This Mom's Cinnamon Rolls

This blog is dedicated to my great friend Dominique, who requested this particular post. 

When am I ever NOT in the mood for cinnamon rolls?  Like right now...I want cinnamon rolls.  *Waits 5 minutes*.  Yep, I still want cinnamon rolls.

I have always loved this doughy, baked roll of deliciousness as a child.  But the only place I could get them was at school, when the cooks were in a good enough of a mood to bake up pans of delicious cinnamon rolls that we could smell all the way from our classrooms.  Who else remembers eating these at school growing up in American Samoa?

And those cooks could bake up a mean batch of these babies!  But unfortunately we could only have just ONE roll, at breakfast, maybe once every month, IF we were lucky.  I would always envy the students who were related to the cooks.  Because they always got extra helpings of cinnamon buns.  I always tried to befriend those lucky kids, but somehow my spur of the moment friendliness seemed to never stick.  Meh.  I tried.

Bakeries around the island made and sold cinnamon rolls, but Mom and Dad couldn't afford to buy all 8 of us a cinnamon roll each.  Which made the once a month cinnamon rolls at school that much more magical!

This Mom's Chicken Noodle Soup

My kids just got over a round of the cold, but thankfully, this one did not last long.  And just as we thought we were in the clear, my 4 year-old daughter comes down with another bug and has been sick for the past couple of days.  Her fever spikes worried me so yesterday had to be a work-from-home type of day so I could nurse my baby back to health.

And what other better way to kick the cold (or flu) in the butt than with Chicken Noodle Soup!  She also asked for buttermilk pancakes for breakfast yesterday which probably didn't do much for her cold but if it made her smile and cheer up, then it's a win in my book :-).

So I always have 2 versions of everything in my head: "Supermom goals" and "What really happens/happened".  So here are those two versions that we all sometimes struggle with

Supermom goals - make homemade chicken noodle soup EVERY SINGLE TIME the kids or hubby comes down with a cold.  That would be a LOT of soup!  And I would never leave the kitchen..yikes!

What really happens/happened - soup from a can. And when I'm feeling fancy, everyone is in for a treat with the stars noodle variety :-).

My Heart Clicks For You - Part 3

Catch up first if you haven't already by reading Part 1 & Part 2.

Hours later and I'm still in the ER. My blood pressure continued to register critically low as the monitors persisted in their relentless alarm alerts. And my heart was still racing as if I was running a marathon.

As the minutes slowly ticked away, I went in and out of consciousness, taking short naps as I continued to wait.  Minutes turned into hours and finally almost 6 hours later, the nurse starts prepping me for my move upstairs.  She unhooks me from the wall monitors and then reconnects me to a portable monitor that gets placed at the foot of my bed.

"It's protocol for heart patients" she says.  

I guess she saw the quizzical look on my face when I was staring at the "box" monitor that I learned later had to go with me everywhere I went.

Heart Patient.  

Those two little words now defined me inside the walls of this hospital.  And I couldn't help but wonder if those two little words will continue to define me outside of here...outside there...where my life awaited me.

This Mom's Chili

Beef chili with beans in the making :-)

Looking for a quick, easy meal that you cook just once but will continue to feed your family all week long?  My go to dish is CHILI!  It's...

• Easy - make it in a crockpot to save you even more time and effort!
• Healthy - 99% of my chilis are Paleo
• Quick - one pot meal that is as easy as dumping all the ingredients into one pot and you are done!
• Delicious the next day - leftovers are delicious and gets better over time!
• Versatile - on hot rice, by itself, in a wrap, or toss it in with cooked spaghetti noodles!
• Cheap Eats! - use whatever you have on hand, so its great to make use of leftover chicken, odds and ends of vegetables you have that might go bad soon, and if you have beans and like them, toss those in too!  
• Toppable! - add toppings like shredded cheese, crushed up tortilla chips, diced onions, and don't forget that squeeze of lemon!
• And best of all...Customizeable! - if chili is all you will learn to cook, fear not because there are a million different ways you can make it :-).  Chili is customizable through what you put in it. You can go meat or meatless, bean or beanless, tomato based or not, and mild or spicy.  

Pagipopo! (Samoan Coconut Cream Buns!)

Delicious. Fluffy, Coconut-ty Pagipopo - Samoan coconut cream buns!

My passion for making pagipopo stemmed from my pregnancy cravings for the delicious dessert pastry we as Samoans all grew up loving.  As a Sunday afternoon treat after a long, breezy ride in the back of our pick-up trucks, accompaniment to evening tea and koko Samoa with family and friends, or as a decadent dessert anytime of the week, Pagipopo is a Samoan classic that I will always have a special place for in my heart (and tummy :-)).

At one time, all bakeries in Samoa carried pagipopo, so growing up we never really had the need to make it ourselves.  A quick trip to the village bakery right down the road and we could have ourselves any amount of pagipopo we desired.  There was nothing quite like smelling the sweet aroma of pagipopo wafting all throughout the house even before seeing it, and then opening up that aluminum foil covering, breaking off a bun or three from the pan, and then ladling on the warm, sweet coconut sauce all over the pagipopo!

My Heart Clicks For You - Part 2

I've gathered myself together enough to continue this story :-).  And as much as I would like to take credit for being strategic in my "suspense" technique (lol), I can assure you all, that breaking up this story into parts has nothing to do with suspense but everything to do with how much telling it takes a massive toll on me.  So here goes the continuation :-).

If you have not read Part 1, STOP and read it here before continuing.

My Heart Clicks For You - Part 2...
That day was made specially for me, because the ER was empty, a sight that is very rarely seen.  It was a Monday afternoon, around 3pm, and if it were not for my heart murmur, the ER receptionist would have had a pretty chill afternoon shift.

Kinda eerie I remember thinking.  ER, on a Monday afternoon, felt all too familiar.  Insert Deja Vu moment.  Oh that's right, we were just here a little over a year ago, on a Monday afternoon too.  It was August 11, 2014, but instead of my walking in alone, I had accompanied my 6 year-old son on a stretcher, holding his leg up while tears and screams of agony rang loud and clear throughout the ER lobby.  And the ER wasn't empty, like it was now.  It was full and I remember seeing so many faces as we went through the ominous double doors that led to where all the action happens.  I will never forget that day and here I was again, same day of the week, around the same time, same ER.  But instead it was September 21, 2015, and my family was already miles away from me.

My Heart Clicks For You

A foot long scar is forever a part of me now :-).  A reminder of God's miraculous work in my life. 

This morning I wake up to my husband with his head on my chest, a happy sight that always makes my heart flutter.  And as a smile slowly makes it away across my face, he looks up to me and says,

"I can hear your heart babe."  

To this I reply,

"It clicks for you.  And for our kids." 

Today's blog is a difficult one for me.  It will be the first time I openly talk about the details of that horrid day that led to my "ticker" being transformed to a "clicker".  You will know more about what I mean as you read on.  This blog is titled, "My Heart Clicks for You", in dedication to my Superman husband who assumed all of my roles at home in addition to his own, when I was temporarily out of commission :-).   And by temporarily I mean 3 months.  Yes all men of the world...my husband took care of business and did an incredibly fine job of it!

My Heart Clicks For You.
I always get a kick out of nurses and doctors when they listen to my heart.  The very shocked looks on their faces as they jerk away their stethoscope from my chest, trying hard to keep their professional composure so as not to let me in on their brief moment of unnerved "surprise"...

"Oh wait, let me listen to that again!"..

"Umm...hang on let me check your medical record." 

"Wait...is that a..er..ahem..a pacemaker...yeah that's a pacemaker right?"

LOL.

Every chance I get, I purposefully leave out the little tidbit about having an artificial heart valve.  It's one of the tiny and very few perks of having gone through double bypass open heart surgery to replace my aortic valve with a mechanical one, thus the "clicking" sound created every time blood whooshes through my aorta to get pumped to the rest of my body.  Did I mention that I was only 33 years old, healthy as a horse all of my life, birthed 4 children into this world, and did not have a single mar or even the tiniest of blips on my medical record that indicated otherwise?

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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From Cheesecake to Fondant!

It started 3 years ago when I was inspired to bake all of my kids birthday cakes. I missed a year because of my very difficult pregnancy with my 4th and then later missed a couple of cakes for my Matheus because of heart surgery. But what started off as a labor of love in my kitchen of our 600sq ft. apartment for my babies has now grown into a full blown passion! My skills are still amateur but they have certainly come a long long way!

Courtesy of Ina Garten's recipe :-)