Don't you wish you had a checked-off item on the to-do list for every time in the past week that someone asked you if you were ready for Christmas? Who are they kidding? I wouldn't be ready for Christmas if they pushed it back to July. There's always one more thing...

The right tool for the right task, they say. But me? I take that concept to extremes. Testing an oat bran muffin recipe at 4 a.m. this morning, I was almost frantic because I couldn't find the right wooden spoon. (Husband had been putting away the dishes again.) I...

(Sorry! Something's wrong with my picture importer. I'm contacting my Web guy. Meanwhile, the blog is still pictureless.) At the Haleiwa Farmer's Market last weekend, I met Keiko Beatie, a film producer, programmer and curator in town for a surf film festival that was...

(Sorry, all my lovely photos are corrupted and can't be moved into this post...) Over the years, I've sent many readers to Frankie's Nursery in Waimanalo, renowned for its collection of rare and hard-to-find fruit trees, dwarf varieties suitable for small yards and...

My friend Ken Love was in town from his Captain Cook farm this weekend and we hooked up at the KCC Farmers Market to walk and chat. Ken, a farmer and fruit expert who grows more than 20 unusual and even rare fruits on the half-acre that surrounds his home, always has...

On Top Chef "Food Fight" the other day, I heard someone — typically, it was Marcel, that self-important brat — say, "There is no culture in Las Vegas." A train of thought began chugging through my brain. I'm sure there is culture in Las Vegas, what we would call...

My mother in law sent me a Mainland thing about lines you never hear anymore. I started thinking of lines you never or rarely hear anymore in Hawaii. God, I'm ooooold. This is what living in your Grandma's house will do to you. And in Hawaii... Hemo da light. Hapai da...

I'll be learning about herbs this weekend at the Haleiwa Farmers Market Sunday. This is a great market, small but select, and well worth the drive (which is particularly nice for a Sunday morning excursion). While you're out there, I highly recommend the buns at...

Spent a day and a half in a sausage-making workshop this weekend — grueling but good foodie fun, too. Came home with 20 pounds of sausage in the Portuguese style from a recipe of my own devising. Noticing that my Portuguese cabbage was going off, I cut a half a dozen...