It's NOT Digiorno. And it's definitely NOT delivery.

Personally, I DO NOT like pizza.  Years of eating pizza almost every night of every week literally killed it for me.  My taste buds were never the same after college.  But as much as I dislike delivery and frozen pizzas, I absolutely love me some homemade pizza!  And because my family loves it so much, I had to learn to make it :-).  My first pizza I ever made was about 3 years ago.  And ever since then my family has been spoiled with having their own pizza parlor right in my kitchen :-).

As of late, my family has had an obsession with pizza and all things cheese sticks.  Our pizza stone probably had a lot to do with this obsession because boy oh boy did our pizzas turn out amazing!  Even after refrigeration the crust held up really well and still tasted like it was fresh out of the oven.  And using the pizza stone, it took only 10 minutes or less to bake the pizza, because the high heat and even distribution made possible by the pizza stone made for faster baking.  So I highly recommend a Ceramic Pizza Stone  for your kitchen, especially if you are a beginner like me.

Do not get intimidated by pizza stones like I was.  Which is the very reason why it took me so long (3 years) to go out and buy one.  They are relatively inexpensive, ranging from about $12-$20 for a good quality stone.  And they are easy to use and maintain.  Just follow the directions on the product booklet or these simple instructions:

Chicken Pan Pie

The siblings were visiting for the weekend, so I had to whip up these beauties for our weekend feast.  Oh and I bought those pretty ceramic bowls w/handles from you guessed it....Costco!

Because it's been a bit nippy here in Hawai'i (yes 68 degrees F is considered "island cold" lol), I thought I'd blog about the classic American comfort food for cold and chilly days :-).  As you can already guess, yes I am talking about the beautiful Chicken Pot Pie!  And there is no better and easier recipe than the one by Ina Garten.  Her love for the classic, traditional flavors translates into the best chicken pot pie you will ever have!  Here is the recipe link  or just see below for the ingredients and directions :-)

The filling is very easy to put together, although there is a lot of time needed to prep the ingredients. So plan ahead and whip up this one on your next day off or weekend :-).

Cookies!

This Mom's Party Desserts

I was asked by a good friend to create desserts for her son's 1st birthday. It was such an honor to be asked to do this but I was nervous and anxious about making it perfect for the birthday boy and his family. I am not a professional nor had any training whatsoever, but as with all things I do, if I don't know it, you bet your bottom dollar that I will learn how to do it!

After spending about 4 weeks looking up ideas, shopping, planning, printing and cutting, and a total of 1.5 days baking and packaging, I came up with 6 different desserts, totaling over 300, all themed after Superheroes. Everything is made from scratch, including all of the packaging, wrappers, and tags. And best of all, each dessert cost less than a $1 each to make!

The Human Xerox

I was in the 6th grade and for my Social Studies class our assignment was to prepare a report on a country...any country. I know...not a very thoughtful assignment because I am sure my teacher thought it up in the last 5 minutes before he gave it to us LOL but, that was the assignment. Our school library wasn't equipped to handle the research I needed and my family couldn't afford to own encyclopedias so I was left with very little options for reference materials. 

Our one library on island, which was at the time the community college library, was my only resource but we didn't have the means to get me there and back without risking my Dad missing work. And if you had a father like mine, the aiga bus (family bus), which is a privately owned makeshift vehicle that is the main mode of public transportation in American Samoa, was completely out of the question. He drove us girls everywhere and picked us up everyday for all 12 years of our schooling. Mind you now, my Dad has 4 girls so that was A LOT of driving...but that's a different story. So I digress.

Will trade brother for bread

A sign of every great chef, so says all chefs, is when food goes beyond the taste buds and evokes more than the singular sense of taste.  When food arouses all your senses having you feeling some type of way, or a memory of your youth, a taste of home, or the joy of family dinners at your mom and dad's house with everyone gathered around the big table overflowing with the food everyone has spent all day preparing together, THAT is the sign of greatness that chefs are talking about.

No bread? No problem!

In a house full of growing kids (and growing husband hehe), it's not uncommon to run out of the basic staples like eggs, milk, and bread. It actually becomes the norm. Before baking and cooking became a part of my life, running out of bread meant no sandwiches, no toast, and worst of all no breakfast for that day (I mean come on now, what will you eat your eggs and bacon with?), which meant everyone was eating cereal that day (don't get me wrong, I love cereal BUT I love a hot cooked breakfast even more! Oh and bacon!). So today's blog post, in honor of the light bulb that went off in my head as an answer to running out of our ultimate staple (bread), is about one of my favorite carb-loaded comfort foods of all time and my answer to "Moooom! We ran outta bread!". Never fear BISCUITS are here!

Fluffy, flaky, melt in your mouth goodness! Now my first several biscuit attempts DID NOT look like this. These are my biscuits now, after SEVERAL (failed) attempts.

Dinner in under 30 :-)

So the most repeated, most heard and probably the most dreaded (at least it is for me hehe) question of every day in the life of every mom..."What's for dinner?". As a mother of 4 kids (ages 10, 8, 4 and 1), working a full time job, AND studying for my Doctorate degree, my hands, head, and schedule are pretty full. And after a long day at the office that was started off by the 5am early morning rush of getting 2 school kids and 2 daycare kids packed, ready and out the door (oh and don't forget the husband because even he needs to be reminded to not forget his wallet, shoes, socks, sunglasses, car keys, etc.) to make the 6:00 am traffic light at the end of our street, dinner is the LAST thing on my radar. Go ahead moms, let's all let out our collective SIGH hehe.

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