"Whole orange" quick bread

Foodies, I'm back! Second week in a row I've baked something out of the Wednesday food section. Years ago on the Food Network, I watched a baker put an entire orange, peel and all, into a food processor and blend into muffin batter. I'd never tried it, but it was memorable. So this week the food editor had a story about using an orange in quick bread. She casually wrote that she had an orange she needed to use up, and coincidentally, so did I. Time to try it! I bake banana bread about once a week - a product of having two boys who leave various partially-eaten bananas around daily. I started putting together the orange bread and Robbie got excited (he likes to help with the banana bread). I tried to explain that it was "orange" bread and not banana bread, and he understood. Sort of. When it came out of the oven, he exclaimed, "That's not orange bread. That's brown bread!" Not sure if I'll make it again anytime soon. High in sugar and heavy, plus it took over an hour to bake thoroughly. That's much too long to have the oven on around here for a snack.

Black Pearl sailing Hawaiian waters

More shipping news - Hot on the heels of the Queen Victoria coming to town, early last week the Black Pearl sailed into Kalaeloa Harbor. What is the Black Pearl? Well, if you have to ask, you're not a tween! (And I'm guessing that's most of my readers, so I'll explain...) It was announced last month that the latest installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise (#4, again for the non-tweens) will be filmed on and around Hawaii this summer. Johnny Depp is on board (pun intended) for the film, but other stars Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly have abandoned ship. It was reported that the boat was heading to the West Oahu harbor (immediately next to the dock where Noel used to take TheBoat ferry downtown) for multiple reasons, one of which is that the harbor is "a secured facility." Umm, close but not really. I guess they mean secured so you can't board it yourself. One morning I pulled right up into the parking lot where I used to wait for Noel and walked around taking pictures. While doing that, another car cruised up, an actual tween hopped out of the passenger seat, snapped a few pictures, too, and then got back in the car and drove off with his mom.
The boat is not ready for it's close-up. It is here early to get spruced up and camera-primed. It sailed from California under it's real name, Sunset, registered out of Long Beach. And it is not a true reproduction of a 17th-century warship either, the masts are all for show and sailed here via a pretty strong engine. But if you want to believe, I can't stop you here.
In more local movie news, if Pirates doesn't doesn't get your heart beating, maybe this will! In other words, GEORGE CLOONEY ALERT! GEORGE CLOONEY ALERT! It has also been announced that Sir George (yep, that's an honor bestowed by me) is coming this Spring to shoot a new film in and around Honolulu with Alexander Payne, director of Sideways. More news to come from me on this one!! I'll be in make-up on, hair down, camera fully charged mode for the next few months and on the look out.

Strike a pose

More fun with Photo Booth! Robbie loves the iPhone and this is one of his favorite apps, too. Last night he made us laugh as he triggered the shutter, turned the phone around so he could shoot himself, and proceeded to make deliberate, unique poses for all four shots. So funny! And the results weren't so bad, either.

Happy New Year!

Last week, the Advertiser's food section ran an article on almond cookies. They're a local favorite here, especially around this time as many folks bake batches for their Chinese New Year celebrations. They looked easy and fun, so I made some. They're OK; although I did get the thumbs-up from Noel, if I were to make them again, I'd try a few tweaks. First, they call for a tablespoon of almond extract (for a relatively small number of cookies). I had the cheap, imitation stuff, and too much of it is not a good thing. I think the flavor would be better with almond paste and a hint of extract. Just my humble opinion. ;) Also, they're too biscuit-y for me. Way too crunchy. I like a softer cookie, so I'd do a little experimenting there, too. But for festive, they get high marks. If only I had a small tiger stencil. Instead of a simple red dot of food coloring, I would have liked to go all out with an image on top. Maybe next year.

Love Love LOVE!

Love the Olympics, of course. What else could I be talking about? ;) The Winter Olympics have started and the all-out media blitz is in full effect. Enjoying the view from my couch and not in Vancouver but fun nonetheless. Downhill alpine ski races have been delayed so as I compose this they're running something called "Nordic Combined." Can't waste too much time though with the broadcast today, lots of things to do around the house, plus a few lectures and assignments to catch up on. Remember I said I was getting the hang of school and attending a class on cable? Well, I had a reality check this week - missed two quiz deadlines. Luckily I have a window to make them up thanks to a very generous instructor. Back to the books now.

Did I ever tell you about...

...a little event we like to call "the pineapple miracle." At the end of the Pineapple Express train ride at the Dole Plantation, they wait for you with a take-out container full of diced pineapple on toothpicks. Each rider gets a piece as you get off the train. As you can probably imagine, our little group of train riders is the last to leave the train. One day as we were once again bringing up the rear, the attendant wanted to get rid of the rest of the pineapple she had on her - maybe 5 pieces for our group of 3. Cub wasn't interested, and I thought for sure Robbie would pass, but to my surprise, he grabbed a toothpick and plopped a piece in his mouth. And he liked it! And asked for more!! Hence the miracle. Now he will eat pineapple semi-regularly, as will Cub (yippee!) when I dice it up and put it out on the table for them. Anyone know where we can find a Broccoli Train?

In the center area between attractions at the Dole Plantation, they plant and harvest countless pineapple varieties from around the world. Pictured here is our favorite, the "pink pineapple" (our name, not the name on the garden marker). I forget where this one is from, but the blooms are beautiful. Robbie noticed my interest in it when I was taking pictures last fall, and looked for it again when we went back recently. None were in bloom, which bummed us a bit, but we'll keep looking during future trips.

More fun with iPhone Apps

I hit the beach this morning with a beach chair, my new beach umbrella, a good book, and my phone, of course. It sounds really relaxing to be on the beach reading, but I find it hard to concentrate. So between pages, I would get restless and start taking pictures. One of my new favorite apps? Photo Booth Classic Plus. This one wasn't free, but cheap and fun. Takes four pictures in any interval you set and drops them into a single image (photo booth "strip" format). No option to retake; it's four and out. The good news is that you're not wasting either money or photo paper with do-overs. Love it!

Queen Victoria sailing in Hawaiian waters this week

Yesterday the luxury cruise ship, the Queen Victoria, pulled into Honolulu Harbor and docked alongside the Aloha Tower Marketplace for the day. Normally I'm not interested in the comings and goings of cruise ships, except this one held a very important person: My brother! What brother, you ask? My Lucian brother, of course. :)

There are three now-grown boys in the family that took me in while in St. Lucia as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The middle brother is a professional musician who performs on cruise ships. (Thanks to Facebook, we've reconnected.) The last time he was in Hawaii? A year or two ago, before I signed up with FB. He said he spent the day at "a mall" with some friends. Doh!

When he emailed late last month to say he was coming this way, I got very, very excited! Woo-hoo! I'll be able to see him! But sadly, no reunion in the cards for us. He's relatively new on the QV and had to attend mandatory training on board the ship, all day. I couldn't not go down to the harbor, even if it just meant walking around the ship and taking a look. I suppose we could have tried to arrange a time for him to be on deck so we could at least wave at each other, but I didn't know logistically what would work. He didn't expect to be in Hawaii when he signed on, here's to hoping he comes again. Soon!

I also hope he arrives in better weather. Not really knowing what he would want to do, I made a mental list of activities - all outdoors - that might show him a side of Oahu he wouldn't get from his normal view from the ship. Hiking Diamond Head was at the top of my list. Turns out we had one of the wettest days in years here. Rain and dark clouds until late afternoon. I didn't have a Plan B.

Fun with iPhone apps

Who doesn't love free iPhone apps?!? There are a couple of different versions of a photo editor in the App Store that transforms your cell phone pictures into a look-alike of the now-iconic Obama campaign poster. I found a free version last night - the "Hope Camera." It's a bit limited - yes, free so this is not a complaint - but very easy and you can still have fun. I have a good shot of Cub that I thought would work, but the editing makes his eyes look funny. I went to my backup plan and tweaked pictures of our dogs next. Brady is in this one. Looks like she's wearing a doggy coat! Sadly, it's just the way the app made her, umm, folds look. The app allows some adjusting of the color levels and appearance, as well as provides a utility for you to enter a different word at the bottom of the image. Otherwise not very complicated. And free!