MAUI ADVENTURES

Posted in General by sallybr

ALOHA!

After a flight of less than 5 hours from San Diego, we took our first peek at Maui, an island that’s much less developed than Oahu, …which is a good thing for a tropical paradise… The pilot made some sadistic turns banking sharply left and right, but the views were spectacular.

We drove straight to Kapalua at the northwestern part of the island, and installed ourselves in a little cottage on the Kapalua Bay Golf Course, with a great view from our balcony and a pretty cozy and functional kitchen (to make any food blogger happy!).

Speaking of food, we ate exclusively fish and seafood during our stay, mostly sushi and sashimi, which were spectacular, as expected…

We took hikes together, enjoying magnificent views…
…and saw a woman doing yoga poses facing the ocean, in almost complete solitude at this magical place called Dragon’s Teeth.

We laid down by these palm trees sunbathing for a long time (don’t tell our dermatologist!), letting our thoughts go wherever they chose to go…

We played a lot of golf on the Kapalua Plantation course, where the PGA is currently playing the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. It was so tough that that it brought the best in Phil and the worst in me… but that is another story, that shall be told another time… 😉

Notice his golf ball zipping through…. pretty cool!

We’ve traveled together to many places, but more often than not, our travels are linked to work. This was a strictly fun trip to celebrate Phil’s birthday,and the beginning of 2012. The year could not have started on a better note!

MAHALO!

ONE YEAR AGO: The Getty Museum

TWO YEARS AGO: Crowd Pleasing Pulled Pork

4Jan2012

MY FIRST AWARD!

Posted in General by sallybr

We are home! No matter how great a trip is, coming back home is the best part, although I must admit the first day feels a bit like a mild hangover. But, the blogging year could not start on a better note: just before we left for our (wonderful) trip, Sharyn, from The Kale Chronicles presented me with The Versatile Blogger Award! Who doesn’t like a little praise every once in a while? Feels good…

Part of the deal of the Versatile Blogger Award is to say 7 things about yourself, so here it goes:

1. I was a premature baby, stayed in the hospital for 40 days inside an incubator, but for the first few days they kept me together with a Chinese-Brazilian baby, so that his body heat would keep me warmer. I’ve always wondered who this baby was, and where he is now, as in some way he helped me survive. Could that explain my passion for all things Chinese? 🙂

2. Every year I buy one of these calendars and use it to log my exercises. I’ve kept my exercise records since January 1998, and each month for the past 15 years I strive to exercise more than 50% of the days.

3. I am a compulsive list-maker, not only because they make me more efficient, but because I have a thrill when all items are checked-off.

4. I love to dance, and we started 2012 dancing our hearts out at a party in Maui. Phil is the first partner I have who also likes to dance, until dating him, I was always by myself on the dance floor.

5. My favorite animal is the elephant. They are amazing creatures.

6. My weaknesses: cookbooks, earrings, and black dresses. Cannot seem to have enough of them.

7. I am the personification of a honey badger in the golf course. All it takes is two bad shots in a row. Corollarium: Phil is a saint.

The award also requires that you nominate 15 other bloggers… Well, I am bailing out of that part, and instead I invite any blogger who would like to reveal 7 things about him/herself, to do so.

Thanks, Sharyn! It was fun to think about what to “reveal” here… 😉

31Dec2011

MAUI NEW YEAR!

Posted in General by sallybr

From the balcony of our place here in Maui, an amazing ballet of sun and clouds a few minutes before sunset… Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve!

ALOHA!

25Dec2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Posted in General by sallybr

We are far away from home, on a trip to celebrate Christmas, Phil’s Birthday AND the New Year!

From the beauty of the Grand Canyon, I wish you a Merry Christmas!

15Dec2011

FEASTIE: A SEARCH ENGINE JUST FOR RECIPES

Posted in General by sallybr

If you are like me, and suffer from CRCD (Compulsive-Recipe-Collection-Disorder), you probably use Google to find recipes in the blogosphere. Did you know that cooking recipes account for 1% of all online searches? That is pretty impressive! It is not surprising that earlier this year Google came up with their own version of a search engine geared exclusively for recipes. However, it has serious drawbacks, particularly from a food blogger’s perspective, as it favors “mega-sites” to show up on top of the search. If you are interested in learning more about it, read the excellent article written by Lydia Walshin, a veteran food blogger, host of The Perfect Pantry and Soup Chick.

Recently I was introduced to Feastie, a new search engine for recipes (with a nice blog associated with it), and was very pleased with it. When you enter a keyword in their search box, the output is in a beautiful format, with photos of the recipes and links to the food blogs where they were found. But, as a bonus, once you click on a particular recipe, you’ll also see all the ingredients required to make it, ready to take to the grocery store (you can even save it straight on your phone). Another great feature added this past week: if you cook a recipe listed on the site, a simple click on a chef’s hat icon gets it added to your profile, so that you can retrieve it easily in future visits. You can read more about it here.

Much to my delight, the recipes from Bewitching Kitchen are all indexed in Feastie, so if you’d like to see them in a format that is quite a bit better than my own index page, click here. I had a small rush of adrenaline when I first saw it!

If you are a food blogger and would like to see your site listed on Feastie, drop them a line at recipes@feastie.com. And no, I don’t work for them. By now I guess it’s clear I only endorse what I’m really fond of. From cookbooks, to gadgets, to cookbook authors (Dan Lepard comes to mind! ;-))…