if i could put time in a bottle.......

 my sweet baby boy turned 16.....where does the time go......

tuilips and art

 I was happy when I realized that the tulips I bought matched the tulips in the painting The Mister's Grandmother painted many years ago.

 

my yellow bowl

When we had my Nana's funeral many many years ago, and her little house was being emptied to be sold, the family had an afternoon where we discussed who would receive what mementos from the house.

I held back from speaking up too much - I lived the farthest away and had seen her the least over the years, and I didn't want to step on any family member toes by trying to claim things they might have wanted themselves.  Besides, the things that I really would have loved were either already spoken for - her little mantle clock - or long gone - her brush and mirror set that she kept on her dresser hadn't been around for years, and her super cool retro dishes that made me think of lunches with her and my grandpa when I was a kid had long been replaced.  

I did of course get some lovely things, and one of the most treasured has become her yellow bowl.

 

The funny thing about the bowl is that I don't ever recall seeing her use it!  She wasn't much of a baker and meals she cooked were pretty straightforward meat and potatoes.  Perhaps it was used for big family dinners, but us kids were banished from her small kitchen to keep us from getting in the way.

 

I brought it back to our house in Calgary and it lived on a shelf, unused, until we moved to BC, where it lived up above the kitchen cupboards where I could see it every time I walked in the kitchen but it wasn't easily accessible and remained unused.  When we did a big kitchen cleanup/clean-out last year it came down from its shelf to be washed, and I wondered what I was saving the bowl for, and why I wasn't using it now.

So I made room on my bowl shelf and now it has become one of my most often used bowls.

 

It's quite large and a good size for bread doughs or meatloafs, and it has a flat spot on one side so you can have it tilted on the counter, if you needed to.

 

So I use it to make meatloaf, and bread dough.  Muffins and pancakes.  Cookies.  And I think about my Nana and her little kitchen, and her daughter - my Mom - and how much I love and miss them both.

 

The stamp on the bottom of the bowl reads - 

The "Gripstand" 

Mixing Bowl

T. G. Green & Co Ltd.

Church Gresley

Made in England

Patent No - (the patent number is worn off)

 

 

A quick google search showed me that the bowl is from a popular brand and were produced from 1906 to 2007.  The company started in the small village Church Gresley, and the style is called pressed yellow ware and was sold worldwide.

 Here's an article I found, and here is a facebook page about the pottery as well. 

Birthday Cakes 2019

Birthday cake season has come and gone and whoooo, it was a nail biter!

Both kids had strong, ever changing opinions on their cakes, and every time I tried to nail down specifics a new idea popped into their heads and we were back to square one.

The Boy finally decided on a doughnut cake, Simpsons style, meaning pink with sprinkles.

I found a recipe for a bundt cake that tasted like a doughnut, so I whipped that up, let it cool, and then popped it out of the pan.

Almost.

DANGIT.

I carefully pried the stuck piece out of the pan and tried to stick the pieces back together using the power of my mind.  When that didn't work, I used toothpicks instead, and instructed The Mister to make sure I removed the 'picks before serving.

Can you spot the toothpick(s)?

I made a pink glaze for the top and sprinkled it with gold sugar because of course I forgot to buy real sprinkles for the top.

And guess what else we forgot?  TO REMOVE THE TOOTHPICKS BEFORE SERVING IT.

Lord.

The Boy loved it and it tasted pretty good, so that's all that matters.

_________________________

Her brother's birthday always throws The Girl into a frenzy about her own - what she would like to eat, what gift she would like, her cake.....

The cake ideas changed almost daily until I put my foot down a couple of days before her birthday and told her to pick.....an easy one that I could actually produce.

She settled on a cotton candy cake, and friends, I have no story to tell you other than it was a pretty cute cake.

I even marbled the dang thing because I was feeling so good about it.

My only wish was that I could have found fluffier cotton candy for the top but whatevs, look at these cakes!  It was a good time.  My babies are happy and healthy and loved their cakes.  Life is good

Snapshot - Breakfast in Bed

Saturday morning once everyone was awake, the kids and I ended up cuddling back in my bed, talking about our busy day before.  The Girl, who likes to play restaurant, told me she was going to make me breakfast in bed and I was to stay in bed until it was ready.  

She left the room and I figured she'd be back in a few minutes with some pretend food on a plate, or would lose interest and yell for me to get up and be with her in the living room, but shortly after, she came back into the bedroom  - a big smile on her face, carrying my breakfast.  Her daddy had helped her make toaster waffles and fruit for breakfast for the two of us.

The Mister followed behind her with a plate for her, and once she was up in the bed with me, the boys left us ladies alone to enjoy our relaxing meal.

It was such a special gift - that she thought of me and wanted to do something so nice, and to have a bit of alone time, and her beautiful big smile, so proud of what she had done.

I could have stayed there all day, with my big girl, not a baby any more - almost 5.

How can it be?  

What will come next?

Unicorn Birthday Cake - or, Thank God Four Year Olds Don't Have High Standards

So The Girl is like many other kids out there and is currently obsessed with unicorns. 

I remembered a video someone had shared on The Facebook about how "easy" it is to make a unicorn (or lots of other animals) out of a 9x13 pan cake.

It was her 4th birthday!  A fancy cake was needed!  And so I went for it.

I made the cake (box mix with sprinkles mixed in) the day before her birthday and so the morning of, I was up early to knock this thing out of the park and wow my family.

I realized right away that I hadn't thought about what I would serve the cake on, and I knew we didn't have any sort of tray or pan big enough to hold it.  I knew The Mister would not be excited if I woke him up at 5am to share this info, so I wandered around the kitchen for a bit before deciding I would have to cover my biggest baking sheet with foil and use the back of it.

I covered the pan in foil, and briefly felt a little sting on my hand, but I was too busy getting nervous about how wrong this was all going to go to give it much thought.

Following the video, which by now I had watched 20 times, I made my first cuts:

I started to move the pieces to the unicorn shape when I noticed something red smeared on my hand and on a bit of the cake.  It was blood.  I had cut the palm of my hand on the TINFOIL and was bleeding onto the CAKE.  Nice.

I bandaged myself up, cleaned up all the blood, and trimmed the blood off the cake.  Thank God no one was awake and watching this.

I had realized already that the tray covered in foil looked like crap BEFORE I got blood everywhere, so I trimmed the cake down a smidgy more and left it on the cutting board.

A month before The Girl's birthday, The Boy had his birthday.  I had a cake plan in mind and some ingredients bought - he is very much into Harry Potter lately and I thought he might like a cake like the one Hargid made for Harry - but then a couple of weeks before his birthday he announced that he wanted a totally different cake, so I had the package of white icing and a tube of pink icing already in the cupboard.

I bought the icing at Bulk Barn, it was some sort of "professional" icing that all you had a to do was add water to and whip.  I had planned on following the video and piping little dots/blobs all over the cake, but this was not that sort of icing.  

The pink tube icing went on sort of ok, but it was heavier than the white icing and it was looking like it was going to slide right off the hoofs - which it actually did a few hours later.

The black tube icing was a real pain in the ass and I was getting very frustrated that I couldn't get it quite where I wanted it.

Also, I feared the unicorn looked more like a pig.

I started working with the little tub of fondant I'd bought at Michaels, and it was wayyyy harder than I thought.  I was getting pretty unhappy about the whole thing.  At this point, The Boy woke up and came into the kitchen and was so excited about how the cake looked.  He flattered me enough to keep me going, and together we managed to get that damn fondant shaped into a horn and tail.

The video we were following also had a rainbow mane, but we didn't have a big enough unicorn to fit one in nicely.

The girl was beyond thrilled with her cake, which made all the blood loss, sweat and tears worth it.

One super weird thing that happened, that you can see the starting of in the last photo, is that the white icing actually began  to dissolve in spots shortly after the cake was done.  The icing on the right leg above you can see it looks almost bubbly.  So odd.

Very awesome YouTube video here .

 

More Treasures

My Dad has been working through some boxes stored in his basement and he gave me a stack of papers to go through. Here's some cringy things I found - 

A Breakdancing instructional poster - I am pretty sure this came in a record I bought?  

I laughed until I cried looking at this.  It reminded me of when my mom signed me up for a (thankfully short) set of beginner breakdancing lessons at a downtown dance studio in the 80's.

I was horrible at it, but I appreciate my mom letting try.

When I found out that Shawn Cassidy and I share the same birthday I thought that meant we were destined to be together forever.  My obsession with him was as short lived as my breakdancing career, but along the way someone gifted me with this super cool notebook.

In this pile of papers there were some loose "order forms" and receipts and menus from when I would play waitress and take orders from imaginary customers in the restaurant in my room.

Those made sense, more sense than this note I found.

I was a lover, not a fighter, so I am mystified by this.  What was up?  

Who was I begging myself not to fight? 

Ok, so who would NOT want The Go-Go's, Willie Nelson and Billy Joel at their party?  But who is Jennifer Rodgers?  Google is revealing nothing.  Such a mystery. 

Snapshot - Canucks Flyer

My Dad unearthed this from a box of treasures in the basement.

Ticket prices have slightly changed over the years.

Princess cake

Both kids have birthdays at the end of the year - November and December, about a month apart - and once The Girl got to help decorate her brother's birthday cake for his party, she became quite interested in her own upcoming cake.

"A BIG cake!  A THOMAS cake!"  She announced, and struck fear into my soul because I am in no way artistic or creative please see pretty much any of the posts here if you don't believe me.

Now, she doesn't even really like Thomas much anymore, so I think it was just the first thing that popped into her head.  I panicked, and replied with the first thing that popped into my head - wouldn't you rather have a princess cake?  YES!  She replied enthusiastically,  and then talked non stop about it for the next month. 

Now, before anyone rolls their eyes at me, trust me that this was not a sexist Girl can't have a Thomas cake thing.  It was a I remember my Boo (aka BFF) made a princess cake for one of her daughters a few years back and she said it was so easy that even I could do it thing.

The Big Day came, and my Boo came over to get me started.

The night before I had made the cakes- 2 - one in round pans, and one in a large measuring cup my Boo had lent me.

I wrapped the dolls legs in plastic wrap and we hacked one of the round cakes up to make a bottom and a top to go around the measuring cup cake.

I used this buttercream frosting and we dyed it pink.

My Boo got the decorating started, and then turned the reins over to me.  The kitchen and the icing got warmer, the kids were all amped up, and my little frosting blobs were not turning out as neat as hers. But hey, 3 year olds don't have super high standards.

I was starting to get fatigued by the time I got to the lower part of the dress, so I added some purple food coloring to the pink frosting and tried my hand at a big swirly design to hurry it along.  

If you stand back and squint a lot, it doesn't look too bad.

What matters most is the The Girl loved it - a lot - so that made my day.

And I'm in the clear on kids birthday cakes for 9 more months!

My Mom's Tetrazzini

I don't know how to start here after my last post, so talking about one of my mom's recipes feels like the thing to do.

My mom's tetrazzini has always been a favorite of mine - I used to think it was so classy! 

Noodles and cream of mushroom soup!  What could be better?

Some days, not much.

I made this one not long after she passed away, with some leftover rotisserie chicken. It felt good to make this meal for the kids, even though both are so picky - The Girl will eat some of the noodles, but not the chicken, and The Boy will scrape off the cheese and eat the chicken but isn't so much a fan of pasta.  I like it all.

I am thinking about going through my posts and starting a new label, maybe family recipes?  to note all the good stuff my mom shared with us.  There's a lot.  Also check out my Sunday Dinner label - most of the Sunday dinners I cooked for my mom and dad are posted too.  And I also have a family label, for  memories.  I am slowly searching key words on the blog to look for untagged posts that I want to add to the categories.  The Sunday Dinner label will return - we are back to having Sunday dinners with my Dad, and as soon as I get organized (ha!) the posts will start again.
Sadly, some of my older posts won't update with new labels, so I will have to start remaking some of this delicious stuff and posting so it can be labelled.  The things I must do....

someday

In the elevators of the hospital here, they have posters explaining that if you see a butterfly on the door of a room in the hospital, it means that a patient is close to passing, or has already passed, so that those entering the room are aware of the circumstances.

When I got to my moms hospital room on the morning of December 21, there was a blue butterfly on her door. 

The meaning of the butterfly wasn't a shock - my Dad and I had received the devastating news the afternoon before; but it still slammed me in the heart.  This was really happening.

In November I read over and over again a few posts and Instagrams of Tracy at Shutterbean.  Her mom passed away suddenly right before American Thanksgiving.   I was beginning to wonder if the same was  going to happen to us.

My Mom had been in the hospital for a  while.  She endured countless cycles  of improvements and setbacks.  She fought as hard as she could.  She suffered.

A handful of days later.  A different door. A different butterfly. My Mom is gone.

Of her son, Tracy wrote 

"He doesn’t understand it. He doesn’t understand how this will change him.

It makes me feel so lucky that I had my grandparents for as long as I did.

He doesn’t understand how this will change me."

My Mom loved her grandkids a lot.  One of my biggest regrets is that they will move forward without her in their lives.  It was too soon. 

It's been more than a month since we lost her now. Some days are good.  Some are pretty bad.  

We are moving forward and trying to figure out this new life without her.

It will come.

Photos from our 2016 family trip to Vancouver Island, one of our last trips.

"...the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take."

J.R.R. Tolkien

Snapshot - Wedding favor cookie cutter

Recently I was helping my dad clean up some  stuff in their basement, and I came across this favor from our wedding.  I'd wanted to be different, and not do the same  old candy or cookies that everyone seemed to do.  So I chose a cookie cutter and recipe for cookies.

We had to tie each cookie cutter in place with the ribbon, and I can't even tell you what a unfun job that was to do on 100+ cutters.

The wooden desk this photo was taken on was my desk in my bedroom when I was growing up.

After I moved out, my mom used the desk for sewing and knitting projects

and then it became one of my dads art tables.

A few weeks ago we moved it from their house to our house and now it is in The Boy's 

room, covered in lego. 

Blueberry muffins for G

Every weekend I make a batch of blueberry muffins for The Grandfather.

They are one of his favorite things ever.

These are serious muffins - low in fat and sugar, and high in fiber.
My kids are not fans.  What a shock!

I've taken my mom's recipe, which she has noted on the paper came from the local hospital, and made a few changes over the multiple times I've made these.

Blueberry Muffins for G

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

3 TB vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp grated lemon or orange zest

1/2 cup Bran Buds cereal

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350'.  Line 12 muffin cups with liners.

Beat egg, stir in milk, oil, vanilla, zest and bran buds.  Let stand 5 minutes.

Stir again and add in flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir until just combined.  Gently stir in berries.

Spoon into prepared cups and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Chili Cheese Dog Bake and other recipes we've tried lately

Have I mentioned lately what a joy it is to cook for my children. No? Guess why.

(pulls out own hair and screams internally)

Kids, man.  WTF.  Work all day, come home, dash into the kitchen to make them a healthy-ish, usually delicious dinner, and they complain, turn up their noses,  whine, and the little one tosses hers on the floor.  The big one probably would, if he thought he could get away with it.

Can't give up, can't stop of course.  The Beasts need to eat.

Wasn't someone working on a pill or drink that would replace the need to eat food?  

How is that coming?

Chili Cheese Dog Bake - from Buzzfeed.  The Boy said - "I don't want to make you cry, so - " and then he did a "sideways" thumb.  I didn't cook this quite long enough, some of the dough was a bit underdone.  It was ok.

Sheet pan chicken fajitas also from Buzzfeed.  These were good.  Even the kids ate some.

I truly wasn't sure how the vegan cauliflower wings would be received, so I only made a quarter batch, which was a big mistake.  THESE WERE DELICIOUS.

The moment I read the recipe for these flourless sweet potato brownies I was in the kitchen cooking sweet potatos to make them. No one in the family would eat them but me.  They were pretty tasty; you aren't going to fool anyone into confusing them with real brownies, but they weren't bad.  My tasters at work were silent.

Slow cooker salsbury steak is a bit on the processed side, with onion soup mix in the patties, and the sauce made of jus mix and cream of mushroom soup, but it was easy and pretty tasty.  A winner with 3 our of 4 of us.

Hawaiian grilled chicken was a hit with everyone, and super easy.  Just dump a bunch of stuff over some chicken, marinate overnight, and cook the next day.

I had really high hopes for these sausage and mushroom pizza bowls but it was not meant to be.  The Boy convinced himself that they would be awful, even though he loves pizza, and I served it with bread for dipping and/or spreading.  The Girl flat out refused it.  I was too annoyed by their reactions to enjoy it, but The Mister had 2 helpings, bless him.

This week we are trying a new pasta recipe with chicken, a vegan curry, orange baked chicken, and nachos.  What's happening in your kitchen?

Childhood foods part one

It's pretty fun to watch the kids grow and change and develop their personalities.  

The Boy is thoughtful but silly.  Opinionated and kind.  

Our girl is independant but shy, adventurous but so sensitive and intuitive.  

Food wise, The Boy is NOT an adventurous eater.  He hates mushrooms with a passion, and doesn't like pie of any kind.  He refuses to try spicy foods, and thinks cheese pizza is the height of gourmet dining (he may not be wrong....) yet LOVES sushi.  It's still pretty early for The Girl, however right now she is not a fan of meat of pretty much any sort.  She loves milk (Mooey is the word for both milk and music and she loves them both a lot) and cheese and cucumbers and tomatos.  Avocado is on the outs now, along with sweet potato, but regular potatos and peas are ok most of the time.

I like to think I wasn't a picky eater as a child, but I probably was.  I didn't like fish.  Spinach.  Refused to eat lamb - I had a stuffed lamb that I adored and was horrified my parents would want to EAT LAMBIE - and nothing they said could sway me.  I hated sweet potatos but my mom only served them at Christmas so that wasn't a big deal.  

Do you have a lot of favorite foods?  I do, and some I haven't eaten in years and years.

In Grade 2 - yes I can remember back that many years ago - we learned about the pioneer times and one day my teacher showed us how to make butter in a jar.  We all took turns helping the shake the jar and then we each got our own little plate of saltine crackers smeared with butter.  I don't know what it is about that combo but I still love it to this day.  Salty and rich and crunchy and comforting.

A friend likes to put buttered saltines in her chicken noodle soup.  I tried it on her recommendation, but I could take it or leave it.  There must be plenty of crackers around when it's chicken noodle soup time, however.  Just not buttered.

The Boy feels differently about CNS - he likes to dip and nibble on a cracker or two, but that's about it.  He's a fan of spooning up the broth first and eating the noodles later.  The first time I saw him do that it reminded me of how my cousins and I used to eat chicken noodle soup and my grandmothers house - she would give us straws to suck up the broth, and then we would chase the noodles around the bowls with our spoons.

My grandmother also used to serve us ham sandwiches with potato chips right inside.  

I haven't had that in years and years, but it still sounds so good, and comforting.

One final story about my grandmother - she made what I considered to be THE BEST lemon meringue pies.   For years, every time I went to visit her she would make one for me.  And then nag at me to eat the whole thing before my visit was up.  I was so loyal to her pie - no other LMP came close to hers.  When she passed away, the family was at her house to clean it out.  The grandkids were asked what sort of mementos we would want.  I tearfully replied that the only thing I wanted was her pie recipe.  My mom looked at me funny and said - she didn't have a pie recipe.  She used a box mix.  I never knew!  

More soon........

Tomato Soup Spice Bread

A long, long time ago my mom asked me to look on the internet for some recipes for my grandmother.  She was looking for a recipe for a spice cake made with tomato soup - something she had enjoyed years ago.  It sounded horrible to me, but I obliged with a few different recipes for her to look at.  I don't recall if I ever asked her if she tried any of them, if any of them were close to what she was hoping for.

A year or so later I was shopping at the old farmers market at the barracks in Calgary, and there was a stall that sold various ready to heat and eat products, and one of the things they sold was - tomato soup spice bread!  I had to buy a loaf, so I did.  We ate it.  It was good.

Fast forward to a week ago when I came across a recipe for it that I'd saved in one of my notebooks.  It made me smile to see it.

Tomato Soup Spice Bread

adapted from Pop It Stir It Fix It Serve It

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinammon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloved

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 egg

 1/3 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup sugar

1 10 oz can tomato soup

1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350'.

Spray a loaf pan with non stick spray.  Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, soda, salt, powder, and spices.

In a separate bowl whisk together the egg, oil, vanilla, sugar, and soup.

Pour the soup mixture into the dry ingredients, along with the raisins.  Mix until combined.

Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake, 40-50 minutes.  If the top is browning too quickly, cover with foil.  

Let rest in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a rack and let cool.

Christmas 2013

Christmas Table, 2013

We had a great Christmas, but just between you and me I'm glad it's over.  I'm ready to take down the decorations, clean up the house, and get ready for 2014.  Although seriously, how can it be 2014?!?!?!

We did a German theme for Christmas this year - (see our other themed Christmas dinners and assorted stuff with the Christmas tag)

Sauerbraten - German pot roast, marinated for a few days prior to cooking in vinegar, stock and herbs and spices.

Spaetzle - homemade egg noodles.  Super easy to make.  I had to add quite a bit more water than called for to get my dough to the right consistency.

Grunkohl Mit Kartoffeln - Kale with bacon and potatos.

Roasted Asparagus and Carrots - topped with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

We also had red cabbage, gravy (see roast recipe), sour cream, and mustards on the table.

For dessert we pulled out our stash of shortbread cookies, although I'm certain that only Pax and my mom had any.

On Boxing Day I gave us a day off before leftovers and made this Honey Soy Chicken that I'd pinned on Pinterest.  It was a super good hands free dish which I needed - I was so tired!  Christmas is exhausting, yo.

For Christmas I received the cookbook Smoke and Pickles and I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to start cooking from it.  It's gorgeous and the recipes look amazing and creative.  I thought I was going to have to frisk my parents at the door to make sure they didn't smuggle it out - they seemed as smitten with it as I am.

Now, do I continue to sit here and veg, or smarten up and start taking down Christmas..........

Baci di Cioccolati - the best chocolate cookies

I rarely look at "stats" for my blog, but every year starting in November, my daily visitor numbers start to climb, when everyone begins looking for cookie recipes for holiday baking.  My number one post each year is always for shortbread - here - but I want to share another recipe with you today, in case you are looking for a simple, amazing, knock your socks off cookie recipe. 

My mom makes these every few years, and I made them a couple of months ago for a work potluck and handed out the extras to some co-workers, and the next day I had to make about 15 copies of the recipe to hand out, they were so popular.  These are delicious and truffle-like and gorgeous.

This recipe comes from the book Dishing: Calgary Women Cook.

Baci di Cioccolati

Rosemary Harbrecht

Makes 4 dozen

10 oz semi sweet chocolate

2/3 cup butter

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

   pinch salt

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup dried apricots, choppped

1 cup white chocolate chips

Gently melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler or microwave.  Let cool.

Beat the eggs and sugar together until thick.  Add the vanilla and melted chocolate and butter.  Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix well.  Fold in the dried fruits, and then the while chocolate chips.

Preheat the oven to 325'.  Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased or lined cookie sheet.  Bake 12 minutes, until the tops are crackly, puffy and shiny.  They will remain soft after baking. 

Hawaiian Christmas Dinner - Pineapple Coleslaw

This was one of my favorite things I ate in Hawaii when we were there in 2007, apart from anything from Maui Taco.

I vowed when we returned from our trip I would find a wonderful pineapple coleslaw recipe....but I guess I sort of forgot about it.  Until we were planning this meal and I knew it had to be added.  Luckily Paula at The Cookbook Junkie had the perfect recipe for Pineapple Coleslaw, from one of the Diners Drive Ins and Dives cookbooks.

My Mom made this and apparently we didn't take any photos, but it looks like...coleslaw, so I guess we'll all be ok. Anyhoo, my Mom said she increased the amount of carrot and decreased the sugar a bit. It was the best slaw I've ever ever had. Fo sho.

Reverb 10, Day 26/Christmas Dinner

December 26 – Soul Food What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth & touched your soul? (Author: Elise Marie Collins)

Well I love food and I love most kinds but the best meal that sticks in my head right now is from last night, Christmas Dinner.

If you've read here for a while you know that I've convinced my family to have non-traditional Christmas dinners the past few years. We've had Swedish (2006), French Canadian (2007), Italian (2008), and last year we had Turducken.

This year we went Hawaiian.

Back in 2007 we went on a family holiday to Hawaii, one of the best trips of my life.  We went to a luau and ate at local restaurants when we ate out and really enjoyed the food.  So for our dinner this year I wanted to recreate some of the dishes we had on our trip.

We made Kalua Pig.

Kalua Pig is made with liquid smoke, Hawaiian salt and Ti or Banana leaves.  Bizarrely enough we had Hawaiian salt (from our trip) in the cupboard and banana leaves (from Calgary) in the freezer. 

We bought some decorations from the dollar store.

We started our dinner with Coconut Shrimp and Bacon Wrapped Pineapple.

We had Kalua Pig,

And Chicken Long Rice,

And Maui Ribs,

We also had rice, Cucumber Salad and Pineapple Coleslaw, but I can't find any photos of the salads.

For dessert my Mom made Pineapple Upside down Cake.

The food was all fantastic and over the next week I will share the recipes with you, but the best part was having a great dinner with my family. I am thankful I have them and thankful that they are nice enough to forgo a Turkey Dinner on Christmas Day to play along with me.

(Yep, we've already started on our menu for next year!)