maui, wowie.

heyhey!! i took a little trip to hawaii recently with peter and a couple of friends. it was the best of times. you can't really go wrong in a hawaiian paradise!

^^^ just LOOK. so beautiful.

also...i feel like i fell off the earth on my bloggity and haven't posted since october - and that makes me sad! i have been SO busy, and as far as making new recipes goes....its freaking dark out all the time right now. i've been gone or busy for several weekends in a row and i'm excited to get back in the kitchen in the daylight of the weekend and cook baby cook & bake baby bake. 

i've been on a few trips recently and have a major backlog of photos to post -  its always really cathartic for me to get all these photos organized and out into the world. i definitely feel a mental back up when i have taken tons of photos that don't see the light of day! 

so let me start with our week in MAUI, HAWAII!!

my best friend's ma & pa let us rent their condo in maui for the week, and it was a dream. shoutout D & B!! above is the view from the condo. 👌

we stayed on the west side of maui, just north of lahaina. it was nice to be so close to a cute little beach town full of restaurants and shops. ^^^ this is the aftermath of our delicious brekky at longhi's in lahaina. it has a view of the ocean and a cute airy ambiance with wide open windows.

one morning we got up around 2am to drive to the haleakala volcano to watch the sunrise. it was quite the life experience. none of us knew we were going to do this when packing for this trip...so we were pretty unprepared for the cold. so much cold.....

we got up to the summit parking lot around 4:30am and still had a bit of time before the sun came up. the parking lots get full, so you have to get there this early. we just slept in the car for a little bit and then walked up to the observatory area to freeze our faces off for an hour or so.

^^^you can see in the top photo of peter and me how miiiiiserable we are. it was SOOO cold. we even asked the locals the day before, "would you say its reeeeally cold...or is it just like kinda cold? i mean, we're from seattle soooooo..." thinking we were macho tough shit on the cold handling front. they were like, "yeah its really cold." um yeah. they right. it is FREEZING COLD, PEOPLE. pack your parkas and blankets if you intend to go up here for sunrise. this was also in november, so i don't know if the temperature changes at other times of the year.

we wore beach towels as scarves.

as soon as the sun came up...so much happier! even feeling one ray of sunshine on my face was amazing. but the view was beautiful, and so cool to be up above the clouds.

i would have liked to be up here for sunset. next time!! 😉

^^^ defrosting ourselves and checking out the wild cows as we drove back down the volcano.

nakalele blowhole! we walked a bit all over the hillside there where it was SO windy. it was an amazing view of the coastline, though! also, roadside coconuts from a local called moe! 

group selfieeeee. not sure where i pulled my high school status backwards peace sign out from...haven't done that in years. ha! but a fun group pic nonetheless!!

we drove around to several different beaches all over the place. each of them were b e a u timus!

^^^ tacos at coconut's fish cafe in kihei (yummooo!), wow wow lemonade (double yummm & so refreshing!), shave ice at down the hatch in lahaina (also yummm! but mine was supposed to have booze and definitely did not. wahh.)!

we had so much fun at maui brewing in kihei! note the large scale connect 4 game in the background. so cool! that pink bev was a delicious boozy hibiscus kombucha. yum yum.

they also had live music and a woodfire pizza truck out front. i was ready to move in.

setting off on the road to hana! we went the reverse way that most people go and we think it was ideal because we didn't run into too many crowds along the way. head south driving counterclockwise along the road instead of heading east from the top of the island down and around clockwise. you also get the rougher, dryer parts of the road out of the way first.

into the bamboo forest we gooo....

bamboo forest was so cool!! definitely worth the time and the less than 2 mile hike/easy walk up. the sound of the bamboo clanking together in the breeze was pretty magical, too. 

getting a bit sweaty on our walk was a-ok since we were planning to go for a dip in the seven sacred pools...

thanks, road to hana! you could definitely camp somewhere if you're up for it and spend more than one day exploring all there is to see along the road. there are a zillion adorable local island food stops like ice cream, pizza, banana bread, fruit stands, etc. 

we stopped in paia for pizza and to chill after our longgg car ride around the island. ^^^this mai tai from charley's saloon in paia was the BEST one i had by far. i only actually had a few mai tais on our trip, but this one was just so so delicious. 

^^^ lots of beach times and our ford explorer rental with all our day trippin' beach gear exploding out the back :) also pog and aloha maid and hawaiian sun bevs are what island vacation dreams are made of. 

^^^ we had some amazing local fruit during the trip and also these smoothie acai bowls one morning. so refreshing.

^^^ can't forget hawaiian plate lunches. pete's favorite. the plate lunch photo above was from ono kau kau just north of lahaina. it was pretty darn good in my opinion! and i get tired of eating plate lunches like this after one day. so, bravo!

we were reaaally sad we didn't make it to star noodle in lahaina. looked so gooood and we've heard so much about it. this is why you need 10 days or 2 weeks in hawaii instead of just 1.😉

i loved kohola brewing in lahaina and was really impressed with all of their beers!! definitely check this place out if you're a beer drinker traveling to maui. my favorite was the 'talk story' pale ale. you go, kohola!

^^^ crazy big & cool banyan tree in lahaina.

^ pineapples are simply the most fun fruit with their happy little crowns.😊

hawaii, i love you. mahalo. 'til next time. 😘 😘 😘

qp

green & red shredded chicken and black bean enchiladas.

there's something so satisfying about dreaming up a specific meal and having it turn out exactly how you wanted it to taste/look/smell. party on, wayne. 

i'd been craving some sort of enchiladas like this since the end of summer and kept thinking about them. now was the time to execute.

perfectly comforting, super flavorful, easy to make, and to top it off - leftovers for days!

i made these on the day of this supposed "seattle windpocalypse/rainstorm of the century" and was fully prepared to live on these enchis for days, wrapping ourselves in blankets and playing cards by candlelight. 

no such wind blew that night. and as strange as it sounds, i was sort of disappointed that the power didn't go out and we weren't able to live as pilgrims for the weekend. 

candlelit pilgrim life is a reeeal freaky deaky modern-day ultra-privileged thing for me to even wish on...believe you me, i'm so so ever grateful for our cozy home and allllll the good things in my life.

so let me show you how to prepare for a "storm" and enjoy some delicious homemade eats at the same time. 

^^^ i don't normally take photos of meat cooking or raw meat in general, but these chicken boobs looked a-ok.

this is really quite simple once you have all the cans opened, cheese grated, veggies chopped, and chicken shredded. 

gently wrap all the filling into the tortillas, roll them up and lay them to rest on their happy little spicy bed of green and red sauce. 

i prefer having both green and red enchilada sauces because sometimes when you have just green or just red enchiladas, its too much! having both sauces meld into one and dance around in each bite is like OOH, AAH, MMMM. OK. NOMS. 

^^^ how cute are those magnetic toucan kitchen scissors pete got me for xmas last year? :)

that bubbly browned cheese & spicy sauces covering those hearty enchilada goods just scream comfort food to me. so good. SO GOOD!

Green & Red Shredded Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

Makes about 15 medium-sized enchiladas

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded (about 2 cups shredded chicken)
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained
• 28 ounce can green enchilada sauce, medium heat (or whatever spiciness you prefer)
• 14 oz. red enchilada sauce, medium heat
• 2 heaping cups grated monterey jack cheese
• 1 heaping cup sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 small can (7 oz) diced green chiles
• 1/2 a jalapeño, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 12-15 medium-sized flour tortillas

Instructions-

Cook 2 thawed chicken breasts in 1 TB of olive oil in a pan over medium heat, flipping after about 4 minutes and cooking 4 more minutes. Place cooked chicken on a cutting board to rest. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Chop onion, grate the cheeses, and open all cans. Shred the slightly cooled chicken with 2 forks. If the meat is slightly undercooked and pink still, return shredded chicken to the pan or skillet and toss until cooked through. I prefer to let the shredded chicken brown up in the pan anyway.

Add shredded chicken, black beans, chopped onion, and green chiles to a large bowl with a few good shakes of salt and black pepper. Toss to combine.

Add about 1 cup of green enchilada sauce in the bottom of the large baking dish you'll use to bake the enchiladas. Add just a little red sauce as well (maybe 4 ounces). Assemble the enchiladas, adding a scoop of the chicken & bean mixture to a tortilla, a small handful of each cheese, and a small drizzle more of the enchilada sauces. Roll the filling up tightly inside the tortilla and place in the baking dish. Repeat until the baking dish is full of enchiladas.

{We were able to make 2 separate batches of enchiladas with the amount of filling here}

Add about 1 cup each of both green and red enchilada sauce, dispersing evenly over the top of the rolled up tortillas.  Sprinkle some of the thinly sliced jalapeños around and top with the remaining shredded cheeses. Make sure the cheeses are on the top layer so it gets good and browned and bubbly. 

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until browned and slightly crisp around the edges.

Serve immediately with cilantro and plain Greek yogurt or sour cream. And tortilla chips, if desired!

These refrigerate well and taste just as delicious reheated within the next couple of days, as well.

qp