Hawaiian Food

I am so excited about all the restaurants and new foods we'll have the opportunity to try while we're on our honeymoon in Hawaii. I've already picked out a few restaurants that I want to try while we're there but then the even harder part is going to be picking out what to have for dinner! I am loving looking up all these great restaurants and drooling about all the delicious choices to pick from. I've been also intrigued about all the great local dishes and favorite foods native to the islands of Hawaii. So of course there's all the typical foods that people think of like coconuts (I think I'll even try coconut milk with a straw in the coconut - I do love mounds bars, I mean coconuts). And things like fish and even more Hawaiian, pineapples.

I might not be into eatting all of the local dishes, such as things like "poi" which is the traditional Hawaiian staple, is a starch dish made by pounding boiled taro roots and mixing with water until it reaches a smooth consistency. "Taro is one of the most nutritious starches on the planet." One of the things I can tell you that I know I will definately be having a lot of is shave ice!

One of the recommended restaurants on Oahu to get a taste of the islands is called Ono Hawaii Foods. This seems like a great - and inexpensive - way to get a real taste of all the local favorites. "When in Hawaii a taste of Hawaiian food is a must and for that special taste we recommend Ono Hawaiian Foods. This restaurant was recognized in 1998 as one of America's Top Restaurants and was rated "Excellent" as reviewed by their valued patrons in the Zagat Survey. On the menu you will find a wide range of Hawaiian food items ranging from the Kalua Pig Plate to the Chicken Long Rice Plate. Kalua Pig is juicy and tender shredded pork smoked Hawaiian style. This dish is cooked in an underground oven called the imu with hot rocks and banana leaves. The Kalua Pig is the highlight of any luau. Chicken Long Rice is a Cantonese contribution originated by the first Chinese immigrants to Hawaii. It has become a popular staple to luaus. I like to think of it as comfort food. The blending flavors of the chicken, its broth, ginger and onion can relieve all the stress that you may be feeling."

Maui Restaurants

My new wedding planning obsession has moved onto the Honeymoon space. Since I'm done with so much of the wedding planning (I think I'm pretty ahead of schedule), I'm now looking into all kinds of fun honeymoon activities and restaurants (of course while also procrastinating doing my homework). I have been having so much fun looking up all these delicious restaurants especially ones that feature Hawaiian cuisine. I've already lined up a couple that I plan for us to check out during our honeymoon.

I'm thinking our first night in Maui (Sunday night) will be the perfect opportunity to check out the luau at our hotel. Since we are probably just going to hang out the beach/hotel that day when we arrive, that would prob be a good night for that. The luau at the Hyatt is supposed to be one of the recommended ones to go to.

The next big dining experience I am looking into is Mama's Fish House. This is supposed to be one of the best and most famous restaurants on the island, as well as a very romantic dinner on the beach during sunset. I am thinking I would like for this to be our last dinner on the island and a perfect way to end our trip. The Frommer's review had the following to say, "For over 35 years Mama's has been the Maui destination for special occasions. A stone path leads you through the cool coconut grove to what would be, in an ideal world, a good friend's house. The Hawaiian nautical theme is hospitable and fun—the menu even names which boat reeled in your fish. Despite its high prices—even for Maui—the restaurant is always full; dinner reservations start at 4:30 PM. Chef Perry Bateman outdoes himself with lobster guacamole; Kula corn and crab chowder; and Big Island hearts of palm salad. The daily catch steamed in traditional luau leaves is outstanding—and worth the cash. Follow up with the Polynesian Pearl—a gorgeous affair of chocolate mousse and passion-fruit cream." This truly sounds like a can't miss dinning experience!

Another local recommended restaurant I'd like to check out during the week is the Lahina Fish Company. I've also found some local favorites, such as this famous banana bread stand that we'll be able to check out on Road To Hana trip (Mike made fun of me for this one when he came down and saw the banana on my screen and I tried to tell him about it). And of course we'll have many trips to have the famous hawaii shave ice. So that's three meals down in Maui, and 3 more to pick (this will be hard to narrow down there's so many great choices it seems). And then my other project of course will be looking into restaurants in Oahu.

The Little Flower Girl

Last month we were cordially invited to attend the Tinkerbell Themed 3rd Birthday Party for our absolutely adorable flower girl, Alexis. Did I mention how adorable she is? Cause she's pretty darn cute! She got a trampoline for the backyard as one of her presents and they told her it was for jumping on, so she started jumping on the box, it was really cute! We are absolutely delighted that she is going to be part of our special day. (Her Dad, Mike's Uncle John was actually the ring bearer in Mike's parents wedding). One of the items on the list has been to find a flower girl dress. We both know exactly what we had in mind for her, we'd like an ivory dress with a chocolate brown sash around the middle. I'd seen some cute ones at Bridal Stores, but they want almost $200 for a flower girl dress for a 3 year old, it seems so crazy to me. I saw one online at David's Bridal that we both really liked and this is the leading contender. It's the little girl on the right. We thought this dress might be good since it is more tea length and not to the floor so she doesn't get lost in the dress. I'm going to go and try and check it out next weekend in person to see if it looks as good in person as it does online and we can hopefully go with that one. I really can't wait to see her all dressed up!!

Two Fast Years

I can't believe that this week its two years already that we've been in our house. Two years ago on April 15, 2008 we purchased our very first home together. I can remember all the different apartments we both rented and moving from place to place every year, and now being here for two years it seems to have flown by. We actually lost an offer on another house our same development, and we could not be any happier about that today. I have to say I'm very happy and proud of our beautiful house. With a lot of hard work and sweat from our friends and family we made a lot of cosmetic changes to our house when we first moved in. We literally painted every wall, ceiling and almost every closet in the house (some more than once), changed a lot of light fixtures and other small projects. In the end the house turned out exactly like we wanted. Although there's a few things we never got around to, I think the house is perfect just as is!

Beautiful Bridesmaids

Two weeks ago with the help of three of my best friends, we did the the official bridesmaid dress shopping trip and purchased the dresses. After a great night of fun the night before (and a little too much wine) we made our way over to the dress store early Saturday morning. I was a little worried about going to a new store that I had never been to and hoped they had a good selection and service, luckily it worked out great!!!

Bridget, Hope and I met up with Michelle at the store. While we waited to Michelle to get there we rounded up a few dressed to look at and try on. We put together a small pile of a few dresses. There was only two that stood out at us (the original dress we went in to see and another one by the same designer). I have to admit I had a bit of a bride indecisive moment. I really liked the style of the top of the second dress (although it didn't have the full sash on it like the other one), I did think it was beautiful but $60 more for a dress that gets worn once didn't seem worth it, especially for a dress that was so similar to the first one.

We ended up with the exact dress we went into see and overall was a pretty painless process. I was very impressed with the store, their prices and the sales associates were all very helpful and nice when they were clearly very busy. We purchased the dressed on the spot and now we just need the other three girls to call and order theirs and we'll be all set. I can't wait to see the girls in their beautiful dresses. I hope they like them as much as I do, I think they'll be perfect for a beautiful fall wedding!

Our Week Abroad

I am definitely late on getting around to this one, almost a year later I decided it was finally time to do something with our pictures from our trip to London & Paris last year. Last May we spent a week abroad visiting the UK and France, it was Mike's first time out of the country. It really was one of the best trips I have ever been on. We had such an amazing time, maybe it was the excitement that Mike proposed to me the night before we left, or it was the general excitement of being in such great cities with so much to see and do.

We spent the first 4 days of our trip in London and then an additional 2 in Paris. On our trip we saw so many wonderful things. Our favorite of the two cities was hands down London, we absolutely loved every minute of our time there. We saw everything from Buckingham Palace, to the London Dungeon, to the famous Tower Bridge and everything in between. We even took a full day tour that took us out to Windsor Castle, Bath & Stonehenge (which I had never seen before). It was so great experiencing the city with Mike, we walked all around, rode around on double decker tour buses, rode the tube, and enjoyed the British cuisine. We had some absolutely delicious fish and chips that's for sure, and my new favorite beverage to go along with it was hard apple cider which we got at some pubs.

After a few days in London we headed over to Paris via the high speed train. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as great as we had previously had in London, and had some minor blips to deal with (such as our down graded 4 star hotel, and of course the language). We did manage to see the quintessential Paris sights such as the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower (where Mike made me climb the steps!!!). We took a tour bus around the city and covered the rest of the sites like Notre Dame, Scared Heart Church. One of our favorite parts of our time in Paris was def the crepes!!!

We had so much fun on our trip, it was exciting, exhausting, exhilarating and just an overall great time. Of course there was one thing I couldn't wait to get back home for - and that was to tell all of our friends and family about our engagement!

Crock Pot Cooking

So this one is a non wedding post but I had to share. As you may already know I am  slightly obsessed with my Crockpot (although it's been a few weeks since I've broke it out). And I'm always game for trying out a new Crockpot recipe. I stumbled upon this recipe for "salsa chicken" and decided to try it out (since I already had all the ingredients in the pantry) As most Crockpot recipes go this one was quite simple, and took all of 3 minutes to throw together. The ingredients are as follows:

1. One jar of salsa (I only had mild in the house) 
2. One can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup (98% fat free) 
3. One packet of taco seasoning (I used hot and spicy since I had mild salsa) 
4. 4 Chicken breasts (I only used 3 since I wasn't sure if we'd eat all 4) 

Mix the salsa and soup together. I know the soup sounds kind of strange but I didn't notice anything 'mushroomy' and it seemed to give it a good consistency and maybe thicken up the salsa. I just mixed them together at the bottom of the Crockpot. And then add the chicken breasts sprinkling the taco seasoning over it, I seasoned it on both sides and then after spooned the salsa/soup on top of it. Cooked it on low for exactly 6 hours and I had it with a side of rice. 

I thought it was absolutely delicious, mine had the perfect kick to it and the chicken was moist and just seemed to fall apart (no knife needed for cutting). Mike didn't have any (he wasn't interested) so I can't tell you his thoughts but I really liked it and plan to make it again! 

Finally Framed

Months later, after sorting through 522 pictures (to be precise) I finally picked out which picture I wanted framed to put on display in our room. We had gotten this beautiful Waterford Ballet Ribbon picture frame from our registry and I couldn't wait to put it out, in fact I eventually did put it out with no picture in it. I finally picked out the following picture and had it made up as an 8x10 in black in white and it's absolutely beautiful. Now that I have it in the frame, I couldn't be happier or have picked a better picture for our bedroom. I think this picture is so beautiful and really shows our personalities and love for one another. 

Hawaii Checklist

I'm so excited to start planning our Hawaiian Honeymoon. I've def got my work cut out for me in researching different activities to see and do so we can maximize our sightseeing AND relaxation time while we're there. But there are a few essentials that we'll need to bring along, and of course the other fun things like cute new sun dresses to wear. I've already got my eye on a few of those, and started looking at new bathing suits on Victoria's Secret to take along. Of course there's also things like the basics getting some new sunscreen, ooo maybe some new sunglasses, bug spray, some water shoes, and other things like that. I can't wait to start making my list and picking up some things for our big trip. And I've got my fingers crossed for a new camera, I've dropped some not so subtle hints to my honey for a great wedding present for his future wife.

Two of my first purchases are going to be the following books Oahu Revealed and Maui Revealed. In all of my research and reviews I've read so far these are the go-to books that every one needs to bring with them. And I am all about the travel books. I can't wait to pick up a copy.

A HoneyFund

It's probably a relatively new concept, but the idea of a Honeymoon Registry is slowly increasing in popularity. I actually wasn't familiar with the concept myself until pretty recently. Our close friends John and Amy had done one for their wedding this past November (Mike is going to ask John about it some more). BUT at the urging of one of my good friends, she encouraged me to look into it some more. She knows that we have a big honeymoon trip planned, and since we're pretty well established in our home that this might be a good supplement to our traditional registries. There's a good article on wikipedia and also on the Wall Street Journal which describes more about the concept if like me you're not that familiar with them.

Since Hawaii is a pretty big trip, doing a HoneyFund might help us with being able to afford some of the additional excursions and activities we'd like to do on our Honeymoon. I started doing some research on the subject, I was (a little) surprised to learn that the majority of these websites are not free, and they charge a fee to the couple upwards of 7%, so if you give a gift of $100, the couple only receives $93, so I decided to go with the Honeyfund which is completely free and there are no charges for the couple or the gift givers. 

It's still very much a work in progress and under construction (I didn't put an introduction message or any additional details about our trip yet) but I started outlining a few activities (which was really fun and exciting researching) on there just to test it out and see how I like it. 

Easter at The Manor

As I write this post I am still ridiculously full, and this is at least 3 hours later now. We went to The Manor for their famous Easter Buffet today, and man did we eat our share. It would be hard for me to remember all of the delicious food that we kept eating, our plates were never empty for the two hours that we were there. It was also exciting because we got to eat in the Imperial Room, which is the room that our reception is being held. Although it was a bit hard to get a true sense of the space in the room because it was set up completely different, with the buffet in the middle of the dance floor and all different sizes of tables around. Mike and I both talked about the space a little bit and have our fingers crossed that everyone fits in there comfortably, but I'm sure they will, they do this every weekend after all for the past 50 years.

Let's see, what didn't we eat today? Well there was tons of delicious shrimp, a beautiful salad and appetizer section, with everything from marinated mushrooms, eggplant, tomato and mozzarella, cheeses and breads, salads, more shrimp (some type of marinated shrimp that my mom and I both really liked). Then for the main course there was eggplant rollatini, chicken, fried shrimp, pork loin, even the vegetables were delicious, the food was never ending, there was even a pasta station and a carving station. Then if that wasn't enough, all the dessert. Mom and I had a field day at the dessert station.

I'm pretty sure that I ate enough today that I shouldn't have to eat for the rest of the week! We had a fabulous time, and now the next time we will be there is for our wedding :-)

Honeymoon is BOOKED

I am very happy to announce that as of last Tuesday our Honeymoon is officially booked, no changing our minds now on that big trip! After many, many phone calls back and forth to our wonderful (and patient) travel agent Linda (who has been a pleasure to work with), the plane tickets are purchased and hotels are booked. I am very pleased to say that we will be spending almost two weeks in the beautiful Hawaiian Islands of Oahu and Maui (with 6 nights on each). We'll depart for Hawaii on Monday after our wedding and will be back in NJ the following Sunday.

We'll be starting our honeymoon in Oahu at the Waikki Hyatt with a beautiful ocean view. We'll spend the next 5 days (Mon - Sun morning) seeing sights such as Pearl Harbor, the Dole Plantation, Diamond Head, the North Shore and many other beautiful sights. And of course we'll leave plenty of time to sit beach side and enjoy some delicious pina colada and mai tai's.

After that we'll make our way over to the island of Maui where we'll stay for the duration of our stay. On Maui we'll check out things like the Road to Hana, a sunrise bike tour of Haleakala Park, snorkeling and other romantic activities like a sunset cruise or romantic dinners on the beach. While on Maui, we'll be staying at Maui Hyatt and we'll also have a convertible car to get around the island with.

I'm very excited about our big trip. Neither of us have ever been to Hawaii before. Although it's definitely a big trip (and I was def a little nervous about that), as Mike pointed out we only get to do our Honeymoon once, so go big or go home :-)

I'll post more about some more of our plans and activities soon. I've already started doing tons of research!