Another Greek Pasta Salad

I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I am having guests for Thanksgiving.  None of my guests are blog readers, and that's a good thing.  They won't know how I worked my tail off this weekend, trying to tidy up the house.  I am still not done, but I think I now have the mess at a manageable amount.

Truth be told, I did not spend ALL weekend cleaning.  Against my better judgement, I turned the TV to the UW-Utah game, thinking I would watch for a few minutes then get back to cleaning.  No such luck.  I got suckered in, and, 2 glasses of Kraken and Diet Coke later, I found myself screaming with a few seconds left in the game.  What a nail biter.

Throughout the game, my phone kept going off with updates about another football game.  The HHS football team played Damien Memorial High School for the Division I state title.  Not nearly the nerve-charged game as the UW game, but still exciting, especially since Damien drew first blood.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many friends were at the game.  Not friends who live in Hilo, but friends who live in Honolulu.  Several sent congratulatory messages via Facebook.  One of the well-wishers was someone I worked with nearly a decade ago.  She is lucky enough to be retired now...ahhh, someday.  But hearing from her brought back memories, and that's when it occurred to me that her recipe for Greek pasta salad would make a nice addition to my Thanksgiving lunch.

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Flo's Greek Pasta Salad

     1 lb thin strand pasta (angel hair, vermicelli, spaghettini, etc.)

     1/2 c vegetable oil
     3 tbsp lemon juice
     3 tbsp mayonnaise
     3 tbsp Greek seasoning (Cavender's is what we find here)
     1 can olives, sliced
     1 small jar pimientos, larger pieces sliced
     3 tbsp thinly sliced green onions

Cook pasta according to directions on box.  Drain and cool.  Combine oil, lemon juice, mayonnaise and Greek seasoning.  Mix with cooked/cooled pasta.  Toss in olives, pimientos and green onions.  Chill overnight.

Continuing the highlights of my recent Hokkaido trip..........

Sapporo, Japan

October 9, 2017:  Day 1

 

The Keeper made my hotel arrangements for me, and he chose a hotel which offered a complimentary breakfast.  Aside from "suite" type hotels, I am not accustomed to having breakfast provided, and I was quite surprised at what was on the buffet line.  Of course, I didn't take too much food since I knew we would be having breakfast at the Jougai Ichiba.

Jougai Ichiba was on The Keeper's itinerary.  It required a short hop on the train to get there.  I'm not sure which stop we got off, but I know we headed west from the Sapporo station.

Jougai Ichiba is also known as the Hokkaido curb market/Sapporo Central Wholesale Market.  I'm not sure why, as I did not see a curb anywhere, but vendors do have their goods on the sidewalk.  Vendors were very welcoming, suggesting we try the different foods.  I really wanted to buy a crab to eat, but I didn't know how long I'd be out.  And I certainly didn't bring my favorite weapon of choice (Joyce Chen kitchen snips).

Most of the vendors were selling either seafood or fruit.  Some of the seafood businesses had counterpart restaurants which offered to prepare the food for you.  That would've been fun to try, especially since I discovered that I like uni (sea urchin).  Perhaps I need to say that I like the taste of uni in Japan.  I've had uni in Hawaii, and it was either yucky or only okay.  But the uni sample the vendor let me try was sweet and buttery.  Yum.  I knew I would need to have more of it later.

The sweetheart of the fruit offerings has got to be the melon which every fruit stand proudly displays...yubari king melon.  The melon looks similar to the cantaloupes we see in the supermarkets.  But the yubari melon is more globular, and somewhere in size between a softball and a bowling ball.  There is usually a "T" shaped stem attached.  The orange fruit is extremely fragrant and sweet.  This fruit has the distinction of being the most expensive fruit in Japan.  I could probably eat one by myself (as a meal), but it would be my luck that I am allergic to musk melons.  I did allow myself to accept a sample from a vendor, but I quickly rinsed my mouth after eating it.

As promised, The Keeper took us to a restaurant above the shops.  From the picture menu, I selected the kitamae don.  I thought the uni and ikura would make me happy, but it was the raw scallops which put a huge smile on my face.  They were sweet and delicious.  It's hard to believe that I live on an island surrounded by water, but the seafood in Japan is superior.

After breakfast, we made our way back to the station, stopping at a 100-yen shop.  It was my first time at one of these shops.  Wow...the things one can find there!

We went back to the Sapporo station and made our way on foot to check out the old government building.  From there we walked down to Odori Park.  Most of us could not resist buying grilled corn.  The corn was so tasty.  It had just the right combination of salty and sweet.
















In spite of being full from breakfast AND corn, we stopped at the Ramen Yokocho in Susukino.  This was where Anthony Bourdain ate when he was in Susukino. 








The Keeper and I decided to try the the chashu grilled pork spicy miso ramen at Teshikaga Ramen (this is not the restaurant which borders the street).  The ramen was a little oily, but that was to be expected.  There were at least 3 types of pork in the ramen:  a spicy ground pork, cubes of soft pork, and the grilled pork belly slab.  And as you can tell from the picture, I was still in denial.  I still thought I liked corn in my ramen.

Now this is where my mind gets a bit fuzzy.  Perhaps it's from too much eating, but our next stop was the Shiroi Koibito chocolate factory.  I cannot remember how we got there.  I think we went underground and caught a subway/train.  I think.  I am pretty sure the chocolate factory isn't too far from the Jougai Ichiba, where we were earlier in the day.  But The Keeper said we needed dessert.

The Shiroi Koibito chocolate factory is known for the famous shiroi koibito, a cookie sandwich.  Two langue de chat buttery cookies are sandwiched together with white chocolate.   It reminds me a little of the Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies.  In addition to shiroi koibito, the factory also has "Candy Labo", the hard candy division.  The Keeper, Nakaz, and I bought a bunch of things from Candy Labo.  I haven't eaten my Candy Labo yet, but I sent some "magic candy" to Heather, a knitting friend in Kansas.

We took a walking break and sat down to dessert in the restaurant of the factory.  The Keeper ordered a gigantic parfait with shine muscats.  I didn't think I could eat something so large, so I settled on something which I had been wanting to eat for nearly 2 decades:  baumkuchen (layered sponge cake).  My dessert would've been fine, had I not been urged by The Keeper to try a shine muscat.  I figured I wouldn't like it, since I don't eat grapes, but the shine muscat turned out to be something other-worldly.  I have never eaten anything so fragrant.

And I don't think I ever ate so much food in a single day.  Little did I know, we weren't done yet.  The Keeper told me that there was a place in one of the malls adjoining the Sapporo station which served tonkatsu even better than Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin (Waikiki).  I found that hard to believe, so I told him to bring it on.  We ended up at Tonkatsu Wako.

The Keeper was right.  The tonkatsu was  tender with a crisp, light and airy coating.  But to be perfectly honest, I prefer the dressing (for the cabbage) at Bairin.  The dressing at Tonkatsu Wako was not the sesame-mayo dressing I was expecting.  It was more like a ponzu.  I like ponzu, but NOT with tonkatsu and cabbage.

And finally, after all this eating, we made it back to the hotel for, what I hoped, would be a good night of sleep.

Greek Pasta Salad

KABOOM!!!  By now, most people have heard about what happened at work this past Thursday (it made the Huffington Post).  I was talking to 3M in her office as recess ended and students made their way to their 5th period class.  We heard a loud noise.  It sounded like a single firecracker (although someone thought it was much louder).  When I looked outside 3M's door, the kids were proceeding to class as usual, and nothing looked awry.  I went to the main parking lot to move my car to the makai driveway (it was Thursday so D1 had to go to the hospital for her internship) because its a lot easier to get out from the makai driveway than the main entrance.  I went back to my room and found a slip of paper I meant to give to another teacher for her meeting that afternoon.  While in her room, the lockdown alarm sounded.  I was on my way back to my room (running) when I saw D1's friend in the building corridor.  She had been in the bathroom and got locked out of the near classrooms.  Poor thing!  I told security I'd take her so we ran to my room and locked down.  We busied ourselves by eating snacks and drinking soda.

Lockdown lasted about an hour-and-a-half.  Two students were arrested for detonating a water bottle bomb near the auditorium.  All of this was on the local news. . .including a picture of my car parked on the makai side of campus!  I'm glad nobody got hurt, and I am so proud of the way the situation was handled by the administration.  We really do have the best administrators! 

The uproar caused by the bottle bomb notwithstanding, this was a busy week.  I attended two boys basketball games (both losses).  One game was against the dreaded crosstown rival.  The other game was against the "haves" (we are the "have nots").  The Help came along to take pics for D1's cheer coach.  Of course, he took the opportunity to snap some practice shots of the game.  In spite of all the running he had to do on the football field, he declared that taking football pics was much more enjoyable than taking basketball pics.

Hilo had another week of mostly cold (by Hawaii standards), wet weather.  I took advantage of the opportunity to wear some of the boots & covered shoes I bought.  After years of wearing sandals & slip-ons, I decided to go back to wearing covered shoes.  I love it.  It keeps my feet nice and warm.  Come to think of it, the day of the bomb was the first dry-ish day we've had in a while.  Anyway, a bunch of my fb friends drove up to the mountain this past weekend to play in the snow.  Some random trucks could also be seen driving through Hilo with snow in the cargo area.  Oddly enough, by the time the weekend came around, Hilo was warmer. . .in the 80s.

I'm beginning the countdown until the next holiday.  TEN days.  I might need to start the spring break countdown soon too.  I know there are 73 days of school left for the seniors.  We counted together.

It is too early to be thinking about salads, but with all the counting down, I'm kinda looking forward to summer vacation (or spring break. . .since it will come before than summer).  And I took advantage of the warm weekend weather to throw this salad together for Super Bowl food.  Actually, I wanted to make something else, but there must be some kind of onion shortage going on because I could only find reasonably priced red onions at the market (and I didn't feel like driving around).

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Greek Pasta Salad

     1 c orzo (uncooked)
     2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
     1/2 red onion, finely chopped
     1/2 c minced flat-leaf parsley
     1/3 c red wine vinegar
     1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
     1 tsp salt
     1 1/2 tsp sugar
     1/8 tsp pepper
     1 tomato, chopped
     1 bell pepper, chopped
     1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
     1/2 c kalamata olives, drained and sliced
     1/2 c crumbled feta cheese

Cook orzo as directed on package.  Drain well and toss with 1 tbsp olive oil.  Set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine onion, parsley, vinegar, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper.  Add orzo and toss to coat.  Cover and chill until ready to serve.  Just before serving, toss pasta with remaining ingredients.

On Saturday, The Help and I stopped by Short N Sweet Bakery to try the creme brulee cupcakes we saw on their FB page.  What a treat!

The cupcakes have that classic carmelized sugar topping which shatters when you dig in with a spoon.  But you will definitely need to use a spoon to get all the custard goodness (a nice surprise!).


If you're on the Big Island and you're looking for a nice treat for Valentine's Day, call Short N Sweet and place an order.  These are worth the price!


They are also cheaper than Maui onions.  I am NOT kidding.  When we went to Safeway, a bag of Maui onions (with 3 small-ish onions) was over $10!  That is crazy!!!