It's all over the news today, but in case you missed it, President Obama hosted the first ever White House luau tonight, prepared by Honolulu's own Alan Wong. With kalua pig, lomi lomi salmon and pipikaula, it was the place to be. Unfortunately, only members of congress were invited to this one.
"I just want to say to all the members of Congress, you've been working hard. I wish I could give you all trips to Hawaii, but I figured since -- given our budget crunch we can't do that, that we'd at least bring Hawaii to you." - President Barak Obama
Another year, another cake. It's not one of my best, but Toshi was thrilled.
We started with an eight inch round triple layer devil's food chocolate cake, joined and frosted with dark chocolate frosting. The sides were cut off to give the helmet shape, and those trimmings placed on top to form the visor and mouthpiece.
The entire cake was then wrapped in fondant, some colored with black and blue food coloring. In our haste to stretch the fondant without tearing, we neglected to include blue trim along the lower edge of the visor. That little touch would have elevated the final cake from okay to pretty cool.
Ah well, there's always next year.
Past cakes:
→ Year two: Pickup truck
→ Year three: Bob the Builder (and his reaction)
→ Year four: Spiderman
→ Year five: Stegosaurus
I have mixed feelings about Cream Pot. On the one hand, the food is genuinely good. On the other, it's one of the pricier breakfast options this side of Sunday brunch. They've clearly put care into the decor... but then I'm clearly not the target demographic. How do I be fair to a good restaurant that isn't quite my cup of tea?
I started this site for love of food but if I'm honest with myself, part of the reason I keep it going is for the people I meet through it. I was just packing up my laptop, fried after an afternoon of answering emails from a table at Coffeetalk when a stranger approached me, "Do... you have a food blog?"
The question was so unexpected (and my brain was so addled) that I had to ask for her to say it again, "what was that?"
"Do you have a food blog?"
"Yeeeeeesss." Stunned pause while I gathered my thoughts. "Hi, I'm Alan..."
The woman introduced herself as Elizabeth, in town from Seattle, and she recognized me from my photo! I have no idea how people do that, but it's not the first time this has happened.
The photo you mentioned of my son is already a couple years old, but here's a new one taken at Easter. Toshi is almost six years old, yet still thinks his dad is the best cook (and food blogger) in the whole world.
Who am I to argue with that?
Aloha!
My parents have been in town all this week. That's bad for quiet blogging time, but good for eating well. This trip they brought with them my mom's legendary recipe for caramel corn.
The correct popcorn is key. Flavorings are out, and microwaved popcorn doesn't seem to hold the caramel in the same way. The best results come from buying a bag of popcorn kernels and popping them in an honest-to-goodness popcorn popper. I've used an air popper with great results (and it can do double duty as a coffee roaster.)
Caramel Corn
Serves: a small party (about 6 quarts worth)
Special equipment: a popcorn popper
- 1 ¼ c. unpopped popcorn kernels, makes ~6 qts cooked
- 1 c. butter
- 2 c. brown sugar
- ½ c. corn syrup (light or dark)
- 1 t. salt
- ½ t. baking soda
- 1 t. vanilla
Cook up your popcorn in a pan or air popper. Once it's done popping, transfer the cooked popcorn to a pan and keep it warm in a 300 degree oven.
Meanwhile, melt margarine in a saucepan. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil stirring constantly then boil without stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in ½ t. baking soda and 1 t. vanilla. Pour over popped corn mixing well. Turn into 2 large shallow baking pans. Bake in 250 oven for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool. Store in an airtight container.
