I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. I love how it has allowed me to be connected with many friends that I’ve lost touch with over the years. It’s amazing how many old high school/college friends I’ve come to know again just from looking up different connections. And Facebook also allows me to keep up with all these friends via their status bars. In a time when we barely have time to shoot emails to each other, this little status updates have helped me to find out which friends are having children, which friends are travelling, which ones have just broken up with their significant others or gotten engaged. It’s amazing how much we can know from that little status bar!

But then again, do I really need to know what is going on with everyone? And do I need to get “cyber hugged” and gifted dimsum, or flowers, or good morning wishes or any other “cyber” thing in the one million and one applications that can be found on Facebook? And then, there are all these polls—which city/country/continent should you live on, what superhero are you, what does your color say about you, etc. (many of which are surprisingly accurate, but not so grammatically).
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This “huli chicken” recipe was featured in our recent “Ultimate Backyard Lu’au”

“Huli” Chicken

The term “huli” means “to turn” in Hawaiian. “Huli huli chicken” is a term many locals know well. It draws up memories of school or church fundraisers where thousands of marinated chickens were being grilled over large beds of kiawe (mesquite) charcoal. These huli huli chickens were some of the most delicious, succulent birds I’ve ever tasted.

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How many of you are thinking about going Hawaiian?

Kahala Beach, O’ahu, Hawai’i

While most of us aren’t able to fly to Hawai’i, we can bring the tastes of Hawai’i to our homes – by throwing a lu’au! A lu’au is a Hawaiian feast featuring traditional foods such as poi, kalua pig, poke (“POH-kay”), lomi salmon and haupia. Often, there will be music as well as hula dancing.

Not many of you might know how to throw a lu’au. Being from Hawai’i, I wanted to share some of these traditional lu’au foods with you all. So if you’re looking for lu’au food recipes, this would be the place to come.

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Do you love asparagus?

Do you love it because of its sweetness? Do you love it because of it’s symbol of spring? Or are you like Nate, who just recently came to love it because of someone else’s persistence in pushing this vegetable?

I must say that I can’t think of anything that complements asparagus more than shrimp. We had yummy success in the past with our Quinoa Salad with Shrimp and Asparagus recipe. So when I came across this recipe in Fine Cooking for polenta with shrimp and asparagus, I had to try it out. (more…)