Julie and Jason, Vintaged

I wanted to do something different for Julie and Jason, so I went retro with some of their photos. Hope they like them. 

French Press Coffee Making

My nephew Daniel makes really good coffee, and he does it with a coffee press. I wanted to copy him so when I saw this OXO French Press Coffee Maker at the swap meet for $3, I jumped on it. 

I went online and found all kinds of instructions for pressing coffee, and I try to do everything they say, but . . . meh . . . mines doesn't come out like Daniel's. 

Maybe I'll try and get some good coffee next time instead of using whatever was on sale at Marukai.

Pieology

This past Friday, I found myself at Aina Haina Shopping Center a few minutes before 11:00 so I decided to wait for Pieology to open up. 



It's a Subway-like pizza place.


You can create your own pizza with unlimited toppings for $10.95.


Or you can order one of their favorites. 


Right from the beginning I started pressuring out. If you don't know how I pressure out, check out this story: Me and Drive-Throughs. 


I just wanted a chicken/spinach/garlic pizza . . . 


but all the different choices made me indecisive.  Ummmm . . . some kind of white sauce please . . . 


ummm . . . ummm . . . spinach . . . and ummm . . . how about some mushrooms . . .  ummm . . . ummm . . . okay . . . might as well throw in some olives . . . and ummm . . . is the garlic here? . . . or further on?  . . . .


 . . . ummm . . . chicken . . .  I was thinking that the portions of the ingredients being put on my pizza were sparse, and I did hear people in front of me saying, "more please", but I was too shame to ask for more . . . and . . . 


in no time my pizza got put into the oven.  I gave them my easy name "Sue", and I waited. 


This was the line after me. 


When Wendell came home and saw the Pieology box on the counter he got excited . . . until he opened the cover.  He said, "You ordered THAT?" Ummm . . . yes folks . . . I did order THAT.

Julie and Jason

Coworker Julie got married to Jason yesterday, and I couldn't be happier for her. Jason is a soft-spoken, nice guy and is just perfect for Julie. 

Congratulations, Julie and Jason. I'm glad I got to take part in your very special day!

Mystery Insect

We have these in the inside and outside of our house. I always wondered what they were. I would sometimes watch the wormy guy doing his thing, crawling up the wall dragging his pod-house behind him. He would sometimes pop into his house from one end and pop out the other end! Whatda?  

This particular guy was in our bathroom the other day, and I finally grabbed my camera and took several pictures. I did a Google image search . . . did you know you can do that?  I think it's so cool. 

And now I know what Pod Guy is. He's a moth in its caterpillar/larva stage!!  Howzdat, hah?! The common name is Household Casebearer. The scientific name is Phereoeca uterella.




I got the following info from here:

The case is constructed by the earliest larval stage (1st instar) before it hatches, and is enlarged by each successive instar. In constructing the case, the larva secretes silk to build an arch attached at both ends to the substrate. Very small particles of sand, soil, iron rust, insect droppings, arthropod remains, hairs and other fibers are added on the outside. The inside of the arch is lined exclusively by silk, and is gradually extended to form a tunnel, while the larva stays inside. The tunnel is closed beneath by the larva to form a tube free from the substrate, and open at both ends. After the first case is completed, the larva starts moving around, pulling its case behind. With each molt, the larva enlarges its case. Later cases are flattened and widest in the middle, allowing the larva to turn around inside. A fully developed larva has a case 8 to 14 mm long and 3 to 5 mm wide.

Wendell's Hainanese Chicken Rice

💟 I like this one a lot!💟

Wendell saw this recipe on Facebook and decided to try it. I searched online and found the recipe here. It's one of those cool Tastemade videos that shows you real fast how to cook something. Make sure you watch the chicken video that follows after the rice video because the guy is cute.

This is actually a rice dish and calls for only one chicken thigh.  Wendell did it with four thighs and turned it into a meal. He used 2 1/4 cups uncooked rice, 2 1/4 cups water, 6-inch green onion, 1-inch thinly sliced ginger (Wendell's metric conversion x 1 1/2 . . . well . . . sorta).

There are three different sauces that you can serve with the chicken. All three are good, my favorite being the ginger sauce. The recipe for the sauces is also included. It's at the bottom. 

• 1 chicken thigh
• 300 grams uncooked rice
• 360 ml water
• 10 cm piece green onion
• coriander
• fried onions
• (seasoning)
• 15 grams ginger, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp powdered chicken bouillon
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp salt
  
  
  1. In a large skillet, combine washed rice, water and the seasonings. Give it a quick mix so ingredients are well combined. Add the chicken thigh and the stalk of green onion on top. 
  2. Cover and cook over high heat until boiling. Turn down the heat to low and cook for 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it sit covered for 10 more minutes. 
  3. Slice the chicken into 1 cm pieces and set aside. Discard the green onion stalk and mix the rice to combine the flavors.
     
     
  Serve with the below sauces along with some fresh coriander and fried onions.
  
  
• (soy sauce)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp honey
  
  
• (chili sauce)
• 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
  
  
• (ginger sauce)
• 2 tsp ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp green onions, minced
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp sugar

  
  

  Addendum:  This is the fried onions that Wendell got from Safeway. I forgot to sprinkle it on, but it was still delicious without.
  

  

Kona's Cushion

I've been noticing that, like me, Kona's been getting up from a lying position more slowly lately. I thought that he might like lying down on something more comfortable than the hard floor. I mentioned it to Wendell and he bought this cushion from Costco. It was around $30. 

Kona didn't like it. He took to it like he did this toy that I bought for him a couple of years ago: Dog Intelligence Toy.  

Kona's normally a scaredy-cat, so I figured that maybe he didn't like the height. I took out the stuffing.




Yup, it's the height. 


So here's my plan. I'm gonna slowly stuff things into the cover and gradually build it up. Whatcha think?

Coffee Creamer

This is my favorite coffee creamer. 



I love it with my nephew's ice coffee.

Boiled Egg SUCCESS!

M, I did it!! I followed the instructions from Serious Eats here like you suggested . . . cold eggs into boiling water; 11 minutes for hard boiled and voilà . . . even the freshest Waimana eggs were easy to peel.



After boiling for 11 minutes I quickly soaked the eggs in an ice-water bath for around 5 minutes. They were so easy to peel that I didn't even need to do it under running water (another recommendation).

I have to show off the salad that I made. Small-kine different from the one I tossed. The shrimp was leftover garlic shrimp poke from Costco.


Here's the dressing that I used. I like it. Wendell said that he thinks he got it from Costco . . . or Sam's . . . sorry . . . he can't remember.

Bob's Pizzeria

I took a couple of days off last week, so me and Wendell actually got to go holo holo together. Mostly I just hanged out with him while he did some errands. 

At lunch time we ended up in Kailua at Bob's Pizzeria. Wendell had read that President Obama liked their pizza so he was curious.  I hadn't been to Kailua in ages and was surprised to see how much it had changed. I couldn't get over all the tourists riding bikes on the street. 









A "slice" of pizza is a quarter of a pie and is actually two pieces. Here's the Spinach/Garlic/Pepperoni ($7.27). I liked it a lot.


Here's the Bob's Special ($7.90).


Wendell said he likes it better than Pieology. I haven't tried Pieology's pizza yet, so I can't say myself.

Batman vs. Spiderman

Aka Sweetie and Colin. I think Spiderman wins.

Bac Nam

Coworker Bien offered to pick up lunch for us from his favorite Vietnamese restaurant Bac Nam to celebrate Michele's birthday a few weeks ago. So nice, yah!  It was my first time trying food from there.

Here is Mich's BBQ Shrimp/Spring Roll Vermicelli ($10.95).



Bien's HUE's Spicy Beef Soup ($9.50). Bien said that it's his faaaavorite . . .


especially eaten with this bread. He bought several loaves to share. ($1.75)


My Tofu Curry ($9.95). I liked it. 


It didn't come with rice. Rice is separate ($1.50).


Vietnamese Steamed Dumplings ($8.50), the menu said "marinated shrimp, pork and onions", but it was more like a dried shrimp/pork filling . . . not what I was expecting. It tasted good, but don't know if I would order it again.

Karaage Chicken from J Shop

I had Karaage Chicken from J Shop for four days in a row for lunch last week. It sells for $3.50/container and is so gooooooood. 



I ate it with rice on all four days instead of with this salad which I kept "saving for tomorrow" and which got tossed after I took this picture.