Haleiwa

Haleiwa reminds me of Paia on Maui.

Handcrafted, artsy.

We enjoyed watching an entrepreneur hack open a coconut for us for $6. When you're done drinking the coconut water, you return to the booth and he will cut the coconut meat into small pieces for further enjoyment.



Lots of blooming flowers (winter).





T-shirts.



Boutiques.


Red Dirt t-shirts.



Locally made (somewhere in HI).I liked the leather trim next to the zipper.



These little 5 x 7" zippy pouches on the table were $$ - can you guess? Leave me a guess in the comments. Closest person gets? Tell me what you'd like to win? Kona coffee? Macadamia nuts? Zippy bag?

The slightly bigger, but still simple zipper pouches were even more. The smaller wallets were about the same price as the zippy bags.


Nice patchwork utilization of doilies and fabric to make a bag.



Squint? Can you see the price on this coffee? 12 oz.



Mahalo.


sunrise sunday

Coconut Macaroons

Fudge on top - Macaroons - Ginger Snaps.

My daughter made Coconut Macaroons for me a year ago and I can have them in moderation (as in all things) with little or no reaction.
It was easy to substitute gluten-free flour for the flour with just a tad longer baking time.


Here's the recipe:

COCONUT MACAROONS

4 EGG WHITES
1 Cup SUGAR
1/4 tsp SALT
1 tsp VANILLA
1/2 Cup CAKE FLOUR (or gluten-free)
3 Cups sweetened SHREDDED COCONUT (14 oz bag is perfect)

1st note: The 14oz bag of coconut is perfect. Ignore the "Contains 5 1/3 Cups." Even the bag recipe calls for the entire bag for 4 egg whites.
2nd note: I used gluten-free flour and increased it to 3/4 - 1 cup. This keeps macaroons from sticking and if you are a college student and do not have parchment paper - then this is a plus.  ***June 2013 addition: The last three times, I have used 2/3 coconut flour +1/3 gluten-free baking flour mix - both are form Bob's Red Mill. Whatever equals 3/4 cup of flours.
3rd note: ours were not browning this time at 325'. Try temporarily turning on the broiler to help get those tops browned.

In a stainless steel bowl set above a saucepan of simmering water (double boiler), mix EGG Whites, SUGAR, & SALT until mix is warm to the touch and nice & creamy.
Remove bowl from heat and stir in VANILLA, FLOUR & COCONUT. Refridgerate two hours or until firm.
Drop onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake at 325' for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown on top. When bottoms are lightly browned, they are done.

We are off to our family Christmas get-together this afternoon. We are in charge of desserts.
This three-tiered Desert Rose dessert thingy, two pumpkin pies and the Christmas hearts below.
There is a pear torte as well but it was still in the oven when I ventured out into the cold patio to take photos.

These Hearts were made with popsicle sticks, melted chocolate and crushed peppermints.
Candycane Hearts Recipe is here.

No snow here. I almost cracked my hummingbird feeder this morning. I thought the weather people were predicting Oregon would finally get warmer than freezing (last five weeks!) and it would rain. Still freezing this morning. . . .and no snow (or rain).

Gluten-Free German Chocolate Cake

My grandma made a German Chocolate Cake from scratch for nearly every Sunday dinner we had at her house. She also made jello with perfect floating bananas and marshmallows.
You cannot replicate everything.

My creative friend was telling me about this recipe and I immediately was interested.The recipe is from Delectably Free. The cake is gluten, dairy and egg free. She writes about her food allergies on her blog and is amazing in her manipulations of ingredients.

Now, my auto-immune is a bit past gluten-free. And I have come up with a problem with my family. They want to feed me, or make things I can eat. We have always been a baking/cooking family. They seem angry that their efforts aren't appreciated by me. It's difficult -for anybody -to understand how limited my diet is. But if I want to maintain some semblance of enjoying life, and the ability to get projects done,  I can't do it when my stomach is all gassed up or a migraine is threatening because of too many immune responses. Or the bumpy lesions on my skin are so itchy I can't think.  The food I eat needs to be extremely simple. I have learned to say no.
Well - I may be projecting but anger/frustration is what I feel they are feeling. Lord knows I am frustrated.

My solution is to make some allergy-free recipes that show off some of these 'new' allergy-free ingredients - even if I will probably have an immune response to the recipe. I mostly eat raw foods and it gets pretty basic. I don't eat recipes. Some of the foods I eat are pretty weird. Like seaweed.

Once in a while, you get cravings for a particular food or a memory. For my family, I know everyone loved the German Chocolate Cake Grandma Vera made.

My creative friend made the recipe and said it was pretty close to the original but she and I both caution you - this is a spendy recipe to make.  Fortunately, you will have enough ingredients to make two. My friend tested it and declared it wonderful. I spent the last two weeks assembling the ingredients.

I especially liked the flavor from toasting the coconut and pecans.

Look at that tall layer.

I still need to add the third layer as I only own two 8" cake pans and I have to wait for the third layer to cool before I can add it to the cake.

It also has money in the cake. Cleaned coins are inserted after the cake has cooled. Old family custom in which the kids find pocket change.

 

Plus, it's my daughters birthday. This very tall cake will look spectacular with birthday candles and as I am writing this, do I even own birthday candles anymore??? Oh boy. In the big clean-out of clutter so we could put the wood floors in, I think I threw them out.

The recipe is here.

My changes: I used butter instead of Earth Balance soy-free spread. I don't plan on eating the entire cake, I prefer butter for taste, I don't react much to butter, and Earth Balance (Soy-free) is more than double what butter costs.

The cake consists of  the cake, the cream frosting and the toasted pecan/coconut mixture. I would suggest doubling the frosting recipe. Part of what I remember is the gooey coconut/pecan frosting. More is better.

Most of my ingredients were found here at my local grocery store where they have bent over backwards to stock allergy-free ingredients.
The owner of King's Cupboard in Woodburn kindly sold me 2 oz of Xantham Gum from an 8 oz package. 8 Oz. - for me - would have lasted longer than I want it on my pantry shelf. Not to mention, add to the cost of this cake.

Buying all of the ingredients for this cake is expensive. But the cake looks gorgeous and stunning. Even better, it tastes amazing. This is a show-stopper dessert.