Mommy Lunch: Spaghettini with tomatoes, lemon, feta and pine nuts

You know what makes me go crazy for cooking more than food pictures?

Food videos.

I’ve got a list of food to make from this round of Project Food Blog.

First I made this:

Featured on Eat Live Travel Write’s video post.

I knew Jake wouldn’t like it (every ingredient in here is on his hit list), but the combination was just irresistible. I made it for myself. Except the girl wanted some of her own.

Tart, bright, creamy, chunky.

Then there was Ben’s. Lauren’s.

And Salty. Marc. Jen.

Eataduckimust. Diana. Julie. Greg.

There are more. I used up every vote. All 24. They’re truly amazing.

Which was your favorite?

Learning to Cook Again

Much like having a kid, Project food blog has been all about getting me out of my comfort zone.


Jake and I were married for 6 years before we had Amaya. We were practically living a hip bachelor's life. I remember when we lived in the city we would hop down to the corner ramen shop just because we felt like it. Or we would go to a movie that started at 9pm. We would even occasionally stay up late talking with friends.
Oh, we were so young.

We had the silly idea that this might continue when we had a kid. We thought babies just slept all the time and hardly cared about anything except loving you.

It's funny how something as simple as labor and 8 pound baby changes everything.

When I did start cooking again, much much much after having her, every baking project gave new meaning to the word "project". She refused to be left alone in her chair while I patiently sifted and mixed. She hollered to be picked up and played with when I just wanted to eat something that required a little saute-ing instead of microwaving. I spent many nights cooking with her strapped in the baby carrier. As she got older her hands got too close to the hot stoves and sharp knives.

We brought her to restaurants and left terrible impressions. I distinctly remember one difficult dinner which climaxed into a glass of spilled ice water all over the table and the floor. Her frustrated cries echoed through the dining area while we argued whether or not we should get dessert (I'll give you one guess as to who thought we should).

Now she's much easier at restaurants. Mostly. And we're a little wiser. But she's still just as wiggly and whiny while I cook. She's like me; the smells and sounds of cooking make her think she needs to eat. Now. Unfortunately, her mother is the slowest cook in the world. So she starts opening the fridge, rummaging through the cupboards, asking me for candy. The only way to keep her quiet is to let her in to my place of peace: the kitchen.

I generally don't like cooking with anyone unless it's just about me helping them. If I'm in charge, I hate thinking of things for them to do. My brain is running through the processes and splitting it up with someone who isn't just completely in sync with my thought pretty much ruins the whole experience for me. Jake and I can work side by side when we're making a meal we know all the parts to by heart. My mom and I found a syncopated rhythm when she was here last. But generally, it's so hard for me to turn a cooking process into a conversation rather than a monologue. And when I'm cooking with my daughter, that's exactly what I have to do. Even worse, I have to monitor what she is doing, because she's good at finding a way to mess up my vision of food.
But that's what having a kid is all about. Including them in your space even though they mess it up a little. And then you figure out that the little bit of inconvenience is much more interesting.



When I'm old and she's still young, we'll be cooking Momofuku dishes side by side, and I'll probably talk about these days like it was a new discovery for both of us. I probably won't remember that I scolded her for eating the baking powder. I'll probably think we loved every minute of it.

The one thing I'll remember that I know will be true, is that she learned how to cook from me.


Superfood Smoothie
If you’re familiar with Odwalla Superfood, that’s what this tastes like. Exactly. Clean, pillowy thick, and unidentifiably fruity. I think the strongest fruit is mango once you know it’s in there. I’ve substituted nectarines and plums for peaches with the same result. We experimented and made it into popsicles. Yes! Who doesn’t like a green popsicle?

• 1 frozen banana
• 1 peach, sliced and frozen
• 1 Cup mango puree (frozen is better)
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 2 tsp Spirulina

Blend up all the fruit first, then add the Spirulina (while running the blender). Blend more, and serve. If you have to add juice, I would say apple juice. Just a touch. (This is unnecessary if you have the super cool blender that your mother-in-law left you when she moved, you lucky dog.)

Voting for Project Food Blog opens on Monday, 11/15/10. If you liked my video, click HERE (or on my badge from the sidebar) to vote for me and 23 others. I’ve seen some excellent videos already so be sure to check them out.

Being Local, Eating Local

Everyone in my family was born here, in Hawaii, except me. That means that they are all “local”, as we say in the islands. My daughter, Amaya, has tons of local attitude. She has a shoe-optional wardrobe. Her hair is wild and sun-bleached. Her favorite food is SPAM musubi. She practically lives outside (with lots and lots of sunscreen on) and she loves to eat outside. Amaya talks about picnics non-stop. Usually our picnics are out in the yard. Every day she starts trying to pack her bento boxes with food she can grab out of the cupboard and fridge and announces that we’re going on a picnic. Sometimes she will get ready for it even before we’re awake. The second I’m up she’s asking me about a picnic. Sometimes when I wake up I find her outside on the porch in her pajamas, eating her picnic already. I was happy to be able to accommodate her love of picnics for this Project Foodbuzz challenge. She knows food tastes better outside. Everyone’s more relaxed and focused on enjoying the meal instead of rushing off to finish the next thing on our to-do list. When I think of food as being local, it is Hawaii born and bred. Just like local people, local produce and goods thrive in tropical weather and represent diverse Polynesian, Asian, and American flavors. 

Food is expensive here, since we live on an island in the middle of the ocean. We tend to turn to cheap name brands because growing and producing here can be tougher. But we’re trying. The farmers markets are growing rapidly. I’ve seen more markets pop up close to my home, and the one I frequent has grown in size. They’ve become crowded and there are loyalties that run deep. Local eggs that go for $7 a dozen have plenty of buyers. This tells me so much about how people have the power to change the way business is run.

I have recently decided to do more to eat organic, free-range, and local.

Of course, like I said, these things aren’t always cheap, and a bit more time consuming and inconvenient. There’s reality. Sometimes you have to rely on the world market when you want to pick up some Gruyere cheese. Sometimes your daughter wants to eat at Taco Bell even if you kind of hate yourself later. You do what you can and you make it work for your situation.

I made a picnic lunch that features local produce and goods, while trying to reflect local tastes and recipes. I’ve highlighted the local ingredients I used in my menu. All the food I brought could be eaten cold or at room temperature and was a spin on the traditional sandwich type picnic lunch. I packed everything in glass boxes with lids (which stack very nicely and securely), and the soft stuff I put on top. I brought a small cutting board with small paring knife so we could assemble our sandwiches, and we used the lids to eat on to eliminate waste.  When you’ve got kids to carry and blankets and a little way to walk, bringing the china is too much to ask. I also think this minimizes the mess. Packing up dirty plates afterwards is trickier. Planning a menu to eat with your hands is much more simple and your shared experience is greater when you all have to drink your juice out of the glass jar that you brought. I like elaborate meals, but a simple picnic should be just that. Good food without a lot of clutter. Too many dishes and stuff to set out ruin the experience you’re having with the outdoors. The meal is not center stage. It’s just part of the picture.

Local Lunch (click on the links to print)

Kalua Pork Sandwiches with organic pork, local sea salt, local cabbage/carrot slaw, and homemade barbecue sauce made with local lilikoi (passion fruit). Also topped with local avocado and tomato slices. The Kalua pork I made here mimics the flavor created in a traditional Hawaiian imu—underground oven.  

Sweet Potato Chips  made with locally grown Okinawan sweet potatoes. Sweet potato is a traditional side dish at a luau.  

POG or Passion Orange Guava Juice made with Ka’u Gold local oranges and foraged lilikoi and guava juices. POG is a style of juice popular in Hawaii and elsewhere. The stuff you buy at the store is practically viscous.

Mochi wrapped Chocolate dipped Strawberries featuring local Waialua milk chocolate and Maui grown strawberries. Mochi is a popular dessert among locals, since food in Hawaii has strong Japanese influence.  

We ate our lunch at Ho’omaluhia, a botanical garden, and soaked up the local beauty. Amaya “fished” in the lake with her stick, just like all kids have done since the beginning of who knows when. We ate and Amaya explored and we even picked some fruit along the path.

Even though I’m not local, getting in with the locals sure has its benefits.

The Bap’za

“Mom!” Amaya yells when she walks in the door.

“What?” I pause, mid-click in my bibimbap pizza photo shoot.

“I want to try your ‘best pizza ever’,” she tells me and immediately starts reaching for a slice of meat.

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I guess I’d been talking about it a bit too much. When I started looking ahead to Challenge #5 of Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog, I immediately started thinking pizza. Pizza is something I dream about. It’s like the culinary canvas.

I’ve had pizza in every country I’ve ever visited, and everyone makes it their own. That’s how versatile it is. Don’t get me wrong—I love a perfect Neapolitan slice. But, me, I can’t leave well enough alone. I make pizza often, and I usually subject everyone to my experimentation.

When our friends came over for dinner last week, one said, “Yep, this is Mariko pizza.”

The combinations that I’ve come up with will last me several good posts into the future. But one idea was my favorite. The one I kept calling the “best pizza ever.”

Amaya picked up on my vibe very quickly. She knows when I’m on the trail for food. I buy my ingredients, make notes in my book, bounce wacky ideas off Jake, and announce my food-making schedule.

When she got out the kid’s set for our “afternoon tea”, she handed me a slice of wooden bread. Animatedly, she offered, “Here you go. This is spicy corn on bread!”

I made a face. “I’m not sure if I want spicy corn on bread. That sounds nasty.”

“Try it,” she answered. “You’re going to love it!”

Hmmm. Is that really how I sound?

If kids are a pretty honest reflection of yourself, then my interest in food is definitely rubbing off on Amaya. As picky as she is, she gets that there is a world of taste out there, and she wants it. She gets that meals don’t have to be static repetitions of weeknight canned casseroles and eating out is a chance to try something new without having to do the dishes. She gets that being excited about food is an extension of the pleasure of taste.

And she definitely gets that I am going to make her try my pizza. She doesn’t get out of trying anything when it comes to the dinner table.

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“I love your ‘best pizza ever’, Mom,” she says, as she picks through the toppings she wants, and leaves the rest behind.

The Bap’za

This pizza is a recreation of bibimbap in pizza form. Bibimbap is a Korean dish of vegetables and meat on rice which is tossed and mixed with hot bean paste and a barely fried egg. It is a mix of flavors that work, however odd it sounds. The snap of vegetables, sweet sesame, spicy gochujang, salty meat, sour pickles, and soft rice each offer their individual and distinct treasures to your tongue and teeth. I am a huge fan of (read: obsessed with) stone bowl bap. In a stone bowl that has been heated, the flavors kind of cook together and sizzle while the rice becomes crisp on the edges. The rice crust I made on a pizza pan imitated that perfectly. The pizza sauce is a sweetened gochujang (hot bean paste) that mimics Korean fried chicken sauce recipes I’ve had. It brought the pizza together well. I stuck with common bap toppings and made my own namul (seasoned vegetables) to go with the bulgogi beef, egg, mushrooms, and cucumber. Baking the egg in the oven on the rice crust and sauce made it just right, as the yolk was hot and still able to mix well with my toppings as I loaded them on. The pizza sliced nicely and held together, but with all the toppings, you’ll want to eat this one with a fork, because you are likely more civilized than me. I still ate it with my hands and made the crust into a tool to wrap up the toppings, just like folding a New York slice.

View and Print the recipe(s) here:

• The whole recipe: The Bap’za
• Crust
• Gochujang Sweet Pizza sauce
• Namul (soy bean sprouts and daikon/carrot)

If you want a slice of this pizza, vote for me by clicking my profile icon on the right sidebar starting on Monday the 18th. Thanks for visiting.

Round 4 Voting is OPEN!

I have to tell you, it’s been nice getting comments for once. So if nothing else, this project food blog thing ROCKS because I feel like I’ve been let into a secret society of “people who look at blogs.” I have a feeling that this is a very big society, actually. Ha ha.

So Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, for your nice, kind, and loving words, despite my amateur-hour pictures and too-long posts. Hopefully I will see some of you around here again.

I’ve also loved being exposed to some new food blogs. Ahem. I do not want to tell you how long my reading list is now. Too long. Like, way too long. But it’s worth it, because now I just want to lick my screen all day.

But let’s get that image out of our heads. If you want to vote for me, you can do so here. No pressure, though. I know asking for votes is kind of rude of me. I mean, you’re here, reading my extremely long posts and looking at my terrible food pictures and NOW I’m asking you to vote for me?

Sheesh. Can I mention me again? Me Me Me.

Love you guys. Really.

P.S. And don’t hate me for installing disqus for my comments. If you really hate it, tell me so on my poll ------------->

and I’ll take it off.

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