Kakimochi is also known as Japanese rice cracker. It’s a teriyaki crunchy cracker and yes, there are some Hawaii bakeries that put them in cookies. The cracker kind of acts as a replacement for nuts or cereal, anything crunchy. Don’t knock it til you try it!

When I saw HEART SHAPED kakimochi in Hawaii, well, I just couldn’t resist and I knew I had to make up my own version of this old skool snack…

ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 /2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup crushed kakimochi (arare) + more to decorate if you wish
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep baking sheets with silpats.

I have NEVER come across kakimochi in this shape except for in Hawaii. It is so cute I can hardly stand it.

You can use any shape, of course since hearts are pretty hard to find. It hurts to crush up these cute little kakimochi hearts, but it has to be done.

In a freezer bag, place the kakimochi and crush them to pieces using a rolling pin, your hands, your full aggression. Hello anger management. Set aside.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour and the baking soda. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and the brown sugar. Add the egg and the vanilla.

Add in the flour/baking soda mixture until combined.

Personally, I love mini chocolate chips. They add a lot of flavor in very little bites.

By hand, fold in the crushed kakimochi and the mini choco chips into the batter.

Spoon by teaspoonfulls onto the prepped baking sheets. Make them rounded and press them down slightly. Since the heart were SO cute I also placed one on top of each batter ball before sending it into the oven. You don’t have to do this, but I thought it looked adorable and added even more crunch.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until brown. Let cool on a wire rack.

For people who may have only eaten kakimochi as a snack, this is a new and interesting take that is worth trying out!

Everyone makes Rice Krispy treats, sure. But I like to change it up sometimes and the colors of the “berries” (yeah, right) in the Cap’n Crunch make this treat pretty festive.

ingredients:
1 bag of large marshmallows
2 Tablespoons butter
pinch of salt
6 cups Cap’n Crunch Crunch Berries Cereal

Grease a 9″x13″ pan with melted butter. Set aside.

In a large pot heat the marshmallows and the butter. Once it starts to break down and melt, add the pinch of salt. Stir up this sticky mess and once it is all combined fold in the cereal, careful not to crush it.

Once the cereal is coated in the marshmallow mixture, pour it into the prepared pan. Push down to even it out flat, and let sit to cool. Cover with plastic wrap until you are ready to serve. Then cut into squares.

These are definitely sweeter than your traditional rice cereal treats, but they are a yummy colorful alternative!

You don’t really need a how-to for this, I just wanted to show you how easy it is to set up a snack bar. They are great for parties because it gives the guests the opportunity to ‘graze’ and socialize as they please.

I am partial to glass jars, which are fairly cheap at Target. Like in an old time candy store , glass allows you to see all the colors and textures which makes the idea of ’snacking’ that much more desirable. But you don’t need fancy jars – vases, bowls, those all work too.

Salty and Sweet snack bar
A nice combination of salty and sweet makes for great party snacks. It will make your guests keep coming back for more. I did these for The Baby’s Batman themed party and the kids loved it, but their parents loved it even more!

Cookies and Milk bar
Who doesn’t love cookies with a nice cold glass of milk?? Again, I just like to get a bunch of different flavors – I baked three different kinds, hoping that there would be something at appealed to everyone.

Chips bar
Chips are great because they come in a variety of textures and are fairly inexpensive. I chose these based on trying to get different flavors and how the colors would look next to each other too.

Cereal bar
A cereal bar is a unique fun thing to have at a party. You can get a variety of different flavors and colors and they look GREAT in glass jars. It makes people nostalgic for their youth and there’s something comforting about eating a small bowl of cereal for dessert!

themed snack bar
This was for a Hawaiian themed 1st birthday party so I tried to get all ‘local’ snacks: Kakimochi, Kimi Boro balls, Pocky, Li Hing candy, Diamond Animal Crackers, Green apple candies. Whatever your theme may be, stick to it and your guests will get a big kick out of it.

For all these ideas I made signs to go with each snack. It makes it easier on the guests and by themeing with your color scheme or party theme it will tie your whole party together!

Not your ordinary pb&j – wanted by only the best bounty hunters.

ingredients:
King’s Hawaiian sweet bread rolls
peanut butter
jelly
bananas
honey
sea salt

I’m a big fan of King’s Hawaiian sweet bread rolls because they are just the right size for a snack, or two…or three. I cut them in half, and spread one half with peanut butter, the other with jelly. Typical, right?

Then I slice some bananas, drizzle a little honey and sprinkle just a touch of sea salt.

And THAT is your fancy pb & j right there. No one can resist them, not even Boba Fett.

More side dishes for the Fried Chicken Face Off. Again, wanting to keep the side dishes light – I made a quick romaine salad but wanted to kick it up a bit. Since I had ALLLLL that leftover bread from making Star Wars sandwiches, I knew that making croutons would be the best bet. So easy you won’t ever want to buy croutons again.

ingredients:
8 slices ‘day old’ bread
3-1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon Garlic Salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the bread into bite sized cubes. In a large bowl, toss the bread with the olive oil, parmesan cheese, garlic salt and pepper.

Evenly pour out the cubes onto a lined baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until browned. If the bread is still a little soft inside, leave the pan out to cool and let the bread dry out.

Serve immediately and save the rest in an airtight container.

I made this to go with Red Roasted Chicken Tacos, the fresh corn adds the perfect bite to the soft tacos. Or you can just eat it straight out of the bowl while you are watching The Amazing Race…I certainly won’t judge you.

ingredients:
2 avocados, quartered, seeded and peeled
2 ears of fresh roasted corn (recipe, here)
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup onion, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, chopped
juice of one lime
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Fresh roasted corn off the cob is the best – sweet and creamy, it not only tastes great on it’s own but adds so much to recipes. Take the cob and simply cut down the sides, not going too deep, just far enough to get all that corn-y goodness.

Add the corn to the avocados, tomatoes, onions, garlic and lime juice. Mash it together to your liking. Some people like it chunky, others totally mashed. I’m sure there’s a psych eval in there somewhere about what you like better.

Add the cayenne, salt and pepper. You need to taste it once you add the seasonings to get it just how you like it. Stir it up a bit more and you’re ready to roll!

Over the weekend Darlene (of My Burning Kitchen) and I went to a California Avocado event at Ciudad, hosted by two of my favorite chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, the Too Hot Tamales. I remember watching them on tv back before there was even a Food Network!

At the event they made us do a Top Chef style Quick-Fire challenge, sort of an homage to the fact that Susan is on the current season of Top Chef Masters. Darlene and I and other pairs had to come up with our ’signature’ guacamole in exactly FIVE minutes using a large buffet of ingredients…

Squid ink, anyone? Darlene and I quickly scanned the foods and decided to come up with a guacamole using fresh fruit focusing on pomegrante.

I am now even MORE of a fan of Top Chef, because developing a recipe on the fly AND making it in just under 5 minutes is ridiculous! We were chopping ingredients, running around like crazy – it was insanity. Cooking under pressure is no fun.

We were judged on the best guacamole and the best named guacamole and believe it or not…we won!…best name. Ha! Good enough for me. Our guac incorporated fresh fruit with a sprinkling of pomegrantes so we named it POM-OCADO…MOLE! Catchy, right? Hey, whatever, we won.

So here’s our recipe…

ingredients:
2 ripe avocados, peeled and seeded
1 banana
zest of half an orange
juice of half a lime
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup diced tomato
1 cup pomegrante seeds
salt
pepper

In a large bowl mash together the avocados and the banana. The banana will mix together nicely and the the guac a bit of subtle texture.

Add the orange zest, lime juice, red onion and tomato. Stir to combine.

Add in the pomegrante seeds, season generously with salt and pepper.

It was a fantastic event and I hope Susan wins it ALL on Top Chef Masters – go Susan!!

Bacon? Yes. Hot sauce? Yes, please. What SoCal family doesn’t have a stash of Tapatio in their fridge? Well, you should. It’s not as hot as Tabasco, and adds just the right kick. Feel the burn indeed.

ingredients:
6 eggs
2 slices of bacon
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon pickle relish
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons Tapatio hot sauce

First cook the bacon (I use the oven – recipe here) until crispy. Let drain, then crumble and set aside for later.

On to the eggs! Carefully place your eggs in a pan. 6 will fit in a saucepan, you are going to slice them in half eventually to get 12 to serve. Gently cover the eggs with about 1-2 inches of water.

Bring the pot to a boil – obviously watch it, don’t go far it will be boiling before you know it. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat OFF. Cover with a lid, and let it sit there for 12 minutes.

Prep a bowl filled halfway with ice water, set aside. When the 12mins are up, drain the eggs and place them in the ice water to cool. Keep them in the fridge til you are ready to use them.

Once the eggs are cooled crack and shell them. If there are little pieces of shell stuck I like to run the egg under water and then dab it with a paper towel.

Cut the boiled eggs in half. Pop out the yolks into a small bowl, set the whites aside.

In the yolk bowl add the mayo, relish, onion powder, paprika, lemon zest, salt and pepper.

Using a small spoon scoop the yolk filling back into the egg white pockets. Top with the crumbled bacon, then add a few drops or five – of Tapatio sauce.

These are deviled eggs with a little something extra, your party will never be the same.

I saw these in The Manga Cookbook which has a bunch of great recipes, but more importantly they are EASY.

The thing that caught my eye about these were how cute and SIMPLE they were, using very few ingredients – and you can make a momma and a hatchling! I think these eggs would be so cute for Easter!

ingredients:
eggs
black goma (sesame seeds)
1 carrot

If you are afraid of boiling eggs, don’t be. You don’t need a special boiler or one of those floaty things that tells you when it’s done – just do it the old fashioned way, plain and simple.

Carefully place your eggs in a pan. (I usually do 6 in a saucepan, if I do more I use a large pot.) Gently cover the eggs with about 1-2 inches of water.

Bring the pot to a boil – obviously watch it, don’t go far it will be boiling before you know it. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat OFF. Cover with a lid, and let it sit there for 12 minutes.

Prep a bowl filled halfway with ice water, set aside. When the 12mins are up, drain the eggs and place them in the ice water to cool. Keep them in the fridge til you are ready to use them.

Once the eggs are cooled crack and shell them. If there are little pieces of shell stuck I like to run the egg under water and then dab it with a paper towel.

Now to prep the other ingredients let me first tell you, quite obviously you won’t need a whole carrot. Just an itty bitty tiny piece. Cut a slice of carrot, cutting out a small wedge shapes. Set aside.

As far as Black Goma is concerned finding black sesame seeds can be hard, but usually an asian market would be your best bet. You can find them online too.

For the momma chicks:

Take a toothpick and poke two holes for eyes. Place the black sesame seeds in.

Poke a hole with a toothpick and insert the carrot for the beak.

For the baby chicks:

This time slice the egg in half – carefully so you don’t tear the yolk – then do the same for the eyes and beak.

So simple, it’s hard to not want to make an army of baby chickie eggs!

Does this really need a how-to? No, it’s pretty self explanatory but it was a lot of fun to do with the kids. I had the boys write down all the foods they could think of according to color, then I had them help me lay them out in a cupcake pan.

This is something I like to pull out when the kids have friends over for playdates. They seem to think it’s a lot of fun, and it’s great to hear them think of other things that we could have put in there, as well as seeing the kids try new things. Note: No one ate the spinach, but hey it was worth a shot.