NMMR*: Cream Cheese Fruitcake

Happy Birthday D1!  I am eagerly anticipating your homecoming.  It's been months since I've seen you, and while some might think separation gets easier as time passes, I don't think that's really true.  Not a day goes by without me thinking about you. . .what you are doing, how your classes are going, how much $ you are spending, etc.

Same with my mom.  Not a day goes by when I don't think about her and how much I miss her.  Sure, the rest of us are plodding along; I would even go as far as to say we've actually got some routine going.  But it isn't much easier now.  The pain has not gone away.  A co-worker told me it won't ever go away, but it just becomes more bearable as time passes.  We'll see.

One thing that my mom during the holidays every year, as far back as I can remember, is bake fruitcake.  Her fruitcake was called "light" or "white" fruitcake; it is not the kind of fruitcake which comes in the metal can.  That type is laden with fruits and is more fruit than cake.  My mom's fruitcake was definitely more cake than fruit.  The cake was dense, similar (but not identical) to a poundcake in texture.  It was more dense, actually.

And I never liked it (sorry, Mom).

My mom's fruitcake was too intense for me.  Her siblings in town actually loved her fruitcake.  In fact, I would always hear UJohn ask her when she was going to make it.  I much preferred it when, on rare occasion, she strayed and made a more poundcake-like version.  In hindsight, I think she made it so she could say how much she preferred her version.

There will be none of my mom's fruitcake this year.  At least no rendition of it will come from my kitchen.  Instead, I will be making the fruitcake I like.  My fruitcake is like the "other" version which my mom would make, the one with the poundcake texture and flavor, studded here and there with bits of candied fruit (I fondly recall Pennant brand in the tubs) and pecans (Mom used walnuts).  There will also be no raisins.  One thing I remember was my mom adding whiskey to the batter.  My recipe has no whiskey, but I highly recommend generously brushing the finished loaves with rum.  The rum will add a nice flavor and help keep the cake moist.  My friend Sid's mom would actually soak cheesecloth in whiskey or rum and wrap each loaf in the alcohol-soaked cheesecake prior to wrapping in plastic.

Oh, I'm certain my mom's family will ask if I plan to carry the fruitcake-making torch.  I will politely shake my head.  No point in leading them on only to end up with unfulfilled expectations.

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Cream Cheese Fruitcake

     1 c butter
     8 oz cream cheese
     1 1/2 c sugar
     1 tbsp vanilla extract
     1 tsp almond extract
     4 eggs
     2 1/4 c flour, divided
     1 1/2 tsp baking powder
     2 c assorted dried/candied fruit
     1/2 c chopped nuts
     1/4 c rum

Grease and flour 5 mini loaf pans (cut parchment to fit bottom) or 1 tube pan.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Beat butter, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, and almond extract.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add 2 c flour and baking powder.  In a separate bowl, toss 1/4 c flour, fruit, and nuts until all coated.  Fold into batter.  Pour batter into prepared pan(s).  If using mini loaf pans, a little more than 3 #10 dishers will go into each pan.  Bake for 45 minutes (mini loaves) or 1 hour and 20 minutes (tube pan).  Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes.  Remove from pan and set on wire rack.  Brush top and sides of cake with rum.  Cool completely then wrap with plastic wrap.

*NMMR=Not My Mother's Recipe

Cleaning out the Fridge: Fruit Crisp

This summer, The Ds seemed to be addicted to white nectarines.  The Help went to the market weekly (sometimes multiple times) to replenish our supply.

The obsession with white nectarines began with a weekend trip to Costco.  We happened to run into Wi and her family.  Wi's hubby was jonesing over the fresh fruit tart but opted to leave with a flat of white nectarines instead.  Since Wi is known for having good taste, we decided to copy and picked up a flat for ourselves.

Wi did not disappoint.  The white nectarines were delicious.  We went to Costco the following week and bought another flat!

For D2, the white nectarines were a substitute for the dismal Rainier cherry harvest this year.  The Help saw a sorry looking bag at one of the local supermarkets, and the two occasions where we bought the 2 lb pack from Costco, the cherries were highly disappointing.

The Help tried buying a whole bunch of fruit this summer.  He bought some sweet apricots and some blueberries.  He even bought me a mango from the farmers market.  At some point, we had about 5 different fruits in the fruit drawer.  There was no way we could eat it all, so I decided to make a fruit crisp.




I'm totally good with nuts, but one place I don't like nuts is in the crisp topping.  The nuts distract me from the buttery goodness of the topping...I wanna taste butter, not nuts.

Oh, and unless you are a glutton for punishment, place a silicone mat or a piece of foil between the ramekins and the baking sheet.  When the filling overflows, which is likely to occur, especially if you are using ramekins, you will thank me because following that little tip will significantly reduce clean-up effort/time.

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Fruit Crisp

Topping:  1 1/2 c flour

                1 c sugar

                1/4 tsp salt

                1/2 c butter

Place ingredients into food processor bowl and process until small crumbs form.  Place in refrigerator while preparing filling.

Filling:  6 c assorted fruits, peeled and cut in large dice

             1 c sugar

             1/4 c minute tapioca or 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a 2-quart baking dish or 7-8 ramekins (about 1 cup each).  Combine fruits, sugar and tapioca or cornstarch.  Place fruit in prepared dish(es).  Top with chilled topping.  Place on a baking sheet.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Eat while warm.

Mini Cream Cheese Cherry Fruitcake

I'm finally on vacation.

It seemed like vacation would never get here!

Just a few more days until Christmas.

I hope I didn't forget any gifts.

I THINK I'm done with my Christmas shopping.

I try to bake at least 1 batch of humbug holiday cookies with the Ds, but it looks like time isn't on our side this year.  We normally have at least half a week before Christmas to bake cut-out cookies, but vacation began too late.  Maybe we'll be able to bake something for Valentine's Day.

Instead of cookies with the Ds, I had to settle for some by-myself baking.  I chose to make mini cream cheese cherry fruitcake because I knew neither of the Ds would be too disappointed about missing out on this.

Fruitcake isn't something many people are often enthused about, but everyone (adults) enjoys the local version of fruitcake.  The fruitcake we know and like is actually a pound cake with a spattering of candied fruits.  It is not the type you find at Trader Joe's. . . mostly fruit bound together with tiny bits of cake.

There are a handful of people around here who make a more traditional kind of fruitcake.  Last Christmas, one of The Helps clients gave him a fruitcake which was a deep, dark brown.  It tasted very much like prune mui, and it had a tar-like texture.  She told him it was her specialty.  My friend A's mom makes a steamed fruitcake, which is dark, although not as dark the one I previously mentioned.  Kikukat Mom makes something called "light fruitcake".  While not steamed, it has a tan color which is different from the pictures you see here.  And I'm sorry mom, but I don't like the fruitcake you make.  Like the two aforementioned varieties, it is dense and unappealing (to me!).  The cream cheese variety is much more to my liking.

And I just remembered. . .I haven't bought anything for The Rents.  I guess I'm NOT done with my Christmas shopping.

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Mini Cream Cheese Cherry Fruitcake

     8 oz cream cheese, softened

     1 c butter, softened

     1 1/2 c sugar

     4 eggs

     1 1/2 tsp vanilla

     2 1/4 c flour, divided

     1 1/2 tsp baking powder

     3/4 c candied cherries, cut in half

     1/2 c pecans, coarsely chopped

Grease and flour 5 mini loaf pans.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Combine cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  In a separate bowl, stir together 2 c flour and baking powder.  Gradually add to cream cheese mixture.  Toss remaining flour (1/4 c) with cherries and nuts.  Fold into batter.  Divide batter evenly among prepared pans.  Bake 45-50 minutes.  Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to wire rack.  Cool completely.

The best fruitcake in the world is made in Hanapepe, Kauai, by Mrs. Nozaki, a retired hairdresser.  Her fruitcake is outstanding!  I have been fortunate enough to receive quantities of it over the years from her son.  Unlike this recipe, which contains nuts, Mrs. Nozaki's cake only has cherries in it, and the cake's flavor is enhanced by the whiskey-soaked cheesecloth enveloping the loaf.  I haven't received Mrs. Nozaki's cake this year yet, but I'm hoping her son bought out Safeway's supply of candied cherries so he can bake several batches.

Congratulations to D2 who received an award at her school!  I'm disappointed I wasn't able to make it to the presentation (I had a Charles Dickens function in my classroom.), and I am grateful The Help represented me.  D2 tries so hard, and it was nice that she was recognized for her effort.

Congratulations are also due to the HHS varsity boys basketball team.  The took first place in the St. Joseph School's Cardinal Classic.  They won a 67-64 nailbiter against crosstown rival Waiakea.  With hardly any time remaining in overtime, and the score tied 64-64, star guard Jalen Carvalho (nephew of my good buddy SF) hit a 3-pointer to win the game for the Viks.  It was awesome.  Jalen is beast, but the whole team worked hard for the victory.  Best wishes to them as they hit the skies this week to participate in a pre-season tourney in San Diego.

And for my weekly rant. . .where the fuck do they find the refs in this town?  Be it football or basketball, they are all horrible.  What a bunch of blind idiots in stripes!  One of the refs at the basketball game spent more time talking stories with a coach than watching the players.  Auwe!!!

While I began my vacation this weekend, The Help got busy.  Of course, I went along as "assistant". . .underpaid and overworked (me, not The Help).  The Help did a session for Maria at Short N Sweet, a local bakery.  Maria is the designer of D1's birthday cake.  The bakery was hired to do an afternoon tea for a local beauty business.  While Short N Sweet has been doing afternoon tea for a while, Maria had no pictures of past events so she asked The Help to help her capture the event (food-wise).  I think she will be happy with the images.  She was kind enough to give us some goodies. . .gougeres and a flaky mushroom turnover.  OMG!  The Empress Hotel has nothing on Short N Sweet when it comes to tea!

And for the first time in nearly a decade, I got to eat fried kole (yes, we really do eat this fish. . .much to my horror, the top hits for "kole tang" were aquaria websites, not delicacy websites).  3M texted me on Saturday morning and reminded me about the RBI concession.  Mmmmmmmmm.  The fried kole was so yummy that I sent The Help back down to the Boys & Girls Club of Hilo baseball field for another plate!  I hope they will put me on their speed dial whenever they have fried kole at their concession.

deep-fried kole

Belgian Waffles

This week was a killer week!  I swear I still have jet lag.  The Help thinks I'm crazy to think jet lag can persist for days.  I have not fully recovered from my trip.  I noticed that the students were actually better than teachers as far as not extending vacation.  There are still a few teachers who were still on vacation when school resumed.  Mercifully, this week was s short one for students, as the teachers had their union day on Friday.

I have "attended" every union day since I began teaching.  This will be our first union day in a while, as the union day was taken away from teachers when we had the furloughs.  The union days are pretty much the same.  But this year, being that the day happened so soon after my trip, I sat there and let my mind replay my trip.

I wanted to bring back a cooler of chilled seafood, but that didn't happen.  While strolling through Pike Place Market, I noticed that both City Fish and Pike Place Fish both pack airline-approved coolers guaranteed for 48 hours of freshness.  I wonder when I will break down and order something.  I don't think I ate enough seafood while there (Really, can this ever be possible?  One can never eat enough seafood).

I thought about buying a whole bunch of things.  I saw the cutest cat-art prints (Bad Kitties), but I didn't buy the print I desired because I didn't want the responsibility and worry of making sure it came home in good shape.  There were many stalls displaying beautiful fruit, but I didn't buy any, as I wasn't about to eat fruit in lieu of a meal while in Seattle.  I was intrigued by a chocolate pasta. . .meant to be a dessert pasta.

While I was thinking about food, it occurred to me that while I was away, I never once had a sit-down breakfast with all the trimmings.  Most of my breakfasts were some kind of grab-and-go pastry (Nielsen's potato, almond croissant, Top Pot doughnuts, some disgusting thing called kringler that tasted like the vile condiment).  Suddenly I felt shortchanged.  I remember having fabulous breakfasts when I was a student in Seattle.  Was I so preoccupied with other things that I couldn't take the time to have a sit-down breakfast?  I guess so.

Cafe Kaila Belgian waffle

I'm a bit taken aback because a sit-down breakfast is a luxury of vacation.  When I visit Honolulu, I make it a point to go to Cafe Kaila.  They make the best Belgian waffles.  I've tried Sweet Es and Yogurstory, but after having it at Cafe Kaila, the others pale by comparison.  The waffle at Cafe Kaila is light and crispy.  You can even get it topped with seasonal fruit.  The last time I was there, D1 got it as a "side" with bacon (looked like a pound of crispy bacon).

If you happen to be in Hilo (Tuesdays-Saturdays), stop in at Paul's Place.  Its across Agasa Furniture, near the Hilo Farmer's Market.  Paul's Place features a Belgian waffle which can totally hold its own against Cafe Kaila.  In spite of it being so awesome, I seldom order it because there are other things on the menu that I find irresistible.  The Help always orders it, and getting him to share a bite with me is like taking candy from a baby.

Since the Ds were with me this weekend, I decided to make up for what I missed in Seattle.  . . a good breakfast.  We made waffles! 

A few months ago, The Help upgraded my double Krups Belgian waffle maker to 4-banger by All-Clad.  It was taking too long to cook just 2 waffles at a time.  Since then, we've experimented with a bunch of different waffle batters.  Some required yeast for leavening, while others entailed separating the eggs.  One of the yeast batters produced a waffle which tasted like bread (not surprising).  Both The Help and I found that we preferred waffles made with batters where the eggs were separated.  We also liked a hint of lemon (over vanilla).  The Help and the Ds love to top their waffles with fruits, especially blueberries, but I prefer it unadulterated.

Have you had breakfast yet? 

 click on recipe title for printable recipe

 Belgian Waffles

     2 c flour
     3 tbsp sugar
     2 tsp baking powder
     1/2 tsp salt
     2 eggs, separated
     1 1/4 c milk
     1/3 c vegetable oil
     1/4 tsp lemon extract


In a medium size bowl, sift dry ingredients together.  Beat egg whites until stiff.  Set aside.  In a small bowl, beat egg yolks and milk.  Add egg mixture, vegetable oil, and lemon extract to dry ingredients.  Mix only until moistened.  Fold in egg whites.  Bake in Belgian waffle iron for 5 minutes.

East Meets West Fruit Salad

In less than a week, I will have house guests.  My cousin LA is coming to town!  She and her boyfriend SN will be here for his friend's wedding.  We are excited because this is the first time we are meeting SN.  LA's parents will also be in town to celebrate her dad's birthday.  Even though he no longer resides in Hilo, UM often comes here to celebrate with his siblings.

LA and SN will be staying with me (UM stays with Kikukat Mom).  I am entering panic mode because my house is very messy at the moment.  I will need to do some blitz cleaning on Friday afternoon/evening since they arrive on Saturday.  I hope SN isn't allergic to cats or mess.  He went to a private school, so maybe he might be scared off by the kitty hair and clutter.  LA is tough so I'm not worried about her.  She survived NYC during the 9/11 attacks.  A little kitty hair won't bother her!

While the lovebirds (LA & SN) will be busy with the wedding on Saturday (provided SN gets over the initial shock of my house mess), the rest of the family will likely get together.  I hope there will be no opportunity for UL to cook on a hibachi.  I also hope there will be no opportunity for AS to get plastered in a restaurant and display offensive behavior.  Shame!

Since I am often asked to make some kind of dessert for family gatherings, I'm anticipating this coming weekend will be no different.  In expectation for warmer weather, I was hoping to make this fruit salad.  Unfortunately, we seem to be entering into another ice age rather than spring.  I love Guy Hagi (local weather bunny for the soon-to-be-geriatric set. . .sorry, Guy), but he seems to always be delivering bad news about the weather.  Well, even if I end up making a warm fruit cobbler, my heart will be pining away for a cool, fruity dessert.

I love this creamy fruit salad.  I think its a variation of halo-halo, a filipino dessert.  The creaminess comes from cream cheese and condensed milk.  You may vary the fruits and sweets.   It makes a whole lot, which is why its good to serve at a gathering (versus trying to eat the whole thing yourself).  Coconut gel, pineapple gel, kaong (sugar palm nut), and macapuno, can be found in the Asian section of most supermarkets (or at the Chinese store).  They are sold in shelf-stable jars.  If possible, try to look for white/plain kaong.  Some stores carry kaong which has been dyed a horrific magenta color (see picture at right. . .the kaong is visible between the mandarin orange segment and the kiwi).  If you use that, be warned that eventually, the entire salad will take on a pink tinge.

If you like canned fruit cocktail, you may also use it.  I go to great lengths to avoid canned fruit cocktail because canned pears and grapes (other than fermented liquid) give me the willies.  I cannot stand those little hard granules in pears, and grapes are kinda close to the Devil's condiment on my list of foods to avoid.  I have tried and tried to like grapes, but I just cannot.  I think it has something to do with the area where the grape is attached to the stems and the disgusting seeds.  Plus it takes so dang long to peel them; the skin doesn't come off nicely...it breaks up into bits and gets all over.  I've gone through a ton of napkins just to get the skin off my fingernails.  What?  You say you don't peel grapes?  You've got to be kidding me!  Euwwwww.  Don't even get me started on jaboticaba.

Now that I've totally grossed myself out with the grape description, I need to pull myself back together.  I've got too much to do before Saturday.  I can't afford to lose my focus.  The Ds need to get cracking with their rooms.  The more they clean, the less I will need to do on Friday evening.  The purr-mobile is a total mess, but I can't clean that until Friday, when I'm done using it for work.  The hallway bathroom also needs to be tidied.  There are enough hair care products on the counter to open our very own Fantastic Sam's!

LA is one of my favorite cousins. . .I will not be the reason for SN running away.  We've got other family members who have the potential for making that happen without even trying!

click on recipe title for printable recipe

East Meets West Fruit Salad

     1 block cream cheese, softened
     1 can condensed milk
     1 jar coconut gel, drained
     1 jar pineapple gel, drained
     1 jar kaong, drained
     2 cans mandarin oranges, drained
     1 jar macapuno
     1 cantaloupe
     1 kiwi
     2 c blueberries
     1 lb strawberries
     1 mango, if available

Beat cream cheese and condensed milk.  Add diced fruits and sweets.  Chill until ready to serve.

It was a busy week in Hilo. . .Merrie Monarch Festival time.  This year was the 50th anniversary of the festival, and Hilo was crawling with tons of people.  Traffic everywhere was crazy.  The Help reported seeing people holding up traffic at an intersection while trying to look at a map.  While I made it a point to stay out of the downtown area, I did manage to sneak a plate of Hawaiian food (okay, okay, the Hawaiian food stand is located outside of the downtown area).

The most popular (this is just my opinion. . .don't wanna offend anyone) Hawaiian food venue during the festival can be found on the main highway (Kanoelehua Avenue) and is operated by Ka Uhane Hemolele O Ka Malamalama.  The entire Keawekane ohana and friends are always hard at work preparing tons of plates.  I have tried all kinds of stuff (pastele, butterfish luau, laulau), but my gold standard is the kalua pig plate (Hawaiian style).  Hawaiian style plates come with lomilomi salmon, chicken long rice, white rice, and haupia.  Local style plates come with white rice and macaroni salad.  Gotta pay extra for the poi (worth it!).  I like how they chop all the lomilomi salmon ingredients really small because I hate getting a mouthful of onion.  And there are pieces of salt salmon in the lomi...these days, many places seem to forget that part.  By the time this post hits the internet, the festival will be a fond memory and the food stand by HPM will be dismantled, but don't despair.  During non-festival times, the Hawaiian food truck can be found parked at Hilo bayfront. 

In the salt mines. . .The High Commander did it again!  She bought me and a whole bunch of other people lunch in an impromptu show of appreciation for our work.  She handed a Benjamin to my coworker and asked her to take orders and go to get the orders.  Wow!  Generosity is a character trait which impresses me, and its easy to look up to and respect a leader who has traits we value.  The work drives me mental, but when you have a leader you respect, you know that the road, though bumpy, is going to lead you somewhere you want to be.  And maybe that should have been reason enough to listen to her when she told me the fish mcbites I ordered was nothing special.


The tangent to this story. . . my coworker and I were just gushing about how the High Commander has the grace to show aloha and appreciation for hard work.  Upon hearing us, one of the lieutenants mentioned nice things she and the other lieutenants do for the foot soldiers they supervise, and then she us asked what our boss does for us to show appreciation for all that we do.  I would've loved to capture the look on her face (and upload the pic to this blog) when my coworker and I answered in unison, "nothing".  The lieutenant was totally floored.  Yup. . .no aloha spoken at my office.

Tapioca and Coconut Milk Dessert

Now that the weather is getting warmer (actually got to go swimming yesterday. . .water temperature was 84 degrees), I'm looking forward to cool salads and desserts (of course, I'll never pass up a slice of cake).  No doubt, we're entering the season of outdoor eating.

As the potlucks and gatherings ramp up, consider making this refreshing dessert, especially if you want something to complement fruit.  This dessert can be made ahead of time, and can be easily increased or decreased by varying the amount of fruit.

I love this with mango (as pictured), but when mango is not in season, I usually have The Help make a fruit salad:  melon, orange supremes, apples, maraschino cherries, grapes (I won't eat), blueberries, strawberries, etc.  The juice that comes out in the process of making orange supremes is enough to keep the apples from turning brown.

Purple Okinawan sweet potato can be substituted for fruit.  Steam a small sweet potato until soft, then peel and dice. 

I like this dessert on the thick side (like the pictures), but some people prefer it to be more soup-like.  If you prefer more of a soup instead of a pudding, add a few ice cubes to the tapioca before transporting.  The ice cubes will keep things nice and cold until serving time.  If you're in a hurry to thin the tapioca, use ice chips instead of ice cubes. 

click on recipe title for printable recipe
Tapioca and Coconut Milk Dessert

     7 c water

     1 c tiny pearl tapioca (size of pin head)

     1 1/2 c sugar

     1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk

     fresh fruit or cooked purple sweet potato, diced into 1/2" pieces

Bring water to a rolling boil.  Add tapioca.  Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes.  Turn off heat and let stand for 20 minutes.  Add sugar.  Cool for an hour.  Add coconut milk.  Refrigerate overnight.  Just before serving, combine with fruit (and juice) or sweet potato.

Christmas Food: Mini Fruit Cakes

There's some perennial joke about fruit cake. . .that there is really only one and people keep re-gifting it to each other.  In a way, I kinda believe it.  I remember seeing the red tin at Christmas, no doubt sent by some friend or relative on the mainland.  I remember how the only one who would touch it was AE.  I thought it was disgusting to see all the fruits stuck together with the dark brown cake.  I much preferred the "local" version of fruit cake, which was less fruit and more cake, good cake.

Mom made fruit cake every year.  While her fruit cake was better than the fruit cake that came in the tin, I preferred some other people's fruit cake, where the cake part was more like pound cake.  Mom also used walnuts.  I h8 walnuts!  I love pecans.

click on recipe title for printable recipe
Mini Fruit Cakes

     8 oz cream cheese, softened

     1 c butter, softened

     1 1/2 c sugar

     4 eggs

     1 1/2 tbsp vanilla

     2 1/4 c cake flour

     1 1/2 t baking powder

     1 c glace fruit cake mix

     1/2 c chopped nuts

     1/4 c dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 24 regular muffin cups with paper liners.  Remove 1 tbsp flour and toss with fruit cake mix, nuts, and cranberries.  Set aside.  Stir together remaining flour and baking powder.  Set aside.  Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well.  Add vanilla and mix well.  Add flour mixture.  Add fruit/nut mixture.  Using a #20 disher, divide batter evenly among prepared cups (about 2/3 full).  Bake for 25 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Flexible Fruity Nutty Bars

I'm feeling a little melancholy today.  D1 left for Japan this morning with the Key Club, and D2 is still under the weather with a lingering virus (low fever, listless, grouchy).  I'm still stuck at an assessment workshop.  With 45 minutes for lunch, we pretty much have no choice but to eat lunch at Sky Garden.  I like the Chinese food at Sky Garden, but lunch gets a little tiresome day after day.  Sky Garden offers a buffet lunch also, but the price is steep, and 45 minutes would not allow me nearly enough time to consume my share.  With the vacation looming, I'm going to make a pan of these bars to help lift my spirits.

This is one of those recipes which began as an innocent date bar recipe but has morphed into many other things.  Lets start at the beginning.  When I was pregnant with D2, my ob-gyn visits entailed a detour to Jilly's, a snack shop on the ground floor of the medical building.  Without fail, I'd buy a 2-pack of date bars.  The bars had a buttery shortbread crust and a heavy, cakey, nutty, sweet topping.  I know I didn't taste dates, but it didn't matter because it was good, satisfied my sweet tooth, and sent me down the path towards gestational diabetes.  Imua!

Mom would often buy fresh dates from Costco and tell me to make date bars.  I was happy to oblige, but eventually the dates disappeared.  Left only with a partial tin of glaceed apricots from Williams-Sonoma, I decided to take a risk and experiment with them by replacing the dates with glaceed apricots.  The result was fabulous.  This led me to try other fruits:  dried mango, dried apricots (not the expensive glaceed type), dried peaches.  All were good.  Then I tried substituting macadamia nuts for pecans (I don't eat walnuts).  All good again.

But now I had an even bigger problem on my hands.  The 7"x11" pan I was using provided hardly enough bars to take anywhere.  It barely fed me!  I knew I had to somehow develop a recipe that could be made in a 9"x13" pan, which would definitely be enough for me to eat my fill AND take some to an event.  The crust was easy, but I had to do some tinkering with the brown sugar amount before I got the filling right.  The first few results were sickingly sweet, but I think its perfect now.

Some great fruit-nut combinations are:  apricot-pecan, mango-macadamia, dates-pecan, peach/pineapple-pecan.  The pics on this blog happen to be peach/pineapple-pecan.  Those are tried and true, but feel free to experiment with your own combos.  As a caution to anyone who makes this . . . be prepared to give out the recipe.  Everytime I've taken this somewhere (work potluck) or served it at home (Colleen & Flo), someone ALWAYS asks for the recipe.

click on recipe title for printable recipe
Flexible Fruity Nutty Bars

Crust:  1 c butter

           1/2 c sugar

           2 c flour

Mix butter, sugar and flour until crumbly.  Press evenly into a 9 x 13" pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.  While crust is baking, make filling.

Filling:  2/3 c flour

            1 tsp baking powder

            1/2 tsp salt

            4 eggs

            1 1/2 c brown sugar

            1 c chopped dried fruit

            2 tsp vanilla

            1 c chopped nuts

Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  Beat eggs and add brown sugar and dried fruit.  Add flour mixture, vanilla, and nuts.  Spread evenly over hot crust.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting into squares or bars.  When completely cool, dust generously with powdered sugar and remove cut pieces from pan.

Mystery Fruit: Smooth, Orange, Tree-growing

mystery fruit from Ninole

I am looking for help.  I took these pics of what appears to be a fruit, but I have no idea what it is.  In fact, I'm using the term "fruit" very loosely, as I don't even know if it is edible.  This fruit was growing on a tree in Ninole, Hawaii (Big Island).

The tree, about eight to ten feet tall, appears citrus-like.

each fruit showing the single crease line

size comparison with a nickel

The fruits are about the size of a racketball, so bigger than a golf ball, but not quite as large as a tennis ball.  They have smooth skin (no dimples and no fur).  The skin feels similar to a lilikoi (passion fruit), but its more orange than the typical lilikoi.  There is a single crease line which runs the length of the fruit on the underside.  While this picture shows a group of three fruits growing in a clunch (I think I made up that word. . . thanks, Deira), not all of the fruits were in a triad. 

fruit is actually more yellow-orange color than brown

I decided to take a chance and cut one of the fruits open along the crease line.  I was shocked to see a very lilikoi-like pulp.  There were black seeds encased in white pouches, about the size of the little seed packs in lilikoi.  These were surrounded with what looked like white pith (like citrus). 

fruit just after it was cut open

 Oddly enough, as soon as I cut the fruit open, a thick white sap began oozing from the cut surfaces.  The sap was like a thick glue.  Even stickier than Elmer's Glue!  It took forever and a lot of elbow grease to get the sap off the paring knife I used.

My questions:

• What is this fruit called?
• Is it edible?
• If its edible, how do you eat it?

I'd be grateful for any realistic answers.  When I posed this question on facebook, I got all kinds of crazy answers ranging from "Smurf berries" to "permissions" (yes, this is what the person wrote).