Some days Quarantine Feels like House Arrest!
When artist Henri Matisse was confined to his home due to illness, he brought the beauty of the outdoors inside his home by covering his walls with colorful paper cutouts.
Inspired by Matisse, I asked my son to make a huge painting of the beach to cover an empty wall in our home. "We can make a faux beach! We can turn our home into Hawaii! We can have a luau and play Hawaiian music, We can take a trip to Hawaii without ever living our home," I said in a manic state.
My nine year old was a little reluctant at first, but quickly jumped on board. My husband wondered how he could have a vacation while technically still working, but grew to like the idea.
"Why not?" I touted. After all we had tons of lei's from party's past, I found some great Hawaiian recipes on allrecipes.com, my son was learning about U.S. states in school and today's lesson could be on Hawaii, suddenly we were off and running with this idea.
We had some free wall space 36x46, and used a roll of drawing paper from Ikea (I had to glue two sheets together to get the height), and my son started to paint a simple beach scene that we found online. This can be a fun family project. Everyone can grab a brush and paint. Remember to wear an apron or old clothes, and cover your table with newspaper or an old table cloth. You can even do this outdoors.
Jimmy Buffett Photo Shoot
Grab your Hawaiian shirts and pose for pix in front of your beach wallpaper! I love our faux beach so much. I'm thinking of keeping it up, even expanding on the concept!
The Menu
I have only eaten Hawaiian food in Hawaii, so I was a little intimidated to take this on. After all, trips to the market are few and far between, and who wants to screw up on a new recipe with such high stakes? Nonetheless, I kept going with this challenge and made:
Probably more meat than I cook in a year, but it was prepared over the course of two days, and I didn't have to cook for awhile (a plus during the heatwave), and I froze tons of food for later.
I highly recommend making the Kalua Pig particularly if you own a slow cooker. It was so easy, and incredibly delicious and cheap to make. Pork is economical, while the recipe called for pork butt, I used pork shoulder $9 for 6 pounds at Von's (I couldn't find pork butt that day). Also, I couldn't find Hawaiian sea salt, but used sea salt and got the same results. It cooked for 20 hours on low, and by the time I removed it from the slow cooker the meat was falling off the bones. It also made great pulled pork sliders served on you guessed it Hawaiian buns!
How Did It Turn Out?
The food was FANTASTIC! It felt like a holiday and lifted everyone's mood. Afterwards, we screened old Hawaii vacation movies and remembered those good times while creating new family memories. Our problems and stress were about as far away as archipelago islands of Hawaii.
Technically we're still on vacation. I really like Hawaii, although the cuisine is caloric. Our next trip could be anywhere our imagination takes us, and the best part our dog can come with us no pet sitter necessary!
Want to Get Away Too?
Send me your Fake Vacation Pictures and I'll post them on our Facebook Page Macaroni Kid Central Coast. I highly recommend it!
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