For the past year, I've been feeling an insatiable sense of wanderlust.  Most recently my inner travel bug was screaming:

Eleven years ago, I got married to my (now ex) husband. The marriage didn't last but we had a wonderful wedding in Hawaii at the Hale Koa Hotel. Now mind you, this was back before destination weddings became über trendy and everybody and their brother started having them there. Anyhow, if you haven't been to the Hale Koa and get the opportunity to check it out, do so. It's a lovely 70+ acre oasis nestled in the western corner of Waikiki. We had the wedding in a lush, tropical garden that backed up to a shimmering sandy beach. I couldn't have asked for a better backdrop for our nuptials. If it's so fantastic, why isn't everyone having their wedding at this particular venue, you ask? Well, the catch with the Hale Koa is that it's a hotel and resort owned by the Department of Defense and only for active duty or retired military and their families. Luckily, my dad's retired military so we were able to hold our wedding at this fab location for much less than all the other swanky places on the island.

One hurdle we encountered though during planning was that the hotel had a strict policy that only they could cater events held on their grounds so we had to let them do the food. What a bummer! Most of it was what you'd expect from a hotel's catering department except two courses which really stood out to me: our passion-guava wedding cake and the pineapple gazpacho (neither of which I think they offer anymore). Now, normally I'm not a fan of gazpacho (mostly because I detest tomatoes) but this chilled soup was so refreshing- an exquisitely balanced medley of sweet and tart with just a slight hint of spiciness...and no tomatoes! It was the perfect opening dish for an island wedding. I loved it! It was fun, it was light, it was tasty! Every summer since, I've always meant to try and replicate that soup but never got around to it. Finally during our recent mini heat wave, I decided to try and recreate it. I made several different recipes I found online and in various cookbooks and then took the ingredients and tastes I liked best to create my own version.

If you're sick of salads, this soup is a nice alternative during the dog days of summer; not to mention, that pineapple has a lot of anti-inflammatory qualities. Gazpacho is a great dish to whip up for parties, you could serve it in shot glasses for cocktail hour or if you want to fancy it up for a sit-down dinner, place it in chilled martini glasses. The best thing though is--it's simple to make and there's no hot stove or oven required.

Refreshing Pineapple Gazpacho

Ingredients

1 pound of pineapple, cut into chunks

1/2 of a large English cucumber, peeled and sliced

1 medium yellow bell pepper, cored and chopped

1/3 cup diced red onion

1-2 scallions (mostly white), thinly sliced

1 jalapeno, seeded and minced

1 1/2 cups of DOLE pineapple-orange juice

3 tablespoons Italian dressing

1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

sea salt and pepper, to taste (optional)


Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a blender. Cover, blend until relatively smooth.

2. If you would like the soup to have a smoother texture/be thinner, you can put the soup through a chinois or sieve. If you would like it to be thicker, take a slice of crusty peasant bread, soak it in water, squeeze the water out, add it to the gazpacho and blend again.

3. Taste. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.

4. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours so that the flavors have a chance to meld. Serve chilled.

5. Garnish with diced cucumber and bell pepper...or for some crunch, sprinkle with chopped macadamia nuts and some cilantro.

I hadn't planned on doing a post for the Hawaiian Mac Salad that I made on Sunday, but after I posted about the Kalua pig, I got about a dozen emails requesting the recipe for the macaroni salad I made to go with it.

Note, for those who haven't had it before-  Hawaiian Mac Salad is not your normal macaroni salad from the deli counter. It's tangier and sweeter, the mayo is thinned out by milk and its only extra ingredients are grated carrot, sliced scallions and small bits of celery. Also, you have to use real mayo to make this, not the lowfat stuff or Miracle Whip (gack!).

The recipe I use is from Cook's Country Magazine, from a printing that I clipped from a Bay Area paper a few years ago. It most closely replicates the Hawaiian macaroni salads I ate while on vacation in Hawaii.

Give it a go...Hawaiian Mac Salad is the perfect accompaniment for a plate lunch of Kalua pig, Huli Huli chicken or your favorite BBQ dish.



2 cups whole milk, divided
2 cups mayonnaise, divided (I like to use Best Foods Real Mayonnaise)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 pound macaroni elbows
1/2 cup cider vinegar
4 scallions, sliced thin
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
1 celery rib, chopped fine

Instructions

2. Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in large pot. Add 1 tablespoon salt and pasta and cook until very soft, about 15 minutes. Drain pasta and return to pot. (You want the pasta to be fat and soft, not al dente)

3. Add vinegar and toss until absorbed. Transfer to a bowl. Cool pasta, then stir in dressing until well-coated. Cool completely. (Don't worry, the macaroni will absorb the dressing)

4. To assemble salad, add scallions, carrot, celery, remaining milk and remaining mayonnaise to pasta mixture and stir to combine. Season to taste. Refrigerate covered for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days. Serves 8 people.

Man, when did it become so incredibly HOT outside? I'm definitely not one of those people who loves the sweltering heat. What's there to like? Burning my hand on my steering wheel? Sweating like a pig? Ugh. If my little cottage didn't have CH&A, I don't know what I'd do. Seriously. I don't care if that makes me seem like an entitled brat. Whenever that thermometer starts climbing past 75 degrees, my air goes on- STAT. I would never survive in the South, where they have the double whammy of heat and humidity. I'm a total wuss. So this weekend when it reached over 100 degrees,  I tried to minimize my time spent in the kitchen. On Friday night, I convinced Mr. S. that we should go out to eat...I called it a date night but in all honestly, I just didn't want to cook. We tried the new Turkish restaurant on J Street, Istanbul Bistro. Not bad. The lamb beyti kabob was heavenly. The chicken shish plate...meh, probably wouldn't order that again. It was a bit bland and the portion was skimpy for the cost ($15).

Saturday night, I headed to the wilds of Rocklin for a wonderful get together of a few food bloggers in the area, including- Bake It With Booze, Guava Rose and Tate's Kitchen. There was such a delicious array of foods and cocktails. Man, can those ladies cook! I even got to try some tasty homemade orangecello that made my made my eyes bug out on the first sip. Those Bake with Booze girls aren't messing around with their booze. That orangecello may have put some hair on my chest, it was hardcore! I loved it though. :) Sunday was spent helping Kidlet #2 with his report (I now know more than I ever wanted to about FDR), reading  my book for book club (Home by Toni Morrison, which I'm enjoying immensely) and cooking. Yep, I said cooking. I cranked up the AC and ventured into the kitchen...and I even used the oven! I guess I just can't stay out of there. I thought a little luau food would be fun for the kidlets so I braved the heat and made Kalua pig, Hawaiian mac salad and coconut rice. The kidlets and Mr.S. loved it.  It was such an easy dish to make and pork butt is so cheap, I think we'll be making it more often. We even had enough for leftovers for the next day. Kalua pork is so versatile- you can throw the leftovers in tacos and quesadillas, stuff them into sandwiches and even toss some onto a pizza. It also freezes well. The only thing that would have made that meal better, would have been a GIANT mai tai. Um...for me (not the kidlets).

Kalua Pork

Ingredients

5 lb. pork butt, bone in
1.5 tablespoons Liquid Smoke
2 tablespoons of Hawaiian Alaea sea salt


Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Score the pork butt on all sides.

3. Rub liquid smoke and salt onto the pork butt. Use your hands to pat it into the meat.

4. Place the pork butt on a large piece of heavy aluminum foil, fat side up. Wrap the foil tightly around the meat in a tent-like fashion. Place in a roasting pan or baking dish.

5. Cook for about 4-5 hours (about 45 minutes per pound of meat).

6. When it's done, remove the pork butt from the oven and let it sit, untouched, for another 10-15 minutes.

7. Open the foil. Remove the meat from the foil and shred the meat with two forks. It'll be really tender and will fall apart easily. You can also use some of the remaining roasting liquid to moisten the pork (optional). Serve.

When I was a little kid, I was a bit gullible (ok, maybe A LOT gullible) and my dad liked to mess with me. One of his all time favorite stories to tell is about how I used to love SPAM until he told me SPAM was made from little creatures that looked like tiny prairie dogs. He told me this whole tale about how I was eating these helpless little creatures (which in my head I pictured to look like a cross between a cute helpless baby seal and a teeny bunny). After which I cried and cried and wouldn't touch the stuff for a good long while...that is until my mom found out and set the record straight. Then I went back to eating the delicious fried pressed "meat," but things were never quite the same.

Anyhow, there was a period in my twenties where I was vacationing in Hawaii pretty regularly and I found the perfect hangover dish - slices of SPAM and a fried egg over a mound of steamed rice with a hefty douse of soy sauce. (FYI- this salty concoction also hits the spot during PMS week.) This dish is horrendous for your health (it's high in protein, but also high in sodium and saturated fat) but so dang delicious. It's super popular in Hawaii, you can find it pretty much anywhere. Mr. S. had never had this dish before so during a recent movie night when neither of us felt like cooking, I suggested to Mr.S. that we pick up some SPAM at Raley's. Curiosity got the better of him and he agreed. As I was throwing together the ingredients, I could see his brow furrowing and a look of uncertainty wash over his face. Somehow I convinced him to take that first salty bite and after that it was an ear to ear smile. Now he can't wait to make it again.


Hangover Bowl

Ingredients

2 slices SPAM

1 egg

1 cup steamed rice

soy sauce


Instructions

- Fry 2 slices of SPAM.

- Fry egg.

- Place steamed rice in bowl, place fried SPAM slices on top, then add fried egg. Top with soy sauce, to taste.