Macadamia-Coconut Candy Clusters

Green-up barely starting. The first dandelions in the lawn. A pediatric burn case Tuesday. I came home and made adobo and did not write a blog post.

Lourdes is 75. She is slower. She still cooks. She still tells me to find a husband even though I have one.

I made cassava cake Saturday. The grated cassava, the coconut milk, the slow bake. The cake that holds Iloilo in it.

The blog has four hundred subscribers now who get the posts via email. The subscribers are the loyal core. The loyal core is the chorus.

I read for forty minutes before sleep. The reading was the small surrender. The surrender was the rest.

I read a chapter of a novel before bed each night this week. The novel was about a Filipina nurse in California. The novel was good. The novel was, in some way, my own life adjacent.

A blog reader sent me a photograph of her grandmother's wooden mortar and pestle, used since 1962. The photograph was holy. I wrote her back. The writing back is the work.

The light was good Saturday morning. I sat on the porch with a cup of coffee and watched the inlet for forty minutes. The watching was the small therapy. The therapy was free.

I checked email at the kitchen table while the rice cooked. There were one hundred and twenty unread messages. I closed the laptop. The unread can wait.

The grocery store had no calamansi. I substituted lime. The substitution was acceptable. The acceptable is the working version of perfect.

Lourdes called me twice this week. The first call was about a church event. The second was about a recipe variation she had remembered from her childhood. The remembering was the gift.

I read three chapters of the novel Saturday night before sleep. The novel was about a Filipina nurse in California. The nurse was being undone by her work. I knew the unraveling. I had lived the unraveling. I read on. The reading was the witnessing.

I sat on the balcony in the cold for ten minutes Sunday night with a cup of broth in my hands. The cold was the cold. The broth was the broth. The body held both.

The Anchorage sky was the Anchorage sky. The mountains were the mountains. The inlet was the inlet. The geography was the geography.

The Filipino Community newsletter announced the Saturday gathering. I will be on lumpia duty. I am always on lumpia duty.

Angela texted me a photo of the kids. I texted back a heart. The exchange took thirty seconds. The thirty seconds was the keeping.

The Filipino Community newsletter announced a fundraiser for typhoon relief in Samar. I committed to making three hundred lumpia. The number is the number. The number has always been the number. Three hundred is what I make. The math has stopped surprising me.

I took a walk on the coastal trail Saturday. The light was good. The body was tired but moving.

The therapy session this month was about pacing. Dr. Reeves said, "Grace. The pacing is the love for the future self." I am working on the pacing. The pacing is harder than the loving.

A reader from New Jersey wrote in about her grandmother's adobo, which used pineapple. I had never heard of pineapple in adobo. I tried it. It was strange. It was also good. The strange and the good are not opposites.

I cleaned the kitchen Sunday afternoon. I wiped the stove. I scrubbed the sink. I reorganized the spice cabinet. The cleaning was the small reset. The reset was the marker. The marker said: the week is over, the next week begins, the kitchen is ready.

The cassava cake was Saturday’s anchor — the coconut milk, the slow oven, the smell that belongs to Lourdes’s kitchen as much as mine — but I had extra sweetened coconut left in the bag, and a week that still needed one more quiet thing to close it. These Macadamia-Coconut Candy Clusters are what came next: no grating, no long bake, just the same coconut warmth folded into something small enough to share, or to eat alone on the porch with the inlet in front of you and the cold doing what the cold does.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 25 min (plus 30 min setting) | Servings: 24 clusters

Ingredients

2 cups white chocolate chips or white melting wafers
1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon coconut oil (optional, for smoother melt)

Instructions

Toast the coconut. In a dry skillet over medium-low heat, stir the shredded coconut for 3—4 minutes until golden at the edges. Watch it closely; it catches fast. Remove from heat and set aside.
Melt the chocolate. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the white chocolate chips and coconut oil (if using). Microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring between each, until fully melted and smooth, about 90 seconds total. Stir in the vanilla extract.
Combine the mix-ins. Fold the toasted coconut and chopped macadamia nuts into the melted chocolate. Add the salt and stir until everything is evenly coated.
Drop the clusters. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a tablespoon or small cookie scoop, drop rounded mounds of the mixture onto the parchment, spacing them about 1 inch apart. You should get roughly 24 clusters.
Set and serve. Let the clusters set at room temperature for 30 minutes, or transfer the tray to the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm faster. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week, or refrigerate for up to two weeks.

Nutrition (per serving)

Macadamia-Coconut Candy Clusters — When Coconut Is the Through Line