Heart of the Matter #32: Breads - Sweet and Savory

I don’t know about all of you, but I love the holiday season. It’s like a food-lover’s dream – the possibilities for making and eating delicious food are blissfully endless. I spend hours pouring over every food-themed magazine I can find and picking out all the cookie recipes and other fun foods that I want to make this holiday season…this year? Eggnog and a yule log...wow, that even rhymes. Plus, I’d love to hold a cookie exchange with my friends this year. Do you have anything you’re hoping to make this month?

The holidays are a perfect time of year for this month’s Heart of the Matter theme, “Breads: Sweet and Savory.” There are so many kinds of breads that go perfectly with the cooler weather that we’re getting here…warm, yeasty boules filled with herbs and crackled crusts, sweet loaves packed with tart cranberries and ginger to be eaten with tea, sticky rolls for breakfast…it will be a challenging just choosing what kind of a bread to make! And yes, believe it or not, we get cooler weather here in Hawaii! Along with lots of winter rain…and last week, it even snowed on Mauna Kea, the huge volcano that is on the Big Island! Even my hometown in Colorado is in the holiday spirit, getting decked out for a white Christmas with nearly 10 inches of snow coming in today!

So this month, send in your entry for a sweet or a savory bread (or heck, go wild and do both!). And of course it should please be heart-healthy too: your entry should be low in saturated fats (ie. not too much butter!), be low in salt (sodium), and if you'd like, abundant with vegetables or herbs or fruit. If you want to get more information, check out our useful links in the right hand marginal of the HotM blog. Please only use your entry for this event so that we can keep things centred on heart-healthy recipes and please link to the event as well. Send your entries to me at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com before (your) midnight Thursday, December 31, and please put "HotM" in your subject line so I can keep track of all the entries! ;) I'll post the round-up on January 1st so that we can all eat these healthy breads as part of our healthy new year's resolutions!

Reviving Rumaki: Retro Dishes for HotM

After some technical difficulties, I am finally posting my entry for HotM...

The theme for Heart of the Matter this month is Retro Dishes. When Ilva and I decided on this theme, the first thing that came to my mind was rumaki. Rumaki was found at nearly every American party in the 1950s and 60s and I can’t think of anything more retro for my entry!

Rumaki is an appetizer that is thought to have originated with “Trader Vic” (and no, that’s not the Trader Vic of Trader Joes), whose full name was Victor Bergeron. There’s some controversy here though…Trader Vic owned some so-called “mock-Polynesian” restaurants in San Francisco, but according to Wikipedia, the earliest known reference to this little delight is on the 1941 menu of the “Don the Beachcomber” restaurant in Palm Springs…one of Trader Vic’s big competitors. Makes the history a little more interesting, huh? Check out the link on the Wikipedia page because it actually has a scan of the menu!

The variations on rumaki are vast, but in general, it’s always got water chestnuts that have been wrapped in bacon and marinated in a soy-sugar mixture before being broiled or baked. Many rumaki have chicken livers as a major component, but I left them out because the first rumaki I had (my friend Kristin introduced me to it) didn’t have them and so I’ve developed a taste for the simple bacon-water chestnut flavor. However, to throw my own spin on it for HotM, add a little Hawaiian flair (and some more Polynesia to it), and to give this little pupu (Hawaiian for appetizer) some extra vitamins, I added pineapple to the mix. To make it heart-healthy, I lowered the amount of sugar, adding sherry for a sweet flavor, and used turkey bacon to decrease the fat content. Let's revive this delicious yet forgotten appetizer! Though you might want to make a double batch – these disappear quickly!

Here’s the recipe:

Healthy Rumaki a la Hawaii, makes about 35-40

¼ cup pineapple juice (preferably freshly squeezed; or at least not from canned pineapple)

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp ginger, finely grated

1 tbsp dry sherry

1 tsp brown sugar, packed

1 small can (8 oz.) of water chestnuts

1 cup of pineapple, cored, cut in ¼ slices, then cubed (preferably fresh)

10 strips of turkey bacon, cut in half and lengthwise and crosswise

toothpicks

Preheat the oven to 375F (or broil, if you can - I can’t because ours doesn’t work). Cover a cookie sheet with foil. Combine the pineapple juice, soy sauce, ginger, sherry, and brown sugar in a medium bowl and whisk together. Add the water chestnuts and soak for 1/2 hr in the refrigerator.

Dump the pineapple/soy mixture into a small saucepan and boil gently until reduced to about half – about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, wrap each water chestnut and a piece of pineapple in the turkey bacon and secure with a toothpick. Using a pastry brush or simply drizzling, coat the outside of each little parcel with the thickened mixture, then bake for 20-25 minutes (or broil for 5-6 minutes) or until the bacon is crispy.

Thanks for hosting, Ilva! You can check out this month's round-up over at Ilva's site soon and remember that all the archives are kept on the HotM blog. See you next month!

Heart of the Matter 30: Seeds, Nuts and Things (Round-up)

This month's theme for the Heart of the Matter monthly healthy eating round-up was Seeds, Nuts and Seed-like things and I'm very excited because we got a lot of entries! Thank you to everyone who participated!

The first entry came in from Aparna, over at My Diverse Kitchen: A Vegetarian Kitchen in India, who sent in her take on the theme with her Healthy Granola Squares. I just love the look of them - fat and beautiful and full of yummy seeds and nuts!

Next to come in were the Chocolate Almond Soft Caramel Muffins from Dhanggit's Kitchen. These sound so decadent and delicious! Plus, those caramels remind me of being a kid too!

Nathan Lau, whom I have had the great pleasure of meeting when he and his lovely wife, Annie, were here visiting in Hawaii, submitted his entry for Roasted, Salted Pumpkin Seeds, one of my favorite October snacks (and the best reason to carve up a Halloween pumpkin). Their blog, House of Annie, has lots of great recipes they make both with and for their family.

Johanna over at Green Gourmet Giraffe, whose banner for her blog title I completely adore, turned in her recipe for fabulous-sounding Chocolate Sesame Cookies, which are vegan and have loads of interesting ingredients like tahini, molasses and those gorgeous black sesame seeds. Mmmm....

Tigerfish sent in a recipe for Millet Congee. Millet is a grain that I wish I used more in my own kitchen and I think I will have to try this recipe soon because I just so happen to have some in the cupboard (and congee is something I have always wanted to try)! You can see the recipe for this perfect fall dish over at Tigerfish's blog, Teczcape - An Escape to Food.

The next entry came from Tasty Curry Leaf - healthy Banana Sunflower Seed Cookies! These light, fluffy cookies use bananas instead of eggs and I think they look like a smashing success! Since we have an abundance of bananas all the time here in Hawaii, I think these will be another dish that is made soon in my house.

Champa from the blog, Stories from an Indian Kitchen, is new to blogging but thankfully already participating in events. These Vegan Almond Cookies are full of yummy things like cardamom and almond butter - I love the thought of that combination!

Our last two entries come from the blog, Pan Gravy Kadai Curry. The first entry was this Pan-fried and Almond-crusted Salmon on a bed of sauteed spinach. Since we all know the benefits of eating fish for omega-3-fatty acids to help our hearts, I'm always on the lookout for a good salmon recipe!
I have a dream of eating roasted chestnuts in New York City around Christmastime, but since it will be a long time since I go to NYC, I can't wait to try Pan Gravy Kadai Curry's second entry for Oven Roasted Chestnuts at home!

See you all next month for HotM 31, where Ilva will be host!

Heart of the Matter (HotM) 30: Seeds and Things

This month for Heart of the Matter, my co-host Ilva and I are going with the theme of Nuts, Seeds and Nut-Like Things. "Things" being other nut- and seed-like ingredients such as peanuts, which are considered nuts by most people (hence, the name) but are actually a type of legume. We got only a few entries last month (all of them fabulous!), but we're hoping to see more of you this month! Nuts make perfect Fall snacks and appetizers, are great in salads and breads...seeds are perfect in things like granolas, muffins, breads and all sorts of things. We can't wait to see what you come up with! Right now, HotM is the only thing keeping my little blog alive, but I still have high hopes for coming back sometime in the future!

So this month, send in your entry for the most creative thing you can think of to do with Nuts, seeds or other nut-like things. And of course it has to be heart-healthy too: your entry should be low in saturated fats (lean meats and fish), be low in salt (sodium), and if you'd like, abundant with vegetables or fruit. If you want to get more information, check out our useful links in the right hand marginal on the HotM blog. Please only use your entry for this event so that we can keep things centred on heart-healthy recipes and please link to the event as well. Send your entries to me at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com before (your) midnight Saturday the 31st of October, and please put "HotM" in your subject line so I can keep track of all the entries! ;)

See you then!
Michelle

A is for (Sea) Asparagus

For this month's Heart of the Matter, my co-host, Ilva, and I chose to go with the alphabet...and what better letter to begin a series of alphabetical themes than the letter, A? While you won't be seeing a complete series for some time (we want to change the themes up with all the holidays on the way), you'll be seeing different letters appear in the upcoming months.

So many of my favorite foods begin with the letter A: apples, almonds, artichokes, avocado and of course, asparagus. While asparagus is a year-round vegetable here in Hawaii, I know for many of you, it is only a short-lived springtime indulgence. And besides, I wanted to capitalize on some of Hawaii's bounty that maybe isn't so commonly known. For these reasons, I chose one of my new-found favorite vegetables here: sea asparagus. Despite it's name, sea asparagus is not very similar to the asparagus we typically think of. It's more like a seaweed, I guess...or better said, a sea-vegetable. Sort of a cross between a bean sprout and a sea weed...it's a little salty, a little juicy and adds a bit of fresh flavor to anything.

This little sea vegetable grows wild in many places, but in Hawaii, Marine AgriFuture grows sea asparagus hydroponically on Kahuku shrimp farms, harvests it by hand, and sells it at Farmer's Markets and some of the grocery stores on the Island. So, while it's not a food product native to Hawaii (so many of them aren't), it is locally grown. And delicious.

Sea asparagus is very versatile, and good for you. It's full of vitamins A, B12 and B9, as well as folic acid and antioxidants. It's thought to be a good detoxification agent and good for your muscles. And it's a good source of iodine. Since LB and I eat a lot of dark, leafy greens, which also grow very well in Hawaii and are good for you, but tend to interfere with the uptake of the important mineral, iodine, sea asparagus is one way we get our weekly dose of iodine (we use kosher salt for cooking, which does not have iodine added to it the way "table" salt does).

While many people prefer to blanch the sea asparagus for a minute or so before using it, we've found that with the type of dishes we like to make with it, we like to maintain it's salty taste. While it is a bit bitter when eaten raw from the package, when mixed with oils (like the recipe below) it doesn't taste bitter at all. Below is my entry for HotM and a salad that is perfect for a potluck or a light dinner (with some crusty bread or even by itself). It's also easily cut in half. If you want to try it at home and don't have sea asparagus, this is still good with a bunch of regular asparagus - blanched first, cut into smallish pieces, and a little extra soy sauce or shoyu added.

Sea Asparagus and Tofu Salad, serves 8

1 package sea asparagus, roughly chopped
1 japanese or english cucumber, diced
1/2 block of extra firm tofu, diced
1 large heirloom tomato, diced
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Dressing

2 tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1 tsp. honey

Combine all the salad ingredients, except for the sesame seeds, in a large bowl. Add the dressing to a small jar with a tight-fitting lid. Close the lid and shake. When the dressing is mixed, pour it over the salad ingredients and then mix, gently. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds and then mix again gently. This is good fresh, or even after marinating over-night. Better still? I use the dressing for all kinds of things - lettuce salads, marinating chicken, just about any kind of anything that I want to add an "Asian" flavor to...try it!

HotM Change

Hi Everyone,
There has been a slight change in plans for Heart of the Matter this month, and I will not be able to do the round-up because I had to leave town unexpectedly. Please send your HotM entries to my co-host, Ilva, at Lucullian Delights. Her email is luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com. If you have already sent in your entry to me, please know that I have forwarded it on to her, so there is no need to re-send it if you have already. I apologize for the change and will see you next month.

Best,
Michelle

Heart of the Matter 28: Budget-Friendly Foods

If you’re in the U.S. or many other parts of the world, you’ve no doubt heard about The Recession for months now. Many people are tightening their belts and making changes in their lifestyle to try and conserve funds or prepare for uncertain times. But no matter where you are, it never hurts to be a bit frugal occasionally or to have a few meals in your repertoire that can stretch your pocketbook a bit further if needed. Thus, the theme for this month’s Heart of the Matter is “Budget-Friendly Foods.”

Your challenge this month is to come up with a meal that is budget-friendly AND heart healthy…either using ingredients that don’t cost much (or perhaps you grew yourself?) or even ingredients where a little goes a long way. Be creative and share with us how you save money when you cook! What’s your go-to meal at the end of the month or before payday comes? What do you make when you have a lot of people to feed but not a lot of money?

After the round-up, we’ll all have a suite of meals that we can use to help stretch our budget next month…And who knows, maybe that extra money you’ve saved could go towards a trip later on in the summer or spent on a bushel of extra juicy peaches while they’re in season?

After you’ve made your meal and blogged about it, send me the link before midnight on Friday, July 31 at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com and stay tuned for the round-up a few days later.

Remember that your entry should be low in saturated fats (lean meats and fish), be low in salt (sodium), and that you can be abundant with vegetables or fruit. If you want to get more information, check out the useful links in the right hand marginal of the HotM website. Please only use your entry for this event so that we can keep things centered on heart-healthy recipes.

Lemony Summer Pasta Salad: HotM 27

While others around the country are just now beginning to see the bounty of summer’s first produce at their farmer’s markets – stone fruits, fava beans, baby lettuces, we’re on a little bit of a different schedule here. June in Hawaii means that mangoes, tomatoes, arugula, lychee and Kahuku sweet corn are back in force.

Yep, I said tomatoes. And I don’t mean the little cherry tomatoes that grow year-round here. I mean the big beauties that most of the rest of the US doesn’t see until late in the summer. And these aren’t Early Girls or Uglies either. They’re our own variety: Big Wave. But we also begin to get other heirloom varieties too, thanks to Jeanne Vana, our resident Island heirloom tomato grower. For a self-proclaimed tomato addict such as myself, this is heaven.

The theme for Heart of the Matter this month is the Best of June’s Produce, so I couldn’t resist a dish that had a few of the tomatoes I picked out at Jeanne’s farm out in the North Shore last weekend. And I had to add in a few of the other vegetables that are plentiful these days too: peppery arugula, crisp cucumbers, sweet sugar snap peas, and local asparagus (available year round here). Summer also means we’re back to hot days and muggy nights, which means that I don’t want to spend much time in the kitchen because anything simmering on the stove or roasting in the oven also means we’re roasting in our skin it’s so hot inside the house.

Here’s the dish I came up with – it’s a pasta salad that’s great for a light, summer evening meal or a hearty lunch – it's healthy, packed with veggies, lightly scented with lemon zest, and it would be perfectly complimented by a slice of grilled bread and a glass of refreshing Riesling on the side. Play around with it! Use your favorite early summer produce or what you have on hand. If you prefer a non-vegetarian salad, this would also be delicious with a can of good-quality tuna in olive oil and some capers added. We’ve also been making our own cheese, which I would add next time to replace the feta – stay tuned for that recipe sometime next month when I’m back to blogging regularly (teaching ends after today!!).


Lemony Summer Pasta Salad, serves 6

6 oz. shaped pasta
1 bunch asparagus, the woody ends snapped off
2-3 large tomatoes, chopped or ~15 small cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 small cucumber, peeled
1 large handful of sugar-snap peas, trimmed and cut in half
2 scallions, thinly sliced
4 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
zest of one lemon
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup feta cheese
2 tbsp. thinly sliced basil (chiffonade)
1 bunch of baby arugula

Bring a large pot of boiling, salted water to boil. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. When the water begins to boil, add the asparagus and cook for 2 minutes, then remove the asparagus using tongs and transfer it to the ice water bath. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook it until it is al dente, then drain. Rinse the pasta with cold water, drain and return to the pan.

While the pasta is cooking, remove the asparagus and put it on a towel to dry. When dry, you can chop it into 1 – 2 inch lengths. Pour the ice bath out and add the cut asparagus back to the bowl, along with the chopped tomatoes.

Add the cucumber, sugar snap peas, and scallions to the cooled pasta. Whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon zest and salt and pepper in a small bowl until it emulsifies, then mix this with the pasta and vegetables. Add the feta cheese and basil. Add the asparagus and tomatoes and mix very gently with a large spoon or better yet, your hands.

Just before serving, mix in the arugula. If you plan to eat this as leftovers, only add the arugula to what you will be eating at one time – it tends to wilt too fast for my taste if it’s added early.

Heart of the Matter 26: The Locavore (Round-Up)

The theme for Heart of the Matter 26 was "The Locavore" or using local foods - using an ingredient, or several ingredients, from near your home. I hope it encouraged at least some people out there to seek out some kind of local food or be inspired to start growing something of your own! I'm sad to say though that only two of you out there were able to join us for this round-up and I hope it's only because May and June, that transition from Spring into Summer is always a busy one. I know I was crazy busy and waited until the last minute to make my dish and try and take pictures, only to find out my camera wouldn't work! So my actual post is in this round-up because I have just now gotten my camera back to working. I know my co-host Ilva also ran into some computer issues and was unable to participate this time as well.

Hopefully we'll see some of our regulars - and maybe a few new bloggers? - back here for June's theme next month!

But without further adieu, here are our three entries - the two ladies who stuck it out and sent in their entry, and myself!

Our first entry came from Soma, at eCurry. She used some beautiful little greens that were right outside in her backyard to make her Stir Fried "Pui" with Poppy Seeds - which is, as she describes it "a very simple recipe that my mom & my grandmom would make. It is a stir fry with a lot of flavor of garlic, almost caramelized onions and a sprinkle of poppy seeds." Sounds lovely, doesn't it? And it's so inspiring to me that she grew it herself!

Our second entry came from Zabeena, who writes the blog, A Lot On My Plate. It has a very simple name, Pink Green, but you'll see while its name is simple, there are some incredible and interesting flavor combinations going on in this single dish - consisting of asparagus with three pink dipping sauces (and thus, the name!). She's also got a lot of interesting info about the food, the place she lives and how this dish came about - go check it out!

Lastly, my own dish is super simple, but made with all local ingredients...a Sweet Corn, Mint and Feta Salad. Well, that's not exactly true. It is all local except for one ingredient...which could well have been local too but when I sent my husband to the grocery store for me he came home with the non-local version of the feta. Oh well! Kahuku sweet corn is available for most of the year here and is in full swing right now, so I simply paired it with feta, fresh mint, a bit of lime juice and some olive oil, salt and pepper. It turned out a wonderful, simple dish that I'm sure we'll be eating again this summer with various types of grilled fish and maybe even bring to a potluck or two!

A big thanks to Soma and Zabeena for participating! Hope to see you next month too!

Heart of the Matter 26: The Locavore

Eating locally is big these days - the closer to home your food comes from, the more economical, carbon-friendly and overall good-for-everyone it can be. People who eat mostly local foods have even garnered their own title: locavores. Locavores are people who eat mostly food that has been grown or produced near their home (sometimes a radius of 100 miles - or even their own back yard). Many farmer's markets are beginning this month (or on their way), the first spring lettuces, asparagus and rhubarb are peeking their way out of the ground and ready to grace our plates after a long winter, and the idea of supporting your local economy couldn't be more prudent...what better way to enjoy all of these things than to cook up something at home, made with fresh, spring ingredients that have traveled a minimal distance to your plate?

Since we're as big of supporters of being good to our bodies (especially our hearts) as we are of being good to the Earth, we thought a theme of Local Foods, or "The Locavore" for Heart of the Matter this month would be fitting. So go ahead - forage, grow or shop your way to a heart-healthy dish made mostly with foods from the area where you live, then share it with all of us!

Here's the rules:

Make something that is heart healthy (low in saturated fats - ie. lean meats and fish, low in sodium and abundant in vegetables or fruit), using mostly ingredients that are grown or produced within 150 miles of your home (or heck, at least from your state/region). If you're growing something in your garden and it's ready to use, that's even better! If you can find only a few ingredients locally, then use one of them as the centerpiece for your dish! We're not strict, we just think it will be a great way to start the summer off - thinking about what might be grown in your community, or what you could be growing by the time September rolls around and Fall is here (for instance, tomatoes are best towards the end of summer...there's still time to get seedlings and start growing your own - everybody knows there's nothing as tasty as a home-grown tomato!). Just think of all the participants of HotM from around the world and all the possible climates and different types of things that can be grown in all those different places!

Once you've blogged about your local foods dish, submit to me by email at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com by midnight on Thursday, May 28 (please put "HotM" in the subject line). Then stay tuned for the round-up and see what everyone else made from ingredients that were local to them. If you're still unsure what "heart-healthy" means, check out the HotM blog, and the many useful links in the right hand sidebar. Please only use your entry for this event so that we can keep things centered on heart-healthy recipes. We're excited to see the diversity of heart-healthy and local dishes that you produce this month and can't wait to read about them!

Drink your Way to a Healthy Heart: Hibiscus-Ginger Cooler

The theme for Heart of the Matter (HotM) this month - hosted by Ilva at Lucullian Delights - was Flowers. In Hawaii, hibiscus grows wild and is commonly found in home gardens and as an ornamental plant, but this little beauty is also extremely high in vitamin C (maybe that's what gives it its beautifully rich color?) and preliminary studies show promising results that it may lower high blood pressure and even cholesterol when steeped and enjoyed as a drink. Sounds like the perfect heart-healthy drink to me!

Hibiscus has been used as a health "tonic" of sorts in cultures all over the world for centuries, and I think it's high time we bring it back! I've been taking some herbal classes lately, learning about the herbs, flowers and plants that are both native and invasive in Hawaii that can be used for tinctures, salves and more to improve health and reduce reliance on contemporary medicine. For my entry for HotM this month, I steeped dried hibiscus flowers with ginger, a rhizome known to be great for stomach problems, but which also has cholesterol-lowering properties. For a little kick, I added a bit of peppermint to the steeping liquid and then sweetened it slightly with honey. It came out great! I can imagine it as an extremely refreshing drink for the dog-days of summer, but it's been nice for the nice days this spring too, when you get a warm day. Add an umbrella and some sparkling water (or hey, rum if you are so inclined) and you've got yourself a fruity, tropical drink that can be made with completely local ingredients. We'll be drinking much more of this in the days to come!

While the flowers themselves are much more beautiful when they are not dried, the dried ones keep well in an airtight container and impart a gorgeous, ruby color to your steeping liquid. Hibiscus has its own distinct flavor...which is actually really difficult to describe, but good! And you don't need very many! I used 15 dried blossoms (I got these at the farmer's market some time ago, but you can also dry your own to about) but you could use the same amount of blossoms in a larger amount of water I think and not lose any flavor...I had a bunch, so I didn't mind using them because I wanted the hibiscus flavor to come through.

Hibiscus-Ginger Cooler, makes 4 cups.

4 cups filtered water
15 dried hibiscus blossoms
1 inch ginger root, organic and unpeeled - sliced into 1/4" slices
1 small sprig of mint
raw honey, to taste

Bring the water to a boil, then remove from the heat and stir in the hibiscus, ginger root and mint. Let steep for at least an hour or up to 4. Strain the mixture with a sieve (or cheese cloth if you want a clearer liquid). You could sweeten it with the honey at this point, or you can sweeten each glass as you want to drink it depending on your preference and who will be drinking it later.

Don't Forget to Vote for your Favorite HotM Recipes!

Don't forget to vote for your Favorite Recipe and the entry with the Best Presentation from this month's round-up for Finger Foods for our 2 year Birthday Bash! You needn't have entered the actual event to vote for your favorite entries! There are prizes for each category: the winner of the favorite recipe category will win a special box coming all the way from Ilva's home country, Italy, packed with goodies, including black rice from Veneto, a small bottle with White Truffle Scented Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar Jelly and Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans from Slitti! The winner of the presentation category will be sent a box from Michelle's state, Hawaii, full of delicious tropical treats, including Waialua Estate Single Origin Hawaiian dark chocolate, Red Alaea Salt, and Hawaiian grown macadamia nuts and Planted by the River Guava curd (this is one of the last remaining bottles of these special curds - the couple running the company has decided to stop selling them and they are no longer available, which is really a very sad thing because they are amazing! see Heidi's review here and here)!

The winners will be announced on March 25th, so you have until tomorrow night at midnight (Hawaii time, which is probably well into Wednesday for many of you) to vote for your favorites. Send your votes to me at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com.

Heart of the Matter Birthday Bash Roundup

Aloha! And thanks for joining us for the Birthday Bash Round-up for the Heart of the Matter. We're 2 years old now and I don't know about you, but I'm ready to celebrate! We had so many great entries this time - bloggers who have been with us since the beginning, some who have been showing up steadily since they first heard about us, and new bloggers who wanted to help out. Remember to keep your eye out for entries that stand out - we're looking for the entry with the best recipe (who will win an Italian goodie box!) and best presentation (who will win a Hawaiian goody box!). The winners will be announced on March 25th, so there is one week to vote for your favorites. You needn't have entered the actual event to vote for your favorite entries! Send your votes to me at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com. Well, without further adieu, here are the entries...

Our first entry came from the Green Gourmet Giraffe, with Johanna's Strawberry and Passionfruit Icy Poles. If you're looking for a heart healthy and colorful treat for you, your guests or your kids that is full of freshly squeezed juices and fruit, then these are definitely it!

I love Brussels sprouts and my co-host, Ilva, from the blog Lucullian Delights, made some delicious looking (and beautiful) Chestnut, Parmesan and Rosemary-Filled Brussels Sprouts for her first entry. I can just imagine plucking them up with my fingers and eating them!

Our friend Labelga, from the blog Leafy Cooking, made these tasty little Marinated Arabian Cheese Balls with joghurt, which was something I hadn't heard of prior to now, but certainly look like they would be amazing!

Ever-faithful participants, Bee and Jai from the blog Jugalbandi, brought these unique Spicy Nut and Seed Clusters with all manner of wonderful flavors (including cayenne, fenugreek and pumpkin seeds!) to the party. I can just imagine myself standing by the refreshment table and gobbling these up by the handful...

From the blog, eCurry, arrived these dainty Savory Layered & Nut Stuffed Chickpea Swirls. Soma, author of the blog, says they are khandvis, another type of food that was new to me, but when I heard what was in them - mint & coriander chutney & coarsely ground lightly toasted almonds - I'm certain that I would fall in love with them!

They say for the prevention of heart disease you should eat your omega-3s and salmon is one of the healthiest sources for these essential nutrients. Tigerfish, from the blog, Teczcape - An Escape to Food, brought these lovely and healthy Salmon Cakes with Mango Salsa on them and I just love the splash of color that mango salsa lends to these little beauties. I wish the mangoes were ready to eat here!

If I saw this Fig and Red Onion Confit at a party, I'd definitely have to hunt down the maker - it happens to be Suganya, from the blog Tasty Palettes. I've always imagined confit being complicated and thought it was only made from meat...Suganya shows us it's easy, beautiful and can be healthy and vegetarian at the same time! Delicious!

While Marla from the blog Bella Baita View confessed that this birthday celebration was "only" her second time participating, I'm glad she decided to join us once again because her entry, Red Lentil Crostini, topped with thin, dried apple slices, sounds truly irresistable. We hope to see you again sometime soon, Marla!

I've been secretly hoping that Tanna (from My Kitchen in Half Cups) could participate in HotM for ages, but she's always got so many projects and other events she participates in that she hasn't had the time, so it made my heart beam when she sent in her entry for these scrumptous-looking Small Bite Bean and Tuna Pizzas. She shares these with neighbors on her rooftop with a bottle of wine - sounds like a perfect party to me!

One of my favorite greens is arugula, but I almost always eat it raw. I see now that I've been sorely missing out after hearing about these Saucy Chicken and Arugula Meatballs from More Than Burnt Toast...plus, she was lucky enough to eat them wild when she was only a child! These little babies seem to me that they're like the perfect little black dress - they can go from pasta dinner to party food (on toothpicks) in a snap!

From TastyCurryLeaf in India, we have this decadent Walnut Vegetable Pate, served on toasted whole wheat bread (and I can just imagine it would be equally delightful in wraps or scooped up with fresh vegetables!). It's filled with hearty-healthy walnuts and sounds like a wonderfully healthy version of this exquisite food that looks and sounds fancy, but is simple to make - perfect for impressing any guests!

Laura, from Tiramisu', brought these dainty Shrimp Marinated with Lime and Herbs to share at the party and I just absolutely love the little skewers! Elegant, yet simple, I bet these would make the perfect dinner party appetizer too. Not only are they good for you, but they're beautiful to boot!

My co-host, Ilva at Lucullian Delights was thinking of our friends who have trouble with gluten and made gluten-free Mediterranean Rice Balls for the party as her second entry. She declared her love for finger food and described it as: "The little 5 year old girl in me, sitting there in her pink tutu and her fairy wand, raging to get out and run havoc in my adult life." What's a party without a few children running around in the background, right?

Lastly, I made Spiced Macadamia Nut Granola Bars over at my site, The Accidental Scientist. These bars are full of my favorite granola ingredients - whole grains, lots of dried fruit, coconut, macadamia nuts, maple syrup and honey!

Thanks to everyone who pariticipated this month and celebrated right along with us!! Don't forget to vote for your favorites by March 25th so that we can send out the birthday bash prizes!!

Join the Party! The HotM Birthday Bash Is Just A Few Days Away!

Wow, I don't know about you, but this last month has passed in a blur. Today is the last day to participate in the Heart of the Matter - Eating for Life Birthday Bash! There's still time to participate if you want to get in the fun - you can find the full details here. Remember, there are prizes at stake for the best recipe and presentation - gift boxes from Italy or Hawaii full of wonderful goodies! You have until midnight (Hawaii time) tonight - well, really, you have until I wake up Monday morning if you'd like to whip up some delicious finger foods, snap a photo and send off your entry. Then just come on over to the party on March 18 - when the round-up is posted - and see what all your fellow heart-conscious food bloggers brought! After that, you'll have one week (until March 25th) to vote for your favorite entries. The two winners will be announced on the 26th.

But I wouldn't be a very good host if I didn't share with you my own entry, so here it is: Spiced Macadamia Nut Granola Bars - not so much party food, necessarily, but definitely to be eaten with your fingers! I try to stay away from store-bought granola bars - they often have odd ingredients and preservatives as well as high fructose corn syrup and loads of fat. I stay away from store-bought granola for the same reason, and because most of them are far too sweet for me. These little bars are a great snack or would make a good breakfast with some fruit on the side (say, a dainty little clementine or one half of a beautifully ripe papaya?) and a big glass of milk. They're not too sweet, lightly spiced and and full of good for your heart ingredients like flax seed, whole grains, nuts and fruit. Or heck, why not bring them to a party? See you on the 18th!

Spiced Macadamia Nut Granola Bars

cooking spray (for pan)
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup triticale (or spelt flakes, or more oats - whatever you have will be great)
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1 tsp. cardamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
3/4 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
3-4 slices crystalized ginger, finely chopped
8 dried figs, thinly sliced
1/4 cup dried bing cherries
1/4 cup dried, unsweetened coconut (I get this at my local natural foods store)
3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup raw honey
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp coconut oil
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat your oven to 350F. Spray an 9"x 9" baking pan with cooking spray. Mix the oats, triticale, flax seeds, cardamon and allspice in a large bowl. Add the nuts, ginger, figs, cherries and coconut to the bowl and toss everything together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg whites and vanilla. In a small saucepan, heat the honey, maple syrup, coconut oil and salt over low heat until combined and the honey has melted. Add a little of the warm mixture to the eggs in a small stream, stirring constantly (you are tempering the eggs). Then add the egg mixture to the rest of the honey mixture in the saucepan. Add the contents of the saucepan to the bowl containing your oats and other goodies. Mix well, making sure to get all of the dry ingredients (like your spices and the flax) off the bottom of the bowl and in the mix. Spoon the mixture out into your baking pan and press down with your fingers or the back of a measuring spoon - pressing out to all the corners. The bars should be about 1/2" thick. Put the bars in the oven and cook about 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a rack. Cut into bars - you should get about 8-10 bars. I didn't have the right-sized pan and squeezed mine into 1/2 of a pyrex dish, so I'm not sure exactly how many you would get if you had the right pan ;)

Happy Birthday Heart of the Matter!

Heart of the Matter is turning two years old!

Nearly three years ago, Ilva from Lucullian Delights and I started thinking about beginning a monthly blog event dedicated to heart-healthy eating. In February of 2007, Ilva, along with Joanna from Joanna's Food, made those thoughts a reality when they launched the website for Heart of the Matter - Eating for Life and called out to the food blog community to send in their recipes for heart-healthy foods. I finally joined them in October as a host and for nearly two years, your recipes have been rounded up and archived every month so that we all have a go-to resource for diverse, heart-healthy recipes and information about heart disease.

Last month, we were concerned that we were going to have to end Heart of the Matter (HotM) because we were getting fewer and fewer entries every month. We sent out a plea for recipes and you came to our rescue - we had a whopping 20 entries! This month, we'd like to have even more! To celebrate that HotM has survived, and in honor of this very special anniversary, we've revamped the website and we're going back to our very first theme: Finger Foods. Entries will be due at midnight on Sunday, March 15. Please send your entries to my email: phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com with the subject "HotM" and link back to this announcement in your post or to the HotM blog. I'll post the round-up by March 18th.

(Here we see the Italian prize: black rice from Veneto, a small bottle with White Truffle Scented Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar Jelly and Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans from Slitti)

But what would a birthday be without presents, right? Even though it is the birthday of HotM, we feel that it wouldn't exist today without YOU. So we want to give YOU a gift for being a vital part of the HotM community and participating! After the round-up is posted on the 18th, you will have one week (until March 25th) to vote for your Favorite Recipe and the recipe with the Best Presentation. The winner of the favorite recipe category will win a special box coming all the way from Ilva's home country, Italy, packed with goodies (see the photo above)! The winner of the presentation category will be sent a box from my state, Hawaii, full of delicious tropical treats, including Planted by the River exotic curds, Waialua Estate Single Origin Hawaiian dark chocolate, Red Alaea Salt, and Hawaiian grown macadamia nuts (picture to come soon)! Stay tuned after the round-up for more details on this.

Keep in mind that your entry should be low in saturated fats (lean meats and fish), be low in salt (sodium), and have loads of vegetables or fruit (nuts, wine and chocolate are also considered to be healthy for your heart in smaller quantities!). See the HotM blog, especially here and the links to various heart disease related organizations on the side bar. This list of Joanna's is also helpful as are this, this, this, this, this and this and even this post! Please only use your entry for this event so that we can keep things centered on heart-healthy recipes.

So no matter if you're new to HotM, you've been waiting for that perfect time to join in (this is it!) or if you've been participating with us since the beginning (a special thank you to you!), send in your healthiest, heartiest finger foods! See you at the party!

How to Buy from Whole Foods Without Spending Your Whole Paycheck

Foodies in Hawaii have been abuzz about the September opening of a Whole Foods store at the Kahala Mall - the first of these stores in the Hawaiian Islands. Whole Foods isn't exactly known for being a reasonably-priced, value-driven grocery store. In fact, the nickname for this corporate-owned natural foods store is, as I'm sure many of you who have Whole Foods in your area already refer to it by (at least we used to in Monterey, CA), "Whole Paycheck." The nickname is not without substantiation, either. You can easily walk into Whole Foods and spend a pretty penny for a very small bag of groceries.

In Hawaii, where food is already at premium prices no matter where you shop, I was curious to see how Whole Foods would hold up against the hype, and if it would be worth the 30-40 minute drive across the island to shop there, since I live on the other side. Luckily, I have a partner in food crime, so to speak, and received an email shortly after the store opened from my friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen to attend a "Value's Tour" at Whole Foods - finding healthy food and doing high quality shopping at Whole Foods on a tight budget. Needless to say, I was game. While we attended this tour some time ago, and I am just now [finishing] writing it up, with the economy on a downturn, I thought the information we obtained during the tour is even more relevant now, so I'd like to share. They now run these tours weekly on Saturday mornings at 11AM.

We arrived to a fully-booked tour at 11AM, given by the very pleasant marketing supervisor, Elyse. She started off by explaining to the group (I think Deb and I may have been the youngest in attendance...and neither one of us is exactly a spring chicken either) why Whole Foods is different from other grocery stores - and I learned a few things about Whole Foods that I didn't know before this. For instance, they only feature foods that are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats - foods they consider "pure." I was skeptical about this claim, having just finished Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma (yes, I know I am the only one out there that hadn't read it yet), but every processed product I picked up off the shelves didn't seem to have any strange ingredients that I couldn't name or a "red #5" on the label.

The store also had a very large selection of organic, gluten-free and local foods. Every organic item is 3rd party certified and no herbicides or pesticides can be used (maybe obvious, but now I've been hearing about the "natural" pesticides that organic companies can use like Rotenone - read the second sentance in that link if you dare...). Most of the fish are also certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, and many come from our local fishery fleet in Honolulu. They have a large selection of gluten-free foods too - and all of them are prominantly marked and many are segregated into their own areas to help with ease in finding what you need. The local foods are what really got me though (what can I say? I'm a locavore at heart!), because it was by far the largest selection of local products I have seen here in a single place, and they are all prominently displayed and easy to find. There are little tags everywhere sticking out from the shelves identifying local products and as soon as you walk in the door, there is a huge case of all locally grown produce (the picture above this is the other half of the case):
Yes, that is asparagus on the top shelf in the picture (from Waimea) and Kahuku sweet corn in the middle, both from Oahu. Apparently, asparagus grows year round here and believe it or not it's actually good year round here too (I know, go ahead, hate me all you want to - and then come and visit!). The produce prices are surprisingly reasonable, for some things. For instance, back in September, locally grown organic mangoes top out at $3.99/lb (not bad for here). A little (#1 recyclable, I might add) plastic box of Ho Farms family tomatoes (those cute ones you saw in this salad) are $4.99 (Foodland has them for $3.99 on sale usually, but 4.99 regularly priced). Locally grown papayas were going for $1.99/lb, and organic bell peppers were running for 3.99/lb (el cheapo!).

Many other products are priced similarly to Safeway or Foodland here or PC Market in Eugene - so basically, they seem competitive. Watch out for the prices on certain items though, dragon fruit, which I just bought at Foodland a few days ago for $4.99 was a steep $9.99 at WF. Unfortunately, since September, prices have risen a bit...while not completely outrageous, many things are a dollar or more expensive now than when I was first there. I'm not sure when they did as I only make it there probably once a month these days because I don't go into Honolulu that often - or if it's only a seasonal jump in price, but that remains to be seen.

One thing going for WF is that they definitely know how to make food pretty and it does help sell their products no matter how much it costs. Check out the coffee selection...feel like you're at some kind of Colombian farmer's market (or, perhaps, Hawaii since we do produce our own coffee here)? And not that you can read it, but their in-house coffee is locally grown - complete with a big sign to tell you exactly which island it came from. You have to admit, that's pretty cool.

And if the coffee station doesn't sell you, the fish case will (check out that moonfish/opah in the top picture!). All the fish had pretty eyes and pretty scales (yay - fresher!) and we even learned that you can pick out your fish, decide how you'd like to cook it that night, go off to do your grocery shopping - and heck, while you're busy picking out your Veggie Booty, they'll even cook it for you - free of charge! They smoke meats and fish in-house and don't even get me started on the glorious cheese and charcuterie sections and the enormous (and quite tasty) deli area. The meats, however, are not local, which I happen to find a good thing...our one local grass-fed beef supplier, North Shore Cattle Company, can barely keep up with the farmer's market...but when I asked, the guy behind the counter told me that WF is attempting to work with producers on Molokai and the Big Island to get some local meat later on.
Okay, so enough already about what it looks like, how can you save money?? Elyse gave us 7 ways to save and I'm passing them on to you:

1. Shop the Sales: Like most grocery stores, every other week WF begins a new sale on certain items in the store. The sale items are identified by the bright red "SALE" tags sticking out from the shelves - just like the green, local tags. You can simply browse down the aisles, looking for red tags and buy up what you can. But then you've got to be able to cook with whatever you can get on sale...we're used to using this strategy here because we practically only buy what's on sale anyway!
2. Search for Values: WF has another way of showing you how to save money by marking products that are already good values even without a sale price attached to it. For these items, WF is passing along to the consumer savings they've gotten from the producer of the item through partnership or by buying in bulk. These are labeled by another green sign (this one is dark green - the local foods tags are light green) that says "Best Buy!" or "Value!"
   
3. Buy 365 (WF Brand) Items: Similar to Trader Joes (Oh TJs - how I miss you!), WF arranges with a specific producer to make a product that is specifically for them at a set, nearly unbeatable price and which they can put under their own label. These are often the cheapest brand in the store and the producer has to follow all the other WF requirements of good, clean, pure food so you're still getting a high quality product, even if you don't know the name of who actually produced it (or so they say).
   
4. Bring in your Manufacturer's Coupons: WF will accept manufacturer's coupons - you know the ones, from all your favorite health food magazines - so bring them in and use them to save money!
   
5. Buy a Lot of One Thing: If you really like papayas, buy yourself a case! Or how about boxes of Peace maple pecan cereal? Similar to how wine stores give a 10% discount if you buy a case of wine, WF offers a 10% discount off cases of your favorite foods.
   
6. Oh, and if you like wine as much as I do, did I mention they also have a special rack of $10 or less wines too? So that even if you're in a hurry, it's easy to find the cheaper vino.
   
7. Buy in Bulk: As any self-respecting crunchy individual like myself knows, bulk foods are a great way to save money and you can buy as much as you want to. WF has a fairly decent selection of granolas, beans, pastas, dried fruits and other bulk items. It's far better than many of the other grocery stores here and many of them are organic.
   

So, while I won't be trudging over into Honolulu every week to do my grocery shopping, in part because of the cost of food and gas (driving over there and back takes nearly a 1/4 of my gas tank and I drive a ford escort), the more I hear of WF working with local farmers and fisherman from the local farmers and fisherman, and the better variety of local foods and food in general, I have to say I'm happy to patronize this big organic chain store on occasion. I go over and stock up on essentials (and the occasional fun goodie too) when I want something healthy, organic or specific (they are the only store I've been to on the island that carries broccoli rabe!), and heck, armed with value savy information from the tour, sometimes I even save a few dollars too.