The Hungry Dog goes on vacation

Although the timing is less than perfect with my little dog not well, we're off to Kauai tomorrow. The trip has been planned for awhile, and while we debated canceling it, she seems to feel fine. So we're crossing our fingers and leaving her with our dear friends who love her like, well, a daughter.

Preparing for Hawaii requires little more than throwing your bathing suit, some flip flops, and a few paperback novels in a bag. That's the beauty of the islands--you need very little to have a good time. But on the homefront, I found myself in a frenzy trying to use up all of the contents of our produce box in a few days. Some stuff will keep for the week we're gone, like onions, and possibly the giant melon. But other things we either use or say adios to.

Yet another sack of cherries awaited me. As you know, I recently had a less than perfect attempt at a cherry-port sauce, and I did not even write about the horrific cherry ice cream I made last week while the husband was away. The first night it was creamy and a gorgeous rosy shade. But by the next day, it was hard, chalky and pale gray. Never even took a photo of that one.

I figured one thing I could do with the cherries was freeze them for future use. I've never done that before but it has to work, right? So I washed, pitted, halved, and froze them on a sheet pan. Once frozen separately so they wouldn't clump together, I put them in a freezer bag and tucked them away in their icy den. Now in a few weeks I can make the cherry morning cake.

I also had some blueberries to use. So I made a batch of blueberry muffins. I used the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for cranberry harvest muffins, but only very loosely. She calls for all kinds of nuts and dried fruits--I believe these are part of the "harvest"--but as I think I've mentioned, I don't like lots of stuff in my muffins or cookies. I like to keep it simple. So I skipped all that stuff.

This is a great recipe and one I have made many times with cranberries. My only edit would be to reduce the amount of sugar--they're a little sweet otherwise. And, I only made a half recipe, which produces an awkward nine muffins, but oh well.

So, my friends, that's my last post for a week or so. I'm off for my Hawaiian dream vacation. When I return I'll have some photos of the great food we plan to eat at old favorites like Hamura Saimin and Tropical Taco, and hopefully of the much-talked about hot dogs at Puka Dog, which is new to us. Aloha!