Sticky Buns

Recently, one of our local bakeries shut its doors taking with it our source of sticky buns. They were a favorite treat of ours, so my wife looked into making our own. She’s had good luck with recipes at onceuponachef.com and found a promising option there. Yesterday, I got to try it out. Actually, I started on Saturday as the dough needs a while to rise, but can be refrigerated overnight.

We immediately made a change to the recipe, subbing macadamia nuts for pecans. It is Hawaii after all. But the whole process went fairly well. I only had an 8-inch square Pyrex pan rather than the 9-inch square cake pan called for, and I think that’s why the buns were climbing the pan’s side when I removed it from the oven!

I was also not prepared for the enthusiasm with which the buns shot from the pan when I inverted it onto a parchment covered tray. It got a bit messy, but the crucial question is, were they any good?

They were indeed. Soft and chewy, but crunchy with nuts. A sticky bun crisis has been averted and all is well, at least in this little corner of the world.

Posted for this week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme, which is ‘Sweet.’ See more responses here. You can find the recipe here.

Tourists

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A couple walks the beach at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay while a tour boat disembarks passengers into a glass bottom boat to be shuttled ashore. Tourism is down here this year, in part because many Canadians are avoiding the U.S.A due to less than friendly relations between the two countries at the current time. I won’t be surprised if other nationalities follow suit.

The old sugar railway

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North of Mahukona, there’s a trail that follows the old sugar railway for a couple of miles. This photo shows one of the railway’s embankments, but there’s a bit more to it than that.

This embankment is not the original line. That can be seen to the left of it, the flat dry grass area, following the contours of the land. Traveling this route was very slow, so its course was smoothed out with embankments and cuttings. The original line’s course is to the right of the cutting. These changes cut the time it took to travel the line though it was never a high speed trip!

Early morning

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An early morning view, looking east from the house.

Mangoes down

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We’ve had some wild weather here this past week or so, the kind of wet and windy days that make even me feel sorry for people here on holiday. That’s not why people come to Hawaii.

On one of those days, the winds were so fierce, they stripped one side of the giant mango tree in the yard of all its fruit, together with several branches, and bounty of leaves. These photos show how the yard looked when I got home! The bulk of the fruit was still rock hard so that even the pigs didn’t venture out for them!

Foster Botanical Garden

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A Kapok tree, planted by Dr. Hillebrand and native to tropical America.

When I was in Honolulu, in December, I had a few hours to kill and decided to visit Foster Botanical Garden, which is not far from the downtown area. It’s one of five gardens that make up the Honolulu Botanical Gardens.

The garden dates back to 1853 when it was started by William Hillebrand, a German physician and botanist. It was sold in 1884 to Thomas and Mary Foster who continued to develop the garden. When Mary Foster died in 1930 she left the garden and her house to the city of Honolulu on the condition that the garden be maintained as a public park.

The garden is best known for its trees, some of which were planted by Dr. Hillebrand, and includes 21 trees designated ‘exceptional’ by City Ordinance. Despite it being a rather dreary day, walking through the trees and checking out the other plantings was well worth the visit.

More information about Foster Botanical Garden here. Posted for Terri’s Flower Hour. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #111

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A praying mantis showing the patterns on its wings — A Praying Mantis with wings unfurled.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 233. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.