Helena Valeti Kealohilanikamaha'o Apina Ramirez

Our only brother had his baby girl on feb 25, 2014. She's a ray of sunshine especially when she smiles. And because she belongs to the only boy in our family we love her even more! Our little brother, Salesi Halaleva Apina Jr. Is 6'3", give or take an inch, and she has already gained a lot of his physical attributes. She looks taller than two of her cousins that are a few months older than her and she's got his beautiful dark skin! Yes, all that is natural! Lol. We love her and especially love our brother! 

Chicken Noodle Soup

Do you like chicken noodle soup? I do, but I never have it often. 

The Big island has been getting quite a bit of rain in the past few weeks. So much that I've been wanting a nice warm bowl of soup. Light yet filling. Does that even make sense? That's what it was. 

I found a quick and easy recipe from one of my favorite food sites, allrecipes.com.  This recipe serves 6. I doubled the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 4 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can vegetable broth
• 1/2 pound chopped cooked chicken breast

• 1 1/2 cups egg noodles
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  
  

  Directions

  1. In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Cook onion and celery in butter until just tender, 5 minutes. Pour in chicken and vegetable broths and stir in chicken, noodles, carrots, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes before serving.
  
  
  A few tips& changes I made:
  
  
  1)  a rotisserie chicken or canned or some left over chicken can easily be used in this recipe. If so, just add the chicken at the last step, beginning of the simmer, to warm it up and not over cook it.  I had neither . I used boneless thighs that were raw so I cut them up and threw them in with all the veggies (or a few min after I started the veggies) in the beginning to sauté. The chicken gives the veggies more flavor and all that goodness makes for a better tasting soup.  I also added the seasonings at the beginning with the chicken n veggies. Why not give them more flavor? 
  
  
  After the chicken was cooked basically all you have to do is add the broth. Once that started to simmer I added the noodles to the pot and it cooked while the soup simmered. 
  
  
  2) what I would change about that last step (unless you will be eating right away and expect no left overs) is I would cook the noodles separately and add them to the soup when you're ready to eat. This way the noodles don't get soggy while it sits in the hot soup, waiting for you to scarf it down.   I took the pot off the stove as soon as they were al dente but I ddnt eat til 20-30 min later and by that time they were a little too soft for my taste. Season your soup to taste. I added garlic salt and was a bit more generous with the spices it called for. 
  Hope you like it! 
  - Ling

Sent from my iPhone

Pani keke

I'm not the best at speaking Tongan or keeping the culture alive in our daily activity, but I try my best to do what I can for my kids and myself.

In the past couple of years I've tried my best to attempt some traditional dishes so that our kids would be familiar with them and that they would learn little by little, here and there, what's a part of our culture.

This is the best keke recipe that i have found ( that I've made) that was quick and easy and delicious to boot!

The interesting thing about keke, is that it's not just a part of Tongan culture, but the rest of Polynesia makes this or their version as well. You know what else? Europeans (Germans and swedes & I'm sure others)  make this, Okinawans have their version and guess who else, Nigerians! They call it Puff Puff, or Kpof Kpof. I watched a video of the Nigerian recipe and it's exactly the same as Tongans make it, right down to dropping it in the pan with their hand! Isn't that interesting?



I wonder where the recipe originated and how it happened to end up in vast countries around the world?

Here is the recipe, which I doubled .  I got it from  panipopos.blogspot.com. Hope you have as much fun making them as you do eating them.  I sure did!


Panikeke (makes 13)
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
water
oil for frying


Heat up your oil over medium heat, then as soon as it starts to get shimmery, turn the heat down low. If you have anything as fancy as a thermometre in your kitchen, heat the oil to somewhere between 320°F and 356°F (160°C to 180°C).

You don't have to wait for your oil to get to temperature before mixing your batter. It'll take you less than five minutes, so go ahead and sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add the egg and milk, then mix everything up with enough water to form a thick batter. You know, I want to call this a batter because we're making pancakes, but it's actually more like a wet dough. See the video if you're not sure what consistency it should be.

Fry tablespoonfuls in the oil for 3-5 minutes until they're dark golden brown. If your oil is too high, the panikeke will be uncooked on the inside. If your oil is too low you'll have greasy panikeke. So every couple of batches, break one open to make sure it's cooked through, and eat it if you really must.

Beach bums

Searching for sea cucumbers.

Fishing for the guys.

Soaking up the sun. 

Fun had by all!