Life of Larisa or LOL

Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book Photo Contest. Click on the above link to see Tutu, the cookbook celebrity, on the Better Homes and Gardens website. Share the plaid. Share she did...over the years, I have enjoyed countless meals from Tutu (with the aid of her big red plaid BHG cookbook). How exciting. Yay Tutu!

The only time I find I miss meat is when we go to local breakfast joints. Meat is breakfast here. We tried a whole in the wall local restaurant called Nancy's Kitchen for breakfast this morning. I really wanted to order their "signature" breakfast item, the pork adobo omelet. I lived vicariously through Isom...except I don't think he really enjoyed it, so... The restaurant wasn't crowded...that worried me a little. The service was grumpy. Not poor, we got everything we wanted and needed, it was just grouchy. No overly friendly or even underly friendly smiles, "how ya doin's", nothing. Isom and I both got omelets. I didn't take a picture because I was scared. Scared our waitress might snatch my phone away from me. We can't have that! The omelet was good but overpriced. With the combination of overpriced okay food and grouch waitress, I'm afraid we won't be back anytime soon. I'm bummed. I was hoping for a new, nearby

Who doesn't like cookies? Who doesn't like cupcakes? Well, if you don't, don't admit it. It's weird. This combination of cookie and cupcake was fun and easy to make. Take a simple vanilla cupcake recipe and add in your favorite crumble of cookie. Not that it's my favorite, but I used Oreo cookies. Instead of the Oreo cookie frosting that was to go on top, I chose to use some of my homemade whip cream as the perfect topper. Cool cream hits your tongue first, followed by a sweet crunch of cookie, finished off with the soft crumble of the cupcake. Another great food trinity. Food is so religious. Future experiments with this cookie meets cupcake may include the blonde Oreo cookie, the Grasshopper Oreo cookie, classic chocolate chip cookie, and for Gabe---peanut butter cookie combo. Isom's coworkers polished this batch off...even without the aid of the whip cream. I guess they must have turned out decent.

For the second time this week I enjoyed a dinner out with sorority sisters at a beer themed restaurant...hmm. Last night was an old favorite---Gordon Biersch. I kept with my new eating out strategy. In fact, it was nearly the same meal as enjoyed on Monday at the Yardhouse---one glass of extremely dark beer. Check. One delicious seared ahi salad. Check. One delectable dessert. Check mate. And of course, now I'm curious about making my own bread pudding. Isom is not a fan. Maybe next week I can head to the other beer restaurant---Kona Brew company---and try out their version of the out to eat meal trinity. Dark beer. Ahi salad. Dessert. Dark beer. Ahi salad. Dessert. Ten more reps...this is me, exercising control.

No bake pie number two is complete. Thanks to Kimi for the fresh mango she brought over for watching her daughter after school yesterday. She also brought over split pea soup, but I didn't incorporate that into a pie...yet. Just kidding. Since my butter didn't work out this morning, I had a ton of whipped cream still. I also had a graham cracker pie crust, some mango, and some macadamia nuts. Put all these together, and I now have a pie and a half sitting in my fridge---begging to be eaten. I also have about two cups of home made butter. Mango butter that is. After early dismissal pick up and our weekly trip to the library, we headed back to the grocery store for additional whipping cream. I couldn't let the day end without successfully making butter. And I did it! When it was done, I had the creamiest butter and some buttermilk (to be used in a cupcake later this week). I added mango jelly to the butter and we now have a butter mango spread for tomorrow's

...was so much more fun when I was inside the confines of the luxurious and beautiful Williams Sonoma. When there was an audience and my buddy to dream of butter delights with. Now, I am hot and sweaty from my walk and Scarlet the Kitchen Aid is super loud...bordering on irritating. I took some of my beautiful whipped cream from yesterday and essentially am having a machine churn it into butter while I sit and type and complain about it. Fun stuff. But, it's not even ten in the morning and I have already accomplished my morning walk and soon will have made BUTTER. Not bad for a mornings work. The problem will be when it's not even noon and I will have tried to consume the fresh butter. Okay, the joke is on me...again. I just took a momentary break from typing to check on my "butter". Well, it is still whipped cream. It is a very beautiful whipped cream. It is commercial worthy. But it's not butter! I am assuming that my error occurred upon placing the

If at first you don't succeed. Try again. And such was the case with a first attempt at making lollipops. I must hand the credit to this daunting task over to Lehua . She is currently in the throws of planning her baby girl's first birthday party. She has her heart set on a dessert table. A dessert table in which she makes all of the tasty treats. Do you see why we are friends? I came over for moral support yesterday. I read off the lolly instructions and played with her little girl while she slaved over the hot burner making sure not to burn sugar. It's a very fine balance, this candy making. I'm surprised candy isn't more expensive. The process is painstaking enough that they could charge way more for it than they do. The first batch of pops burned. They looked cute (as cute as a dark brown lollipop can look) but tasted like an ashtray. Next attempt. Well, they are all gone. We all enjoyed one. It's okay, it was a trial run. The color and Li

It all started with a purple and white carton of whipping cream. A five dollar purchase. Well, I guess it really started with Sunday's Williams Sonoma Dairy Demo. The second of my free classes, this one inspired me to come home and make something! I'm sure how whip cream is made is not a magical mystery to most of the planet. But, to me it is. Was. I can now officially let myself off the hook for not being able to accomplish this by hand. It took Scarlet (the Kitchen Aid mixer for those who have forgotten her chosen name) nearly ten minutes to turn liquid into fluffy whipped cream. My arm would have fallen off! The giddiness of my creation lasted all afternoon. While Gabe and his schoolmate Mikayla played Legos in the living room, I was dreaming up the many uses for the freshly whipped cream. I decided on a pie. Happily, I discovered an Oreo cookie pie crust, a box of stove cooked vanilla pudding, and a package of Oreo cookies. Scary that I have all of these t

I think my new plan of eating will be the "Isom plan". When he was away in Iraq, he lost some weight. This is what boys do. They lose weight by just thinking they will lose weight. Later, he told me that his meal (or diet) plan consisted of a salad and dessert. Simple. Eat some greens and then you can eat your dessert. This is what I'm really trying to get at. Dessert. Sweets have always been a passion, but since taking up baking, the passion has intensified. If that is even possible. So, last night, as I was out with my sorority sisters at The Yard House, for a reunion of sorts, I decided to go for the "Isom plan". No appetizer. Just salad. Seared ahi salad (pictured above). I did wash it down with a Guinness...(but only one) and followed the salad with a dessert trio. We shared chocolate souffle, peach cobbler, and banana creme brulee. The desserts were minis and we shared ...plus I had a morning walk. If I can continue to have my sweets, the

Just wanted to keep you all informed...I start my official cake-ing adventure in September. I only hope that it isn't a class filled with "professional/experienced" cake makers and decorators. The website clearly stated BEGINNERS class. And to be extra clear, I only dabble with cupcakes. This will be an entirely new realm of baking and desserts for me. I am mostly excited for some additional iPhone picture taking opportunities...and obviously taste testing the finished product(s). And in the end, I am hoping to create my very own Twilight cake masterpiece. A girl's gotta have goals. Wish me luck!

...is home to the world's largest portabello mushroom sandwich. It wasn't anything fancy---mushroom, grilled onions (to perfection I might add), bun, lettuce, a slight swab of mayo. A side of skinny fries (wishing that were really true), and for dessert---the marshmallow chocolate blonde brownie---or something like that. It was a mouthful to eat and a mouthful of a name. It was grossly delicious. And my lunch partner for the afternoon outdid me in her dessert selection...insane decadent chocolate cake I think it was called. Insane is right. You may never think straight again after this indulgence. The mind will just automatically travel to thoughts of chocolate bliss. It is the best chocolate cake...finally, I found you! We didn't do any bowling, just lunch and decadence. Between the gourmet cupcakes, carrot cake, lemon and pumpkin crunch cakes, and now these two new favorites---a girl can hardly decide what exactly to indulge in. I noticed they were hiring... Ge

Okay, so it's not a photo of or from The Irish Rose but it is from that fun filled evening. The Irish Rose is the place for good live music in this town. A Saturday night with your friends, a Guinness, and a great cover band called Elephant. We rocked out on Saturday night...in honor of Mary turning the big 4-0...f un and brews were had by all. But back to the band. They played everything from Jack Johnson to Outkast . They played Journey, The Beatles, Green Day...all well . The lead singer was charismatic and bold with his twists on the originals. We could have danced the night away. Yes, danced. I danced. There are pictures. Several. And I am not posting them. If you would like to see me dancing, you'll have to come with me to The Irish Rose, give me a few Guinness, and hope that Elephant is playing. It's the recipe for fun.

...cooking class. Well, cooking might be getting a little ahead of myself. Thanks to YELP (again), I found out about FREE demos/classes offered by one of my favorite stores--- Williams Sonoma . Every Sunday there is a different topic covered, that is free to the public---the public that calls ahead and signs up anyway. This past Sunday, Mai Ly and I tried out our first class together. It was all about spices. As a veghead , I am discovering that spices can really make or break your meal plan. Without meat, spices become the aroma. Spices carry the weight of the mouth watering sensations. Spices are important! The class was jammed packed. Some were curious food lovers like me and Mai Ly. Others were food nerds. One girl came bouncing in early, notebook and pen for notes in hand, and was disgruntled when her name some how didn't make the list (she stayed for the class anyway...I guess she is a rebel nerd). For half an hour, we learned about salts and spices that WS will

One of the best restaurants in, well, town, and all we did was enjoy a couple of cocktails. We made a pit stop here on Saturday night before heading out to Uncle Bo's for a surprise birthday bash in honor of our friend Mary. Isom and I had a little extra time between dropping Gabe off with our friend Julie and meeting up with the Uncle Bo's crowd. Where to go? What to do? When in doubt, head to Town . The bartender was full of alcohol knowledge. Maybe he has a blog. I started out with a 150 year old Mexican rum concoction that also contained Mexican Coca-Cola. The little known fact about our neighbor to the south's Coke products----no corn syrup. We've gotta get with the program. I was still thirsty , so I had to order the Twilight beer. "No relation to vampires"...a direct quote from our bartender. Thanks, I kind of figured. It was a nice bitter beer that I should probably enjoy again in the future with some fish tacos. It reminded me of our days

Happy Birthday Mary---40 never looked so good! Previously, I made key lime flavored cupcakes from my 500 Cupcakes book. They were okay, but I seem to recall the meringue or whipped topping not working out so great. This time, I decided to stick with tried and true Cool Whip. On Mary's request, I found a delicious sounding key lime cupcake recipe at bonappetite.com. I was put off at first by the addition of food coloring to the recipe, but in the end, those who tasted this delight (myself included), love the flavor. They turned out nice and moist, which I believe is due to the addition of buttermilk and fresh lime juice to the recipe. I added in fresh lime zest and the usual cupcake ingredients and today's birthday cupcake was complete...well, almost...can't forget the dollop of smooth, white cream on top!

The world famous Red Lobster muffins. Like Popeye's Chicken biscuits, I could skip all the other hoopla and just enjoy this bread. Once, when we still lived in Washington, Isom attempted to make these biscuits for us. He did a good job but sometimes recreations just don't compare to the original. Thanks to another gift card received from our ten year anniversary, we enjoyed lobster last night. I walked Gabe to school (for the fourth day in a row), walked the four coves at Ko Olina , and walked (we parked at Ala Moana) to Red Lobster. Three walks in one day---warrants the over caloried meal I enjoyed yesterday. For starters, you know I had the buttery, cheese biscuit. For my meal---killed two birds with one stone---lobster and pizza. It was also super buttery and the crust a bit soggy due to this fact, but somehow (it was a hard feat), I still lapped it all up. I can not let pizza go to waste. Or lobster for that matter. And since part of our meal was comped (d

Not what you were expecting? In the past week, I have had two Hello Kitty mishaps. The first, my Hello Kitty iPhone cover cracked. It is salvageable. It is more like a hairline fracture. I know it's there, however, and as the day progresses, it becomes more and more irritating---like the snagged nail you forget to cut...hooking on your clothes, getting caught in your hair...causing general aggravation and mayhem. Since the phone is practically an extension of my hand, you can understand my frustration. The second of the mishaps...thievery. I was minding my own business, playing a simple and fun game of Po Ke No, when out of nowhere the cute Hello Kitty travel coffee mug that I won was stolen right before my very eyes. I suppose it was for good reason. (There is honor among thieves...I would have done the same thing!) One: stealing is part of the game. Two: it was for a six year old Hello Kitty fan. Three: It is only a game. But still... two Hello Kitty mishaps. T

"Theirs" (above)...don't you always place your cupcakes in their faux natural setting? "Mine" (below)...although, don't really want to take claim...in their natural habitat at my house---on a plate, ready to be devoured. I will admit fondant (although tastes terrible), really makes cakes, cupcakes, and cookies look a whole lot cuter...especially cuter than wilting in the Hawaiian humidity marshmallows.

...in case you missed it on Facebook . Thanks Tutu for bringing these oldies but goodies out of hiding. It all started when my cousin Rico uncovered old photos from his (and my) childhood. Like all devoted Facebook - ies , he immediately scanned and posted these photos from the worst hair decades--the 80s and 90s. Despite the moment of embarrassment I suffered when I opened my profile page and saw 16 year old me staring back at me ( poofy hair, Polo turtleneck and all), I was happy. It sparked several conversations among family members online and inspired Tutu to post a few of her photographs as well. Above we have me and my Grandpa before he was diagnosed with Parkinson's . Below we have a brace faced me, Grandpa, and you know Tutu!

...the cemetery that is. If you can get over the whole "a ton of dead people in the crater of an old volcano" thing, then this is actually a very nice place to visit. Sunday we were "townies". We watched a movie in town. We ate lunch in town. We looked at houses out of our price range in town. We visited Punchbowl: National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in town. The views here are magnificent. It is a history lesson while being a pleasant walk through nature (and time). With Diamond Head, ocean, mountain, and city views, I'm surprised there weren't more folks there taking it all in. It reminded me that I need to brush up on my history...Gabe had lots of questions...to which I responded with the non-interesting and uniformed "I don't know." But that's what the library is for. We have been going once a week (at least) these days, and our next visit promises to hold books on World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. All of

You may have noticed that these do not look like toadstools. And you would be right. This recipe was basically a vanilla cupcake and vanilla frosting recipe. I've got that covered. The fancy part came in with the decorating. The frosting was supposed to come out red. Mine turned out pink. Obviously I didn't add enough red food coloring. I was ready to live with the pink toadstool look, but then I didn't feel confident to tackle white fondant. So, I got creative and cut marshmallows. White circles are white circles right? It wasn't working. It looked terrible. So, since I knew the cupcakes tasted fine, I changed the design all together. Kind of a cocktail meets...well, I don't know what it met, but the end result was cute and delicious. Who wants to eat a cupcake called toadstool anyway?

I've got some good things to say about this place. Hands down best dessert! We were there for a late lunch, so I think I'll just call it early dinner. That's why it was perfectly acceptable for us to order dessert. Originally I wanted the haupia tapioca. Isom was thoroughly grossed out by this pick and said he would only share (that constitutes him taking one measly bite) the lilikoi cheesecake with me. Fine, I wasn't in the mood for that, but decided it was better to share dessert than eat the whole thing myself . Our super polite and perky waiter stopped by to see about our dessert decision...but wait, there was a special he forgot to mention---mango cobbler with raspberry. Um, I'll...we'll have that! I like salt and sweet. I love hot and cold. When you dip your spoon into the ice cold vanilla ice cream and keep going down through the layers of juicy raspberry and thick crumble down to the warm gooey sweet mango...heaven in a bowl. The next per

I still love my car. Despite the non-beeping gas light indicator (leading to a previous running out of gas mishap), it has been a great little vehicle for the past two years. It has seen me through many adventures with friends and family. My cute little fit has carried one dining room table and four dining room chairs. It has hauled two bedroom nightstands. It has carried a BMX bike. It has carried four kids and me. And this weekend it carried a chaise lounge from Mililani to town. Since that feat was so amusing and successful, I attempted to carry Gabe's "car" bed from Mililani to Kailua in my tiny little Fit. In my defense, up to this point, everything has fit in The Fit. But, everything has it's breaking point...it's limits. All the components of the bed did not actually fit in The Fit...but they fit in two Fits (yes, we are that couple...the one with matching cars). So, at 5:15 p.m. on Saturday, I drove off in perfect sunny skies, headed to K-to

Sounds absolutely nasty right?! Well, it turned out to taste more like a muffin anyway...fruit in a muffin is not so weird or nasty. The saving grace was the phenomenal chocolate frosting. I have my "go to" recipe for chocolate frosting now, so that is a good thing---the silver lining. The second silver lining...we'll call it the gold lining, is that you DO NOT overeat these. For obvious reasons. It's just not worth spending the day in the powder room. It's been an hour or so since I tried the muffincake and I am still feeling normal. This 500 Cupcakes recipe book really has some curve balls. It keeps the baking exciting though. And you never know which flavor combinations are winners until you try them. I haven't included this recipe, because I decided that you'll just have to take my word on it---there are other things you should spend your time baking. But, if you need to "stay regular" or are seeking subtle revenge on someone, let

...for all the fun goodies you brought back from your mainland travels. Mahalo for the Trader Joe's Sesame Honey Cashews (and in case you were wondering...that was a sarcastic thank you). I am now addicted to yet another thing. I was very skeptical of this bag of nuts. Usually, sesame seeds are not something that even cross my mind. But today I'm here to tell you, they are cashews best friend. And the two are my best friends. The combination is out of this world. Do they make a bigger bag? Do they have a sesame cashew of the month club? Sign me up. I have been nibbling on these every day since Saturday---when the frenzy began. This probably explains the new zits popping up. I don't care. I'll take the zits, as long as I can have my sesame honey cashews. Don't be surprised if you receive these as a Christmas present from me. Actually, I'd like to receive these as a Christmas present from you. Write it down. SESAME HONEY CASHEWS...TRADER JOES .

This is what "cooking" is all about...discovering and being creative. Yesterday's salad was delicious. Isom did not get to enjoy it like I did. He was busy getting a ticket. U-turn turned wrong turn. Can't be as creative with driving as you can with salad ingredients...doesn't work out as well. I substituted the hell out of this salad. The exchange rate is below: watercress: feta cheese endive: celery stalk bacon: walnut: pecan nut oil: canola oil apple: apple I kept one ingredient the same. The book provided the idea and I changed it to fit my ingredients...and no meat lifestyle. First, was the bed of cheese (how can you go wrong with a BED of cheese?). Next, I mixed up the dressing (maple syrup, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper). I pan seared the apples. I placed the cut celery on top of the cheese. The warm apples were placed on top of celery and cheese, and sprinkled on top---the nuts and dressing. The strong cheese, the crunch of celery, the salt

...is a restaurant. Well, a diner. No baking therapy today, just straight up food therapy...butter flavored and slathered therapy. Lena and I decided to celebrate, I mean commiserate, the first day of school for the kids, together. We met up for a late breakfast that I like to call LUNCH. We shared the vegetarian omelet and the sweet bread French Toast---served on paper plates. The food was good. It wasn't fancy or overdone. The omelet had mushrooms, onions, and a small variety of peppers. It came with a side of the biggest toast this side of Texas and organic brown rice. Whatever that means. I was surprised that they had a veggie option on their menu. Local style generally equals meat-ing things up! They did a good job of satisfying my morning hunger. We stuck with water (I mean, isn't that what all professional eaters choose as their beverage of choice?). I hear great things about their garlic chicken...I guess I'll never know. But I will return here to g