If you Like Chick in the Kitchen on Facebook (go head, click Like, I’ll wait…), you know I was in Maui on vacation for a week. My sister, who is living in Australia, met me and my parents there to celebrate my dad’s birthday. Believe it or not, Hawaii is pretty much a half-way point between New York and Brisbane. It was a heck of a long flight, but even if Maui wasn’t enough of a draw, spending a week with my sister was! It was fun to have my nuclear family together again — we laugh a lot.

“Practice Aloha” is a slogan created by Mark Ellman, a Maui chef. We ate at one of his restaurants, Mala Ocean Tavern, and in terms of creativity and flavor it was by far our favorite restaurant on the island. Our waiter, Jeremiah, definitely had the aloha vibe down. Practicing aloha is open to interpretation, but it essentially means putting a positive vibe out into the world by treating everything around you with love and respect. That includes people, animals, and our environment. Mala’s menu reflects this, and we especially loved the Stir Fried Brussels Sprouts with Sesame Seeds, Fresh Mint & Crispy Wontons.

We also had a chance to eat at Aloha Mixed Plate (my favorite for laid-back island vibe, great drinks, and delicious chicken, all on an outdoor patio overlooking the ocean); Cane & Taro (my dad had some rockin’ huevos rancheros); Leilani’s On The Beach (we had coupons for free Hula Pie — “This is what the sailors swam to shore for in Lahaina” — Oreo cookie crust, macadamia nut ice cream, fudge topping, macadamia nuts sprinkled on top, and whipped cream FTW!). Hula Grill and Roy’s – Kahana Bar & Grill were just OK.

We did spend a full day driving the Road to Hana, which is a 1.5-lane wide road traversing the north side of Maui in a series of blind curves and switchbacks. It is not a drive for the faint of heart, and my dad did a fantastic job keeping us safe. The Twin Falls farm stand photo above is taken just at the start of the trip. We’d packed a picnic lunch from Safeway the night before, as there is not much in the way gas stations or food along the drive. And as far as waterfalls, well, the four of us are a little jaded. We’ve spent a lot of time in Ithaca, NY after all, and there are some spectacular waterfalls there too.

At the end of that day trip we stopped in a cool little town called Paia, where Mama’s Fish House is an institution. We had our second chance to sample poi here, which is a traditional, bland porridge made of pounded taro root. This version was thicker, described as “one-finger: by our waiter because you eat it by dipping just one finger inside. We’re previously eaten a much looser version at Aloha Mixed Plate. Really, there is nothing offensive about poi, since it barely has a flavor. My sister didn’t mind this second version though, and was the only one of us to finish the small sample they gave us. Here’s the poi, looking as pretty as it can look:

There were two more fun food highlights. First, we had an opportunity to tour the kitchen of the Sherton Maui, where we stayed. I love a good behind the scenes tour, plus I am fascinated by how restuarants can cook for such huge amounts of people. Conrad Aquino is the executive sous chef there, and he definitely exudes the idea of practicing aloha. He was incredibly good-natured, always with a smile on his face, and seemed really excited to show me, my mom, my sister, and one other guest around the inner workings of the kitchen. Look at the size of those whisks and dough hooks in the back corner! They dwarf my own KitchenAid many many times over. (They actually use an industrial-sized Hobart mixer.)

After the tour Conrad cut up several fruits for us to sample. We tried rambutan, guava (I didn’t care for it), and an apple banana (I wrote in my notes this was a “vanilla banana,” but I think I got it wrong). We also had a jambong, which is like a less-tart, enormous grapefruit:

My favorite new fruit, though, was the chiamito, or star apple. The flesh was lightly sweet and very soft, but not slimy (though I think it looks that way):

Conrad also made us a delicious upside-down tart in a pan. He layered the supremed (sliced) jambong and Granny Smith slices in a skillet, then sprinkled them with sugar and dotted them with butter (and not with a light hand, I must add!). The prepared puff pastry cut to size was placed on top, and allowed to cook. The finished dish was flipped out of the pan upside down, so the fruit — beautifully arranged — was on top and caramelized. Just to gild the lily, it was served with a scoop of vanilla and macadamia nut ice cream. Wow. It was delicious, and Conrad graciously gave us leftovers to bring out to my dad since it was his birthday that day. Although we never got a chance to eat in the resort’s dinner restaurant, we found both of their bar menus to be generously portioned, with plenty of lighter and vegetarian options. It was easy and pleasant to eat lunch at the resort — we didn’t even have to get out of our lounge chairs if we didn’t want to.

On one of our last days in Maui, we hit a local farmer’s market nearby. I have to use the term “local” loosely, since there were bananas from Ecuador for sale amongst the Hawaii coconuts. I did treat myself to a young coconut for $4. The gentleman you see here cut a hole in the top so I could stick a straw inside and drink the coconut water (it’s not cream at this point). Then when I was done he chopped the whole thing open so we could scrape out the meat. It was more fun than delicious — my sister says the coconuts she gets in Brisbane are infinitely better. We also bought a couple of coconut bagels (does that mean I can no longer call myself a New Yorker?), which were barely sweet plain bagels with a sprinkle of dessicated coconut on top. Not bad, actually. We also bought some local cheddar and made a breakfast out of all that, along with coffee and chai from the Bad Ass Coffee Co.

I used the word “paradise” a mind-numbingly large amount of times on this vacation. It was truly a vacation of a lifetime, and I’m thankful to my parents for helping my sister and I get out there with them. They deserve an enormous Hawaiian “mahalo” — thank you. There are so many pictures that could sum up the aloha I felt on the trip, but this one is a favorite. I’m going to keep trying to practice aloha, even now that I’m far from that island paradise.

The snowy nor’easter that raged through much of the east coast at the end of last week knocked out our power from about 1 pm on Saturday until 2 pm yesterday, Tuesday. The first two nights without power, and therefore without heat, J. kept a fire going in our living room and the four of us slept huddled around it, with lots of blankets. By the third night, we’d packed it in and stayed with my sister- and brother-in-law who live nearby. Thankfully, last night was spent back at home in our toasty, well-lit house.

I was able to pack most of the contents of my freezer off to Lauren (thank you!), so we didn’t have a large financial loss from losing power to our fridge. Still, it’s bare and I need to get to the store today and figure out what we’ll be eating the rest of the week. We are also picking up our final farm share of the season, which will dictate some of my cooking.

Hope you had easier weather where you are.

On Monday, Merrie and I celebrated our birthdays, many months late. We’d planned to take a cooking course together instead of exchanging gifts, but the first class we registered for, at a local Indian restaurant, was cancelled at the last minute. That loss wound up being our gain, and it’s how we found ourselves at Rainbeau Ridge this week.

Rainbeau Ridge is a farm in northern Westchester (Bedford Hills, NY) that has a small-scale egg operation, organic vegetables, an orchard, and various farm animals (I loved petting the baby goats). They are also a goat’s milk cheese producer. The farm has a presence at local farmers’ markets, and they host lots of cooking classes too.

Nicki Sizemore taught our class on “Vegetarian Side Dishes that Make a Meal.” I’ve taken cooking classes here and there (in college, at the CIA, and elsewhere), but Nicki was the most memorable teacher of all them. I found her to be down to earth, well-organized, smart, and engaging. She was totally comfortable in the kitchen, and made the preparation of five dishes (including one with two sauces) in just an hour and a half seem effortless. Really, it was like you were hanging out with a friend showing you how to make her favorite recipes. She had lots of suggestions for modifying the recipes, and was only stumped when one woman asked about making very low sodium versions.

Nicki made Pea & Goat Cheese Spread with Crostini (using Rainbeau Ridge goat cheese, natch — this was my favorite dish and can also be used as a pasta topping or ravioli filling); Artichokes with Bagna Cauda and Garlic Herb Aioli (I’d never had bagna cauda before, and it was delicious… even though I knew it was chock-full of anchovies); Green Salad with Peas & Creamy Mint & Basil Dressing (she included strawberries and toasted sliced almonds); Tabouli with Chickpeas & Feta (very similar to the types of grain salads I’ve been making lately, like Greek Quinoa Salad); and No-Stir Risotto with Asparagus & Peas (my least favorite; my feeling is if you’re going to make risotto, do it the long way). We all had a chance to sample the food at the end, of course, but we were not given anything (other than the recipes) to take home. In most other classes I’ve taken, you do bring some of the product you make home with you.

My only disappointment with the class was that it was a demo, not a hands-on course. Though Merrie did get to quarter the cooked artichokes, and another participant rubbed garlic on the toasted baguette slices, both Merrie and I mistakenly thought we’d be doing the actual cooking ourselves. Since we both belong to CSAs and do lots of cooking with vegetables regularly, there’s probably nothing more we would have gained from actually doing instead of watching, but it definitely would have been fun! Still, we were both in agreement that it was an afternoon well-spent, and that we’d both be eager to take a class with Nicki and at Rainbeau Ridge again.

Up until the middle of first grade, A. took fruit or an occasional prepackaged treat like a granola bar for snack at school, along with an unflavored milk box. He never complained about missing out on cookies or cheese crackers or whatever everyone else was eating around him, so I kept sending that type of snack. Until one day, when he came home upset, wanting a “cool” snack like everyone else’s. My feeling is that for kids, navigating a day at school has enough social and academic challenges without being distraught about your snack. We were able to settle on a list of items that met my approval (no partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, etc.) and his (mostly, “cool” packaging… but homemade treats such as muffins were also OK). Packing a fruit or vegetable with his lunch remained non-negotiable, even though more often than not it still comes home uneaten (see, Packing Lunch for Kindergarten).

I am thankful for the wide range of healthier processed foods available to me at my regular grocery store and specialty shops like Mrs. Green’s. These new SpongeBob Berry Squeezers from Nature’s Child are a perfect example of a food my son and I can agree on. He is thrilled that SpongeBob is dancing around on the package, and I am happy it contains no artificial colors, is calorie-limited (60 calories per pouch) and is at least based on real fruit and fruit juice. Obviously this type of processed fruit isn’t as good as munching on an apple, but it in my book it tops many other snack options out there.

I bought this product with my own money. Nature’s Child has no idea who I am.

I was thrilled to see the Briarcliff Indoor Farmers’ Market back this year. Last Saturday I stopped by and bought ingredients for lunch: pea shoots, mushrooms, and Brussels sprouts. I’d never had pea shoots before, but they’re the delicate stalks and tendrils from pea plants. You can eat them raw, like a salad, and they taste like young, fresh peas. We used the pea shoots as a salad base, and then put a mix of wild mushrooms, sauteed in olive oil, on top. Roasted Brussels sprouts went on the side. You can’t help but feel good when you eat a meal like this. Each bite is like a bit of vegetable essence, exactly as that vegetable is supposed to taste on its best day. I am looking forward to many more meals like this this winter.

There is also a new winter farmer’s market in Chappaqua this year, but I haven’t been yet. It runs Saturdays from 9 am to 1 pm at St. Mary the Virgin church, next to Bell Middle School.

It’s amazing how much easier access to local produce has become in the past few years. I feel lucky to have so many great local options when my CSA is out of season.

I first tried BuddhaPesto, made in small batches in Woodstock, NY, at Merrie’s New Moon party. I was immediately hooked — it is the absolute perfect balance of fruity olive oil, Romano cheese, pine nuts, and basil. Not too finely pureed, either, which I like.

We stopped by the Pleasantville Farmer’s Market last Saturday, and I had to buy a container for J. to try. It’s an indulgence at $9 for 8 oz., but it is the pesto I aspire to make myself at home. It’s great over pasta or on French bread. And as you can see from the photo above, we have unfortunately already finished the small container.

Last weekend we put in a small garden. Before we belonged to a CSA, we would grow lots of lettuce and tomatoes, plus some peppers and sugar snap peas. With the farm share, though, we get more lettuce than we can eat, so we held off on planting any this year.

We did plant several varieties of tomatoes, a black bean plant A. started growing in school, sugar snaps, and a couple of hot peppers. We filled in the rest of our squares with some flowers A. chose. I’ve never had flowers in a vegetable garden before, but we had the room and I like seeing them as I pull into our driveway.

Updated on 4/25/10: The bake sale raised more than $1,000 for Share Our Strength! And sold out of all the donated goodies.

This Saturday, April 24, Club Fit in Briarcliff is hosting a Share Our Strength Great American Bake Sale. The event is organized by my friend Alison, all the goodies are donated (by Club Fit and bakers like me), and the money raised goes to Share Our Strength, a charity aiming to end childhood hunger in America.

I made two types of muffins: Chocolate Chip Banana, and Apple Flax. They both turned out well, and look cute all wrapped up in the cello bags and ribbon we were given for packaging.

Stop by this Saturday, April 24th, from 8 am to 1 pm, and pick up a treat or two while making a contribution to a worthy cause.

I am not turning over my house for Passover this year. (Here’s what I did in 2008 and 2009.) I’ve been thinking about taking this year off for a while, and my decision was reinforced when we dealt with a 4-day power failure a month ago. I had to toss everything in my fridge, and while it was empty it seemed appropriate to do a deep cleaning. It felt like Passover — the cleaning part beforehand at least — had come early.

I have never been good at explaining the “why” of the choices I make for my kitchen to my boys. The why, to me, is often “because that’s how my mom did it” and that’s not a very satisfying answer to a little kid. It’s not satisfying to me when I say it out loud either, though I guess that is the very definition of tradition. I label my kitchen kosher-style, but over the past year or so I have become a lot more lenient in what that means. Without the personal conviction that I’m keeping this set of rules because of my own religious beliefs, it has been harder and harder for me to see a reason to keep shredded mozzarella off the table when I am serving meatballs. The boys don’t eat the meatballs anyway, so there’s no actual mixing of meat and cheese going on — they just want some cheese on their pasta. And I could not care less if you want butter on your baked potato while eating a steak. I still don’t combine meat and milk in the same dish when I cook, but this is more a lifelong habit than anything else.

This relaxing of my overall nod to kashrut has definitely colored my feeling about keeping Passover, and the work involved in doing so in my home. So, 2010 is a trial year. As we get closer to the start of the holiday, I am feeling a little left out of that small club of people that completely turn over their kitchens. I am, however, really looking forward to making a great dinner for my parents on Sunday. They will be in the jaws of that no man’s land of no more chometz in the house, but the holiday hasn’t started yet — what do you eat? I’m glad we’ll be able to feed them! Then on Monday I’m looking forward to cooking for the first seder with my family at my parent’s house. The Pesadich dishes, silverware, and pots I grew up using for just 8 days out of the year are touchstones that bring the holiday home for me.

Still looking for Passover recipes? Here’s a roundup I put together last year: Passover Recipes, Past and Future. I’m going to be making a version of the Beet, Orange, & Arugula Salad pictured above, using my newly-learned knife skills to supreme the orange.

I am totally in love with my mug, which has a brown band like this photo (the BB&B site sells them in all different colors; in the store they only had brown and pink). Over the past several months I have found it more convenient to make coffee at home in the morning rather than stopping to buy it while I’m out, and the take-away shape of both this cup and lid make my home-brewed coffee feel a little more fun… even decadent. For $7.99 (and use one of those ubiquitous BB&B 20% off coupons), you can hardly go wrong with this little gem. I am tempted to buy more of these cups in different colors, but I am not ready to put my already-loved Tim Horton’s travel mugs (gifts from Jodi!) out of service.