It was a “busy” day yesterday at the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. Thankfully it wasn’t that hot and the vog (volcanic smog) didn’t rear its ugly head so we didn’t get smothered with that kind of pollution. We hiked to see steamy vents, craters and calderas, caves, and rain forests. Very cool, especially for someone who was a geologist in her past life. I even went so far as to indulge myself with a purchase of the geologic maps of the volcanoes. Ah, so g33ky!

Prior to leaving for the park, we were watching the news with the stock market going down 400 points and money is disappearing like water quickly seeping through the cracks by the second. The craters and calderas looked like a visual representation of the stock market: a volcano that collapsed. And all that’s left are steamy vents. 401k’s started looking just like it disappeared into steam. The craziness of the economy seems as messy as the Halema’uma’u's seismograph:

Ok, enough geekiness! :-)

I’ll move on to one of the post-volcano trip highlights: Big Island Candies!

Once you enter their building, you’ll be greeted by a tiny cup of samples of their cookie and chocolate, and an offer for a cup of complimentary Kona coffee. We had the original shortbread cookie and rocky road chocolate — they were awesome!!! Right after we got in, we were hooked. Their coffee wasn’t too shabby either.

If we had the money, I think we would have bought everything in the store. My brain refused to pick a few things to buy. Gah. Everything looked good. The see-through windows to their ‘operation’ was drool-worthy:

Yummy!

The cookies, chocolate, and other treats are more expensive than your average sweet tooth fix. Then again, this isn’t your average treat. It’s definitely worth the dent in your wallet and the caloric amnesia! Yup…what? What diet? There is NO diet. Haha.

Ok, we’re off to another adventure!

We’re on vacation! :-)

And you know the drill when travel is in the air: If you’d like to get a postcard, email your name and mailing info to gourmeted [AT] gmail [DOT] com. No strings attached. No Hawaiian food delivered to your doorstep either — sorry, we’ll just have to eat and eat and eat for you. Hehe. [Our friends have been spoiling us too much with good food!]

Not having to do anything or THINK of anything is SO nice! We’ll be back soon. With more pictures next time.

So guess what? It’s Dan’s birthday today! :-) Go tell him happy birfday!

I didn’t have a party for him like last year’s because I just came back from Canada, Dan’s been busy with work (he worked yesterday, and till 7pm today), I’m sick on and off (the weather change isn’t helping), and we’re leaving for a vacation in Hawaii in a few days. Too many things going on.

Tonight was just a low-key celebration. I made him a surf and turf dinner of filet mignon and shrimps, with spinach salad, and cupcake cake. This is what happens once you get past 30: you’re too tired to make a big fuss over getting older. Hehe. Just kidding. ;-)

After the two occasions he’s baked a cake for me, it’s my turn to bake him one and get over my fear of flour and baking once again. My original “vision” was to make a red velvet cake. That was short-lived because I realized that we didn’t have buttermilk (which I could make a substitute for with milk and vinegar) and eggs. Well, there’s no hen in our backyard to coerce into producing eggs for my baking needs, so I sat there…thinking, thinking. My baby needs a cake for his birthday!

Behold, the Internet saves the day! I found a recipe for Eggless Chocolate Cake from Indian Food Kitchen Blog. Of course, I always have to put my own twist: I poured the delicious yet light batter into cupcake pans, and crossed my fingers that this thing would hold! And they did! I cheated on the buttercream frosting and hats off to Betty Crocker for that. I added mini peanut butter cups (Dan’s favorite) as the topping.

Tadah!

The chocolate cupcakes were great on their own. They have enough chocolate without overdosing you, and just enough sweetness that you don’t feel like dying from all the sugar. I’d say this cupcake is perfect for frosting. You can eat both the cupcake and frosting without having to use your 911 on speed dial. You won’t notice the missing eggs either. It’s not too packed and heavy, but moist enough to keep you interested till the last bite. When you bite into it, you’ll notice that it’s almost like red velvet cake in color, and it could be the result of the vinegar in the recipe. One cupcake is enough for a dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth without being to guilty. Plus this is perfect for those with allergies to dairy (if eaten without the buttercream).

I highly recommend this recipe even if you’re not out of eggs and milk. I’m not sure if it can withstand being stacked into a layered cake (my personal opinion — it won’t because it’s delicate). Go give it a try:

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
[Adapted from Indian Food Kitchen.]

Yields 15 regular-sized cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup cold water
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoon white vinegar

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray cupcake pans with vegetable oil spray.
2. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
3. Mix the vegetable oil, water and vanilla extract in a separate small bowl. Pour into the large bowl containing the dry ingredients. Stir until mixture is smooth and without lumps.
4. Add the vinegar and stir rapidly (you can use a hand mixer) and immediately fill the cupcake pans 2/3 full.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and place the cupcake pans on a cooling rack to completely cool.

They are great on their own, but will also work well with different varieties of frosting.

Why, printed on a card of course!

A couple of weeks ago I was asked if I would be interested in blogging about a food photographer’s cards, and in exchanged I would receive the cards. I jumped at the offer because what’s not to like? There goes my love for paper AND food. It’s perfect!

The package arrived while I was in Vancouver, so Dan just told me about it. At first he said “You got a package from the photographer.” And I thought — uh, from a…photographer? A wedding photographer? How baffling. Haha. When I got back, it turns out it *is* from Chef Susan, who’s also a food photographer.

And these are the beautiful cards:

Coming from a paper addict, let me just say that these beautiful photos (she’s also a food stylist) have just the right amount of food and impeccable style that is nicely printed on high quality 100 lb. cardstock. In a few words: They are fantastic!

They would be hard to “let go” and mail because they’re just too pretty to use. Decisions, decisions. I want to start writing, but I don’t know which ones to pick!

They are beautifully packaged, too.

Visit Chef Susan’s Etsy store and get your cards now:
Blue Egg Photography

And just a random fact: they smell like good paper. If you know the magazine “The Believer“, the cards smell like that. I’m one of the weird ones who love the scent of new books and paper.

P.S. I’m super thankful that there are no photos of cookies or cakes. Why? that will make me hungry at midnight. Like right now.

I could use a bowl of this right now:

It shifts from cold to hot here in Vancouver. “Would you like the cold for breakfast? Sweltering heat for lunch? No problem!” That kind of thing.

I made this a couple of months ago when Dan and I found some super sweet corn from Whole Foods. I think I even cooked this on a hot day in Arizona. Whether it’s a hot day, or cold day…this is good. I love corn soup! It’s basically just chopped onions sauteed with chicken, fresh crushed pepper and salt. Then fresh sweet corn and spinach leaves added right after you turn off the heat. Easy-peasy!

In Manila, our helpers used to cook this at my request. Instead of chicken chicken bits, they actually shred the chicken. They didn’t use spinach leaves, but some slightly bitter leaves (I think they were chili plant leaves). And it was a nice contrast to the sweet corn. It was delicious. I could eat it for days!

I have a bag of leeks and potatoes here waiting to be made into potato leek soup tonight. That’s another easy and tasty soup to make.

Now that it’s starting to cool up, I’m ready to make more soup! Do you have any (easy) soup recipes? Let me know!