"Traveling" Through the 50 States Dinners ~ Michigan and Hawaii

Our next stop on this journey through the states, was Michigan.  In doing my research for this meal, it was clear right from the start that our signature dish was going to be a Meat Pie called a Pasty (pronounced pass-tee).  A pasty is a meat and vegetable filled pastry, not unlike a pot pie but without the gravy.  We learn the origin came from miners in the Northern Michigan peninsula.  It was designed to be portable and eaten by hand.  As you can imagine miners hands may not always be the cleanest or most sanitary due to the nature of their job.  The stiff crust around the edge acted like a handle for them to hold on to the pasty without contaminating the food.  This ridge allowed the miners to eat the pie without ingesting the arsenic from the dirt of their fingers.  

We LOVED this meal!!!  Not a single gripe, groan or turned up nose.  It was delicious!  The recipe for the Pasty was from comfortablydomestic.com.  Our side dish was Michigan Cheesy Potatoes (recipe from hotdinnerhappyhome.blogspot.com).  Honey could have eaten the entire pan himself!!

For dessert, we dined on Michigan Cherry Cobbler.  This was a super simple dessert to make and was the perfect compliment to the rest of the meal.  Not to mention, it was DELICIOUS!!!  I will definitely be making this again, that is for sure. The recipe is from justapinch.com.  It was absolutely perfect served warm over a bowl of vanilla ice cream.  

From one of the most Northern states to one of the most Southern states ... Hawaii!  I am a long time fan of chef Sandra Lee.  I love her Semi-Homemade cooking style as well as the gorgeous tablescapes that she creates!  She's one of my entertaining idols!!  We chose her Hula Burgers as our main dish for this state, simply because . . . well, it's a burger topped with pineapple!  Need I say more?!  I originally got the recipe from her magazine, Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee ~ but you can also find it on her website here. For one of our sides, I made Hawaiian Macaroni Salad (recipe from inspired2cook.com).  It was that perfect combination of tangy and sweet.  Being from the Midwest, we are no strangers to macaroni salad, but this had just enough of that tropical flavor to make us think of palm trees & not cornfields.  :)  I will be honest when I say that I had every intention of making homemade Maui Onion Rings, but no matter where I looked I could not find Maui onions. :( So I cheated a little & just used the frozen kind.  My family LOVES onion rings so there were no complaints there!  If you're wondering about the "fancy" cocktail . . . it's actually just Sprite with a couple drops of blue food coloring to make it look like the crystal clear ocean waters surrounding the beautiful islands of Hawaii.  I added a few Swedish Fish to the kid's glasses for effect.  They thought that was pretty fun!

For dessert, we had Luau Cupcakes (recipe from createdby-diane.com ).  Since I was pretty certain I was not going to be served a tropical drink in coconut shell complete with a festive pink umbrella while lounging beside our imaginary pool, I figured these were the next best thing.  :)  The pineapple juice in the cake batter sealed it for me, not to mention I adore anything with coconut!  Simply delicious!!!!

The only thing missing from this meal was the smell of the ocean and the sand under my feet.  (Sigh)  Aloha!