As much I as love summer vacation, I believe that the world ultimately works by the academic calendar. Full-time onsite employees with kids typically takes weeks of summer off, and in Europe and parts of Asia, companies definitely slow down in August. And while I almost look forward to the faster M-F cadence that the household shifts to once, school starts, it's always important to keep your inner aloha. With that, we end summer with "eat outside" food.

Monday
Teriyaki Chicken and Quinoa Salad, using dressing from Spinach Salad, but using honey instead of sugar. This worked really well as a change-up. I was out of Newman's Balsamic Vinaigrette and the Caesar or the Miso-Goma dressing in-house just wouldn't do.

Tuesday
Simple summer panini with fresh heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella and choice of pesto or tapenade. No roasted tomatoes needed in the summer! Plus fresh cantaloupe and watermelon.

Wednesday
Crock Pot Kalua Pig. Everyone seems to like this and here is the most recent no-joke request for it. When I was in New England, someone left a sort-of-frantic-and-quasi-anonymous voice mail asking for the recipe. I had to figure out who it was by their voice and area code. This week, I'm serving it in a very down-home "Hawaii" way with cabbage, a fried egg and rice.

Thursday
Sweet and Sour Chicken. This now takes more than an hour since the kids eat so many, so I'm making it while I still have time in the afternoon.

Friday
Kalua pig taco cups with Li-hing pineapple. Since we missed going home to Hawaii this summer, I'm going back to some Hawaii cookbooks. This sounds like a good way to use those orphaned gyoza sheets one inevitably ends up with.

Enjoy every last bit of summer. 

Eat Well. Be Well.

Thanks Shutterfly's offer of a free book and my husband's thrifty ways, in two weeks, I'll have my very own Feeding My Ohana | Family Favorites hard-bound book. Print run = 1.

This turned out to be a harder task than I thought. Currently, Feeding My Ohana has over 200 recipes, and there were 18 8" x 8" pages for the book. What do you pick? Add three very opinionated at-home 'consultants' proposing their own preferences. "Why can't you put Spam musubi in there?" "But I looove broccoli salad!" "You can't seriously be thinking kamaboko sandwiches" and "I can't believe you're not putting lemon bars in"...

We came to consensus on most items, and have managed a detente for the rest, with side agreements to make the non-book ones in the near future. But why did we pick out these as our favorite? Tastes good, of course. Some of them, like tofu steaks or sesa-miso eggplant, were definitely descended from magazines and cookbooks, but we've made them our own, by adding, subtracting, or just plain changing things up a little.

But beyond flavor, most of the family favorites revolve around a good time or friends and family. Shave ice, Rainbows plate lunch and malasadas always make us appreciate going home to Hawaii. Sugar cookies in the shape of our favorite Sharks (12, 22, 15 & 20) attacking a hapless duck bring together our annual Christmas cookie-making and our family Sharks games. Even the names remind us--my Mom's Chicken Katsu in Hawaii, Christine's Clam Chowder at our annual Christmas party, Steve's Hummus from my long-time boss, and Todd's Pecan Pie every Thanksgiving and Christmas.


So what are your family favorites? What do they remind you of?