Chocolate Chip Cookies, Part 3

I baked the frozen keto-friendly Chocolate Chip Cookies today. The directions said 15 to 20 minutes, so I did 16 minutes. They were still not as crunchy as I would like. When I try the Chef Todd method of preparation I will also be experimenting with what shape I freeze them in; he leaves his in a round ball and freezes them. I know that for standard cookies round balls, or even cubes, still gives you a disc shaped cookie due to the physical properties of the ingredients & how they react when heated; not sure if the same would apply to the keto-friendly cookies. I guess I'll just have to bake up a bunch of cookies and try different experimental treatments to see what happens. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!

Frozen cookies waiting for oven to heat up.

Baked cookies.

I woke up at one hour before sunrise this morning! That is the target time for me to be able to be parked and ready to start my sunrise birding walk at 10 minutes to sunrise. I am on schedule!

One hour before sunrise.

This morning I watched the Native Hawaiian Student Services  Bookshelf Series webinar Hana Noʻeau Māʻawe: Hawaiian Fiber Arts. Kumu Maile and graduate student Kalena talked about the different types of Hawaiian fiber arts.






These are some of the plants that provide the fiber for the kapa.






These are iʻe kuku beaters. They have a different pattern on each of the 4 sides. Each photo below shows the 4 sides of 2 iʻe kuku.

These are some of the plants that provide the dyes for the kapa.

Kukui also acts as a mordant for ʻōlena.

Patterns on kapa are created by ʻohe kāpala, bamboo sticks with carved patterns in them.



Here are examples o f kapa held in collections at the Bishop Museum and Peabody Museum. Kumu Maile said only about 5% of a museum's collection is on display at one time; she obtained access to each museums collections and photographed them. The upper left quadrant in each photo below is the kapa piece; the other quadrants are enlarged photos showing the fibers and watermarks. The designs are made by multiple stampings of the 'ohe kāpala.

This is a 2-layer kapa; white pattern is from holes made in the dark upper layer.

Kumu Maile said the red is from foreign red fibers dyed with cochineal.

Kumu Maile clarified that what most people call weaving is actually plaiting. Weaving involves use of a loom; while plaiting does not.


Lauhala is one of the main materials used for weaving. Mom had lauhala placemats made by Mrs. Keliikipi for a wedding present; Mrs. Keliikipi also made house slippers for both Mom & Grandma. We also had a large lauhala mat that was the floor covering in our living room.

These are tools for preparing the lauhala for weaving.

Upper left: lauhala basket. Lower left and right: contemporary lauhala weavings.

Bracelets made with lauhala.

Lauhala hats.

These are fans made of loulu, human hair, and yarn.

These plants are difficult to find now.

Lower left: shrimp trap.

Various sizes of shrimp baskets.

Note the size of the basket in upper left.

Netting is used as the base for feather capes & other objects.

This is a young olonā.

Kumu Maile stressed how learning the fiber arts is not just being able to take the raw materials and make kapa, weave or plait. It is also important to know how to find the materials, prepare them for use, and then use them.


As the webinar was wrapping up, I got a call from Susan. She is a volunteer with the Medical Reserve Corps doing support services for people who need to self-isolate because of COVID-19. Tomorrow I will be meeting her to learn what to do (and not do) while on a support services run. I am meeting her at one of the supermarkets where MRC has an account to pick up the supplies for the 2 families we will be delivering to.

Tropical Depression 3-E has increased in speed and is now Tropical Storm Boris. Because it formed in the Eastern North Pacific region, it is named according to the list for that region. In the Eastern and Atlantic regions, each year they start at the top of the list for that year with male and female names alternating on the list; there are 6 lists for each region. In the Central North Pacific region, because the names are Hawaiian and the language has only 12 anglicized letters, the naming of storms that develop in the Central Pacific continues where the previous year left off; there are only 4 lists. Boris is about 1330 miles east-southeast of Hilo.


There were 16 new COVID-19 cases reported today, bringing the total number of known cases up to 850; no wonder they are calling for a lot more contact tracers to be trained. From their earlier contact tracing they probably suspected a cluster of new cases would be coming along and here's one of them! There were no new deaths reported but more people have been hospitalized today. Almost 82% of people have now been released from isolation.





Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Erin!