Settling In Gently

Butter Mochi   Rated: Submitted By:  Lea Photo By:  RoseFalles Prep Time:  15 Minutes Cook Time:  1 Hour Ready In:  3 Hours 15 Minutes Servings:  24 "Butter and coconut milk flavor this sweet, baked, Japanese treat." INGREDIENTS: 3 1/2 cups sweet rice flour (mochiko) 2 1/2 cups white sugar 2 tablespoons baking powder 5 eggs 1 teaspoon coconut extract 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups milk 1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk 1/2 cup melted butter DIRECTIONS: 1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Whisk the rice flour, sugar, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. 2. Beat the eggs, coconut extract, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl until the eggs are smooth. Whisk in the milk, coconut milk, and melted butter until incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture a little at a time until no lumps remain; scrape into the prepared baking dish, and smooth the top. 3. Bake in the preh

So a long time ago, when I first moved to Kaua'i, I took my tiny adorable little 18 month old baby to the library. The automatic doors slid open, we smelled a blast of air conditioning and book mustiness, and my baby gasped, "YAY, BOOKS!" The librarian, David,  stage-hissed, "If she can't be quiet, she's going to have to leave." I was so offended. I didn't want to ever go back. But I realized something. This was MY library. I could walk there. There wasn't another one-- I had to get over it. So I trained my kids to be terrified of the librarian, to be SILENT in the library, to gather as many books as we could and get OUT OUT OUT GO GO GO under his unflinching sniper eyes. And now... DAVID the MEAN LIBRARIAN....  he likes me. We are allies in a moldy, sandy, short-attention span, book-hating world. My kids are perfect library patrons for him. He gives me book recommendations. He will help me, with that hyper-vigilance, find obscure texts. I

I left Hawaii. Not forever-- just for two months. Just the day school got out-- all my book shelves pushed into one corner of my classroom, all the partitions folded and desks stacked and supplies boxed up. I got on an airplane-- actually three-- and left Hawaii behind. I just got back Sunday. I learned a lot. Some of what I learned I should probably write about. But not today. Today, I went back to work. And the day sort of embodied everything that is sacred and amazing, and everything that is enraging and crushing about this rock in the middle of the pacific. I left the house at 4:30 am. I drove my truck through the dark-- down the mountain, along the coast. Just knowing the black ocean was right there, invisible and inky on the side of the road, lapping at rocks in the dark-- gave me chills. The ocean is big and powerful-- a force to be acknowledged and respected. Good morning unseen ocean. By 5:30 I made it to the beach. Many of the other teachers were already there, stand