December Carnival of Aloha!

How did that happen?  I think it should still be March or April!  We need to talk.  Come on, share your stories from 2011 with us.  Be it good news or bad, I’m open to it all this month.  It has been an extreme roller coaster ride of events this past year, both for our State and for many of us as individuals.  Please share your triumphs and/or your drama.

Let’s do a review of 2011 — if it happened in Hawai’i, you are welcome to share!  If this has started your fingers itching and you want to write about it now, go for it and then submit the address of your post so we can link back to you.  If you have a favorite post for the year, share that too!  Join in the camaraderie and connect to the Carnival of Aloha! Submit one of your Hawai’i posts to the Carnival by using this form.

I am reaching out to all Hawai’i bloggers (or bloggers visiting Hawai’i) to participate in our Carnival of Aloha!  I will even accept links to publications as long as you tell me who you are and why you’re sharing it.  There is room on the form to share all of that!

All you need to do is submit one of your posts (or a link) that talks about a local city, town, event or anything else that’s typically Hawai’i.  Or, if you’re a resident, something that’s typically you!

Bloggers from other states, or other countries even, are welcome to submit posts to the Carnival of Aloha. If you’ve been to Hawai’i, on vacation or otherwise, and have a story to tell, please share it with us!

Since it is the holiday season, I will extend the deadline to next Friday, December 9, 2011.  Let us “hear” you!  Start submitting, or writing and then submitting at BlogCarnival.com using our form for the Carnival of Aloha!  As always, the Carnival will be as exciting and informative as you help me make it!  Join us?  Please?  I’ve missed a lot this past year and I need you guys to educate me!

Sounds gross, I know, but it is sooo good!  I know, now you’re looking at the picture below and thinking, “How on earth am I supposed to cut that thing?”  Costco has it all pre-cut and wrapped in plastic but then again, your squash will not be as fresh as it would be if you cut it yourself.

Trust me; the Costco route was looking really good to me, until I saw this video on YouTube:

A vegetable peeler?  No way!  Way.  Amazing — it works quite nicely.  The spaghetti squash is much harder to cut than the butternut variety!  Besides, the perfect recipe for spaghetti squash has not hit me yet. These “winter” squash could not have come across my radar at a better time — advent lent starts a few days after Thanksgiving and this recipe is vegan!

What follow are the recipe, the instructions, and some helpful suggestions.  You may never buy corn chowder from anyone else again!

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
6 cups butternut squash (1 average size squash), peeled, seeded and chopped into one-inch cubes
1 large onion, chopped
1 small bag of fresh frozen corn (12 oz), defrosted
2 tsp curry powder
garlic salt and ground pepper
2 cans vegetable broth (14.5 oz)
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 can white beans (16 oz), drained

Directions:

1.  Get out your 5 quart pot and heat the oil over medium heat.  You can substitute all vegetable oil if you are on a Lenten fast that restricts the intake of olive oil.  Add the squash and the onion.  Cook until the onion starts to soften (about 5 or 6 minutes) and add the corn and curry powder.

2.  Salt and pepper to taste.  I prefer Lawry’s garlic salt and cracked or large-grind pepper.  Be sure you do this now or you may end up putting just a little bit too much pepper.  You can always add more later.  If you think you smell sugar at this point, you are smelling the aroma of the cooking squash — butternut squash is apparently one of the sweeter squash.

3.  Add two cans of broth and simmer for about 25 or 30 minutes until squash is tender.  After about 20 minutes, add your can of white beans and continue cooking for the remaining five or ten minutes.

4.  Remove half of the soup from the pot and place in a blender and blend until creamy and not lumpy.  Please use caution and be careful when blending hot liquid like this.  Be sure the blender cover is on correctly and securely.  If you use the lowest setting on your blender, it will still blend!

5.  Once the soup is smooth, return it to the pot with the rest of the soup.  The beans may have melted but they have added body and bulk to the soup in the process.  If you have a passion for the feel of beans when you eat, you can start with dried white beans like Great Northern instead of the canned beans.  After recombining the soup, add the coconut milk and continue to heat but do not boil.

After the fun of dealing with these new ingredients and the peculiar preparation procedures, the photo below shows you what you get.  Yummy!

This soup keeps well in the refrigerator so don’t worry if it makes you too full too fast.  It should.  You might want to try adding some whole wheat toast with margarine, instead of crackers, to eat along with your nice warm chowder.

As I mentioned above, you may never buy corn chowder again because you will know that yours is better.  There are few things that I make where I will only eat my own cooking.  While this is rare and a very small number, this recipe is trying really hard to add itself to that list!

In Honolulu you can find all of the ingredients you need for this recipe at Safeway Stores and Times Supermarkets.

There seems to be a lot of historic items this month, both old and some a little more recent, that have touched all of us is many ways.  We are going to touch them back by sharing them with others!

Things that have touched the past are always a good thing to revisit.

Karen talks about Touching the Past Kealiiokamalu Church where we can see the beauty of a country church.  Thank you for sharing this, Karen, we don’t hear about these country churches often enough.

Everyone knows how we always need someone to feed us at the Carnival! We have a great menu this month! It’s always touching to revisit old recipes (another touch from the past)!

heartland frugalista presents A Touch of the Islands: Recipe for Kalua Pig posted at Heartland Living on a Budget, saying, “A native of Honolulu, I moved to Wisconsin 11 years ago. I miss many things, especially the food. But I have learned how to make my beloved kalua pig!”  Makes my stomach growl just thinking about it.

Are you full? Not yet? Malia is going to share some other yummies!

Malia Yoshioka presents Comparing Shrimp Trucks on Oahu’s North Shore posted at WhyGo Hawaii, saying, “One of the most popular things to do on Oahu’s North Shore is to visit the shrimp trucks. We compared four in one day - Giovanni’s, Romy’s, Fumi’s, and Macky’s - in order to give a fair comparison.”

Giggles!  It’s always great to compare lunch wagons, and shrimp trucks should certainly be no exception!

Marquita (Marty) Herald tells us about Discovering a Sense of Place posted at IGG - tips, tools and tantalizing ideas.  Marty says, “The ‘Staycation’ trend may have been born as a result of economic issues, but we’ve since realized there are many other benefits of getting reacquainted with our neighborhoods … such as reconnecting with a sense of belonging to a community. In Hawaii, this feeling is known as ’sense of place.’”

Thank you for joining us, Marty!  Mahalo for pointing out just how wonderful our own home towns are for all of us.  This post touched me!  It is amazing how many things you can discover while checking out your own backyard!

Jennifer Miner expresses some concern about a favorite backyard destination for locals and for our visitors, asking, What Will Happen to the Ihilani Resort and Spa?  This is being discussed over at The Vacation Gals - Family travel, girlfriend getaways, romantic getaways, destinations, things to do, travel tips.  I agree, Jennifer, that this might be a concern but Ihilani has already established a fine reputation and Aulani does not offer kama’aina rates (slightly reduced rates for locals) and that will be their biggest issue during the “off” season.

Disney did their research and has done all that is necessary to stay true to the culture of Hawai’i but they missed that very, very, fine detail! Ihilani Resort & Spa does offer kama’aina rates, by the way.  I called to be sure — most of the locals I know wouldn’t stay there if they didn’t!  Don’t worry, the novelty will wear off eventually and the real business battle will begin.  I’m just saying.

There is a lot more than famous mice and strange, lovable canines from Disney coming to our shores — fortunately or unfortunately.  Japan’s recent tsunami made history to be sure but this horrific event is about to touch us again.

Jan TenBruggencate brings us an intellectual fix when he tells us all about how a Russian ship finds UHawai`i-projected tsunami debris field.  Jan doesn’t know how I count on his wisdom over at Raising Islands — Hawai’i science and environment for some of my intellectual stimulus.  Hey, I can’t help it if I’m part nerd!  Alright, maybe more than part nerd.  I also can’t help it if I just love it when the University of Hawaii makes cool discoveries like this.  The bad part is, that this debris is apparently going to touch our shores a bit sooner than originally thought.  I wonder what that will do for the search for sea glass?

Since we really do need our cars for staycations and to travel a bit further to get to Ko ‘Olina (it’s really not that far!) and see Mickey, it would be a good thing to pay less for car insurance.

Tyler presents Hawaii Car Insurance | HI Car Insurance Quote Comparison posted at Car Insurance Comparison. Tyler said, “Even Hawaiians need car insurance!” I certainly cannot argue with that!

That concludes this chapter.  Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Aloha using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Sometimes you just need to do something mindless.  My girlfriend, Coco, suggested, well, actually coerced me into going to look for beach-worn fragments of glass.  She said, “it would be bloggable.”  I told her that was hitting below the belt!

This whole thing started when she posted a note on Facebook that said,

“Good and bad news: There has been a major decrease in littering off the shores of Hawaii. No more glass being thrown off shore or from boats. As a result, no matter how hard you look, there’s no more sea glass.” 

What is WRONG with her?!?

Coco was on the hunt for sea glass and another friend of hers told her about Sand Island. Sand Island?  Where the auto junkyards are?  No, where the ships have gone by and dropped their garbage and glass along with it.  Huh?  You can imagine where my mind went.  Ick!

Not too long after we spoke of broken glass and this blog-worthy adventure, when reality got a little bit too hard for me to handle, it was time to search for the simplicity of a unique and relatively-mindless distraction.  Few things provide that kind of distraction as well as the shores of O’ahu.

Of course the “icky” idea of things being discarded made me wonder if I needed to wear rubber boots but, on the contrary, the water was beautiful and very clean.  So don’t worry, no rubber boots required.

As we drove around trying to find this mystical repository of glittering sea glass, we stumbled on to this interesting looking place.

I am sure I will investigate that one a bit more and talk about it later.  My blogger friend, Karen, has already discovered La Mariana and she has already shared it with her blog readers!

We were looking for glass.  We found the shore and we found some boats but we were still not quite where we needed to be.

I had to get a photo of this U.S. Coast Guard ship for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was my past inability to get a decent photo of these ships from Aloha Tower.

Still searching for this glass, we asked some people if they knew the spot we were looking for to see if they could help us with our search.  We did get one rather strange reply.  One gentleman said something like, “You mean where the haoles go looking for glass?”

Uh, excuse you?!?  This guy looked more like a tourist than anything else!  Coco and I must have both been wondering, “what the heck?”  At least he pointed us in the general direction.

Were we getting warmer?  This is not exactly the kind of glass we had in mind.  It just happened to be the first glass we found.

We found it!  Our devoted search for pieces of sea glass is finally able to begin!  Now we will see what we can find along this interesting stretch of rocky beach.

What we actually found was even more interesting, even a bit freaky.

Items were molded into the rock.  Stuck!  Somehow these things had become part of the shoreline.  I guess this peculiar process of fusing things together resembles the man-made reef idea, except it was not man-made.  We provided the materials and it seems that nature did the rest.

Some pieces of glass we attempted to collect were not to be removed. It looks like you can pick them up but they have become part of the rocks — you might be able to get a piece of them if you took a hammer and chisel to them but that would just not be right.  Besides, the edges would just be sharp again rather than worn by the sand and surf.

Hmmm, remember that quote posted above about the lack of glass being tossed into the ocean?  Apparently I failed to notice this additional comment from Coco’s friend, Lisa, who said, “Oh yes! And due to the heat of decomposition, the glass is sometimes melted together! Have fun!“

Man!  It seems that the “heat of decomposition” along with the heat of the sun have done a stellar job of melting everything together!

It is really amazing to see how the whole area has adapted to all of this and actually absorbed these things right into its little ecosystem.  In a fascinating way, this little area has taken in a strange culture of chemicals and embraced it as part of its own.  Sound familiar?  Are the islands not famous for doing the same thing with the cultures of people?  We absorb them and make them fit!  I could go “out there” with this idea!  I’m just saying.

There was more to discover here besides these pieces of glass, and other things we could not pick up.

So many people were enjoying this quiet little area.  There was even some fishing going on.  I would never have expected there to be people fishing here.  Well, why not?  Where there’s water, there’s fish!

I liked the look of this quiet little corner, except for the storm drain and that great big pipe.  These were certainly another unexpected curiosity.

I will not wager any guesses or make any assumptions about why this is here or what it is for.  There is still no need for rubber boots so we can relax!

Oh no, not more of this kind of glass!  This bottle will probably get broken and become sea glass someday, but not anytime soon.  For now it is, shall we say, less than collectible, even without being stuck to the rocks!

Below is our collection!  There were a couple of shells that were interesting but the bulk of the collection was pieces of worn glass, no longer sharp and dangerous to touch. Some of these are, of course, molded together.

The pieces that could be removed from the rocks and/or sand were interesting, although not as colorful as I kept hoping for — I wanted more blue.  But, we did help to de-litter the beach just a bit!

My supposition is that the glass aficionados who use these interesting pieces of ocean art to create little table tops, etc., have already discovered this place so the pickings were slim for us.  Then again, there will be even less for them the next time they go!  It was a nice way to spend an afternoon.

It was a beautiful day and I could not help but snap more shots.  I never get quite this vantage point from other venues.

I did manage to get some otherwise impossible photos!  I do love my island.  Can you tell?  The island and its variety of ecosystems can often be as fragile as glass, but it can also be as tough as nails when it needs to be.

I got a little too up-close and personal with an associate whom I have been working closely with for many years.  After all this time I had become accustomed to walking all over this guy, but, with this affair, I shed blood, sweat, and tears all over Mr. Asphalt.

Already starting to bruise and the veins near the temple tell of the stress.

Cell phones, being what they are, don’t always take the best pictures but I was so freaked by the volume of blood (one spattered shirt, three paper towels and we are still dripping) I had to see what it looked like.  My mind kept thinking, “What is it that’s freaking people out?  Why is it still bleeding?”

They told me not to walk because of my bursitis.  Alright, I got it already!  This is what happens when you do not listen!  I could walk to Kaiser’s Honolulu clinic.  “No, bitch, you will not!”  (I’m mean to myself at times like this.)  Calling a cab will be cheap because it’s so close!  Duh!  It’s such a breeze to call 422-2222…  Pick me up!

Quick humor:  The first cab missed me, or he avoided me because, man did I look like a scary street person!  What cab driver wants to pick up a sweaty person all covered in blood?  I wouldn’t!

As I was waiting for the replacement cab, I was standing in the sun and shivering — uh, shock?  Not going to call the husband and have him yell at me!  I’ll just fix it.  Well, Kaiser will fix it.  Such lovely stitchery!

Mahalo to Kaiser’s Urgent Care on Pensacola Street for helping me “pull” things together!  Mahalo to The CAB for getting me there — even if I did look scary!

Three days later I thought it would be fun to share the progress of my self-destruction.  I swear, women will stop at nothing to get a face lift!  I can laugh at it now but I have to admit to a bit of fear that, hopefully, will pass with a bit more time.  Pain will do that to a person.

It still shakes me up to walk by the area where this all happened.  I’m sure the memory will eventually numb with the rest of the whole incident.  In time.

It does seem to be taking forever for that bruise, aka black eye, to melt away.  I must say, those shades of green and brown are really not at all attractive.  As I’m writing this, about sixteen days later, my bruise is down to a sliver — still there but almost gone.  The impact was obviously much harder than I wanted to admit.  The fall started from a slightly elevated place before hitting the ground so I guess that’s to be expected.  Sigh.

Lessons to be learned: Walk softly, never take nature for granted, be sure to always carry a lot of paper towels, do not forget your cell phone, and for goodness sake, be careful with whom you decide to have an affair!

We are mixing things up for this 4th Anniversary Carnival!  Oh my!

This bird was tearing at this ginger plant but I am not sure if he was eating it or if he/she was going to use it for nesting materials.  Aha!  Now I know who has been messing up those flowers!  Since we are all mixing things up and seem to be all mixed up, I think we should eat dessert first!

Sheila wishes the Carnival of Aloha a Happy Birthday by sharing Hawaii’s Tastiest Sweet Treats posted at Hawaii Vacation Blog - GoVisitHawaii.com.  She says, “Since it’s the Carnival of Aloha’s 4th birthday, let’s celebrate with something sweet. Hawaii is a paradise for the person with a sweet tooth, you know.”

Just do not eat too much yet — we need to go swimming.  My favorite star gazer goes in the opposite direction and goes ocean browsing instead!

Andrew Cooper takes A Night Dive at Mahukona posted at A Darker View.  In usual fashion this is an educational post and, even though Andrew goes looking at starfish instead of the celestial kind of stars, at least he does so when it is still A Darker View.

Okay, now that we are out of the water, we can eat a lot more!

Malia Yoshioka presents Traditional Hawaiian Food | Hawaii Travel Guide posted at WhyGo Hawaii, saying, “Culinary Hawaii today is a mixed plate of cultures, a blend of the old and new. But it’s also interesting to get a glimpse into where we began and the type of Traditional Hawaiian Foods that were a strong part of Hawaii’s past.”  Mixed plates are always the best and the more mixed up they are, the better!

We may be full but we are not done with tradition and the traditional.  This Carnival always loves tradition and we are not just leaving it to food this month!

Karen takes us to see Hula, Halaus and the Hilton Hawaiian when we go to check out her blog at KareninHonolulu.  No matter where she is, we can always count on Karen to provide us with an educational piece of culture.

Keeping the culture and keeping the “mix,” we next get to be a witness!

noel tells us about Witnessing a New Day at Pu’ukohola posted at one of his blogs, A Sari-Sari Life-Hawaiian Style, saying, “This is mostly an photo experience of the annual ceremony at Pu’ukohola in July.” If you look at the side bar of this blog you will see where Noel explains that sari-sari means “a mix-mix life” in Filipino.  Did I mention that we are mixing things up?

We are used to Noel usually being a “plant fanatic” but I am good with this kind of confusion!  Seriously though, a lot of bloggers are running more than one blog and I like the name of this one. Thank you, Noel, I do not think that most of us would have seen this event otherwise!

I have to admit to being a little mixed up, our next post did leave me a little confused.

Costan Alexandru presents some of Hawaii cheapest vacations tips . General informations posted at Cheapest vacations and business tips, saying, “General information about Hawaii as a popular destination for people`s summer vacations.”

I am really not sure if that was about the State of Hawai’i or about the Big Island of Hawai’i.

Well, that concludes this edition.  Are you sufficiently dizzy?  Submit your blog articles to the mix for next month!  Share it with us at the next edition of Carnival of Aloha using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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It’s just a little bit too calm around here.  Let’s get this anniversary Carnival of Aloha up and running!  Yep, this September Carnival will be the fourth birthday for the Carnival of Aloha!  Send in those links and we’ll pull them all together. 

Help us all get the surf up and send in the link to one of your Hawai’i posts by using this form.  If you have a problem, let me know and I will help you get it where it needs to go so we can share! 

Life is so busy these days and it is, unfortunately, the blog that suffers most.  BUT, it is still July and we need to break free of the things that lock us away from our enjoyments and gain back a little bit of our independence!

Pua is going to be the one to help us with that by telling us about the 4th of July in Hawaii posted over at Best Hawaii Vacation with Hawaii Vacation Blog, saying, “A special 4th of July celebration awaits visitors on the Big Island each year. It’s Turtle Independence Day at Mauna Lani Bay Hotel on the Kohala Coast. Watching the Hawaiian turtles trying out their first swim in the big Pacific Ocean is fun for the entire family!”

Great story, Pua — you have got to love anything ecologically supportive like that!  In addition, it is never too late to celebrate the 4th of July!

Karen gives us another great story when she posts about My Name is Albert Edward over at Karen in Honolulu.   We often celebrate the lives of Hawaiian royalty but this little guy has a great story.  The museum does too – I do love stories of ghosts and apparitions and the like!

There are some natural areas that would be good places for such stories, or great just for their natural beauty.

Andrew Cooper shows us some of that natural beauty while Exploring Emesine Cave - A Darker View posted at A Darker View. I still love the name of that blog!  Andrew’s descriptions create very nice visuals for his readers.  Thanks, Andrew.  I know I need to contact Andrew if I’m going to the Big Island — so he can tell me the best natural wonders to investigate while visiting there!

Traveling always makes us hungry!

Evelyn (oh, me!) is the one who will feed us on our journey this month.  I’ll share my soup!   Actually, I will share Safeway’s Open Nature Sausage and Tortellini Soup!  I cooked it and my husband actually ate it!  I love to cook but it is only fun when someone will eat and enjoy what you make.  Otherwise I guess we do Spam and eggs.  Tsk!  Anyway, we Carnival dwellers are doing Tortellinni soup!  So there! (Especially since I haven’t posted much else.)

Now we need something to drink! Can I interest anyone in a cup of coffee?

Cheryl tells us how the Big Island Handmade Rocked at the Ka’u Coffee Festival 2011.  Cheryl shares this over at Hawaii Vacation Gifts where she herself is creative and full of Aloha and her blog is always such a great Carnival “ride!”  Cheryl, I see two other stories over there at HVG that we need to share on upcoming Carnivals, too!

Malia Yoshioka presents how to Save Money on Your Vacation With Group Buying Sites posted at WhyGo Hawaii.  Malia says, ” Everyone loves a good deal, and travelers to Hawaii this summer will be pleased to know that group buying sites are a great way to score bargains on activities, popular restaurants, spa treatments, and more. Most of the deals are local to Honolulu, but other islands pop up in the listings once in a while too!”

Try to keep as much of your independence as you can!  Go where you can, do what you can, take pictures when you can, and then talk about it on your blog!

Then, share some of your blog posts with us at the next edition of the Carnival of Aloha using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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I had no idea what to do with fresh asparagus.  Safeway’s website helped me and now I can deal with it without blinking, much.  Every once in a while I peak to see what they’re cooking and I found a really cool recipe that looked good.

Back in March I said I was going to try this after the lenten season was over.  It sounded so good and so easy!  It was easy.  It was good.  It was expensive!

I ignored the recommendations made by the person who posted this and followed the recipe just as it appears on the Safeway site.  The only adjustments that I suggest would be to, first of all, add more broth!  If you keep it overnight, it becomes more like a stew than a soup!   Secondly, sprinkle with a lot of shredded parmesan at serving time.  That parmesan makes the soup!

Warning: If you’re going to make this lovely Italian soup, you need to watch for sales!  You actually can buy the ingredients that are not necessarily Safeway’s brand!    They were good ingredients, don’t get me wrong, but they add up very quickly.  I was on a mission and should have paid attention to sales and/or aimed for more bargain brands!

I had to be sure I did not mess up any ingredients so I could report on this recipe fairly and accurately.  Between that and my Safeway loyalty issues, I ended up buying the ingredients exactly as they are listed.  It was darn good soup!

Try it!  You tweak it, and then share your tweaks!  Please?  Those tweaks can certainly include smart buying tips.  I am always open to that!