Thursday, February 16, 2012

I awoke to hear not only the mega lawnmower they use to cut the copious grassy areas in this complex (plus the golf course) but the kids next door screaming and yelling. They have been here ten days but are leaving today. Good for us, lol, not so good for them. I am the last person to talk about parenting, but there was an article last week in the New York Times reviewing a book coming out on what makes French parents better than American parents. Apparently it is all in the approach and rather than yelling at your child, you speak to him with authority so that there is no question who is in charge. I am sure it is not quite that simple, so I guess we need to read the book. The author makes a good argument as to why the French have better behaved children than Americans. Although I was tempted to show the mom next door the article, she would not have appreciated it (nor would I have in all likelihood if I were her), so resisted. They were, after all, only here ten days.

To escape from all the noise, we went to the beach early today. On the walk down, my friend Neda called (or apparently her phone called me right after she finished talking to her husband) so we talked for a short while to catch up.

It was alternately sunny and cloudy with a few sprinkles but we stayed for two hours. There were three young surfers there and two photographers. One of the photographers sat on shore and took pictures of the surfers, the other photographer had on a wet suit, a helmet and fins and was in the water with the surfers (he also had a really big water proof camera) taking pictures. The surfers were doing all sorts of fancy twists and turns on the waves. One in particular made it look so easy and graceful. It was fun to watch them, but hard for the average person to catch them on film.

We got back in time to make lunch, which today was an Apple Sausage Cris-Cross Pastry. I took pictures of the pastry before I baked it and after I baked it, it was so pretty (ok, maybe you aren't suppose to say that about your own work, but I can't help it!). The taste reminded me of Thanksgiving, with the pork sausage, apples, bread crumbs, sage, cinnamon, dried cherries and onions. Yum!

As soon as I got the pastry in the oven, I put together Chicken Cacciatore. We are eating at the Banyon Tree tonight but I wanted to get a head start on a few meals to leave behind for the week my friends are here without me. So once that was put together and cooked, I froze it for a dinner next week. I'll make a few more meals before I go. It's easy to do.

Tonight, as I said, it's dinner at the Banyon Tree restaurant. I will come back after dinner and let you know more about dinner. It is likely I will not get there again any time soon, so will enjoy the opportunity while I can. I have been a very lucky girl the last month being here on Maui and cooking for friends.

Addendum:

At 5:15pm we drove off to the Ritz Carlton. The hotel and grounds are huge. The Banyon Tree Restaurant sits at the base of the hotel complex but not on the beach (remember the burial grounds and the need to move the hotel construction away from the beach and the burial grounds). Robert (Rrrow-bear') was our waiter-I snapped his picture right before he served us our wine. Our table was in the corner at the back of the restaurant with one windowed wall and one open wall. Beautiful setting! For dinner I had an appetizer of Seafood Sausage served with a remoulade (spicy mayonaisse based sauce) and shallot confit. For an entree, I had Crispy Snapper served with a Rice Croquette (in Italian it would have been called arancini). I was full by the end but had JUST enough room for ice cream (always room for ice cream, lol). Three kinds-mango, coconut lavender and white chocolate served with a tuille cookie. Very, very nice. I take many fond memories home with me...