Sunday, January 29, 2012

I actually made breakfast today! We had Dutch Baby Pancakes. They use a thin batter and are baked in a hot oven in a pre-heated hot pan for about ten minutes. The Dutch Babies can be served with fruit or with a squirt of lemon and dusted with powdered sugar (which I have come to learn is also called confectioners sugar and 10X). I have always liked these thin pancakes that bake up to look like large bowls-not sure why, other than they are quite tasty!

After breakfast, we went shopping for groceries for this next week. I still like the Foodland Farms store. It's small but offers a lot. It was interesting however, that they do not sell lamb. Guess it's not that big on Maui. I was going to make lamb meatballs but we bought beef instead.

By the time we got back to "The Ridge", it was time to make lunch. I also baked a chocolate cake to take with me to Sandra and John's house. Lunch was Corn and Crab Chowder. LOVE this recipe! Onions, red pepper, bacon, and celery, sautéed in a little butter. Add a Tbsp of flour, some Old Bay spice, half and half, chicken broth and some diced potatoes and simmer until the potatoes are soft. Add frozen (or fresh if you have it) corn, 12 oz of crabmeat, and continue to simmer another 5-10 minutes. Serve it up hot with some crusty bread. Yum!!

I made dark chocolate frosting after lunch. It's made by heating cream and sugar to boiling then adding some butter and unsweetened chocolate and vanilla extract and stirred until the chocolate and butter melts. The frosting needs to cool before it can be used. It was a new recipe for me but it turned out well.

Junie Jun!

We went over to Sandra and John's at 5pm. They live just up the street. They have a little 2 1/2 year old girl whose name I didn't realize until tonight is June. So her name is June Jun! She is a cutie. Half Chinese and half American. John did the cooking tonight-BBQ ribs, Panko fried chicken with a savory dipping sauce and Ginger Bean Curd Shrimp, a spinach dish and white rice. Everything tasted great! We finished with the chocolate cake and a slice of passion fruit they had picked off a tree locally on one of their walks around this area. John teaches math in middle school but the two of them would like to buy some land and have a farm. John (and I am probably not spelling it correctly) was born and raised on a farm in rural China. His parents immigrated to America (NYC to be exact) when he was 8 years old. John is the youngest of three children. Sandra was born and raised on Statin Island, so they met in New York. It is wonderful to hear John talk about what a great place America is. He has traveled all over the world and seen quite a bit. They have lived on Maui for almost four years but it has been hard making friends, they say. I think they are a little lonely. We left when it was time for June to go to bed. We had a nice evening and left with the promise of a fish dinner of fresh "gold fish" (not, apparently the little goldfish in a fishbowl but a salt water fish with whiskers!). Sounds like an adventure!