A Very Happy Halloween to You...

     Our Halloween party was this weekend.  It was a whirlwind of ladybugs, robots, spiders, and werewolves all wrapped up in a tidy 1950's-era package.  It was also pouring down rain and pitch dark so I don't have a lot of pictures of our scavenger hunt in progress, I'm afraid.  I have lots of shots like this:

Yeah...

So I'll tell you what we did and show you pictures of what it looked like sans kids...  We held a 1950's style Halloween party including some reproduction decorations.

We carried the theme into the menu by trying to replicate a TV dinner in a more desirable way.  We served homemade meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and steamed peas and carrots mixed with mint.  There was also a jell-o salad style dish because 50's and a 7-Up Cake.  Our starter for the kids was Vienna Sausage size organic hot dog chunks.  We also had meatballs, gluten-free cookies, and the vegetarian main was beans and franks.  We washed it all down with punch and martinis!

This was an agar agar Jell-o salad stand in.  It was interesting.  I especially liked the salad dressing.

Minted Peas and Carrots
1 lb bag carrots, peeled and sliced
1 bag frozen peas
2 Tbs mint
salt and pepper to taste

Steam the carrots until almost done.  Add the peas and continue steaming until warmed through.  Toss with salt, pepper, and mint.  Serve immediately.

Punch
1 Bottle Sparkling Apple cider
1/2 Gallon orange juice
1/2 Gallon Earthwise Wild Berry Guava Lemonade
12 scoops Raspberry Sorbet

Add all drinks to a large punch bowl and top with sorbet.  It doesn't look like much, but it tastes great and there are no HFCS or artificial flavors!  It also happens to taste great with vodka, so if you happen to make your martini a little too strong, dollop a little punch in there and you'll be a happy haunter!

One of our lovely hostesses, Danika.

 Our cowboy, David, who handed out the scavenger hunt sheets, sock hopping it up with a robot and a ladybug.  You just don't see that kind of thing every day.  For music, I found several, mostly 50's era songs including: Wooly Bully, Lil' Red Riding Hood, The Twilight Zone theme song, Bo Meets the Monster, Halloween Spooks (featuring Lambert, Hendricks and Ross), I Put a Spell on You, Witch Doctor, Punky Punkin, Morgus the Magnificent, The Purple People Eater, and of course, Monster Mash all downloadable on Amazon from about $.90 to $1.50.  Some of these songs are crazy weird.  Just sayin'.

 Our homage to 1950's cowboy flicks, the kids had to break out of jail by sliding down the slide.  The sheriff gave them a handy map to the rest of the scavenger hunt.  Apparently he was in on the whole thing...

First stop, Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

 Next up, apples on strings.  At every station, the kids got stickers to prove they completed the mission.

 

 Because it was raining and I was busy appleing out in it, I don't have one picture of our witch, Lauren, who many kids said was their very favorite part of the hunt, and was also one of our hosts.  She had a bubbling cauldron full of dry ice and a bowl full of "eyeballs" for the kids to scrounge through to help her find her jewels (skull rings which the kids got to keep).  So here's a picture of her hut, which you may remember as the troll house from our fairy party a few years ago.

 Can't really have a 1950's party without a hula hoop, can you?  No.  No you can't.

 

A classic game with a 1950's twist.  Tossing mini Frisbees into the pumpkin's mouth turns a bean bag toss into game using an iconic vintage toy.

Note to self: Yellow Frisbees are hard to find in a leaf pile...

Spooky ghosts in the rain...

 Fortunately revealed in the daylight to be balloons with flashing lights inside zip-tied to dowels.

 Our fortune teller (and co-host), Tori, before she braved the weather to read our guest's fortunes.

  It was wet business...

 EEK!  A GHOST!  Matt was the scariest ghost in a sheet the world has ever seen.  Three-year-olds the world over were terrified.  The kids were rewarded with Trader Joe's candies when they returned with their scavenger hunt sheets filled out.

 Twin housewives, Bekah and myself.  At the end of the party.  With fallen hair and rubbed-off make-up.  Drinking.  I also discovered something about my costume.  All it takes is a hair change to turn perky, perfect wife-lady into:

The Lunch Lady.

Hoagies and grinders, baby.

Summer Party Run Down...

Ok so, like, last time I was all, "I bought Angry Bird band-aids because I'm awesome," well this time I'm all, "I didn't need to use any band-aids because this time we sent a kid to the hospital."  Yeah.  We don't do anything half way around here.  Poor kid scraped her toe riding one of my kid's bikes and no amount of Neosporin and Angry Birds was going to do it.  Fortunately, she got all patched up and was able to come back to the party.  Lookit what we had!

~*~

Menu:

Puka Dogs (pure beef, and vegetarian hot dogs) slathered in aioli and mango chutney, on either Hawaiian Sweet Bread buns or gluten-free/grain-free buns.

Macaroni salad

Cucumber salad

Hawaiian Maui Chips

Fresh papaya, mango, and pineapple fruit bowl

Bananas

Haupia (coconut pudding)

Okinawan Sweet Potato pie with macadamia nut whipped "cream"

Gluten-Free Vegan brownies

Chocolate Cupcakes baked in ice cream cones

Tropical Juice

Spa Water

~*~

 

 For playtime (besides the bicycles of doom) we had bubbles,

bubbles,

 

more bubbles, 

  And marshmallow cannons!  A paper cup with the bottom cut out + a balloon tied, with the top cut off = one heck of a marshmallow shooter!  They actually come out pretty hard, so make sure not to shoot them at anybody or, as my son is demonstrating, yourself.

Now, back to the food!

 So my whole idea for this party was that everyone in the world needs to eat a Puka Dog.  Puka means "hole" in Hawaiian and somebody on Kauai invented the most delicious hot dog on the planet.  It involves poking a hole into some Hawaiian sweet bread, filling it with aioli, and mango chutney and shoving a hot dog in there.  I blogged about it last year but nobody really jumped on the wagon.  So I decided that if the interwebs aren't going to go nuts, at least all my friends should!

 The whole menu came from the idea for the dogs.  Not a formal luau, more of a backyard get together Hawaiian style.

Pineapple, mango, papaya and some limes for them 'cuz I'm all addicted now and stuff...

I found a new Hawaiian Sweet Bread recipe that makes quite a bit.  It is wonderful. 

You can see some of the labels I made.  Almost everyone we invited had a different food issue.  We had gluten free people, people who can't do grains, soy free people, some who are off dairy, and then of course, boring ol' vegetarians.  It was nuts.   This label says: "Hawaiian Sweetbread Buns: Contains gluten, eggs, and dairy, soy free.  Soon to contain 1 hot dog."

 The label for this cucumber salad said: "Grain free, soy free, gluten free, dairy free.  I swear if somebody's allergic to cucumbers I'm gunna hack something."  Fortunately, there was no hacking...

This recipe is pretty simple.  You can edit ratios based on your taste and the number of servings you need:

Cucumber Salad

3 Cucumbers, peeled, seeded and sliced to about 1/4 inch

1 Red onion, peeled and thinly sliced

2 Tbs Rice or cider vinegar

2 Tbs Olive oil

2 Tbs Dill

Salt and Pepper

Combine cucumber and onion in large bowl.  Whisk to combine vinegar, olive oil, dill, salt and pepper and pour dressing over cucumbers.  I made this up a few hours before the party and everything was still crispy, the next morning the colors had run in the onions and the cucumbers were softening, so I'd say make between 1 and 4 hours before serving, but not much longer than that.

Hawaiian style macaroni salad.  Apparently, the biggest secret is Best Foods mayo (aka Hellman's on the East coast)  I hate Best Foods like beyond, but this was pretty good salad.  This is another of those "non recipe" recipes:

Hawaiian Style Macaroni Salad

1 lb macaroni

4-5 carrots, peeled and shredded

1/2 medium onion, grated

2 C Best Foods mayo

Salt and Pepper

Cook the macaroni and drain it.  One website I found said macaroni is usually cooked pretty soft for this recipe.  When the macaroni cools, mix in the rest of the ingredients and refrigerate over night.  A couple of the recipes I referenced specifically said "NO RELISH!"  So there you go.  Easy peasy.

Gluten-Free, Grain-Free hot dog buns, another really easy recipe.  I found it on a blog called Nichole's Special Diet Creations.  Nothing in these except almond flour, yogurt, eggs, coconut oil, salt, and baking soda.  The hardest part of this recipe is bringing the eggs up to room temperature.  They're pretty tasty, too! 

These guys know what's good...  These were chocolate cupcakes baked in ice cream cones, topped with lime buttercream frosting.  There are lots of ways to get your ice cream cones to stand up in the oven, but I bought this nifty rack, which is a great way to serve them, too.  I just used my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and fiddled around with the frosting until it tasted OK.

Here it is:

Lime Buttercream Frosting

1 stick butter, softened

4 Cups confectioner's sugar

Juice of 3 key limes

Drop, whole milk

Combine the butter and confectioner's sugar with a mixer until it resembles crumbs, add lime juice and mix again, add milk a few drops at a time until frosting comes together.  If you add too much, add a little more confectioner's sugar.  Seriously good stuff, though it gave my husband a sugar rush before he got finished with half his cone!

This is haupia.  Lemme just say something here, hominahominahomina, OK?  This stuff is fantastic.  I have had it before at luaus and it's kinda bland and rubbery.  This recipe is pure coconut happiness.  It's softer than I was expecting and I nearly ate the whole pan before it even cooled off.  I love warm pudding. mmmm... warm pudding.... glurgle...  This recipe comes from John Fischer on about.com.

Haupia

2 cups coconut milk 

1 cup whole milk

6 tablespoons sugar

5 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 tsp vanilla (optional)

Pour one cup of coconut milk into a saucepan. Combine sugar and cornstarch stirring into coconut milk. (Add vanilla if desired.  I added it.) Heat over low stirring consistently until thickened.  Add remainder of coconut milk and whole milk and continue to heat until thickened. Pour into 8 inch square pan and chill until firm. 

You may remember that we ate purple sweet potato pie on our last trip to HI.  This, my friends is purple sweet potato pie.  Purple sweet potatoes are sometimes called Okinawan sweet potatoes or purple yams.  I found these at a local Asian market.  The produce manager was quick to point out that he stocked only the gnarled "ugly" ones from Hawai'i and not the larger ones grown in CA, which he apparently viewed with no small amount of derision.  I don't know about the California ones, but these Hawaiian ones are awesome.  And yeah, that whipped cream?  That's vegan macadamia nut whipped "cream", because Cara Reed is also awesome...  And also, squeeze a little lime juice over it?  More awesome, though probably not authentic...

I found the pie filling recipe here.  Quick note: I didn't realize when I made this recipe it makes enough for 3 pies or around 2 deep dish pies.  So I've got another pie's worth of filling in my fridge right now.  I'm not complanin'.  I'm just sayin'.

Okinawan Sweet Potato Pie

Yield: 3 pies 

5 cups mashed potatoes

4 eggs

2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1 cup softened butter
2 cans evaporated milk

3 unbaked pie crusts

Boil sweet potatoes until soft, peel and mash until no lumps.  Add remainder of ingredients, beat with beater until creamy. Pour into pie shell.  Cover edge of crust with foil strips making sure not to touch the filling.  Bake at 425° for 15 minutes; then, bake at 250° for 40-50 minutes.  Test the doneness by sticking in a toothpick.

Vegan, Gluten-free Brownies from my buddy Chinmayie over at Love Food Eat.  I have made these twice and they are fantastic!  They are especially good pared with the whipped "cream", too!

Of all the things I made for this party, the recipe that drove me the craziest was homemade POG.  POG is a Hawaiian drink that we can actually buy in the grocery stores here but it is chock full of high fructose corn syrup and other nasties.  POG stands for Passionfruit, Orange, and Guava.  Apparently it also stands for "extraordinarily hard to make from scratch if you live in the Pacific Northwest..."  This is how I wanted to make it:

pure passionfruit juice

freshly squeezed orange juice

pure guava juice  

Stir it up. Be complimented.

So apparently neither passionfruit nor guava is in season now so freshly squeezed was right out.  Then, I tried looking for boxed juices.  On the Thursday before the party I found the Ceres brand boxed juices which carry both passionfruit and guava with no preservatives or sugars but I couldn't find it in any local stores and I couldn't get it delivered in time.  Then I decided to try concentrates.  All of the passionfruit juice had some other juice added to it and all of the guava had high fructose corn syrup.  The straw that broke the camel's back though, was when I asked my husband to stop by a local store to pick up some fresh squeezed orange juice.  And the store.  Was closed.  For renovations.  I took this as a sign.  Only Hawaiians should make POG.  Unless you have a month of prep time.  And I didn't.  I threw my hands up in the air and mixed up a bunch of stuff I found.  (It's darn hard to mix juice with your hands in the air, btw...)

Not POG Tropical Juice

1/2 container Hawaii's Own concentrated guava nectar

1/4 container concentrated pineapple juice

1/4 jug Earthwise Passionfruit Aloe juice

juice 1/2 large orange

water

lemon slices

lime slices

water

Mix juices with enough water to dissolve and float lemon and lime slices on top.  Let sit for about an hour if you have the time.  This was a huge hit with the kids, but I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't do what I wanted originally...

 After we finished eating, my son decided to give a speech.  (He made the podium all by himself.)  Mostly it went, "Thank you all for coming.  I hope you have a great time!"

I think people did...

Summer is Almost Over...

But before it disappears altogether, I'd like to introduce you to a little tropical awesomeness.  If you've ever been to Po'ipu or Waikiki, HI, you have probably heard of the world famous Puka Dog.  If you've ever eaten one, you know you want to eat another one (or five).  And well, unless you live in Hawai'i it's not easy.  If you haven't eaten one (or five), you can make this reasonable facsimile at home to whet your appetite.

"Puka" means "hole" in Hawaiian so a Puka Dog is a bun with a hole poked in it, filled with special garlic sauce, your choice of fruit relish, and either a vegetarian hot dog or polish sausage.  The one I tried (and then decided to make) is mango chutney and aioli.  Make this, marvel at the wise Hawiians who know exactly how to treat a hot dog properly, then resolve to visit as soon as possible to have one of these for your very own!  Or you know, have five, I won't judge...

I got the recipe for the Hawaiian sweet bread from allrecipes.  The recipe for the chutney, which I altered slightly, came from simplyrecipes.  The aioli is a very simple mayo that I added a ton of garlic to.  Let me just say, you may never eat another condiment again.  Holy cats.

This looks like a lot of work.  But once you've got the chutney and aioli made, they're good for several weeks in the fridge so you can use them again and again.  And you will want to.  Oh my yes.  You will want to...

Start with the bread as it needs time to stir up and also to rise.

Bread Machine Hawaiian Sweet Bread
    * 1 cup warm water
    * 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
    * 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
    * 2 eggs
    * 4 tablespoons margarine
    * 5 tablespoons white sugar
    * 3 cups all-purpose flour
    * 3/4 teaspoon salt
    * 2 tablespoons dry milk powder
    * 2 tablespoons dry potato flakes
    * 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

Add ingredients to your bread machine as the manufacturer's directions suggest.  Set your machine to the dough setting.  When your machine is done working its magic, divide dough into 8 sections and roll into "bun" shaped loaves.  Set in a warm, draft-free spot to rise about an hour and a half until not quite doubled.  Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes, or until bread is nicely browned and when you thump the crust, it sounds hollow.

Notes:
Next time I'm adding 3-5 more Tbs sugar.  As is, this is very good,  nay, exceptionally good bread, but not quite as sweet as Hawaiian sweet bread.  Also, I haven't tried it, but I imagine that this would freeze pretty well so if you wanted to make this well in advance, you could.

I did the chutney next as it required some cooking.

Mango Chutney
    * 2/3 cups sugar
    * 1/3 cup distilled white vinegar
    * 2 large mangoes peeled and cut in 3/4-inch pieces
    * 1/2 medium onion, chopped
    * 1/4 cup golden raisins
    *  1 tsp minced fresh ginger
    * 1 garlic clove, minced
    * 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, whole
    * pinch teaspoon red chili pepper flakes (hot)

Combine sugar and vinegar in a pot.  Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered until syrupy and slightly thickened, 30 to 45 minutes. Stir occasionally during cooking.  Keep refrigerated in airtight container.

Tip:
For an interesting way to use up chutney, try it on pancakes!  I used my basic pancake recipe, substituted coconut oil for the oil, added coconut oil to the cooking pan for extra measure, and tossed in a banana and 1/4 C hazelnuts.  Macadamia nuts would be a great way to embellish, also.  You won't be disappointed!

Garlic Mayo (Aioli)
    * 1 cup vegetable oil
    * 1 egg
    * 1 tablespoon lemon juice
    * scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
    * 6 garlic cloves pulverized into a paste

  
Ever since my friend Monte told me how, I've used an immersion blender to make my mayo.  Put the egg, lemon juice, salt, and garlic paste into whatever vessel you're using to make the mayo in.  I recommend something with tall sides like a glass.   Buzz it a tad with the blender to combine.  Pour the oil on top of that.  Insert your blender again.  Starting at the bottom, turn the blender on, and slowly draw it up through the oil.  Watch the mayo appear before your very eyes.  If you have a little oil left at the top, just run the blender up and down through the mixture a few times to incorporate. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. 

Assembly:
Take your beautiful, beautiful bun:

 Poke your beautiful, beautiful puka:

 

This is an apple corer, but you can use a knife.

Slather the inside with your beautiful, beautiful chutney and aioli:

 You may say, "My goodness!  Isn't that a lot of bread?!"

And the answers is, "Yes, yes it is."

But the real question is, "Does it matter?"

And the answer is, "No, no it does not!"

Insert your veggie dog/polish sausage/100% all beef frank.

You may also say, "My goodness!  What happened to that poor hot dog?"

To which I reply, "Sorry, it's a microwaved veggie dog.  Not the best for photography, but it tastes great anyway." 

Review:
I think I'll call these "Haole Holes."  They're not quite the same as the real thing, but oh so tropical and oh so delicious!  These dogs go to 11!