For as much as I cook on a daily basis, it took many hours of daydreaming to come up with a cohesive luau menu that would make sense and flow together, and also be mostly vegetarian, and  able to be timed so the cook could hit the cocktails during the party, and not afterwards in a limping mess next to a pile of dishes.  We invited our favorite people that also aren’t afraid to get their grub on, spent the day before busy assembling everything that would not be ruined by a night in the fridge, and managed to pull nearly everything together a clean half hour before the guests arrived.

Our meal comprised of three separate “courses”, an appetizer round, a full spread for dinner, and then a gut busting dessert. You can find all the recipes to everything here. I am not one to actually follow measurements, so writing the actual recipes is tough! Our appetizer course was a mix of veggie dumplings, deconstructed Spam and Sweet Potato sushi, and lots of pickled veggies. For dinner we had Sweet and Sour Lentils on Red Rice, a Singapore style Yam noodle, sweet chili coleslaw and a long smoked Pork sirloin that got a special marinade treatment overnight in the fridge. Desert was a overkill cauldron of White Chocolate Macadamia fondue with a coconut cake and chopped fruit. I can’t recall anyone ever saying they left our house hungry.

The time went by too fast on a beautiful windy February day. Thank goodness for the warm walls and tiki lights we had strung up  for an indoor luau.

Many thanks to the Fraternal Order of the Moai for a great excuse for a party, all of our guest for their contributions and company, and my children for being exceptionally good that day. They must have seen that we were in full court press when it came to party planning. There is nothing finer than cooking the food you love and seeing those you love enjoy it!

And in cased you missed it- link to the recipes!

Appetizers

Veggie Dumplings

Dumpling Skins

Ground Tofu crumble

Carrots/Onions/Cabbage/Mushrooms

Fresh Ginger & Garlic, salt and pepper, soy sauce

Chop all the veggies and spices in a food processor, transfer to a bowl and fold in the tofu and the soy sauce. Season to taste but we err on the side of lots of ginger and garlic in this house! Put on some good music because you are going to be folding dumpling skins for a good hour. Let em rest on a cookie sheet before you deep fry them to golden.

Sweet Coconut Tempura Batter

1 cup flour

1 cup ice cold coconut soda

1tsp salt

1tsp baking powder

Panko to coat

Whisk everything together and get your spam and sweet potatoes ready. The coconut soda does make it just slightly sweeter than normal. Coat in the batter and then in the panko bread crumbs and fry!

Sushi Balls

Sushi rice, with seasoned vinegar. Rice molds help a lot. I garnished with soy wrappers but seaweed works just as good and is more traditional. Nothing like a pretty bed of rice to lay your spam on

Sweet Chili Mayo

1 cup Mayo

1/2 cup or more sweet chili

1/4 cup or more Apple cider vinegar

Soy Sauce, Onion flakes, pepper

Whisk all these together, testing for vinegar tolerance. We like a lot! There wasn’t any appetizers this sauce didn’t elevate.

Dinner

Singapore style Yam Noodles

1 package Yam Noodles

1/2 Can coconut milk

Napa cabbage, carrot, onions, celery

Fresh ginger & garlic

Curry powder, salt and pepper, coconut oil

Soak the Yam noodles in hot water till soft, drain rinse and toss in sesame oil. Heat the coconut oil in a pan, and add veggies in order of firmness. Add coconut milk, salt and pepper and tons of curry powder. Toss in the noodles and let the liquid cook off a little.

Sweet Chili Coleslaw

1/2 cup  Mayo

1/4 cup Sweet Chili

1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

Fresh Garlic and Ginger

Shredded Cabbage, onion and carrots

Sunflower seeds

Whisk together the dressing and add the veggies. Give it a an hour or so to soften. Toss in the sunflower seeds last thing.

Sweet and Sour Lentils

1 cup French Lentils

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup brown sugar

salt and pepper

onions, peppers

pineapple

fresh garlic and ginger

Add all ingredients and an extra 2 cups of water to the crock pot. Cook on high for about 3 hours. Serve over any rice, we chose red rice cooked with a little coconut oil and plenty of salt!

Sweet Cherry Marinated Pork

3 oz Sour Cherry Syrup

2 limes juiced

3 oz BG Reynolds Ginger Syrup

Marinade the pork overnight coated in marinade. Wrap in bacon and then smoke, and smoke, and then smoke it some more. Worry anxiously over it. Open it up to oohs and ahhs as people enter the party. Then about 12 hours after it hit the heat, watch it disappear in 5 minutes or less

Dessert

White Chocolate Macadamia Fondue

Two packages good quality white chocolate chips

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup toasted chopped macadamia nuts

You have to whisk this like a mad woman on a double boiler, and make sure your fondue pot is ready and the sterno is on. Have plenty of fondue forks for the chocolate hungry masses.

Coconut Coffee Cake

1 1/2 cups Flour

1 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Coconut oil

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Cream the oil and sugar together, then add in the egg and milk, and lastly the dry ingredients. Bake at 400 for about a half hour. I let it cool off in the oven so it turned stiff enough to cube int fondue, but if you take it out right away it is a lovely coffee cake. Very subtle coconut. Good with chocolate or coffee!

The  night went long with tons of awesome people making their way in and out over the course of the evening, along with snacks, beers, feats of balance and skill, and tons of great conversations and laughs. Justin was a motorcycle guy way before we had any old cars, so hanging out in a shop full of cool bikes is sure to reignite that passion. Check out the Deadbeats blog with tons of photos of their events and projects, lots of cool stuff going down! Deadbeat Motorcult

I will be adding the new items into the online shop for an easy checkout right here on the blog. We can always change up colors and other details so if you see something in the photos you like but want to tweak it- let us know!

Many thanks to Baby Doe and Otto and all the other fine folks that put on Tiki Oasis. It is truly an event like no other and we are so grateful that we get to be a part of it. This week will be some new items, some re stocking, and many more addition to both the shop and the Etsy page. We are busy but always looking to get busier!

Just one last post coming up about Tiki Oasis, because we already have more shows on the agenda to talk about! Lots of new product coming into the online store, and we will be working on some new designs for fall. Hard to believe it’s been 2 weeks since San Diego and we are back at it again with sawdust flying!

Practically could have sold it off the stage with the ooh and aahs it got! And sell it did, although we have all the parts and pieces to make more. Next post will be closeups of some of the new things we made for the show, including one of our most elaborate bar cases yet.

Many thanks to Tiki-Tim for the pictures. I had some similar shots but he really does everyone a service by taking beautiful photos of all the events we go to. Here are some more highlights of the show. Many pieces of fashion I wish I could just clone into my size right that second.

I took hundreds of photos but these are my favorite random pictures from that fabulous first day. Also the nights entertainment including the fashion show, that had our purse and bar case in it. Of course that will get a post all its own. I spent hours just talking to new people and past years friends, and it is a true luxury to find ourselves there among like minded tiki freaks! The room crawls and parties defy imagination. You see bands, get boozed up by the best mixologists around, you stand in line for hours going from elevator to room to room and many times you will find a band in there too. I don’t even know if I could ever really describe what a spectacle this all is, solely for the love of partying to a poly-pop interpretation of ancient islanders religion.

We’ve met the fine folks behind Lost in Paradise, and they have some neat well produced segments of the days events. Worth the watch!

Lost in Paradise

Tomorrow the Fashion Show post. Some great pictures and they made our stuff look great!

We are finally back home from our grand adventure to Tiki Oasis in San Diego, and after a whirlwind 4 days we are just now starting to process all the fun that was had with our tiki loving Ohana. I figure the best way to start what will be a week of blogging is by our first big stop of our trip, the Bali Hai’s Thursday night kick off party!

We quickly checked into our room to get freshened up before going out and greeting the people filtering into the Hanalei Hotel. We scored a wicked wedding set for a ridiculously low price on Etsy, and the Bali Hai was the perfect place to take it out, even if it was the first night. After all, being next to the big guy is the photo op we fly cross country for. Celebrities have chosen this spot too!

Jimmy Durante at the same spot!

First stop before the Bali Hai though was Trader Mort’s, also on Shelter Island. An iconic location and a chance to stock up on room drinks…perfect!

Our time at the Bali Hai was quite the blur, thanks to the very stiff drinks and the bands and burlesque going on. The first night of any of these shows is quite the catch up session with all your friends, except this time you get to look at the gorgeous San Diego Skyline.

The Bali Hai purse meets its inspiration again. And another drink for a friend.

King Kukulele opens the night!

Burlesque by Pink Feathers

What a view!

There are so many more pictures to share of our big trip, including some of new items made for the show that found new homes (but we can make more!) If we met you for the first time in San Diego then welcome to our blog! There will be lots to see on here this week!

First mobile blog post! If you are in San Diego come on out. Lots of vendors and free to get in!