or la tentation de Bramafam One thing I miss about my life in Boston is Moveable Feasts. I miss the meals that lasted for hours, my friends that made me laugh and cry and laugh until I cried, and the delicious food. Over the years, Julia Child's recipes featured...
When we were young, a cheap and easy snack was a package of dried ramen noodles, crushed into little bite-sized pieces, tossed with a little of the seasoning packet. Later when we got to college, packaged ramen was the go-to cheap meal that could be zhushed up...
When I lived in Boston, one of my summer activities was to make big batches of apricot jam that I would enjoy throughout the year. Now that I'm living in Hawaii, it's harder to find good stone fruit. Instead we are blessed with beautiful tropical fruit...
I love summer vegetables - tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, corn. One of the benefits of living in Hawaii is the year-round growing season but maybe it's because I lived in the northeast for so long that I still associate certain vegetables with certain times of the year....
I have two things to share with you in this post - a fantastic cookie recipe and a great cause to support. Let's start with one of my very favorite cookies; a simple shortbread-like cookie with cornflakes. I don't think it's a uniquely Hawaii creation but it's...
This week I reimagined another family cookbook favorite, transforming a bundt cake into festive Easter cupcakes. This is one of those old-fashioned recipes that many families, including ours, shared through the years. And with some small differences, the recipe has...
This year I am cooking my way through some of my favorite recipes in the family cookbook and enjoying the happy memories they evoke. The memories aren’t always specific – like a party or a family gathering. The memories are of my mother in the kitchen and...
I am not good at deconstructing a dish. I have tried before and the results may be edible but not terribly successful. I don’t always have the desire to recreate a dish but when it comes from a restaurant in a city I’m visiting, my only choice is to make it myself....
“Eat your vegetables” was a commonly heard phrase when I was growing up. I don’t remember outright refusing to eat something (did I have that option?) but there were times when it was a struggle to finish what was in front of me. I was a typical kid, veggies did not...
Alliteration aside, these scones are perfect to serve on your breakfast table or as an afternoon treat. They are easy to make and in all likelihood you have the ingredients on hand in your pantry and fridge. Start-to-finish you could have freshly baked scones on the...
I’ve made different versions of stuffed mushrooms, but these are the easiest, combining three ingredients into a delicious little bite. They are simple enough to make on a weeknight if you’re craving a little indulgence. They can also be assembled in advance for a...
To wrap up this month of soups I am sharing a local Hawaii favorite, Portuguese Bean Soup. Hawaii is a melting pot of cultures and cuisines as a result of families immigrating to the islands to work on the plantations. In addition to several Asian groups like Japanese...
The weather has been cool in Hawaii (my friends in Boston and Nebraska are laughing now because by cool I mean mid-60s) so I am sharing another favorite soup recipe. Filled with mini meatballs, hearty kale, and a healthy sprinkling of Parmesan, this soup makes a...
It seems I'm on a soup kick right now so let me share another one of our favorites - sausage, kale, and cauliflower soup. We often make a version of Zuppa Toscana, a sausage, kale, and potato soup. Since we love cauliflower so much we decided to try replacing the...
Even in Hawaii we enjoy a good bowl of soup. Some of the more popular soups you'll find are ox tail soup and Portuguese bean soup, and, of course, all different varieties of ramen. We recently added a curried kabocha squash soup to our repertoire and we really enjoy...
New Year’s Eve in Hawaii usually means a big gathering of family and friends and a pot luck with foods representing all kinds of cuisine – sashimi, fried noodles, siu ji yuk, sushi. Our family’s contributions are often fried mundoo and Okinawan sweet potato and haupia...