maui, Jared and I stepped out of OGG into exactly the kind of weather we'd been hoping for - hot, tropical, and most importantly SUNNY! A brief cab ride to Kihei and we arrived at our first stop: Aloha Campers. Our friends Erin and John had gone to Maui earlier in the year and rented a VW Westfalia to take camping around the island for the first part of their trip. We loved the idea so much we decided to do the exact same thing! The plan was to camp for 5 days, and stay at a nice resort for the last 4. But we started to question that plan when we pulled up to pick up the Westie. The Aloha Campers sign is basically Sharpie on cardboard and it more closely resembled a junk yard than a car rental place. But this was supposed to be an adventure, right? And Erin and John are good, normal people who would have told us if this was a shady operation, right? Thankfully, the manager arrived shortly after us and put our minds at ease. He showed us around our late 80s/early 90s Westfalia - white, automatic, sink, stove, fold down bed, pop-up roof with a 2nd bed and vented windows. Neither of us had ever been in a Westfalia before, much less driven one, but nervous excitement carried us from Kihei back up to Kahului where we picked up food and supplies for the next 5 days. After that, we hit the Hana Highway!

(Somewhere between Kahului and Pa'ia I decided we should nickname our Westie "Betty White." She was old but still kicking, and had us laughing from the start. This nickname naturally led to many immature jokes throughout the rest of the trip... particularly when periods of rain made it rather hot and muggy inside the van. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.)

Our first stop was Pa'ia, a very cute little beach town that reminded me a bit of my days in Venice Beach. It has a lot of character - probably the most of any town we visited in Maui - and felt less touristy than we expected. We ate lunch at Charley's, which is owned by Willie Nelson and named after his late dog. We both had salads and got our first sampling of local beer from the Maui Brewing Company. I had the Bikini Blonde Lager and Jared had the Big Swell IPA. We both agreed mine was better.

We drove the Hana Highway to Ke'anea and came very close to dying several times. The Hana Highway is no joke - it's narrow, windy, hilly, and pretty much terrifying (especially in a clunky old van that we were still getting used to driving.) Betty White was a champ, though. I think she handled the drive better than we did.

We stopped at the YMCA camp in Ke'anea for the night. It had great views of the ocean, lush greenery, and hot showers. Another Westfalia was already there, so we chatted with them for a bit... Wendy and Joe from San Fran, celebrating their 5 yr anniversary, also rented from Aloha Campers. They were jealous of Betty's condition, as their's was stick-shift, had a bit of rust around the kitchen area, and didn't have the side vents in the pop-up top. When you're stuck in a van together for 5 days these things start to matter.

We had some drinks, played several rounds of Gin Rummy, and called it a night. (If I admitted that Jared whooped me at cards that first night I'd also have to admit that I returned the favor nearly every night from that point on and that would be insensitive, so why bring it up? I'm way more mature than that.) ;)

Stay tuned for Day 2, when we get our first taste of the best banana bread on the planet, go waterfall hunting, and finally get in some beach time...