Alyssa Nicholson of Pearl City is rather quiet about her prowess in the kitchen.

“I like to try to experiment,” she says elusively about no dish in particular. “I add a pinch of this, a squirt of that.”

But the proof, in this case, is in the milkshake. Namely, The Hawaiian, Nicholson’s third-place winner in the National Milkshake Recipe Contest conducted by Dean Foods, parent company of Meadow Gold. The frozen dessert earned Nicholson $1,000.

“It was a wonderful surprise. When they called, I was shocked and amazed,” she says.

This isn’t the first victory for Nicholson, 43, who grew up in Mililani watching her father cook. She also found success “in a mango contest once,” she says, again elusively.

Her approach to cooking is to “see what’s in the refrigerator and think about what else I can add to it. I go online, then tailor the recipes I find. It’s hit-or-miss. It’s a continual learning process,” she says.

As for Nicholson’s milkshake recipe, it features tropical ingredients that are, in her word, “islandish.”

“I wanted to come up with something that represents Hawaii,” she says. “The milkshake is garnished with pineapple and a cherry, just like the drinks they make in Waikiki. So when people on the mainland are making this, they can escape to Hawaii for a few minutes.”

THE HAWAIIAN

1 scoop vanilla ice cream
1 scoop pineapple sherbet
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup mango juice
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 small banana
Swirl of whipped cream (optional)
1 pineapple wedge
1 maraschino cherry

Place ice cream, sherbet, milk, mango juice, coconut milk and peeled banana into a blender. Blend until creamy. If too thin, add more sherbet, ice cream or ice cubes.

If you have a sweet tooth, top with a swirl of whipped cream.

Using toothpick, skewer a cherry on top of a pineapple wedge. Cut a slice in the wedge and place it on edge of the glass. Serve immediately. Serves 1.