Tips for parents on Maui and Haupia

I have learned a lot about raising a child on a tropical island in the 2 1/2 yrs I've lived on Maui. Some things are common sense and some are unique to my location. Here are some of the most important things I've learned:

1) Baby powder is your best friend at the Beach. 
One of the first things I learned upon moving to Maui is that you always bring baby powder to the beach. It is a miracle at removing sand from tiny bodies. A quick sprinkle will dry any sand stuck to the skin and allow you to dust it away.

2) Regular diapers are better at keeping out sand than swim diapers. 

One of the biggest issues with infants at the beach is the infiltration of sand into everything everywhere. After much trial and error I have found that while swim diapers work great in pools, at the beach they let a tremendous amount of sand into areas you really don't want it. In my experience the slight swelling you get with a regular diaper at the beach is worth the extra protection you get from sand and chaffing . While no diaper will keep out all the sand the slight amount that accumulates with a regular diaper can be easily removed with baby powder (See tip #1)

3) Child safety seats are worth a tax credit. 

If you are making Maui your long term home and have to purchase a child safety seat, always keep your receipt. In Hawaii you can claim a $25 tax credit for child safety seats on your state income taxes each year. Its not much but its worth it. 

4) Always use tear free sunscreen on the face. 

There are a million different types of sunscreen available these days. The best thing I can recommend for children and adults alike is using one of the tear free options on the face. Maui is humid and you sweat a lot. Regular sunscreen will run when mixed with sweat and cause severe burning in the eyes, the tear free option keeps this from happening and you will have much happier outings if you use it.

5) A year pass to the Maui Ocean Center is worth it. 

There aren't many options for entertaining small children on Maui on rainy or high surf days. The Maui Ocean center is a great option in these occasions. Normally I wouldn't recommend year passes for an attraction like this but the Ocean Center is actually highly affordable. First children under 3 are free. For adults a one day pass is $25.95 where as a year pass with unlimited visits is $60, and this is before the generous 20% Kamaaina discount offered to those with a Hawaiian ID. Basically 2 visits will pay for a year pass.Children 3-12 are $18.95 per visit or $47 for an annual pass before discount.   For families of 4 you can get a year pass for 2 adults and 2 children for $175 before discount. Additional children can be added to a family pass for $40. The center has some awesome exhibits and educational programs and an amazing gift shop. For parents of  kids 6-12 I recommend their Sleep with the Sharks sleepovers, an awesome overnight experience for kids where they get to camp out in the shark tunnel. 

One of the other awesome discoveries I've made on Maui is Haupia. Haupia is a traditional Hawaiian coconut pudding that sets up like jello and can be sliced into squares and eaten, poured into a pie shell for pie, or used to make an awesome poke cake. Here is my favorite recipe for it. 

HAUPIA

Ingredients

• 2 cans Coconut Milk
• 2 cups cold water
• 1/2 cup white sugar 
• 1/2 cup organic sugar
• 1 cup cornstarch

Directions

• 1
  Combine the cornstarch and water. Stir until smooth.
• 2
  Add the sugar and coconut milk.
• 3
  Cook over medium low heat until thickened and shiny stirring frequently. If the haupia is grainy, you need to keep cooking the mixture because the fat in the coconut milk has not yet melted. 
• 4 When the haupia has thickened to a custard like consistency pour into a 8x9 baking dish and chill for at least 2hrs in the refrigerator.
• 
  

Back to it and old style Traditional Italian Gravy

So several people have been encouraging me to get back to blogging. With their support I'm going to give this a go again, though the format may be a bit more random.

Yesterday evening I was watching television and developed a sudden intense desire for pasta with a traditional meat sauce. I realized I hadn't had Italian in a long time and so when I got up this morning I decided to give it a go. I found an amazing recipe to adapt from  http://www.theblackpeppercorn.com

With that as a blue print I headed to the kitchen. First thing I did was half the recipe, my family is only 3 people after all and its really hit or miss on what the toddler will eat on any given day. I also realized I did not have the Italian sausages or ribs the recipe called for but what I did have was a couple of leftover Smokey Bourbon sausages from lunch a few days ago, and bacon. Let's be honest, everything is better with bacon. The last couple of substitutions I had to make were cream cheese in place of ricotta and since I didn't have any breadcrumbs some pulverized seasoned croutons took their place.

First up was the meatballs. These were quite flavorful with the Parmesan, fresh micro basil and cream cheese.

some lovely micro basil from my balcony

I mixed together the ingredients for the meatballs and formed 1in balls. I baked these on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 350 for 20min. I ended up with about 18 meatballs. 

Lovely delicious meatballs fresh from the oven

While the meatballs were cooking I started the sauce base. I mixed together 41/2 cups of curshed tomatoes with 1 cup of wine. (The trick to cooking with wine is to never cook with something you wouldn't drink.) To this mixture I added the sugar, chili flakes, and sea salt. When using sea salt remember that it has a much stronger flavor then table salt allowing you to get away with using less then half the amount. 

Pretty red sauce base

Once the meatballs were done I added them to the sauce on a gentle boil. I then started on the other meats. I cubed the sausages and fried them for a few minutes in a bit of olive oil, just long enough to get some color on the outsides. 

Sausage!

I added that to the pot with the meatballs and sauce and worked on cooking the bacon, which I chopped up prior to cooking. I cooked this till it was about 3/4 of the way done. 

BACON!

I added that to the pot and then set to work on the vegetables. The recipe called for one diced white onion, but here on Maui we are blessed to have easy access to the amazing Maui Sweet Onion which I used instead. The recipe also called a diced celery stalk and 2 cloves of minced garlic. Mincing fresh garlic has always been an annoying task for me but luckily upon moving here I found an amazing treasure. I found a small handheld grater at longs made especially for use with garlic, ginger and horseradish, and it only cost $3. 

Wonder of wonders.

I cooked the vegetable mixture in the bacon grease until soft and then added them to the pot of meats and sauce as well. I made sure to drain the grease off first as I didn't want it going into my sauce. 

mmm flavor makers right there.

Once everything was mixed together I brought the pot of sauce to a strong simmer and allowed to cook for 2hrs stirring occasionally. I made up some whole wheat linguine to serve it over and lunch was done. 

Lunch is served. 

Traditional Italian Gravy

• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 links smoked sausage, cubed
• 1/2 pound thick cut bacon, sliced 
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1/4 cup parmesean cheese
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 cup ground seasoned croutons
• 1/3 cup fresh chopped basil
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 sweet onion, minced
• 1 stalk celery minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 1/2 cups of strained/crushed tomatoes (2-3 jars or cans)
• 1 cups red wine or sparkling grape juice
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp crushed dried chilies (red pepper flakes)
• spaghetti noodles or other pasta

Instructions

1. For the meatballs, mix the ground beef, cream cheese, parmesean, ground croutons, egg, milk, fresh basil and salt together. Knead the mixture with your hands until thoroughly combined. Roll into 1 inch meatballs and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes.
2. In a large pot, pour in the strained tomatoes, wine/sparkling grape juice, sugar, dried chilies and salt. Bring to a small boil.
3. When the meatballs are cooked, stir them in the sauce.
4. In a frypan, heat the oil and cook the sausages until they are cooked mostly through. Stir them in the sauce.
5. In the same frypan, cook the bacon until mostly crispy, about 3/4 of the way done.  Stir tit in the sauce.
6. In the frypan, add the onions, celery and garlic. Also, after the veggies have cooked, this is a great opportunity to 'deglaze' the pan. There are a lot of great flavours on the base of this pan and they need to get in the sauce. Pour in a little bit of water (1/2 cup) and scrape the bottom of the pan to pull up all the bits that are packed with flavor. Once the veggies are soft, pour them and the deglazing water all into the sauce.
7. Cook the sauce at a low to medium simmer for about 2 hours, or longer. Serve with noodles.