Hawaii and Beyond

I can't believe it's been 5 years since we visited Bali. Watching the video makes me want to go back and find more adventures. Bali is an awesome place with special people. This time I'll be bringing a better camera than one of those Sears $40 Handheld cameras. Hope you enjoy the shortened version.  Who else wants to go? 

   Having a wedding or interested in donating flowers from an event? Donating to a care home is a great way to brighten the day of care home residents. Our wedding took place at Laniakea Café Julia & YWCA in Honolulu on July 20th. It was a beautiful wedding that turned out great with dancing and good times. Our concern with the decorations was that we wanted to make sure our flower arrangements didn't got to waste. The flower arrangements were designed by Ivie Joy Floral Arts and Events , and we couldn't have asked for anything more beautiful. Her skills and services were out of our league and budget, but luckily Ivie Joy is a friend of my wife. Thank you Ivie! Our Donated Flowers in the back of an SUV The idea came to my wife when we decided to have our wedding on Oahu instead of The Big Island where we live. There wasn't much information online about donating in Hawaii which is strange since many people do destination wedd...

This was an impromptu dinner selection and was decided on the way home from work with my fiancé. We are lucky to live in Hawaii, but this day happened to have bumper-to-bumper traffic. After about 30 minutes we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and also a truck on the side of the road selling live Lobsters. We had to jump at the chance...Lobster Risotto it is! DISCLAIMER: I have to admit that I didn't create this recipe nor did I prepare it. I'm lucky to have a beautiful fiancé who is also an awesome cook and baker. I'll post up one of her special Pecan Pie recipes shortly. Here she is: Anyways.....Where were we? Oh yes, To the Recipe. Ingredients: Lobster Chopped Garlic Chopped Onions Arborio Rice Chicken Stock (or Lobster stock - instructions below) Mushrooms Parmesan Cheese (optional) Tomato Italian Parsley Lime Butter Recipe: Lobster Stock: Chop the lobster heads from the body and pla...

  Right across the street of the  Hilo Farmers Market  is the Kitchen Café. The place opened within the last few months and has some pretty darn good food. This last Saturday we tried the $2 fried beef curry empanada looking treat. Inside this crispy goodness is beef and onions mixed with curry seasoning. Very good and well priced. Two will do the trick for me. Their menu also has Tortilla Egg Cake with Spam, breakfast sandwiches, and more. The sign says they are open Tuesday - Saturday. Another plus is they offer free WIFI. Go check them out when you're strolling through the Saturday Farmers Market. You wont be disappointed. 

I've been experimenting as of late with some driftwood from our local beach and decided to make some driftwood wall art. This all stemmed from needing to make a gift and I knew this could be a perfect present. I started out by creating hanging, driftwood planters for orchids. The planters turned out great and the person loved it. Next, I started doing stacked pieces, which turned out pretty cool. I basically used wire that is for hanging artwork and drilled holes through each piece of wood to give a loose connected feel.     When I was creating the stacked pieces, I realized that they potentially could look like fish. The next day, I went back to the beach with certain driftwood shapes in mind. I was able to find a cool palm frond base that was perfect for the tail along with some flat bamboo pieces. The beach is abundant with driftwood and I'm happy with the results. I plan to sell these on my Etsy page or at the Farmers Marke...

This Recipe is for my mainland friends. Because the people of Hawaii already know about this and probably rolling their eyes. You've gotta try this next time you plan to BBQ. It's pork tinono which is basically barbeque pork.  It's great to eat with just rice or experiment and try it as Tinono Tacos.  I'm going to tell you the ingredients below, but don't ask how much of each since there aren't set measurement amounts. You have to go off the feeling, taste it, use your senses, channel your inner Filipino. That's what I do...or I ask my wife Ingredients Needed: Pork Belly - We use Island Pork Ginger - finely chopped Garlic - chopped Shoyu Soy Sauce Apple Cider Vinegar (for the real deal: Filipino white vinegar) Green Onions - Chopped Red Onions - Sliced Tomato - Chopped into big chunks Marinade: Garlic - Smashed and roughly diced Ginger - Smashed and chopped into small pieces Aloha Shoyu Soy Sauce App...

I just loaded an Ford Explorer full of junk to the dump this afternoon. How did we accumulate that much stuff? We managed to donate about half of the items, but where did all of it come from? We'd like to think we are minimalist, which means we are scared of becoming hoarders. Why am I telling you about this? I came to the realization on the way home that Buying Quality Items is the Green thing to do. Theoretically, you will be saving the planet by buying a product of highest quality opposed to cheapest priced. The higher quality product will last longer meaning it will stay out of the already overflowing landfills. Let's use my fiancé and her desire to collect  Louis Vuitton Bags as an example. Her justification for getting the bags are the quality hand-made designs. It makes sense. Why buy 5 cheap purses that have the same life spam as 1 quality bag combined? Wasteful. Trendy. Out of Style. Despicable. She already had good ta...