Kauai Epilogue

The last day on Kauai proved to be a bonus with the discovery of Dukes Cafe. This is a chain restaurant Known for their famous Hula pies. 

and Mai Tais. 

Yes, it was one of those calorie buster meals that we felt justified having since the airlines we flew home did NOT OFFER any food service. In fact on the flight from Kauai to Phoenix to Minneapolis there was no food service not even a small package of pretzels or nuts! Now that was a surprise. It is no wonder many people bring so much food with them on the plane. One man carried on a rather large pizza box. Glad I was not sitting next to him.
This pie was served a little differently than the recipe I previously posted on Wednesday March 20th. The ice cream was frozen in the cookie crust but just before serving the chocolate sauce was warmed, spooned over the ice cream with whip cream and nuts added. Warming the sauce really improved the taste. I made the necessary correction to the  previously posted recipe. Even 3 people had trouble finishing this decadent serving pictured above. Another bonus for me was they sold hula plates.

Today might just be that that day to make my own hula pie and use the plate I just had to buy to honor the birthday of Billy Collins born March 22, 1941. He was the United States poet laureate from 2001-2003.  

Here he is pictured in Jamaica. 

He wrote his first poem at the age of seven when he was driving with his parents and looked out the river and saw a sailboat on the East River.

He continued to write poems even after he became an English professor. He wrote a couple of books before his breakthrough in 1988, when he published The Apple That Astonished Paris. He gained a following throughout the next decade, and by 1999, The New York Times called him "the most popular poet in America," pointing out that three of his four books were in the top 16 best-sellers on Amazon.com, competing with Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and songwriters like Jewel and Jim Morrison.

His books include The Art of Drowning (1995), Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001), and most recently, Horoscopes for the Dead (2011). He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida. Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004-2006.

This poem from Billy Collins will always remain as one of my favorites. And it does epitomize a certain approach some teachers used years ago to introduce poetry in the classroom :)

Introduction to Poetry

by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into your poem

And watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room

and feel the walls for light switch.

I want them to waterski

across the surface of the poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

They began beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.

____________________________________________________________

Mai Tai

Cook's notes: The name Mai Tai comes from the Tahitian word "Out of this World" certainly a fitting phrase for this cocktail. It is sweet tropical rum drink that was invented in 1944 by Victor Bergon, an owner of a restaurant called Trader Vic in California. There are many versions of this recipe but I thought this one seemed easy enough. It is labeled a spring and summer drink. Since many parts of the Midwest are still blanketed in snow serving this drink would be a good way to sit back and relax while waiting for spring to show up. 

Ingredients:

• 1 jigger of spiced rum
• 1 jigger of coconut rum
• 1 tsp. grenadine syrup
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 3 oz. pineapple juice

Directions:

Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker, mix well , strain and serve over ice cubes