BUTTER MOLD

I have been wanting to use this stone mold and had the perfect idea.  I got some fresh butter from Naked Cow Dairy Hawaii at the Ward Farmer's Market.  I put the mold in the freezer and let the butter soften to room temperature.  Then I spread the butter into the cold mold and placed it into the refrigerator until it set for about an hour.  I flipped it out onto plastic wrap and kept it in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it for that special dinner.  It's so pretty and actually looks like white chocolate.  There's another idea for the mold use.

 My sister made hers from turkey silicone molds.

WBMR GOLF OUTING AT KAPOLEI

The Waikiki Beach Marriott associate golf outing was at Kapolei Golf Course.  I had a fun time with my team of Charles, Rick and Ike.  As this is the last outing of the year, we look forward to the outings next year as they are a blast.

GNOCCHI MAKING CLASS

 I took a class in Gnocchi making at Cook Space Hawaii.  Gnocchi, which means pillow in Italian, is a potato pasta.  Kneading dough is the hardest part of making Gnocchi.  Once it's kneaded the rest is easy.  The sauce was just butter and fresh sage, topped with Fontina and broiled in the oven.  Delicious.  I will be making this dish wish Tuscan chicken.

Chef Grant Cotner was a great instructor.  I will definitely look for more of his classes.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN CUPCAKE

I made these Halloween cupcakes from scratch chocolate cake.  The office loved them.

MINI CHEESECAKES

 I bought Wilton's Mini Springform Pans.  They are great for mini cheesecakes.  I think I will make mini cheesecakes for my dessert swap this year and give away the pan as the container.  They come three to a pack for about $11. 

HAPPY BOSSES DAY

I was treated to flowers, balloon and lunch from my team. 

DUMPLINGS ALL DAY WONG

 Lee Anne Wong was a great teacher for dim sum.  She demonstrated how to make pork stuffing and Edamame stuffing.  Then she demonstrated all the different folds and we had to make our own.  The best part was cooking and eating them.  She has a great cook book, Dumplings All Day Wong.  This book is filled with recipes, pictures and step by step instructions.  

Lee Anne is a celebrity chef from New York and went to the French Culinary Institute.  She was a contestant on the first season of Top Chef.  She became culinary producer of that show for 6 seasons.  She has been on shows such as Chopped, Iron Chef, Unique Eats and Unwrapped. 

KOKO HEAD CAFE

 Cornflakes French Toast and Ohayo Eggs.  That was what we wanted to try at Koko Head Cafe.  It's a restaurant in Kaimuki, created by Chef Lee Anne Wong of Top Chef fame.  There's a 20 minute wait but well worth it.  The french toast was crunchy on the outside but inside was a moist custard bread.  Topped with applewood bacon and whipped butter, it was amazing.  They Ohayo eggs were creamy with cheese and topped with nori and furikake.  They were very unique dishes.  I will definitely go back.

ANA MAHALO GOLF INVITATIONAL

 I played in the ANA Golf Invitational at Kapolei Golf Course.  The course was in excellent condition since the PGA Seniors Championship was just held there 5 days earlier.  I didn't win anything but it was still a great day followed by an excellent dinner at the Plaza Club downtown.  Golf and Steak and Lobster...what could be better than that?

CHICKEN ROLL

 I created this chicken roll with spinach, mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, wrapped with Prosciutto.  After wrapping the rolls, place in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Top with Marinara sauce and serve with pasta.  It's a great light and easy meal.  You can prepare it ahead of time for those week night dinners.

KNIFE SKILLS CLASS

 I have always wanted to learn how to chop, slice and dice better.  Cook Space Hawaii offers cooking classes, so I took the Knife Skills Class.  I learned so much and it has really helped my knife skills.  After slicing the onions, we made French Onion Soup.  With the diced vegetables we made a healthy vegetable stew with herb bouquet.  I learned to cut an orange and with the sliced wedges, made a refreshing salad with sliced mint.  I am so proud of myself and had a blast.

 Chef Kevin Lee demonstrates the peeling of an orange and extracting of the wedges with no membrane.

 French Onion Soup

 Orange wedges with mint

Healthy vegetable stew

MY NAME ON THE GOLF COURSE

 While waiting for the foursome ahead of me, I got bored and carved my name in a leaf with a tee.  Two weeks later it popped out.  My name is at C9 at the Hawaii Prince Golf Course.

MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT MAKING LASAGNA

 I finally attempted to make a Lasagna and it came out good.  I cooked the Lasagna pasta al dente.  I used a meat sauce I had made earlier and kept in the freezer.  For the Ricotta cheese mixture, mix with one egg to 8 ounces of cheese.  I also sliced eggplant lengthwise.  The layers were meat sauce, pasta, eggplant, meat sauce, ricotta, mozzarella cheese, shredded Parmesan. pasta, meat sauce, ricotta, mozzarella.  Bake for one hour at 350 degrees.  If I do this again, I'm going to wait until the last 15 minutes before putting on the last layer of mozzarella.  Make sure you tuck in the past around the edges so they don't burn or get dried out.

JTB GOODWILL GOLF TOURNAMENT

Team Waikiki Beach Marriott at the JTB Goodwill Golf Tournament. Lance Kimura and from Expedia, Alex Moxey. We came in 2nd place and our prize was a Vizio 2.1-channel home-theater soundbar with wireless subwoofer.I also won a travel golf bag and because it was the 25th golf tournament, 25 of us got $25 and they called my name.  It was the best tournament with food and beverage stations every 2 holes and games on the par 3's to earn more prizes.

COURTS GOLF TOURNAMENT

 My friend, Tony, had another tournament for his surf club at the Kaneohe Klipper Club on the Kaneohe Marine Corps Base.  Charles, Brian, Glenn and I put together a team like we did last year.  We didn't win but we came home with great prizes.

 What a great view from the tee box.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA AND EAN

 Anna and Ean, here with mom Kara, have the same birthday.  So we had them over to celebrate their birthdays.  The kids loved our pool, video games and of course, cake and ice cream.  The adults enjoyed the king crab, sashimi and dominos.

YOGA

We had a group yoga class with my department.  It was for relaxing and bonding.  They enjoyed themselves and we even broke out a sweat.  Namaste.

THE APPLE OF MY EYE

I stuck the sticker from my Fuji apple on his forehead.  It was on there for hours until I took it off.  Then I text the picture to hum the next day with the "apple of my eye" caption.  Tag. Gotcha last.

DINNER AT NAGOMI

 Charles calls it Nag Me but it's Nagomi.  The food is great here.  Japanese Tepanyaki.

WAIKIKI BEACH MARRIOTT SECOND GOLF OUTING

 Charles and I participated in the second golf outing of the year at Kapolei.  Charles even won $52 for greenies being closest to the pin.

HAWAII FIVE-0 FILMING

 They filmed Hawaii Five-0 in the lobby and Duke's beach.  Here's Daniel Dae Kim checking his messages.  I almost bumped into him coming up the stairs.