fruit and warm air

I texted my friend this morning.

I am feeling cranky and feisty and like a waddling penguin HOW AM I GOING TO DO THIS FOR THREE MORE WEEKS???

But, she rightly points out, you have all that FRUIT and you have the nice WARM AIR.

Okay. Yes.

Fruit and warm air.

We went on a little island excursion this weekend and it occurred to me I have done precious little island-y blogging lately. So, here are some island-y thoughts and pictures and such.

The friends we visited, on the other side of the island, have a little farm set up. Orchards of avocado and citrus and chickens running around through the trees, all with the ocean in the background.

It was gorgeous. And it made me realize while we like our little neighborhood and the convenience to town we really REALLY need our own little spread to make Hawaii feel like "home."

I need my chickens back.

How to make this happen, in the most expensive place to live in the country, well, eh, that is the rub. But it needs to happen to be here long term.

In any case. Our friends sent us home with boxes and boxes of fruit. Sticky ripe guava, that filled the whole car with its scent, green and ripe bananas - along with a recipe for banana egg pancakes - hard to find yellow dragon fruit, a few tangerines and oranges, and a bag of lemons including one huge variety of lemon that fills up your hand and squeezes out nearly a cup of juice for lemonade the next day.

I now have an entire counter filled with fruit.

So of course I had to do some fruit related experiments.

The results:

Guava goes a long way. Use sparingly in smoothies

Frozen banana mixed with coconut milk and cocoa makes an excellent substitute for late night ice cream. Especially if you mix in a handful of chocolate chips.

Dragon fruit, when refrigerated, is an amazing snack, peeled and fresh.

Guava rinds sitting in kombucha overnight. Mmmmm...

Up today.

Moroccan preserved lemons. Cut lemons into quarters, the long way, but leave them still connected at the bottom. Stuff with sea salt, sprinkle salt in between the lemons, let sit in a loosely covered jar for a month. They turn into yummy preserved lemons that can be used to flavor chicken and rice and hummus and all sorts of things. Can't wait to try.

I may even try banana pancakes. Our friends said to use green bananas (we have the Williams variety from them) or plantains along with a few eggs and cinnamon. Fry up like pancakes in coconut oil. BONUS (for us). It's gluten free! Or. Maybe I will convince dada to do this.

And then there is the daydreaming about a farm. Thank you God for daydreaming. Its gonna get me through the next few weeks...All I need is a little patch of land by the sea. Some lemon trees. Chickens. And a field of red berried coffee trees. And this baby to be born.

That. I need that.

those little white patches in the waves are from whales!

i love these little yellow guys...

guava, such a pretty pink color!

unpeeled dragon fruit

the peel comes right off and the fruit is like a mild sweeter kiwi

the fruit counter. um. look at that giant lemon!!!

giant lemon next to a regular lemon

a box of bananas. i found a giant cane spider drowned in my bathtub of water
i forgot to let out after these bananas were in the house overnight. they
are now living on the front porch, which the geckos appreciate.