Hawaiian Word of the Week

It's that time again... today's word is Ono; meaning --great tasting, delicious





example 1: Ho, that shoyu chicken is ono
example 2: Did you get some of dat lau lau?? its ONOLICIOUS!


In celebration of our word of the week, I am going to share with you some of my favorite ONO Hawaiian foods!

1. Kalua Pork--basically like pulled pork at home, just cooked in different ingredients--its the main event at any luau and my "go-to" dish at any local diner!

2. Shoyu Chicken--Shoyu is similar to soy sauce, but with garlic and much more ONO. Shoyu chicken is a treat because not every local diner serves it.

3. Lomi Lomi Salmon--as much as i don't love tomatoes, for whatever i reason i love this! the salmon and sauce it is mixed with takes out the tomato flavor. It is served as a garnish at luau's, but i love to pile it on top of my rice or mix it with my Kalua---this is one thing i will need to learn to make before i leave this island.

4. Mac Salad--i know, i know the Hawaiian's prolly didn't invent this, but they sure eat the heck out of it. The thing to do for lunch here it to get a "plate lunch" which consists of a choice of meat, 2 scoops white rice 1 scoop mac salad. Kim and I swear that L & L has the best mac salad on the planet, and every once in a while we stop in just to get a scoop!

5. Teri Beef--sounds strange maybe, but this thinly sliced beef soaked in a thick teriyaki sauce is so ono! Whenever we go on field trips at school everyone orders "bentos", like take out box lunches...i make sure mine has plenty teri beef in it.

3 years and learning...

Yesterday was our 3rd anniversary--being that it was a weekday we basically stuck to our normal wednesday routine. Mike went to work and then we did go to our favorite little italian restaurant, Auntie Pasto's, for a quick dinner before bible study. We have started a new marriage bible study this month with our friends. It is called Love and Respect by Dr.Emerson Eggerichs. All the husbands in the group have just gotten back from a deployment and we thought it would be good to start this study to help deal with some of the issues that come with the readjustment of learning to live together again.

Although we are just 3 weeks into the study I am learning so much and I recommend everyone to check it out no matter how long you have been married and even if you are single. The study explains why the opposite sex reacts and feels the way the do and explains how God intended marriage to be. Dr. Emerson's blog link is http://emersonandsarah.blogspot.com/ .

Also before i go i just want to give a shout out to Jennifer and Eric on the arrival of their new baby girl Emily Grace and also to Lyndsay and Jason on their new baby boy Christian David!

Good Luck Garage Sale-ing

I know, I know, some of you are probably shaking your heads at me right now--but Mike and I have really enjoyed hunting thru garage sales lately. This month we have been particularly lucky...

Some of our good finds have included:
-Board Games: Imagine-iff and Balderdash--$2 each
-a white board- $1
-a 3-tier serving dish- $1
-a recyclable shopping bag filled with craft supplies, ribbon and raffia--$5
-golf balls- 6 for $1
-a HGTV receiver- $1
-bodyboard- $3
-beach chair- $2
-2 bar stools for my friends from Pier 1--$20

i guess the saying still rings true...." one man's junk is another man's treasure"

out with the old, in with the new

So it seems that things always happen at once and the past couple of months have been all about breaking and replacing for us.

1st the washing machine broke--in all honesty in has been on a slow decline for over a year...i just kept pushing it hoping it would make it until Mike came home. However it didn't quite make it as it died right after Christmas, but i just used my friends' washers until the boys could come home and help out.

So meet our new washing machine, given to us by our seriously generous friends Jake and Hillary because they had an extra!

Next our microwave finally gave out. This too was on a slow decline--all because of a faulty key pad that cost more to fix than to just get a new microwave. I really wanted a red microwave, but the only one we could find was at our new Target stores and they sold out immediately. After a 2 week wait Mike and i got tired of using the stove for everything and went ahead and bought a white one...probably a better decision anyway.

meet the new microwave...



Then our TV died. It was an old one i got off of Craigslist a couple of years ago when our other one died. Of course it was a TV/DVD player combo, so we actually had to buy both. Secretly I know Mike is excited cause he got his flat screen and blue ray disc player...not that we have blue rays, but whatever.

goodbye old TV....


hello new TV/ DVD player....


hopefully that will be it for awhile!

the rest of Easter

After our last Easter blog, Mike and I went to the Sweatland's for our Easter potluck with all our friends. There were 26 people in all and we had a great time. I convinced everyone to let me get a group shot before we ate and they turned out great i think! It is amazing how big our group has gotten--although we will be losing about half over the summer, new friends are moving to the island and joining us and we are so thankful.

After dinner, the boys played a huge game of bocce ball, our favorite, and the girls played catch phrase, our other fave. It was a super fun day, but also very long-as many holidays are and Mike and I crashed upon returning the house.

Yesterday was Mike's last day of leave before going back to work and he chose to spend it playing golf with a few of his friends at his favorite golf course, Ko' Olina. He has been working on a beard since the start of his vacation, a little over 2 weeks ago, and it was getting to look really good. But last night he had to shave it off to get ready for work the next day-- i honestly like the beard and was sad to see it go. I will leave you with some before and after shots.

Before

After

Happy Easter!

Well, so far it has been a good Easter Day. We went to sunrise service this morning and had a potluck breakfast afterwards. Then for the 9 o'clock service i was upstairs working with the kids. It's been a busy morning and i've been cooking this afternoon for our BIG potluck with friends tonight. I will probably have more pics tomorrow. Happy Easter to all!!

Yum, Yum, Yummy!

We had a super yummy dinner tonight and healthy too, so i thought i would share. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Chicken Fajita Tostadas

serves 4

1 lg. onion thinly sliced

2 red bell peppers thinly sliced

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup salsa (we used paul newman, medium--it has a smokey flavor that really added to the dish)

2 cups cooked and shredded chicken

shredded cheddar cheese

corn tortillas

cilantro

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Line baking pan with foil and then mix together peppers, onions, corn and salsa together and spread out evenly on baking pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook in oven for about 15-20 minutes, mixing occasionally, until vegetables are soft and slightly browned.

Mix chicken into vegetable mixture and cook for 5 minutes.

Put mixture into serving bowl and reuse pan to cook tortillas.

Place 4 tortillas on pan. Coat tortillas with olive oil and then spread cheese on top--just enough to cover the surface. Cook in oven for about 5-8 minutes or until cheese is melted and sides of tortillas are browned.

To serve, spoon chicken and vegetable mixture on top of tortilla. Top with cheese and cilantro. Serve with rice. Enjoy!

Camping Hawaiian Style

Last week Mike and I camped at our favorite beach, Bellows. Our friends the Howell's and Sweatland's joined us for a few days in the middle. The weather never fully cooperated--there were a lot of rain showers and clouds, but that just left a lot of time to lounge around and play boardgames--Baulderdash being the favorite of the week.

Possibly the Most Beautiful Place in the World...and our backyard for the week

I love camping, but i absolutely can't sleep on the ground...so this our air mattress that my most wonderful husband in the whole world carried across the camp ground to find electricity to blow it up. I sure love him!

our cozy camp

the community tent, for eating, napping and games

the 2-man bikes--Kim and I thought it would be fun, but it seriously was not! It was so heavy we could've used help pushing...but don't be fooled, once those boys took the picture they walked away from us and left us to fend for ourselves.

Last Saturday Mike and I went to get our boating licenses so we can rent pontoons from the marine base. It's something we have been wanting to do for awhile but never got around to it. This past Thursday we took our friends out on the boat for the first time. It was absolutely beautiful and I can't believe we waited 3 years to do this. The water is a perfect teal blue, at the sandbar the water is no more than 2 foot deep for as far as you would care to walk, and because we were out there in the middle of the week there was no one else around us.

~the decapitation of Uncle Gary~

no relation to my own uncle, just a coincidence in names, our inflatable caterpillar and year long friend lost his head on our boating trip--so sad!

my Sand Man

good friends