Garden Isle--Part Deux

Negligent am I. Just because we have bananas nearly every day at home doesn't mean it's ok to skip them when talking about our wonderful fruit selection at the cottage on Kaua'i. And these little gems (tucked away on the far left side of the plate) are the lovely, if somewhat incongruously named, apple bananas. Small but sweet, they are the perfect size for snacking and they always make us think of lazy days on the Amazon.

Now, let's get out of the cottage. There were many sights to see just on the short drive from town to the cottage. Our daily drive(s) gave us a glimpse of Opaeka'a Falls:

And the Wailua River, Hawaii's only navigable river:

Nice commute. Practically in our backyard was the start of the trail to hike up Nounou Mountain a.k.a., the Sleeping Giant. Before beginning the 1000-foot ascent to the chin of the giant, we had to find the shortcut to the trail through a fence behind a shipping container (no secret handshake required).

Then there was a brief, cool walk through a stand of Norfolk pine trees before the steep, sweaty climb.

The reward for our efforts was a nice place to sit and enjoy the view out to the ocean.

If it weren't for his big head (the Giant's), we could have had 360-degree views. No matter. What we had was lovely.

There were a couple of picnic tables for those who were inclined to linger but on this day, as was the case every day, we needed coffee. In fact, this was the only day we did anything remotely energetic before seeking  out our coffee home away from home: Small Town Coffee.

A big part of the reason that we chose to stay in the Wailua-Kapa'a area is this place. We tried several java joints on previous visits but none matched the requisite quality and quirk factor of Small Town Coffee Co. From their propensity to dress up for holidays (or undress as was the case for April Fools' Day) to their charming way of listing what menu items were unavailable ("Returning soon: decaf") and a Stephen Colbert quote on the blackboard, we knew they were our kind of people. A little crazy but thoroughly enjoyable. And outstanding people watching--this is very much a locals place. Ask Alison to tell you about the ladies of power yoga some day....

And their food and bevvy options were perfect for us. Alison is partial to the Pig in an Apple Tree (cheddar cheese, bacon, granny smith apples, and cream cheese on a sesame bagel) though she desperately wanted to order the That'll Do Pig, That'll Do just to be able to say it. Jim opted for Fritha's Breakfast (hummus, tomato, cracked black pepper, avocado on a whole wheat bagel). Parents be warned: you may have to explain to the young'uns why one of the breakfast options is called We Found Nemo. Once we were fully caffeinated, we turned our attention to their locally-made kombucha and ginger brew--the latter being the most deliciously intense ginger drink I've ever had.

Too many column inches for a coffee shop? I don't think so. We really did spend the better part of every morning here. Then we would wander through the rest of Kapa'a town which is conveniently located about half an hour from everything else on the island, so it was a great jumping off point. On the first day, we just wandered up and down the east coast of Kaua'i, keeping an eye peeled for whales. We think we saw a bit of one or two but couldn't be sure. But we were sure about this guy:

Meet Noho, an endangered Hawaiian monk seal. Only about 1000 survive in the world and 35-40 of them reside in the waters around Kaua'i. This not-quite-two-year-old male was resting on the rocks, well-protected from sharks out in the ocean and tourists on the cliffs above.

Much more common, but still thrilling to me, were the little geckos which appeared around our door each night. No doubt attracted to the porch lights which in turn attracted insects, these little guys were only a few inches long but gave me a huge amount of pleasure. Although they were silent as far as we could tell, the geckos reminded us of our time in Bali, where the geckos would loudly proclaim their name.

The bulk of our active hours on Kaua'i were spent snorkeling. An easy 30-minute drive took us to our favorite beach, Lawa'i. There really isn't much beach to this beach; just a tiny strip of sand between the road and the water. Since we're not the kind of folks who enjoy lying on the beach, having just enough sand on which to leave our towels and sunscreen is not a problem. Much larger beaches are close by, so Lawa'i tends to appeal to the surfers and snorkelers and keeps the loungers at bay.

Located on the south coast, just west of the resort hotels and condos of Po'ipu, Lawa'i offers the best winter snorkeling we've found. Unlike any other beach on this island, we've never had trouble finding parking nearby and the fish are always plentiful. We always say that snorkeling in Hawaii is like swimming in a tropical aquarium. There are so many colorful and exotic fish to look at, including our favorite: humuhumunuknukuapua'a a.k.a., the clown triggerfish. This time, more than any other, we found the fish surrounding us as though we were part of their schools. Sometimes, we just floated, not wanting to scare them off, as they swam around us only inches away. Lawa'i also has the most colorful coral we've seen on this island as well as a huge number of sea cucumbers and sea anemone. The hardest thing is remembering that time passes quickly when you're in the ocean and more than once, we stayed in so long that our sunscreen wore off. It was worth it.

The north shore is great in summer--Ke'e Beach was spectacular the one time we went in summer--but typically the surf is much too rough in winter for safe snorkeling. We did have a couple of unusually summer-like days and managed to try out a couple of north shore beaches that were new to us: Anini Beach and Tunnels Beach. The former had ridiculously strong currents which gave us quite a workout and the latter, while sporting some fascinating coral formations, didn't have enough fish around to keep us from having to compete with the spear fisherman for some good looks.  The beaches are beautiful. Think South Pacific as the north coast is where they filmed the famous "I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair" scene and the shots of Bali Hai. For a more current reference, Tunnels Beach is where Bethany Hamilton, subject of the current film Soul Surfer, lost her arm to a shark when she was 13. The only large creature we saw around there was another monk seal lounging on the sand.

On the plus side, we discovered a really good Mediterranean restaurant not far from Tunnels Beach. Usually, we have to go all the way back to Hanalei to find good grub. It's a nice little town and is home to our favorite pesci-vegetarian restaurant, Postcards Cafe (we always budget for one splash-out dinner here) but the road on that part of the island is narrow with a series of one-lane bridges that require waiting for the near-constant stream of traffic to give way. After a long morning of snorkeling, our rumbly tummies were happy not to have to wait long for lunch. When we saw the tiny sign for the Mediterranean Gourmet Restaurant we thought it might be a small grab-and-go falafel stand with delusions of grandeur. Instead, it's a very nice sit-down restaurant with a gorgeous ocean view and some of the most nicely-spiced Lebanese food we've had in ages. And they let us in wearing our swimsuits, so we didn't have to find a place to change first.

After snorkeling nearly every day of our vacation, we hadn't seen any honu (sea turtles). We love snorkeling with these gentle creatures and every other time we've been to Hawaii, we've had at least a couple of encounters. We had to check out of our cottage Friday morning and debated whether to try one last time. The downside, of course, would be making the long trip home with wet gear and the lack of a proper shower. We decided against it but reserved the option to change our minds since we would have all our luggage with us for the rest of the day. When we had some time to kill that afternoon, we returned to Lawa'i with the idea of hanging out on the neatly manicured lawn of the nearby resort and watching the surfers.

The surfing wasn't great that day but we got to see something even better:

Yes, honu! Right along the seawall, this beautiful honu was feeding on the algae on the rocks. We were able to sit on the wall and watch it just a few feet below us. While it's not the same experience as floating next to or above a sea turtle, it was marvelous nonetheless. Best of all, it afforded us a great vantage point for pictures. The surf was a little rough that day, so the poor turtle was struggling to stay in one place. It got washed back and forth quite a few times but managed to get a flipper up on the rocks to steady itself every once in awhile. I think we watched for half an hour before the turtle swam off--much longer than we've seen a turtle stay in one place before. All the more amazing for the number of tourists above it madly taking photos.

Now our vacation was complete. We headed off to the art walk in Hanapepe, had dinner at the taco trucks (Monster Taco for Jim, Silver Elephant Thai for Alison), and made our way to the airport. Content with our short week on the island, we dropped off our rental car, hopped on the Hertz shuttle and joined our fellow US Airways passengers in a good April Fool's Day laugh when the shuttle driver said, "I think your flight has been cancelled." Oops. Turned out he wasn't joking. We got to the counter to find that our flight's crew had timed out and thus, they'd cancelled the flight. Next flight out was the following evening.

Normally, we'd have been unhappy at this turn of events, but if you're going to get cancelled, do it in Hawaii. The airline put us up in a resort near the airport, so we got an extra day of vacation in a place far fancier than we would have chosen for ourselves. We were a little worried about finding food for Jim at a chain hotel but  the Marriott had good vegetarian options for all meals (even a tofu scramble for breakfast), we think due to the large number of Japanese tourists who come to Hawaii. Thanks to our trusty and flexible farmsitter, we were able to enjoy the extra day without a care. Since we had spent the week patting ourselves on the back for spurning hotels and cooking our own food, we did a 180 and played like the other half. We swam in the pool, lounged by the beach, drank foofie drinks with parasols and pineapple slices, fell asleep in a hammock, bought souvenirs, and ate all three meals in our swimwear. Hawaii does strange things to a person. Most of them good. We'll be back. Oh yes. Despite the long flights (our next attempt to get home was successful if a bit chaotic--seat assignments were seemingly put through a randomizer overnight), we will happily return to Kaua'i again and again.

The Garden Isle

Last week, we escaped to Hawaii for vacation. When you live around Asheville, it takes something pretty spectacular to make you want to leave home and, much to our surprise, we find that Hawaii has become our preferred getaway. We never thought we would be those people. The ones who jet off to Hawaii. But it got to us. More specifically, Kaua'i won us over.

This tiny island (somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 square miles) has everything we need: friendly people, great food with plenty of good vegetarian options, gorgeous scenery, varied topography, and an uncanny ability to get us to relax fully and immediately.

We knew that we hadn't erred in making our third trip to Kaua'i when mere hours after getting off the plane, we spotted a sign for roller derby.

To our delight and amazement, the Garden Island Renegade Rollerz had started a league in the 18 months since our last visit and they kindly scheduled a bout for our first night there. Not only did it help keep us awake until bedtime, it was a blast. Held at an outdoor hockey rink in front of a small but enthusiastic crowd, we watched two young teams battle it out. I imagine this is what our Blue Ridge Roller Girls looked like when they were just getting started. The jams were slower than what we're accustomed to but it made it easier to see what was going on. The half-time show performed by a group of local beat boys was truly spectacular. Best $5 we've ever spent on vacation.

One of the things we love about Kaua'i is that you never have to drive far to get where you're going. For example, the bout in Kapaa was just 10 minutes from our cottage in Wailua. And what a cottage! The lovely folks at Rosewood have a number of rentals but this one is on the property where they live. Not only did we get to stay in a perfectly lovely and well-appointed cottage, we were able to enjoy the fruits (literally) of the owners' labor.

Our hosts, Norbert and Rosemary, have a gorgeous garden and small nursery which we were able to wander through and pick up stray grapefruit, oranges, and lemons. There were many more fruiting trees and shrubs than we could identify but Norbert was very willing to answer our many questions and offer us samples when there was ripe fruit to be had as with the Suriname cherries which were new to us. We were too early for the pineapples but it was fun to see them in their infancy.

After our first foray out to visit their chickens (Rhode Island Reds and Araucanas), we returned to find a dozen eggs waiting for us. Between the welcome basket of goodies (granola, fruit bread, and a variety of other local treats), the fruit, and eggs, we were nearly set for breakfast for the week.

A quick trip to the Safeway netted us the necessary butter and yogurt as well as locally-made Aloha Tofu, fresh soba noodles, and local honey. We were delighted to discover in the same shopping center Papaya's Natural Foods which had a great selection of healthy veggie foods, including most of what we buy at home. We stocked up on quinoa pasta, refried black beans, and found some locally-made sweet potato tamales. They also have a great hot bar which served us well when we needed to grab a quick bite before Roller Derby.

One of the main reasons we chose a self-catering property this time (aside from the fact that the hotel where we stayed on points last time had changed ownership), was to have control over our diet. Even though Kaua'i is one of the most vegetarian-friendly destinations, there isn't always a good option nearby for every meal and we often weary of having to eat more food and pay more it than we want to--especially when we're trying to adjust to a six-hour time difference. Plus, we wanted pie. Lots of pie.

During our last visit, we discovered the pie lady. We went to the Hanapepe art walk on our last night in town. Every Friday, the sleepy town of Hanapepe comes to life with artists, musicians, and street food vendors.

We found the pie lady, braving the windy and rainy evening to bring real butter-crust pie in a spectacular range of varieties to tourists and artists alike. It was love at first bite. Sadly, we had to get on the plane that evening and only had time and tummy for one slice. We vowed to find her upon our return. Turns out she's doing spectacularly well. She makes appearances at most of the island's farmers' markets and is looking for a permanent location. Operating under the moniker, "The Right Slice," she has developed a big and well-deserved following. We made a point of hitting the sunshine markets early in the week so we could stock up.

This is Jim with our four slices: Coconut Blueberry, Macadamia Nut, Chocolate Macaroon, and Lemon. That doesn't count the two slices we got at the art walk which were consumed at the airport after we dropped off our rental car: PB/Banana/Chocolate and Blueberry/Ginger.

Although it was early in the season, the sunshine markets had enough fun things to make it worth a stop whenever we found one. The whole approach to the markets is fun in itself. Everyone lines up at the entrance and when the appointed time comes for the start of the market, someone honks a car horn or blows a loud whistle and it's game on. A mad scramble ensues as everyone tries to jockey for position to get the best of the fruit and flowers before they run out. Even if you aren't staying in a place where you can cook your own food, go just to see fruit you normally don't see at home and to buy the ridiculously cheap tropical flowers. Here's what $5 got us (a close second in value to the roller derby tickets):

As for food, we snagged some lettuces, radishes, avocado, papaya, rambutan, and something called a cream apple. Here's our haul:

I'd had rambutan before but never fresh ones. Similar to lychees or longan, the flesh of the fruit (hidden beneath the spiky red exterior) is a bit like a firm grape but it does have a large seed in the center that is inedible. Chilled, they make a wonderful dessert after a spicy meal and are readily available in canned form in any decent Asian market.

Then there was the cream apple. We saw several variations on this fruit (some green, some called star apple) and really didn't know what to make of it. We grabbed one to try at home. It is a beautiful deep purple with a  creamy white interior. Unfortunately, it didn't have much flavor. I suspect we need to do some research and find out how the locals use this fruit. Here it is with a delicious orange we found under one of Norbert's trees:

We were clearly not hurting for fiber or vitamin C on this trip! Well, that's probably enough for now on self-catering on Kaua'i. Up next, getting out and enjoying the island.

Spring Greening

I started this post two weeks ago when the daffodils and crocuses had only been up for a week or so. Since then, the green grass has overtaken the brown, the hyacinth came up last week and survived the freeze, the forsythia is at peak color, the redbud is showing tiny versions of what the tree is named for, and even the apple trees are budding like crazy.

Normally, I'd be thrilled with the 70+ degree weather that we're having at the moment. OK, I am thrilled. Maybe the sun and warmth will dry up some of the remaining puddles from the deluges of the past few weeks. Still, I have to be a bit concerned. It seems that we are going to have a repeat of last year's go-directly-to-summer-from-winter weather. Spring is good. Spring is necessary. One of the things we love about the climate here is that we typically get four, distinct, and fairly evenly-spaced seasons.

The heat and sun are great for my morale but they cause the plants to get ahead of schedule. The apple trees are especially vulnerable because when they bud early, a late freeze in April (or what would be an entirely normal March freeze) will zap any emergent buds and no fruit will be forthcoming from those that froze. Peach trees are even more susceptible to this problem around here, so we also fear for our neighbors' tree which provides us with such luscious summer fruit.

Another tragedy would be a repeat of last year's morel-hunting season. After a similarly soggy start to the year, we were hopeful that the favored fungi would be plentiful. We dutifully waited until the nights were staying up in the upper 40s before going in search of morels but by the time it was warm enough at night, the days had become scorchers. Nary a morel did we find and I suspect it is because the days got too hot too fast. Maybe it was just that the deer beat us to them, but I have spoken with other fungi foragers who also found it to be a less-than-stellar year for morels here.

And when the heat arrives, the rain tends to go away. At least it did last year and that led to a miserable summer. Not only did we and the buffalo suffer through unusually high temps--August in June--but the drought and heat combo meant the grass stopped growing. That's not good if you're a ruminant. Or the new owner of three large ruminants. We ended up feeding hay in July which just shouldn't happen. We have opened quite a bit more pasture since then, so we hope that won't be a problem this year and yet I worry.

Still, it felt good to get in the garden today and stick my hands in the soil while the sun warmed me from above. I planted all of my cool-weather greens and got the sugar snaps in at last (late again given the warm weather but it's hard to think about planting in February). I was especially thrilled to see a single spear of asparagus poking up from last year's planting. One of the rhubarb plants is also sending up its first leaves. I even found a volunteer kale plant in the bed where my kale was two years ago. Great signs after a tough winter. Now I just need another good rain to fill the rain barrels and I'll keep my fingers crossed that we don't have any more freezes.

Grand Re-Opening

The new and improved Fish Pond is open. No, it's not really a pond. It's an area that runs from our house up to the lower barn.  From the look of the berm around much of the "pond," we suspect it was once used as a retention pond for the dairy cattle that once lived here. Or it may have simply been an overflow area for the feeder creek that runs along one side. When we first looked at the farm, our real estate agent suggested that we use the space for raising fish--tilapia, to be precise--and ever since then, we've referred to the area as the Fish Pond. It does collect water when we get massive rains as has been the case this week. Maybe some day the buffalo will re-locate their wallow here.

When we moved in, very little of the pond was visible. There was a tiny mowed area, but the berms were covered with honeysuckle vines, multiflora rose, numerous scrubby trees (mostly box elder whose brittle limbs come crashing down with every strong wind), and on the side closest to the house, bamboo). The middle was filled with blackberry brambles and hawthorne saplings as well as massive clumps of the thorny evil that is multiflora rose. We got the half nearest the barn largely cleared last year, though we still had a lot of debris to cart off. The buffs got to explore this area a bit in the fall but mostly used it as a passageway to get to the lower pasture.

Much of our late winter activity here has consisted of clearing and fencing the rest of the Fish Pond for the water buffalo. Thanks to the miracle of electric fencing, it didn't take long to put up the semi-permanent fence after the clearing was done. Clearing just took forever. Lots of trees to cut down and haul off, vines to pull, trash to pick up, bamboo to cut, and even a couple of metal bedframes to dig out of the dirt (more on that in a later post). Because of its propensity for sogginess, we couldn't get the truck in there to help with hauling whenever we had wet weather, so progress was slow.

The grass is greening up here but the buffalo have been eating every little bit that pops up before it can grow big and strong, so I was anxious to get them into an area that hadn't been overgrazed to take pressure off of the main pasture and the Booth. There still was some clearing to do but I'd already cut off access to the Booth after the flooded feeder creek knocked the footbridge off its moorings, so the buffs were getting antsy. I thought surely they would rush through the gate as soon as I opened the way to the Fish Pond but no. Maybe because it was in the middle of the afternoon and they had hay on their minds, they simply headed up to the barn as usual. If you build it, they don't always come. At least not right away. About an hour later, I found them here:

As is there way whenever they get into a new space, the three of them immediately went to the furthest edge of the space and quickly made the rounds, checking out the dimensions and looking for good nibbles and potential problems. Typically, at this stage, they stick close together and make several turns around the perimeter. I call this the fingertip search. The buffs move shoulder-to-shoulder in unison, checking the ground thoroughly.

With each successive turn, they go at a slightly more leisurely pace and spread out a bit. I know they're comfy in the space once they are willing to go off exploring on their own. They're still quick to regroup if they think anything's amiss. For example, Effie was having great fun getting into the honeysuckle vines that cover one little dirt mound in the pond. She kneels down, gets her head under the vines, and jerks up tearing out the vines (good girl!). I'm not sure why she enjoys this so much but it helps us a lot, so I don't question it.

After several rounds of head tossing, she leapt up suddenly and let out the longest, loudest grunt, I've ever heard from her and emerged with vines hanging from her horns. The other two came racing over to see what was the matter.

Quickly determining that nothing was seriously wrong, Audrey proceeded to take advantage of the convenient snack delivery system by devouring the vines on Effie's horns. Eschol decided shortly thereafter that thrashing around in the honeysuckle was a good time and he also did a nice whirling finish.

Judging from the tips of his horns and Effie's legs, this little hillock is poor, red clay soil--very unlike the rich, dark soil in most of the pond. It looks like it was moved here when something else was being constructed (maybe the berms were rebuilt at some stage).

I love having the buffalo right by the house:

I see them from my office and when I let the dog in and out. The buffs really like this corner where they can see the house and the main creek, plus the grass is dense from years of mowing.

They do seem to be curious about the land beyond the fence--I catch them looking longingly towards the main creek--but in the interest of protecting the beehives and the garden,  I hope to keep them sufficiently well fed that they don't try to get out.

I'm also enjoying being able to stand by the garden and look all the way up to the top of the orchard. This view won't last long but seeing as it's the first time I've been able to look from one end of our property to the other, I'm going to try to keep this image in my mind. I love seeing how it all hangs together. If only the neighbors' house wasn't in the middle.....

Now, this is what I call domestic bliss:

Old Favorites

Sometimes we get so caught up in our new food and drink finds that we forget about our old favorites. And some of those new recipes quickly become old favorites like this one: Fried Chickpeas with Chorizo and Spinach. Can it be that we only started making this last year? Keeping with our red food and drink theme this week, we made this quick and easy dish featuring chorizo.

Naturally, we do two versions--one with real Spanish-style chorizo for Alison and one with  Mexican-style soy chorizo for Jim (we haven't found a vegetarian hard chorizo but we love Trader Joe's soy chorizo).

Normally, I don't like doing separate dishes, but this one is so easy and only requires one pan per person, so it's nearly as easy to make both as to make one.

To pump up the protein, we double the amount of soy chorizo in Jim's version:

His ends up being spicier with the Mexican-style chorizo, whereas Alison's is richer with the meaty but milder Spanish-style chorizo:

Usually, I'm rushing to make this dish (as with all of my quick and easy dishes, I remember it being even quicker than it is and don't leave enough time) so I rush the frying of the chickpeas. While still tasty, they typically don't crisp up but some combination of more time, less attention, and the power burners on the stove made for much crispier chickpeas this time. They were a little drier as a result, but since I never let all the liquid cook off from the spinach/sherry mixture as directed, it all balances out. Yet another lovely one-dish meal courtesy of the NY Times. I think they're using food to get me so hooked that I'll actually pay the next time they try to charge for online content. I didn't bite when it just meant giving up the opinion page columnists but if they take away the recipes.....

Red Letter Day

The letter "P" is the letter of the day. It's been a red letter for us for much of this week because we've been eating beets.

I was reading a post about beets on White on Rice Couple's blog Hate 'Em or Love 'Em? and, after I got done reminding myself that some people really don't like beets, I started to reflect on the many dishes we love which incorporate beets: Crispy Grits with Sweet and Sour Mushrooms and Beets; Roasted Beets and Potatoes with Rosemary; False Mahshi (a layered dish of beef, chard, beets, and rice); and the latest addition--Spiced Quinoa with Beets and Yogurt. The latter recipe comes to us courtesy of the NY Times does the recipe for the False Mahshi.

This beautiful dish is wonderfully easy to make and remarkably filling despite looking like not much more than a side dish.

We used red quinoa, which cooks up quickly and, to my mind, more easily than rice. The unusually high protein content for a grain is a big plus for Jim and the spices in this recipe (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cardamon, cloves, and coriander) add even more interest to its naturally nutty flavor. After frying the ground spices, stir in the cooked quinoa, then spread the mixture in a baking pan. Layer sliced beets on top and stick in the oven for 20 minutes. 

The topping is one of those things that sounds bad but is surprisingly good--garlic yogurt. Big dollops of greek yogurt with garlic paste mixed in really makes this dish and I can't explain why. A few walnuts on top for crunch finish it off and the meal is ready to serve.

If you are serving this dish to people who don't normally eat beets, tell them not to call the enterologist or the urologist for an urgent appointment. Beets have a funny way of reminding you that you ate them recently but it can be a bit disconcerting in the bathroom the next day, especially if it's early and you're a little groggy.  We don't mind at all. We're happy to eat beets any time. If only we had more luck growing our own, we'd probably keep a root cellar full of them, so we'd never be without. Red--the color of love.

Food Processors--Please Help!

I think I'm finally ready to give in and invest in a food processor. Typically, I try to avoid kitchen appliances, especially if I can do the job by hand (e.g., mixing, kneading, chopping). Still, there are some things that just can't be done well by hand. I'm thinking mostly of pesto. I can never get the ingredients chopped finely enough to meld together properly. And the blender can't do the job--trust me, I've tried.

So, I'm asking for your help. What kind of food processor do you use and what do you like about it (or not)? I would prefer something with a fairly small footprint and not too high a price, but if that high-end behemoth of a processor is really is all that and a bag of chips, I might be convinced to splurge. Just tell me why. Oh, and how bad is the cleanup of the parts? I wash everything by hand, so that's a consideration, too.

Please leave your suggestions here (or for those who know me well and don't like to publish comments here, e-mail me or post on FB). Thanks for your help.