Fruit Water

Lately my man and I (by the way, I've decided to start calling my husband "my man" instead of "hubby" - he hates that word) have been trying to drink more water at home. We have a bad habit of drinking ginger ale with dinner every night. So we agreed to start being positive about drinking water. Instead of saying, "I'll just have some water." as though we hate the thought (which we do) we say "I'd love to have some water. Water is good." (Insert sarcastic positivity where the italics are.) We are being facetious of course, but it makes it fun.

Our other part of this goal is to have fruit on hand to make the water more tasty and desirable, which has really helped us. We started out with orange slices. Then my mother-in-law recently served us water with strawberries and limes - even better! You can let your imagination run wild here.

What are your favorite fruit water combinations? Maybe something you've had at a spa?

Tip: Keep sliced fruit in a separate container in your fridge and add to water when you're ready to drink it. Keeping fruit in water for over a day can become bitter, cloudy and soggy.

The Maui Blow Hole

I never did finish the posts I had planned from our trip to Maui this past May. I wrote one post about our favorite food finds. But you don't really go to Maui for the food, well maybe you do. We love the beach, riding around all day in a Jeep with the top off, kayaking, snorkling and just discovering nature.

One of our highlights this visit, was a stop at the Blow Hole. The Blow Hole is an opening in a lava shelf where the ocean crashes right through! The hike from the road is stunning and it's a very interesting rocky area with beautiful views of the ocean. We had a great time waiting for the hole to blow and enjoying the views and rock formations. Kids will enjoy trying to get soaked by the water sprays.

Useful Information:

• Wear tennis or hiking shoes, you will be hiking on rough lava rock
• It's a steep climb and may be difficult with small children, pregnant women, anyone not comfortable with a bit of climbing
• You may want to stay longer then you would expect so you can enjoy the area and views, we stayed about 2 hours
• Visit this site for more info

Directions:

• Follow Highway 30 (Honoapi'ilani Highway) north from Kapalua
  
• Look for Mile Marker #38, about 1/2 mile past the Mile Marker you will see a large dirt pullout along the ocean side of the road
  
• From there you should be able to locate the trail down to the lava shelf

Storing Tomato Paste

Have you ever noticed that when recipes call for tomato paste, they usually only require 1 tablespoon? So you have to open up an entire can for just one spoonful and then what?

I've seen tips on how to store leftover tomato paste. Such as filling up an ice cube tray, freezing it, then putting the cubes in a freezer bag. Too messy.

Or by placing spoonfuls onto a wax sheet lined cookie tray, freezing them and storing in a freezer bag. Not fast enough.



Here's my cheat. Spoon tomato paste onto squares of plastic wrap. Roll wrap tightly around paste to keep air out. Throw the little balls into the freezer and you're done!

The plastic wrap comes right off when you are ready to use the tomato paste. And so far I haven't found a recipe where I couldn't throw in a little frozen ball of tomato paste in and let it defrost as it cooks in. It does melt very quickly.

Fresh Peach Pie

I CANNOT believe it's been over 3 weeks since I've posted! What I thought was a little bit of slacking off turned into a huge land slide. I hope you all have been enjoying your summer in the mean time.

Here is a little bit of summer for you today: fresh peach pie. This is one of those desserts that is so easy to make, and so full of summer goodness, I don't know why I don't make it more often.

You don't even need a recipe, just a few storebought items:

• Frozen pie crust (I prefer Marie Callender's or Mrs. Smith's)
• 5-6 large fresh peaches
• 1 jar or container of peach pie glaze (found in produce section)
• 1 lemon, juiced (this will keep the peaches from browning)
• Sugar

Sprinkle one pie crust with sugar and bake according to package directions. Freeze remaining pie crust for a later use. Meanwhile, rinse and slice peaches. Toss in a large bowl with lemon juice. Then toss again with pie glaze. Refrigerate filling while pie crust bakes. Let pie crust cool completely before filling. Store pie in fridge covered in plastic wrap.

Strawberry Pie: Peaches and pie glaze can easily be substituted for strawberry