Elephants Never Forget

On My Mind & In My Stomach

2012-02-12T12:48:00.001-06:00

Whoa. I have spent SOO much time lately reading about food and nutrition (FaN from now on, 'cause I've got a lot to say about it), thinking about FaN, and not least in the kitchen trying to engage with FaN. And I have utterly failed to record my progress/findings/adventures.

Which means that I now have entirely too much to say and can hardly organize it, so I will go with an that tried and true method, which may make me look organized though I am not: bulleted list.

Popcorn. So since last August, when I was on the HCG diet (I'm not linking to anything because I don't endorse any one supplier of HCG drops, not to mention it's a bit controversial. I appreciate how it worked for me, though) and then started in to low carb eating, I didn't eat popcorn. Which was a huge deal because I love popcorn. In fact, when I did a search of this blog, confident that I must have documented my affection for the crunchy stuff, I was astonished to find it mentioned just in this peppermint popcorn recipe three years ago. Huh?! OK, cut to a confession: since I finished the 21 day sugar detox on January 21st, I've given myself an all you can eat season pass to Popcorn Land. And not just any popcorn. This Kettle Corn. The recipe recommends ghee as the fat of choice, and it is delicious that way. But after much trial I can assure you that bacon grease, regular butter and coconut oil are also wonderful substitutes. And I feel foolish that I've been using 1/3 cup of sugar when 1/4 would have been enough. Oops. Anyway, now I feel I've taken this kettle corn to the next level, ever since I figured out that if I pop it up, portion it into 12 oz to go cups with lids (this is sustainable since I reuse the cups and lids) and store it in the freezer, it's ready to go anytime we need a snack. Too bad my discernment on when I "need" a snack isn't as sharp and clear as it should be.
Chocolate. The aforementioned 21 day sugar detox was good for me. I had already been eating low carb, so giving up everything but meat, vegetables, oil and nuts was mostly not a big deal. I felt really good and I lost three or four pounds. But I definitely had chocolate in my head and identified just how much it's my stress busting go-to food. So unfortunately, between kettle corn and chocolate, I'm pretty sure I've gained back what I lost. The last few weeks have been stressful and I can tell by my chocolate consumption. I very strictly limit myself to 70% and up. Even so, when I chop a Trader Joe's 72% Pound Plus Bar (not the whole thing!) and add it to these "breakfast" cookies made with hazelnut meal and then can't stop eating them all day long though I hid them from myself in the back of the freezer, well, that's gotta be a chocolate overload. And you know I'm serious when I say gotta 'cause I don't even like that word.
Beans. This is turning into a manifesto about how I went low carb and am now moving into trying properly prepared grains (and legumes) and other carbs back on for size. If there's a pun in there, it's intended-size, get it, size?! So, more for budgetary reasons, and because Koji eats beans more readily than meat, I've been experimenting lately. Last week I cooked up a huge batch of pinto beans in the crock pot. The yield was startling, an amount that wouldn't possibly be dented by mere usual employment in chili and "taco slice" (we eat our taco stuff piled on white Japanese style rice instead of in tortillas. And we started out calling it "tacosu raisu" with Japanese pronunciation. Then my kids turned that back into English and it became "taco slice," which I don't correct because I think it's hilarious). With MUCH skepticism, I decided to try this Silky Bean Fudge. Wow. That's a delicious wow! I don't know if it was more acceptable to me and my Japanese friends because we are used to sweet bean paste--anko. But my mom liked it too.
Meal Planning. Planning is not my strong suite, though I keep trying to work on it. It's hard for me to buckle down to deciding ahead of time what we are going to eat. Still, I'm starting to understand that frantically trying to produce dinner from nothing when it's after the kids bedtime is much, much worse, a real recipe for disaster!! Yes, Koji is almost nine; I'm a slow learner. What's working at the moment is this:

it's a Moleskine notebook, maybe 4 x 6. It travels with me in my bag and I write anything and everything in it, including meal plans, as above. So far, so good. I know, I still haven't figured out what to have for lunch tomorrow. Suggestions are welcome!

Not sure if anyone at all was able to track with that food-related brain dump, but I feel better having dumped it. Hope to see you in this space again soon!

Chicago Brauhaus

2011-11-30T08:00:00.001-06:00

had live polka on tonight. Which made for a rowdy atmosphere. And
conversation at level Yell.

Put Some Floss in Your Handbag

2011-11-15T07:49:00.000-06:00

'cause after you eat kale chips, you need it!

This was my second time making kale chips. Last time I massaged the kale with olive oil, ~~sprinkled~~ dumped on salt and then let it dry in a 150 degree oven over night. So, yeah, I ate it all but it was SALTY

This time, I used this recipe. I followed it pretty exactly, so based on how it turned out, this is how I'd like to do it next time:

2 large bunches kale, just the leafy parts. (Chop up the stems and add them to your soup)

2 tsp. lime juice2 T melted coconut oil
2 T creamy almond butter
1 T honey
1/4 tsp. crushed red chili flakes1/2 teaspoon random Mrs. Dash blendy stuff that was around

Mix the above all together, then massage into kale that has been washed, dried and pulled into chippy size pieces (remember it'll shrink a lot!)

Spread onto cookie sheets covered with parchment or silpats, then leave in the oven overnight. At least 8 hours is good.

I thought this snack was so healthy that it was too embarrassing to share, but when I offered it to a few friends today at Izumi's school, it was a hit. And that is why I'm posting this recipe, right, Satoi? Let me know if/when you try it!

Primaleolicious Mug Cake

2011-11-14T12:56:00.000-06:00

But I took it out of the mug so you'll have to take my word for it.

Edited to Add: I found the original recipe here and I changed it a bit to make this little cake as follows:

Melt 2 T of coconut oil. Stir in 2 T cocoa powder, 1 1/2 T honey, 1 T almond flour (I used hazelnut meal), 1 egg, and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Grease the inside of a microwaveable coffee mug with coconut oil and pour in the batter. Microwave on high for two minutes.

I didn't find the cake to be rubbery! In fact, it was pretty tasty as is, but I had some cream cheese frosting I wanted to use up so that's what you see here. As for how to make that, well, I put some cream cheese in a dish (some of it was homemade) with some cocoa powder and honey and mixed it up.

Let me know what you think!

"Noodles"

2011-11-09T18:27:00.000-06:00

Brussels

2011-11-04T21:29:00.000-05:00

held by Sprout

Primaleolicious Dinner for the Kids

2011-11-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

Lunch at Jolane's Cafe

2011-10-25T12:01:00.000-05:00

With the "Banana Girls" (committee of moms) in celebration of St. Matthew's 7th Annual Sports Day.
This is the seafood cocktail and it was DELICIOUS

Best Fried Zucchini Sticks EVAH!!

2011-10-13T23:40:00.000-05:00

Pumpkin Pie Pouphs (pronounced Poof)

2011-10-04T00:41:00.002-05:00

This is the inspiration recipe for the pumpkin muffins I made today. I'm not sure that "muffins" is actually the right term for them; see the title of this post.
After sampling the mini treats, a few friends decided that this would be a more worthy name.
Whatever they are called, I'll be making them again soon.
As soon as I can restock on coconut flour, that is. If only I had understand how utterly competitive, reasonable, and even below "market price" (don't actually know what that is, I would have to engage with details to know and I don't do that) the coconut flour in the bin at LifeSource was, I would have really stocked up. Instead of nonchalantly buying a random amount. Which is what I did.
Anyway.
This is how to make what I made today. If you make some, and like them, and can think of a better name, please let me know.

1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder (I might increase this a little next time?)
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt

Whisk together, if you are the ambitious type who doesn't mind washing dishes. Or if you are like me, dump all this in at the end with no whisking, mix it up and hope for the best.

1 cup pumpkin puree (I got mine from a can. I know I should be afraid of BPA, but there are too many things to be afraid, and I already had it in a can, so I went with it)
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
3/8 cup maple syrup (how on earth would one measure that?! the original recipe said "or 3 1/2 oz." so I measured that on my scale--if you are reading this and thinking of baking, but don't have a kitchen scale, then please go buy one right now, even if it busts your budget a little)

Mix the above together with a mixer or by hand if you are powerful and have stamina.
As previously mentioned, dump in the dry ingredients, mix, and then if you must have chocolate in every muffin...which I must, for some reason, add

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (I bought some at Whole Foods, then figured out later that cane sugar is the first ingredient! might have to stick with Ghiradelli after all? but they don't sell mini--that I know of--and I am too lazy for chopping...)

Bake at 400 in a mini muffin pan for about 15 minutes. If they seem a teeny bit underdone, that is OK. That's what makes the pumpkin pie texture happen in the middle.

Sorry no picture. They're not super photogenic anyway.

Koji's Lunch Version 9.28

2011-09-28T23:24:00.000-05:00

White Peach chunks
Carrot Sticks
Rice w/ umeboshi
Fish Sausage from HMart -- which I'm disappointed to say, I'll probably never feel OK buying again, it's too processed...

Koji's Lunch

2011-09-28T23:21:00.000-05:00

Rice w/ furikake
Costco brand turkey slice
Mini banana, cut in half and wrapped to avoid browning (thought I was so clever, putting this in but he was frustrated 'cause it was so hard to peel)
Roasted butternut squash (from dinner the night before)
Green beans (left over from lunch @ Izumi's school)

Deca

2011-07-03T22:13:00.002-05:00

restaurant on the 12th floor of the Ritz Carlton in downtown Chicago has an amazing dessert with the unamazing name of Baba. Which in Japanese means "old lady". The "Deca"dent chocolate cake was also fabulous. Unfortunately, because Gyukaku (above) was our first stop, we didn't have room in our stomachs to finish it completely. Next time. Because there will be one.

Green Soup

2011-06-29T08:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I made spinach soup, mostly exactly like this one except that after I simmered the potatoes and onion and spinach and four cloves of garlic (instead of three, and not regular garlic, but soy sauce pickled garlic) for 15 minutes and immersion blended the lot, then I added 1/2 cup heavy cream and some sprinkles of salt, pepper and nutmeg. And then I ate it with some Costco pepperoni pizza.

Why not?

This is how the rest of the soup looks now. I guess not really so good, in the fridge in a glass jar between the milk and the juice, as pictured by Hipstamatic. But I'm thinking of eating it again for breakfast.

2011-03-31T18:18:00.000-05:00

Fastest Cinnamon Buns

2011-02-03T09:28:00.001-06:00

via The Quick Recipe by America's Test Kitchen

An hour and six minutes start to finish for baking

Another sixteen minutes and six of eight are devoured

Day Two of The Big Snow

Dinner at Costco

2011-01-13T17:41:00.000-06:00

When the cream puffs from Beard Papa's were gone

2011-01-10T11:37:00.000-06:00

This is what we were left with.

1-1-11

2011-01-01T23:04:00.001-06:00

Happy 2011!!
We are celebrating with bread pudding. Because Rich likes it. I was inspired by the recipe that Julie got from allrecipes.
I made it like this:

Tear three pieces of raisin bread and three (four?) French rolls from Costco into little pieces and put them into a 9x13 pan. Mix four eggs, two cups of milk, 1/2 cup sugar, tsp. of vanilla and two chopped up bananas, then pour over the bread. Massage the bread until it soaks up all the liquid.
Even if you feel silly, don't skip the previous step.
Sprinkle half with butterscotch chips and the other half with chocolate chips; massage a bit more to incorporate.
Set the pan in a cookie sheet. Pour water into the cookie sheet and bake the whole set up at 375 for one hour.
Serve with mango sauce and/or whipped cream. Run to the pan before Rich or you might not get any.
May the coming year be SWEET!

Word Problem

2010-12-01T17:56:00.001-06:00

If this nutritional info is off the back of ONE POUND of shrimp, and we all understand and accept that ONE POUND is 16 ounces, well then, what is wrong here?!

Hipsta-rized Evening Meal

2010-11-29T18:32:00.001-06:00

Misoshiru (cabbage, wakame, renkon, carrots)
Rice
Tsukune in Teriyaki sauce (recipe from "Everyday Harumi")
Daikon Salad (dressing by Yukako-San)
Gyoza by Toko-San (not pictured)

Things I like lately, Which you may have already picked up on:
Random Capitalization
Hipstamatic App for iPhone

Wasabi Kit Kat

2010-11-29T12:47:00.000-06:00

Wasn't as nasty as it sounds. But I can't actually recommend it to you either....

Try This At Home

2010-11-28T13:36:00.000-06:00

Hayashi (Hashed Beef) on a Bed of Rice on a Bed of Spinach

2010-11-20T21:22:00.001-06:00

普通ううの金曜日

2010-11-19T18:32:00.001-06:00

今日はまた夕飯のインスピレーション無し。。。。
なので、冷凍庫に入っていたエンギリシュウマフインでこのミニピッザを作りました。枝豆、きゅうり、コッテジチーズも出したらなんちゃって食事になったでしょ。
と信じたいです。

Report

2010-11-14T20:53:00.000-06:00

Just want to report that today, I had Cornflakes and Whole Milk for breakfast.

I roasted a whole chicken's parts in Asian flavors, per Mark Bittman's recipe, but I served it to Aogu and the girls with rice and stir fried soy sauce bean sprouts. I myself ate lunch at church, Papa John's pizza, veggies and chocolate chip cookie.

Quesadillas, rice, beans, carrots and broccoli were our dinner. Oops, I forgot to insert random Capitalization in that last sentence. Hmm. I hope the state of gustatory affairs around here improves tomorrow. Good night.

Apple Cake

2010-11-13T21:15:00.002-06:00

For Izumi's half birthday. Recipe here. Guess I don't hate baking even if I'm in a cooking slump (it's for real, I even planned dinner tonight, then couldn't force myself to make it and dished up a bunch of leftovers instead!). Anybody know a good half birthday song? Trying to modify the original was awkward.

Confession

2010-11-10T21:50:00.000-06:00

Here's the thing, and be prepared to be shocked:

I don't like to cook anymore.

That sounds so final and sad and strange, but for now, it's true. I never thought this would happen to me, but it has. Maybe it was going to Japan and eating out or having others cook for me for two weeks straight, and now I just can't get into the groove though we've been back for three weeks.

Maybe it just finally feels like more work than it's worth, though why I should feel that way now (or maybe this phrase will help me understand my feelings: 19 month old toddler) is a bit of a mystery.

Anyway, so, I haven't really cooked at all, by my standards of cooking, for ages now. I'm still slapping food on the table when it's called for but I'm not enjoying the process. Wah. Or, maybe this is a good thing and will give me the interest/motivation that's been missing from my so-called weight loss efforts? Maybe?

Enviable Kids Menu

2010-11-09T21:52:00.000-06:00

Koji ordered this from the kids' menu of a restaurant we went to in Japan.

I wish the kids' menus here had this set as an option!

Now Available at Target

2010-11-08T22:31:00.000-06:00

But I'd much rather be doing the Tim Tam Slam in Boonah with Bex.

Courtesy of Hot Chocolate 5K

2010-11-06T21:59:00.001-05:00

Get a Big Bottle of Soy Sauce

2010-11-05T21:46:00.000-05:00

'cause you're going to need it to braise chicken with this Chinese style recipe that I got from Quick & Easy Recipes from the NY Times . Sorry no picture, this was not a photogenic dish. I'm realizing most of my favorite dishes aren't very pretty.

But, it was quick, easy and tasty so I'll definitely be making it again. Below is my approximation of the recipe, because I am much too lazy to get up and grab the book.

Soy Braised Chicken, Chinese Style
Boil 1 1/2 cups soy sauce, 1 1/2 cups sake, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar (I used brown) and 3 Tablespoons of Grated Ginger. Drop in 1 whole chicken (I used four breasts, cut in half for eight pieces) and boil for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit for 15 minutes, then serve (do I have to say "with rice"?!). Add root veges as it pleases you (I added onion and turnips).

All Thanks to Koji's Teachers

2010-11-04T22:07:00.001-05:00

Koji's school was so kind as to plan a jack-o-lantern party for us last week. If they hadn't hauled the pumpkins and the carving utensils and the garbage bags and the newspapers into the classrooms, and then if they had not decided what time I should be there...well, then, I don't think we would have carved a pumpkin this year.
So thanks to their efforts, we did it! In case you aren't clear, the extra holes on either side of the eyes are for laser shooting, and the other long diagonal hole is Mr. Pumpkin's walkie-talkie. Oh yes, watch out if you meet Mr. Pumpkin in a dark alley. And you just might, we put him out there yesterday since he was getting moldy.
The food related bit of all this is that I saved the seeds, brought them home and then soaked and roasted them according to this recipe. I did a cinnamon sugar version, and they are pretty tasty! Worth the battle with Mr. Pumpkin, to carve him up into the fine specimen he is. Er, was.

Why Is This Monstrous Dessert Called "Honey Toast"

2010-11-03T22:42:00.000-05:00

when it should be called "Honey Half Loaf of Bread"?! Enjoyed a couple weeks ago at a karaoke place in Ikebukuro with Fumi and Naoko.

In Which I Talk About Dinner, But Can't Be Bothered to Show You a Photo

2010-11-02T21:01:00.002-05:00

Or maybe it's just that I didn't take one.
Maybe I know that what we ate wasn't particularly photogenic.
And it's not like it hasn't been pictured and mentioned here before.
In fact, I don't think I'm going to tell you what it was.
I'll just let you guess.
Ready, go!

Reunion Food

2010-07-17T23:45:00.015-05:00

'Tis the season of old friends coming in town to visit. Never thought I'd say this, but it's almost as good as traveling, because no packing is involved. For me, at least. And I love to travel, but HATE to pack. Perhaps that's because I don't care to plan ahead or make decisions, unless and until utterly forced to. Hmm. How's adulthood working out for me, then?...that's another post for another day. This here post is about today and the barbeque we went to that allowed us to visit with lovely friend Jenny and her seven (soon to be eight) person crew. The usually painful moment of narrowing to one from countless options of "what dish to contibute" was made painless by this delicious and extremely appropriate for a hot day kind of recipe. I know, all those words should have had dashes between them, but I just couldn't be bothered. Try this recipe. And try reuniting with old friends. They are both delicious.

Dangerous Cereal

2010-07-10T07:33:00.001-05:00

Awhile back, I bought a ginormous box of cereal at Costco. An utterly unsurprising announcement, I know. It was a cinnamon crunch cereal and cocoa pop combination box, and that is why I bought it, because I am sucker for variety. Sidenote: this is one reason why I find it challenging to lose weight. Dr. Oz says that eating the same thing all the time is less tempting. But it's also more boring.

Not wanting to be boring, but also wanting to use up the huge bag of cocoa pop cereal in my pantry, I found the following recipe. Warning, this is SOO good and will utterly throw your diet off the rails! Only make it if you have others to share it with! One last sidenote, because my brain is full of them: yesterday when I was at wally world, I found this snack. I was appalled. Yes, it looks delicious, but if I'm going to eat chocolate coated cereal, I need to earn the right to do so by at least making it myself. What can I say, I have a lot of rules.

MALTED MILK CLUSTERS

1/4 c. instant malted milk powder
3 tbsp. milk
1/4 c. light corn syrup
1 tbsp. margarine
5 c. Cocoa Puffs cereal
1-1/2 c. milk chocolate chips

Heat malted milk powder and milk in 3-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until slightly thickened. Stir in corn syrup and margarine. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate chips until melted. Quickly stir in cereal, 2 1/2 cups at a time, until it is all covered. From here, my changes: Press the mixture onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or a nonstick baking liner. Freeze for at least 30 minutes, then cut or break for serving and eating. Original recipe called for 36 servings. I was able to get more by cutting small pieces for sharing and saving large chunks for myself.

I found this recipe here but felt free to copy it; apparently no one has added to (or looked at?!) this discussion thread since 2005.

Kimchi Tofu Soup

2010-07-05T20:31:00.001-05:00

Last week when I was at the Asian market, I found myself tempted by the kimchi tofu soup. Soup, though...same predicament as when I order in a restaurant. Ordering/buying food I think I can make is against my personal code, most of the time. So I decided not only to make my own soup, but to ask the lady behind the counter how to do it.

She was adamant on the following: must take the amount of kimchi you need for the soup and leave it outside for three days. Then proceed with your cooking.

Um, OK.

The world of fermentation is new to me. So those directions FREAKED ME OUT and that is why I smiled at her, bought the large jar of kimchi she recommended and then looked at this recipe for inspiration and made my soup as follows:

Saute one large onion and one cup of kimchi in a bit of sesame oil. When the onion has softened, add five cups of dashi broth (or five cups of water and the corresponding amount of dashi powder) and bring to a boil. Throw in one cut up chicken breast (or, as in the second time I made it, one can of tuna) and lower the heat to a simmer. After five minutes or so, add a couple of tablespoons of miso paste and any amount of tofu. I LOVE this over a scoop of rice.

Happy July Fourth!!

2010-07-04T15:33:00.000-05:00

M Henry in Edgewater

2010-06-11T12:19:00.000-05:00

With Penny and no kids. Blackberry bliss cakes are just that!

Much to My Surprise

2010-05-17T19:23:00.001-05:00

In the interim since the last time Hijiki made an appearance, Koji
jumped the fence and now eats it without a fuss?! Phew~ served with
braised/stirfried carrots and zucchini, rice and instant shrimp wonton
soup fancied up with green onions and tofu.

なんちゃってアップルパイ

2010-05-15T09:45:00.000-05:00

昨日みわさんの家で以下のレシピの「なんちゃってアップルパイ」を作ったら好評でした。
パイきじを使わないけど、フルーツを少し甘くして焼くデザートなので「パイ」に比べてもいいでしょう。英語名は”Apple Crisp" と言います。ところでりんごだけじゃなくパイにできる果物ならなんでも可能、たとえばチェリー、桃、洋梨、ブルーべり、アプリコット、ルバーブ（Rhubarb)と苺などです。作ってみてください～

材料：
果物　５カップ　（皮をむいて一口の大きさに切る）
砂糖　大さじ２－４（好みで果物に混ぜる。りんごには入れなかった）

トッピング：
オートミール　０．５カップ
ブラウンシュガー　０．５カップ
小麦粉　０．２５カップ
シナモンかナツメッグかパウダーしょうが　小さじ０．２５

バッター　０．２５カップ
ナッツかココナッツ　０．２５カップ

果物を耐熱器にひろげる。
別なボールにトッピングの材料を混ぜる。柔らかめなバッタを切り入れるように混ぜる。好みでナッツかココナッツを入れて軽く混ぜて、果物の上に振り掛ける。
３７５度で３０－３５分焼く。

Cafe Romanza

2010-05-08T15:48:00.000-05:00

has tasty, spicy mentaiko spaghetti but watch out! Even at lunch, you
will be charged the dinner price!

Chefstroverted

2010-04-23T19:02:00.001-05:00

Is the term I coined today. It means that I am the sort of person who
gains energy by cooking.

The Kids Made Dinner

2010-04-22T18:35:00.001-05:00

Sort of, I cut the cucumbers and got out the pizza toast ingredients,
but otherwise it was all them!

Obento for Four

2010-04-15T21:29:00.000-05:00

今日私以外に家族全員はお弁当が必要〜お弁当作り４日目でこれはきつ
かった！一時間かかった。なのでメガネがけの素顔でバスストップへとの
朝でした。今後のお弁当作りは少しづつ早くなっていくことを望んでいま
す！

Koji's Obento on the First Day of First Grade

2010-04-13T09:52:00.001-05:00

Rice, okaka furikake, turkey, water, broccoli, strawberries, cookie
from Ikea

Redemption

2010-02-17T20:42:00.003-06:00

To celebrate the birthdays of Koji and eight of his school friends this afternoon at a party, I served Redemption Cupcakes.

No one there knew that they were eating anything other than yellow(whole wheat) cupcakes topped with Strawberry Cloud Cream. But when they (mamas in particular) took a bite, then another, smiled and said, "Oishii! (Delicious)" I felt curiously redeemed.

Just Friday last week, I proudly appeared at the school bake sale with pineapple cake, oreo truffles and lemon cookies with King Arthur Flour lemon powder. Alas, I did not appear with any of the above items individually wrapped in cutesy packages. ARGH. Conveniently, or devastatingly, I forgot the high value that many (most? nearly all?!) Japanese people place on packaging. There was no clamoring happening near the plates I plunked down. Perhaps it was the final straw after a long week that didn't go as expected on several fronts but I was devastated.

You may think I'm over dramatic, and I know I can be, but in this case, my turn of phrase is accurate: I really was so disappointed at the utter lack of interest in what I had made, and I (briefly, till I cried it out that night?!) crossed the line to devastation. Guess I allowed myself to identify a little too closely with my baked goods, which is why I was relieved and comforted today, back in the place where the ladies like my cake.

Several pertinent notes:
*I didn't take a picture of the so-called Redemption Cake; it was actually cupcakes and they consisted of the parts mentioned above.
*This morning Koji said that he wanted a cookie with his name on it in addition to a cupcake (he's not as randomly demanding as that sounds, in the past when we ordered a birthday cake from a bakery, there were several personalized cookies balanced on top). He wanted to recreate that experience, and the above is what I came up with.
*Finally, I want to note that though my emotions over baked goods are described above, what I long for is to be identified and founded on Jesus, not the popularity of my homemade treats. Obviously, I need some work in this area, and perhaps that's the reason for this incident?

Happy New Year

2010-01-25T21:37:00.003-06:00

"What New Year are YOU talking about?" you may wonder. "The one that started TWENTY FIVE DAYS ago?!"

Yep. That's the one. And I do know full well that 2010 started 25 days ago. But I'd like to ride the Japanese tradition that dictates greeting people with "Happy New Year" the first time you meet them after the new year starts. I've explained this custom to various people and received some smart a@#$% responses, like, "what if you don't see someone until December 31st, are you still going to say it?!"

Ha. I don't know that there is a cut off for when you give up on saying happy new year because you are too far removed from January 1st. I'm thinking the end of January sounds reasonable.

Which means it is OK for me to kick off my blogging for 2010 here and now, better on January 25th than December 31st, right?!

And now that it's a new year, I probably need a new focus for this blog. I still want it to be about cooking, baking and food, but I'm not at all confident in my ability to report daily on what we had for dinner.

However, since I haven't decided what my new focus should be, I'll stick with my old (ancient?) plan, for today, and tell you that we had farfalle with tomato sauce, shrimp and broccoli tonight.

The least I can do with this space is show you what a cute kitchen helper I have...if anyone is still reading this (Laurs? Mom? Grandma?) and has ideas/feedback about my new but still nebulous focus, please make a comment. Thanks!

WW and quesadillas

2009-12-02T22:02:00.002-06:00

Jan and co. were over this afternoon. I'm proud to report that though we were sorely tempted, we did NOT run to Little Caesar's and pick up pizza. Instead, we went fancy and had some Weight Watchers veg soup (was going to link to a recipe, but I made the old school version and I couldn't quickly find it online. maybe I should put it up myself sometime), quesadillas, broccoli.

Oh, and Frosted Flakes...I recently bought a variety pack of Kellogg's cereal, yes, at Costco, how did you know...the little boxes and "sugar type" cereals were apparently irresistable to Luke M (4.5 years old) and so he had to have Frosted Flakes while everyone else was eating ice cream! I found that really funny because I distinctly remember longing for "sugar type" cereal when I was a kid too. Never imagined that I would grow up to become a supplier...

Same as You

2009-11-26T21:52:00.000-06:00

What we ate for dinner tonight had a 90% chance of being the same as what you had, according to a quiz that our lovely hosts gave us while we were waiting for Thanksgiving Dinner at their house.

Guess I've go ahead and spell it out:
turkey
gravy
mashed potatoes
ham
curried fruit (maybe you didn't all have that, but let me tell you, it was delicious)
sweet potato and pecan casserole
*green beans with ginger and garlic
spinach stuffing
broccoli casserole
corn casserole
beet salad
green salad with raspberries and olives
*pear chocolate pie
pecan pie
pumpkin cake
pumpkin pie

*These are the dishes I made.

Pear Chocolate Pie sounds so strange, and is so delicious. I got the recipe from Kristen, who got it from Jen who got it from Bibi, or something like that. Confession: I used D'Anjou pears but as noted in the recipe, I think Bosc would have been better. Also, next time I'd like to try layering the chocolate with the pears rather than just sprinkling it on top. In any case, this is a TASTY pie!

(serves 8)
Dough:
2/3 c butter
2/3 c sugar
1 3/4 c flour
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp water

4 pears, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I use Bosc)
3/4 c chocolate chips

Melt butter and mix into the flour and sugar. Add the egg, vanilla, and water and knead quickly into the dough. Chill for one hour. Part the dough into two halves and roll these out into two circles to fit a 7-10" pie pan. Place one dough circle in a greased pie pan. Place pears on top and sprinkle with chocolate chips over pears. Cover with second dough circle, brush with water and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 40 mins at 400 degrees. Serve pie warm with vanilla ice cream, whipping cream or sour cream. (Can substitute apples for pears too!)

Reunion

2009-11-25T23:52:00.000-06:00

Today, for the first time in five months!, we got together with our long-time, long-lost friends, Jason and Kristen and their kids. We invited them here for dinner, which I promised I would make. Alas, it was too good to see them and there was much chatting to be done, and I never did buckle down in the kitchen. I did contribute a beet salad, a large quantity of rice, and some banana chocolate chip muffins to the pumpkin bread Kristen brought and the dinner we ordered from Thai Sook Dee. I say this often, sorry to be repetitive, but I mean it: we really need more time more often with beloved friends from the past. Thanks for a great night, JKAB!

Not Afraid Anymore

2009-11-24T22:09:00.005-06:00

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I'm afraid of yeast.

Or maybe I should go ahead and make that a past tense statement.

Because this is what I made for dinner:

A red alien smiley faced YEAST pizza.

I admit, it looks pretty nasty. Sorry about that. It looked a little better/more appetizing in person. And I feel obligated to document this achievement. That's what it is, an achievement. After all, it's been years, I might even say decades, that I've thought of myself as a pretty decent baker. But really, is it OK to make such lofty declarations when one is excluding entire gigantic categories within said claim? That is, is it possible to qualify as a "pretty decent baker" when one has never even made a loaf of yeast bread? Ever?

Anyway, I did it, with the help of KitchenAid mixer (first use of yeast for pizza and the first use of the dough hook, all on the same day...guess that makes sense, actually...), Izumi and Erika. As for toppings, the one you see here is half ham and half smoked salmon. The latter didn't go great with the random spaghetti sauce that I sloshed on in lieu of "proper" pizza sauce (is there such a thing anyway?) and the cheddary cheese that was all I had available. But the ham section of this one was pretty tasty.

Oh, and a word of explanation about the lack of aethestics here: I wanted to bake this directly on the stone in the oven, but I don't have a pizza peel and I'm out of parchment paper. So when Erika and I were trying to transfer the pizza from the tray we made it on to the stone, some damage occurred.

Which is fine. Scary-looking pizza this may be, but I'm still not afraid anymore.

Joint Venture

2009-11-23T22:05:00.000-06:00

As you, all two or maybe on a good day three, of you who look at this blog know well, it's not the making of dinner that is agonizing for me. It's the thinking of what dinner should be that nearly splits my head open on most days. So when Miho and I collaborated on tonight's dinner, agreeing that it should be curry and that I should make it at her house with her ingredients. Now, please imagine the sound of a giant sigh of relief...PHEW....

Duk What?

2009-11-22T20:29:00.006-06:00

Aogu really likes a Korean dish called dukboki; please forgive this butchered Romanized spelling, though I guess it's not a crime since I make no claim to know what I'm talking about. The only thing I know is, it's made of rice cakes that look like glue sticks for a hot glue gun (duk). He usually orders it when we eat at the H Mart food court. The last time we were there, I happened to discover the duk (rice cakes) for sale and thought I'd try to make it myself.

What you see here is actually my second attempt, ground turkey stir fried with onions, carrots, tobanjan and mixed with the duk. I think my first went better, but of course, I didn't write down what I did and couldn't remember it tonight. Likely most of you won't be clamoring for the recipe, so I'll refrain from explaining this time. Maybe next time. However many times I make it, I can tell you one thing for sure: I won't be eating it. For me, duk=yuk. It's a texture thing.

Instead, for my dinner, a random mishmash of things from the fridge I wanted to be rid of: black beans, butternut squash sauteed in garlic, rice. And for the kids, instant ramen, cottage cheese (Izumi) and hot carrots (Koji).

Anyong-hi jumuseyo (Korean for "Good night")!

Remix

2009-11-21T23:55:00.004-06:00

Maybe I'll just start calling all leftovers "remix," that way they won't seem so, well, left over...here's a not great picture of masaman curry, day two. As I think I mentioned, it wasn't very good yesterday, so tonight I added another can of curry paste and put it on a "bed of" (that's a strange phrase, isn't it? seems like the food will rest peacefully rather than be gobbled up) rice and sauteed spinach.

By the way, the kids had hot dogs with their rice and spinach. Oh, and ice cream sandwiches for dessert~

Karate and Doughnuts

2009-11-20T22:30:00.002-06:00

The kids were invited to a karate birthday party at the Shidokan late this afternoon. I knew I wouldn't have time to make dinner, so I actually planned ahead and made it this morning.
Hello?
Get up, I know that declaration just made you fall off your chair, but this really is me still.
So I made some massaman curry. Unfortunately, in trying to be thrifty and using coconut milk and curry paste of indeterminate age, I left flavor by the roadside. It wasn't nearly as good as usual, but Hot Salt returned it to an edible state.
Wish I had a picture of the really cute "doughnut cake" that the moms of the birthday kids prepared for the party today. Since Koji and Izumi were just guests at the party and not guests of honor, I hadn't bothered to bring my camera along. Bad decision! Now I can't show you what I mean...I did ask several people around to send me a photo so if/when I get one, I will post it. Watch this space.

Proper Food

2009-11-19T23:47:00.000-06:00

Feels like days since I actually cooked anything, which means that of course, I got crackin' on that tonight when I really had no business doing so. In other words, I didn't have time but I wanted to go with my idea before my ingredients started going downhill. Spinach salad with warm dressing to make it a teensy bit wilty. It was OK but not exactly as I imagined. I still have spinach and I'm going to try and tweak it tomorrow, so I won't say any more on how to make it for now. Rice and Shrimp in Chili Sauce; too spicy for the kids so they had meatballs, peas, rice, pumpkin soup. And Koji had pumpkin pie for dessert.

Udon

2009-11-18T23:57:00.001-06:00

With wakame in a broth of

4 c dashi, 2T soy sauce, 2T mirin. Except, full disclosure, we were out of mirin so put in a bit of honey. Kabocga, pumpkin pie ?
Who knows , I'm falling asleep.....

Carrots

2009-11-17T22:48:00.003-06:00

Tonight's dinner was lazy since Aogu wasn't here; as I was throwing it together, I had the kids gnawing on the carrots you see pictured. And no, Izumi's not quite as psycho as her off center goggles make her look...in addition to raw carrots, the kids also had hot carrots, natto gohan and tofu with popsicles for dessert. I stir-fried some green pepper, onion, garlic, ginger and tofu to go with my carrots and rice. I overdid it on the ginger, but managed to balance it with some ponzu (citrus flavored soy sauce). Not an evening to brag about on the culinary front, but hey, we're all still alive, and I have this funny picture to show for it!

For at Least the 22nd Time

2009-11-16T23:17:00.003-06:00

So I have to give myself grace for not blogging what we had for dinner every single day this whole year, right? I mean, after all, I did have a baby. But I can't help regretting it a bit now, just because it would be so interesting to know how many times we ate certain favorites.

What I can tell you for sure is that out of the 124 posts I've put up this year, 21 mention pizza.

And this is the 22nd.

Thanksgiving Dinner

2009-11-15T21:41:00.002-06:00

was on the menu tonight, courtesy of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, which is the host church for the kids' school.

It was a dinner/potluck, as the church provided most of the traditional staples but asked that each family bring a dish to share. All two friends I polled beforehand agreed that I should contribute a dessert. But when I opened the fridge this afternoon with the intention of baking a cake, the butter had gone missing. That is, I used it all on the cookies and coffee cake I made the other day for the Craft Social.

So I made a cranberry apple walnut pie instead, and it was very good, if I do say so myself. Of course I forgot to take a picture of it. More about it tomorrow though, because that's when I'm planning to post a couple of the other pictures we took at the dinner tonight. Can't do it right now because the camera is in the van and that is much too far from where I'm sitting.

From a Box, Proudly

2009-11-14T22:03:00.001-06:00

Recently, I've learned to make a couple of things that I would previously buy in packages. For example, gyoza (pot stickers), soup for udon, nabe (mentioned a few days ago) and so on.

My head started to get a little puffy. I started thinking I could probably make just about anything, so I went looking for a hayashi rice recipe. I soon realized I would either have to spend hours simmering and concentrating beef stock, or buy cans of demi-glace sauce, which would feel like cheating if it was done as part of a "make it myself" endeavor.

Now, I have scratched hayashi rice from my "make it from scratch" list, and I happily make it with this box (I don't endorse this site, this is just the place where I found the best picture of this box). Tonight Misaki ate tofu, the kids ate natto gohan, cucumbers & ranch, grapes, and honeydew melon. Aogu and I had the aforementioned hayashi rice, and I also ate the nabemono that was left over from the other day. Oishikatta (delicious), if I do say so myself!

Friday the 13th=Nasty Zucchini?

2009-11-13T23:18:00.000-06:00

I had a friend over for lunch today. We had a modified version of Weight Watcher's vegetable soup. Sounds rude, right, making WW soup for a friend and thus implying "You need this," but I took a chance because I've had the soup at her house before. Plus, I didn't stick to the recipe 100%...had to add some chicken sausage and butter beans, just because they were there. Also used homemade stock.

We dig in and everything seems fine. About halfway into my bowl, I detect bitterness and start rooting through my soup to find the source. Turns out to be the zucchini. Oddly, that makes me feel as though the soup's less than perfect status wasn't my fault. The recipe called for zucchini, and I was just following orders. Had any of the ingredients I added randomly been off in some way, then I would have felt obligated to take the blame. Anyone following my logic?

Yes, I am going somewhere with this rambling soup story, straight to dinner, in fact. It was the soup mentioned above, but with all the offending zucchini fished out and green beans swapped in. Also, quesadillas, chips & salsa, chocolate peppermint cookies and yogurt cranberry coffee cake; those last two were made for the Craft Social, but the kids and I took some samples to make sure they were worthy to be shared with the crafting public.

Persimmons and

2009-11-13T00:04:00.000-06:00

Happy Meals and Nabe Leftovers, Oh My~!

Electric Pot

2009-11-11T22:36:00.002-06:00

So I'm not a big fan of my electric cooktop, and I wish I could change it to gas. But I'm rapidly becoming a huge fan of this electic pot/skillet thingy that Aogu gave me a couple of years ago. I don't know why it didn't catch on with me sooner.

Two weeks ago, I needed to steam some gyoza in a place where I had electrical access but no burners. Enter this pot; she (he? what gender is a pot?) was a star performer.

Next appearance, in the kitchen tonight, for the occasion of nabe. Please don't say "NAYB," this is "Nah-beh". Based on my experience with it tonight, I can predict you'll be hearing about it a lot more in the future, because thanks to Ms. Pot (I decided my pot is a girl), this dish is EASYEASYEASY and delicous too.

I used this recipe for the soup. For the ingredients, I went my own way, somewhat: Chinese cabbage, tofu, mushrooms and udon, yes, but also thinly sliced beef, parboiled broccoli, and shirataki. I seem to recall that at some point in the past, I didn't care for shirataki. But after simmering in this broth and thinking about its ZERO calorie count? Ms. Pot and I will be having another appointment very soon, I think. Want to come join us?

Flu Shot

2009-11-10T23:13:00.000-06:00

No, that's not what we had for dinner, though the way that nasty flu is going around, drinking a shot of it might not hurt?!

Just as I was thinking to myself, "Self, come on, you have got to start getting dinner together, whatever that's going to be!!," I got a call from the kids' pediatrician saying that the H1N1 vaccine is in, first come first served. So I hauled everyone out to the car and trundled over for the shots. And that is how I escaped from making dinner tonight. We did eat though, as follows:

Misaki~sweet potatoes
Koji & Izumi~hot dogs, cheese, yogurt, milk, various other snacks
Aogu~sushi from H Mart
Me~spaghetti squash tossed around with some olive oil, garlic and chili flakes inspired by this recipe and topped with turkey meatballs. This was Just OK becuause the squash was a little, well, squashy for me.

Anyone know how to make spaghetti squash al dente?

Omuraisu

2009-11-09T22:00:00.003-06:00

Everything I really wanted to make for dinner tonight called for cooking sake, and of course I'm out. So at the very last minute, I decided we should have "omuraisu," which is a Japanese smash-up word that means "omelette rice". You see it here with tabasco on top and a salad of romaine, cucumbers and caesar dressing on the side. What you can't see is the ketchup-flavored stir-fried-with-onions-and-ham rice on the inside. I don't care for ketchup as a general rule, but it makes sense in this dish.

Great for Aogu and I; not such a hit with the kids, though as usual it was amusing to see them having opposite reactions. Izumi immediately gobbled all of her omelette and then started picking the ham out of her rice (she's very carnivorous, if I haven't pointed that out before). Koji scarfed all the cucumbers I gave him on the side and screamed and cried about eating even the rice without the eggs, which I generously excused him from (he's practically a vegetarian, with the notable exception of processed pork products, in other words, the kid will eat any amount of hot dogs).

Starchy?!

2009-11-08T22:44:00.005-06:00

Guess saying this will make me sound weird or old, but since I'm well on my way to both, here goes: I remember that when I was growing up, potatoes, rice, pasta, etc. were "starches". No one says that now. Seems like meal planning is all about "carbs" and "protein," "main" and "sides". What I can definitely categorize tonight's dinner as: unbalanced. We often have mac & cheese on Sundays. Tonight's version incorporated ham, peas and spinach. But then, wanting to use a potato that Koji dug up during a school outing the other day, I also served some smoked salmon hash. Which Koji didn't eat. Starchy!!

Main Dish: Chaos

2009-11-07T21:06:00.002-06:00

If only someone had been filming our "dinner" tonight, I'm sure the resulting footage would be great comedy for someone somewhere sometime. As for me, I wanted to be amused, but was instead caught up trying to manage the chaos that was our dinner time. Note that a large portion of the chaos was likely my own fault.

Stream of consciousness recap:
While we were at the market immediately before dinner getting popsicles for Izumi who has a fever (note to self, love the Village Market but DO NOT buy popsicles there next time, FIVE BUCKS for one box of Dora Pops?!!) my sidekick Koji was hungry and whining at me to buy him something so I suggested that we buy some Rice Krispies (mistake: see parenthetical note above, but sub in "Rice Krispies" for Dora Pops) to make RKTreats when we got home.
Well. Of course to him that meant the very instant we arrived home and NOT after dinner, which would have been more reasonable and sane. And because I am a weak parent who couldn't bear the thought of one more confrontational interaction for today, I decided it would be perfectly OK for me to manufacture RKTreats with him while making dinner and feeding the baby at the same time.

Somehow at some point, but certainly never at the same time, the following people ate the following items:

Misaki: smushed persimmon with rice cereal stirred in
microscopic bits of pita bread, the ones she was able to get to her mouth by herself
gnawed on two celery sticks and one cucumber stick

Izumi: two popsicles
one yogurt
one bowl of rice and natto

Koji: rice, beef shwarma leftover from Pita Inn, green beans
another round of rice with natto
popsicle
RKTreat

Aogu: rice, beef shwarma leftover from Pita Inn, green beans
another round of rice with natto

self: rice, chicken torn from rotis chicken, salad of Pita Inn lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers w/ ranch

How do you write down the sound of all the air escaping from a balloon? 'Cause that's how I feel right now.

CBS Staff Retreat

2009-11-06T21:20:00.002-06:00

Whatever was for dinner tonight was not made by me and was therefore delicious...pizza, Caesar salad, Halloween candy, pitas & hummus, baklava, brownies....

Leftover...

2009-11-05T23:58:00.000-06:00

....curry and rice.

Chick Peas are the Same Thing In Japanese

2009-11-04T23:44:00.003-06:00

A few years ago when we were living in Roppongi (that's how this whole thing got started, you know) I used to pore over recipes in magazines and try to find new things to try. I distinctly remember an ingredient called "hiyoko mame" (keep in mind, I'm in Tokyo, and the recipes I'm reading are in Japanese). I knew that it was some kind of bean, after all, that's what "mame," as in "eda mame" means.

It literally took a year or two after for me to realize that since "hiyoko" means "chick," the ingredient in question was chickpeas. Sometimes I'm a smart chicken. Or is that a dodo?

Tonight I made chili. With ground beef, onions, garlic (no green peppers, didn't have 'em) diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, pinto beans in chili sauce, black beans and chickpeas. More beans in chili is definitely better. At least, as the chili is going down. I'm just saying~

Curry, a Little Bit New-Fangled

2009-11-03T22:22:00.004-06:00

Curry and rice tonight, but not just any curry: Aogu's parents brought us some half calorie curry when they were here a few weeks ago.

Which is a good thing, I've got to balance all this Halloween candy somehow...

Bird Two Ways, Thanks Costco

2009-11-02T22:48:00.002-06:00

Had it in my head all day to make curry, but I haven't been bothered to clean up the dishes that accumulated from the weekend. So every time I went in the kitchen to cook up some dinner, my motivation suffered a serious blow from the dismal state of the place.

At the last moment, I had to switch from curry to rice, broccoli, chicken corn chowder and roast chicken. Every last one of those items was from Costco. What can I say? I'm a loyal customer. Maybe I should join their fan page on Facebook.

If they have one?!

As I Was Saying

2009-11-01T22:40:00.003-06:00

on my other blog, apparently if one is ever going to revive one's faltering blog, this is the month to do it.

So here I am. Today we ate cookies for breakfast. They had peanut butter and oatmeal in them, so I'm thinking that wasn't quite as bad as it sounds.

We had bagels from church for a mid morning snack.

When we got home from Koji's tennis lesson, everyone was hungry but we were out of our Sunday staple, macaroni and cheese. Even more horrible: we were out of rice. So I made some spaghetti instead. Izumi picked her noodles out from under her sauce one by one. She left the sauce in such a neat pile that I let her get away with it.

Kim & crew have been very sick with the swine flu, so I did a Costco run to try and provide them with the menu variety they've been lacking. Naturally, that means we had Costco pepperoni pizza and green beans for dinner. We all LOVE those green beans. I'm too lazy to go and look at the package right now, but trust me, this is how good they are: the kids both picked up giant fistfuls of them and at them out of their hands. Misaki even ate two.

Watermelon Breaking

2009-08-05T23:47:00.000-05:00

Suddenly this summer, Koji is very aware of a Japanese summer tradition, "suikawari," which literally means "watermelon breaking". It's the same idea as with pinata, but participants beat on a watermelon rather than a paper mache figurine. So of course last time I bought a watermelon, we had to try it at home.We weren't bothered with a blindfold, since we knew it would take all the kids' power to beat the thing open. Didn't want to waste energy having them figure out where it was... This watermelon ended up being a tough specimen that broke our bat! But not before we cracked it open! Pictures taken July 24th

Massaman Curry with Rice and Green Beans

2009-08-03T23:44:00.000-05:00

Week in Long Overdue Review

2009-05-27T18:53:00.018-05:00

May 19th:Michelle brought this Thai style curry last Saturday. I had a friend over; we tasted it and agreed that it had the potential to be really good but somehow something was missing. Though I felt a bit guilty, we put it in a pot and started tinkering. In no particular order, and in random quantities, we added jalapenos, turmeric, chili oil, and salt and pepper. Delicious! I wouldn't be repeating this story for fear of hurting Michelle's feelings, but when I thanked her for the curry later, she said, "It wasn't as great as I expected, I thought it would be more flavorful" which liberated me to admit to her that I had tinkered! Enjoyed with white rice and a romaine/cucumber/ranch salad.

May 20th...our 8th anniversary...here's hoping we get to celebrate it sometime, ever...This was my first foray into artichokes at home. I steamed them in the microwave and we dipped them in liberal amounts of butter, which is I think the prime reason Koji liked them very much! Now that I've tried fresh, I think I'll go right back to the ones in the glass jars. Not that fresh wasn't good, but it wasn't so good as to be worth all that effort. We also had rice and chili.

May 22nd: curry and rice

May 23rd: taco rice...I must have mentioned it here before? It's the Japanese incarnation of tacos, which means, take the stuff you might put in a tortilla and throw it on some rice. Delicious!

May 24th: Happy Birthday to my great friend Cheryl Lynn; she chose to outsource her birthday and have a celebration at On The Border in Naperville. Don't get the mahi mahi tacos, they are not good! The fish is too dry and so are the corn tortillas. Nevertheless, it was great to be with CLC and meet some of her friends.

May 26 Nara and her kids are in town to visit her parents and they came by to spend the afternoon/dinner with us. Not only did Nara teach me how to use my camera better (new skill not particulary reflected in this photo), she also practically got dinner on the table plus my kids and her kids all ready for bed, right down to teeth brushing, all by herself. Nara, you are amazing!
rice
misoshiru with tofu and wakame
chicken drumsticks, broiled
grape tomatoes
Choco Pie
strawberries

May 27
split pea soup
rice
natto
spinach

Cake, and Oh, A Little Bit of Cooking Too

2009-05-17T19:38:00.013-05:00

May 13
Izumi's actual birthday was today, though as far as she knew, she already turned three a couple of weeks ago at the kids' birthday party. Since I'm a stickler for some kind of celebration "on the day" though, I had to make cupcakes. I was out of cake flour, which meant I couldn't use The Cake Bible, so I went to the good old red and white cookbook. I was actually pretty disappointed with the finished chocolate cupcakes. Perhaps the fact that I didn't have unsweetened chocolate and subbed in random (sweetened) chocolate from a Trader Joe's Pound Plus bar had something to do with their less than perfect flavor? The kids didn't mind though. As for dinner, Becky W. had brought
*Coyle chicken (which must be some kind of a family secret recipe?)
*green salad with a simple but really delicious oil and vinegar dressing
*quinoa
I added
*white rice and
*broccoli to the above, for the sake of those family members that might not get excited about quinoa and salad, to whom I say, "more for me!"
Thank you very much, Becky!!

May 14
It was so good last week that even though I was nervous about its effects on Misaki's digestive system, I thawed
*Becca's chickpea curry and ate it with
*white rice and
*broccoli left over from yesterday
YUM!

May 15
In an effort to get used to the idea that I may have to get back to cooking dinner for the family at some point, tonight I made
*maple glazed salmon and served it with more
*quinoa (white rice for everyone else) and
*green beans
I can see from my records that this is the third time this year I've made this dish and I've still never posted the recipe, which is a shame because you could have been making it all this time! Try it, it's really delicious and better yet, really easy!!
Alas, I copied this recipe onto a piece of Winnie the Pooh memo paper ages ago but never thought I might one day like to know where I got the recipe. So you know, I didn't make it up but I can't tell you from whence it came either...

Maple Glazed Salmon (serves 4)
Whisk together
3 T maple syrup
2 T soy sauce
1 T grated ginger
1 T water
1/2 tsp. cornstarch and pour over four 6 oz. salmon fillets in an oven proof pie plate or casserole dish. Roast in a 475 degree oven for 15 minutes, basting once halfway through cooking time.

May 16
Today was a HUGE day for Koji because at long last, after pretty much YEARS of waiting, we finally had his school friend Takeru over to play. What Koji doesn't understand is that Takeru lives stinking far away and that's why we can't have him over more often. sigh That's the problem with most of his school friends, but hardly the point here. The point here is that Takeru's brother and mom came along and we had dinner together.
Our dinner turned out to be such a smorgasbord, which isn't what I had planned, but was really funny! First, I wanted to cook for them so I made chili and white rice. But they wanted to contribute so they brought two kinds of Japanese curry. Meanwhile, I had lost track of my dinner contributing friends from church, so we had not one but TWO dinners from different kind ladies. Therefore, in addition to the above we also had pasta with chicken and carrots and Thai chicken curry with mushrooms and lots of other veges. Whew! And after a suitable interval, we had dessert of cupcakes from Izumi's birthday and white chocolate chip cookies adapted from this New York Times recipe that I made for the work party Aogu's away at today.
We really enjoyed having Takeru and his family over today and I hope we can do it again soon, even if it is a trek for us to get to one another!

May 17

Oops, I'm getting ahead of things, this is what we had for dessert tonight, after a super fun "season opener" barbeque at Matt and Nadia's place with our housegroup. Thanks for the fun, everyone! Thanks also for the
*jalapeno cheddar brat with pickle, mustard and bun
*"melty toasty" cheeseburger with mustard, onion and tomato
*pasta salad
*macaroni and cheese
*chips

The cake is Triple Layer Devil's Food, a recipe from The Cake Bible, which I was relieved to go back to now that I've procured cake flour! I filled it with E.D. Smith jam from Costco. The frosting was a little too lumpy, but had the dark chocolate taste I was looking for on the back of the Hershey's Special Dark Baking Cocoa and overall, I think the cake was a success.

Chintzy Sma land

2009-05-12T22:26:00.002-05:00

Though Izumi's been pretty much potty trained for at least three months now, I still hadn't hauled all of us to I.KEA to take advantage of the opportunity to put her and Koji in the kids room, until today.

Except that for no particular reason, I took us off to the other place we needed to go first, which landed us in front of Sma land at 4:46. The lady working there said, "Can I help you?" as if it wasn't completely obvious that I wanted her to be in charge of my kids for an hour.

When I gave her a dazed stare, she helpfully added, "We close in 10 minutes". Oh. Yeah. There's a sign there, inscribed with "10-5" for today's hours.

AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH....

I was so distraught! Whatever I thought I needed at I.KEA, it certainly wasn't important enough to drag three kids along for!

But I was stuck, so we wandered around for awhile and then had dinner in the third floor restaurant. The kids had pasta with marinara sauce, yogurt and chocolate milk. I had a shrimp salad. Aogu joined us later and he had the meatballs with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce. We all shared a slice of chocolate cake and apple cake.

Watch this space; I'll be back at I.KEA soon, but you can be sure that I'll be arriving there no later than 4 pm!

Round Up

2009-05-11T22:17:00.016-05:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to use my parents as an excuse for the fact that I've lost my grip on at least half of the meals we ate for dinner over the last two weeks. I'd also like to say that it was utterly worth it. Having Mom and Dad here was not only super helpful, it was fun too, and we want them to come back ASAP!

Now, in an attempt to salvage my record keeping:

April 29th:
takikomi gohan by Kaori-san
*spinach and
*mackrel braised in a miso sauce by Chieko-san

April 30th:
*ham fried rice by me
*gyoza from the freezer
*pumpkin salad with cranberries and sun dried tomatoes and
*dried daikon and vinegar salad by Toko-san

May 1st: no picture, but Kazuyo-san and Aiko-san teamed up to make us some amazing
*meatballs
*spinach with mushrooms
*another vegetable that was delicious but alas, I can't remember exactly what...
*shrimp in chile sauce

May 2nd: we had a joint birthday party for the kids in honor of Koji turning SIX and Izumi turning THREE. We served dinner, which was
*Japanese style chicken curry with white rice
*DIY ham (thanks to Nadia for the ham!) and cheese sandwiches
*strawberries and of course,
*birthday cake, one white cake and one chocolate but both with jam filling

May 4th:
*chickpea curry by Becca...this curry was AMAZING and I proceeded to eat it for every meal the next day and a half, after which I noticed that Misaki didn't seem so laid back as she usually is...but I was unwilling to give up the curry so I froze it and fully intend to enjoy it again soon, after I give her little digestive system a short hiatus
*salad by Becca
*white rice

May 5th:
*beef stew with heavy cream
*homemade rolls; normally I don't eat much bread but these were DELICIOUS so I think I ate at least two and then remnants of what the kids didn't finish?! both of these wonderful items were prepared for us by Naoko-san
*steamed asparagus (Naoko-san gave us broccoli, but I panicked and got out the asparagus instead, knowing it was about to go bad)
*white rice

May 7th:
*quesadillas
*salad with too much ranch (I was overzealous on trying to finish the bottle)
*spiced pinto beans from a can
*the last of Aiko-san/Kazuyo-san's shrimp in chile sauce

This past weekend, I didn't cook anything of significance, as far as dinner goes. Instead I used all my energy making vanilla ice cream and chocolate covered potato chips. Fortunately, Emery made us some delicious chicken fajitas, and of course for lunch Sunday we went with our standard macaroni and cheese, this time from a Kraft box.

Tonight:
we had Jan and company here for the first time in quite awhile, and I was stressed because the house features large piles of detritus in each and every room. The time I spent trying to uncover the top of the table cut severely in to my dinner making time, so we ended up with
*dino chicken nuggets from Costco
*french bread, courtesy of Nadia
*green beans for the kids with
*chicken quesadilla filling (we couldn't be bothered with tortillas when the chicken was just as good mixed with
*salad from Becky
*vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce

More Dinners Made by Others

2009-04-27T19:36:00.012-05:00

April 21st:
Hiroko-san made us some Japanese style fried chicken with a vegetable sauce to pour over the top and a really great green salad with strawberries, tomatoes and grapefruit. I haven't had grapefruit in ages, probably because I'm too lazy to cut it, so this was really special!

April 22nd:
Asami-san made the fanciest looking meal we've had so far, chirashi zushi. This is "scattered sushi," or sushi rice with other ingredients mixed in/sprinkled on. The pictured dish included shrimp, green beans, egg and seaweed, and was delicious. I also threw some tofu into wakame (seaweed) soup, which was a surprisingly big hit with the kids.

April 23rd:
Mio-san brought us garlic chicken and asparagus with dressing, to which we added white rice.

April 24th:TGIF, I guess...or do I even know what day of the week it is? Whether I was tired because it was Friday, or for whatever reason, I didn't take a picture of the mabodofu and takikomi gohan that Ai-san made for us. I wish I had though, because they were both delicious. The takikomi gohan had hijiki in it, which made it an automatic hit with me.

April 25th:Japanese style curry with white rice, which I had to make yesterday after Jenny told me that she's been making it for their family lately. I'm so proud to have converted them, though sorry it took a move away from us to North Carolina to get them to enjoy it on their own...guess up until now they didn't need to make it with me around to do it for them?!

April 26th:
Tonight we began to enjoy the Costco ham that Nadia brought yesterday. I say began to because that thing is huge and we have lots left. Starting tomorrow, it'll be time to start getting creative with ham! But for tonight, sliced ham with glaze, chirashi zushi, takikomi gohan, ceasar salad, green beans, ice cream and a bit of the World's Finest Chocolate bar that I bought from a kid at church this morning.

April 27th:
Eriko-san brought a Malaysian chicken curry, which her husband made for us. It was delicious, so much so that we ate most of it before I remembered to snap this photo. I was afraid that it might be too spicy for my parents, so we also had some chili that I had stuck in the freezer a few weeks ago for just such an occasion as this. We also had white rice, spinach and banana white chocolate muffins for dessert.

Koji's Official Birthday

2009-04-20T19:42:00.002-05:00

April 18th:
no one brought dinner tonight, but that was fine...I LOVE that people are helping and support us by making us food, yet I actually don't mind cooking, so I enjoyed taking a turn. I made:
*hashed beef and onions
*white rice
*salad of romaine, green peppers, carrots and ranch dressing

April 19th:
Sam and Erika brought dinner tonight and stayed with us to eat, which was extra fun. Erika made a broccoli and cheese casserole with breadsticks and of course we contributed some white rice. Then she busted out a super fancy cake, two layers of chocolate with an Oreo creme filling. She was so kind as to let us commandeer the cake for an early celebration of Koji's birthday...thanks!!

April 20th:
on Koji's actual birthday, Tomoe-san made us
*buta no kakuni (a stew of pork belly, daikon and hard boiled eggs
*burdock root and carrot salad in a mayonnaise dressing (which is one of my favorite things!)
*white rice and of course we had to help ourselves to another round of the
*"birthday cake" that Erika brought yesterday...

Four Meals in Two Days, But We Ate It All

2009-04-17T23:41:00.001-05:00

April 16th:
Tomo-chan, who should be packing for her move back to Japan that is coming up sadly and soon, took a break from that to make us a fine dinner.

*takikomi gohan -- rice with other ingredients steamed in; this one had little bits of meat, sesame seeds and maybe some ginger? I didn't quite know what it was other than delicious.
*shumai and something else, I don't know what it's called but it looked like a CA roll but instead it had carrot in the middle, egg where the rice would have been, and aburaage instead of seaweed. Tasty!
*a kind of cold stew with okra, taro, burdock root, konnyaku in a meat sauce
*um. there was one other dish but since I neglected to take a picture I can't remember what it was...I will edit if it comes to me.

Furthermore, for lunch today I baked up the enchilada casserole that Jessica brought over yesterday. I hardly need to tell you that Aogu and I ate it with white rice... it was so generously sized that I froze half of it for later and kept the rest for forthcoming lunches. It's really good with a bit of guacamole on the side!

April 17th:
we were really spoiled today, three ways~
1. Jen brought us Thai coconut chicken soup, chicken satay, a fabulous green salad with cheese, cranberries and nuts and "adult" chocolate (as in, no need to share with kids!)
2. Yuko-san made us stewed hamburger steak (which doesn't sound good but was!), chickpea avocado salad, green beans in soy sauce and carrots. And of course to these we added white rice.

3. We also added Ross & Rebecca who came over to share the above abundance with us, to keep us company and to help with the laundry. Their presence even inspired me to bust out the Mukka Express cappuccino maker Rich & Jenny gave me a few months ago. I had been afraid to try it on my own, but our joint effort yielded success on the second try!

More Dinner by Friends

2009-04-15T21:56:00.000-05:00

April 14th:
*nimono"--a kind of Japanese stew, this one featuring chicken drumsticks and hard boiled eggs
*harusame salad with cucumbers, egg and ham, courtesy of Miwa-san!
*that Indian style cauliflower which is likely too spicy for Misaki, but which I can't stop myself from making and then eating for every subsequent meal until it's gone...
*white rice

April 15th:
*Chinese-style spareribs
*green beans and shrimp in some kind of Chinese style sauce (delicious!)
*potatoes and arugula
*daikon pickles, all thanks to Izumi-san!
*white rice

Turkey Sandwich and Misaki

2009-04-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

My New Year's Resolution for this blog was to post every day regarding either what I made for dinner, or if I didn't make dinner, at least what I ate. The point of doing so is primarily to inspire myself on days when my mind is blank regarding dinner. But I also have the secondary hope that maybe you'll be inspired, if not to make something that I've made, then at least to try cooking!

In any case, I'll have to give myself on a break on posting every single day, and I think I have a pretty good reason: last week on Sunday, our baby girl Misaki was born! I will still tell you what we had for dinner since then, though! I didn't make the majority of it, and for that I thank God, the moms from Koji's school and various friends from church. If the reports I hear are true, for some reason people are lining up to make us dinner, so I may not have to cook for awhile!

April 5th: Misaki was born at 6:40. At around 8 pm, I realized I hadn't eaten all day and I was getting hungry. So I had:
*turkey sandwich of bread and turkey, onto which I squeezed a mustard packet
*shortbread cookies
*cranberry juice
Fine dining!

April 6th: the rest of the family came to join Misaki and me in our hospital room. They had
*takeout from Pita Inn which frankly looked more delicious than my "celebration meal" of
*shrimp scampi? I've never had shrimp scampi anywhere else, but I'm not sure that's what people usually mean when they say "shrimp scampi"
*brown rice
*ceasar salad
*raspberry cheesecake--this last was for the fam, since I don't care for cheesecake
I was disappointed that my asparagus was forgotten, and that I didn't have any milk to go with the cupcakes Cheryl Lynn's kind friend Becky made for me.

April 7th: while my head was still spinning around from checking out of the hospital and trying to get settled in at home, our first dinner, made by Miwa-san, arrived:
*roast beef with carmelized onions
*white rice
*salad of greens and tofu

April 8th: though it was her birthday, and though she has graciously volunteered to cart Koji to and from school for the next couple of weeks, Miho brought us
*nikujaga
*steamed asparagus
*natto
*white rice
Meanwhile, Jennifer also brought us dinner! So we supplemented the above with
*fruit salad and
*pear and apple pie, saving the ribs, broccoli and rolls for later

April 9th: Maki-san made us
*nimono, which is a generic name for all kinds of "stewed" food--this one included chicken drumsticks, hardboiled eggs, carrots, and burdock root
*eggplant in a dressing of soy sauce, sesame seed oil? and ??
*white rice

April 10th: Jenny and Rich supplied us with a delicious dinner all the way from Charlotte, with the help of Pita Inn. Did we mind having Pita Inn for the second time this week? Not at all! Thanks very much for dinner, the only thing that could have made it better would have been eating it with you!
*beef shwarma
*chicken shwarma
*saffron rice?
*lettuce and tomato salad
*pita
*hummus
*tabouleh salad

April 11th: we were so spoiled for the last several days, when it was time for dinner and we didn't have anyone knocking the door down to give us food, I hardly knew what to do! I had already used Jennifer's ribs for lunch, so in the end I went with the easy and quick
*macaroni and cheese with broccoli and ham
I also (foolishly) thought I had enought energy for baking a bit, so I made some lemon bars and a pear cranberry cobbler. By that evening, I could barely walk for the pain in my back! I don't remember feeling this way after the other two kids were born, so I don't know what's going on this time.

April 12th: Happy Easter! He is Risen!
With all these kids being born around this time of year, we haven't had a chance to form any family Easter traditions other than going to church. Maybe we can remedy that starting next year. In any case, for today, the kids were invited to an Easter Egg hunt. After the Hunt, they were offered dinner, but no surprise, they didn't eat enough, so though it was time for bed when they got home, they started claiming they were hungry. I had NO dinner plan, so I finally offered them a conciliatory piece of cheese and put them to bed. Then Aogu and I needed to eat, but my back was hurting and I was incapacitated, so he came up with:
*ochazuke
*roast beef and onions (left over from Wednesday)
*pear and cranberry cobbler

tonight: Phew. The start of another week means dinner made by someone else, thank you God! Junko-san made us:
*meatballs in diced red pepper and onion sauce
*german potato salad with asparagus and bacon
*salad of smashed tofu? and konnyaku and ?...OK, I didn't quite know what it was, but it was good and it got me to eat konnyaku, which is saying something. I always think I should eat more of that stuff, it's supposed to be SO healthy but it's also SO tasteless.
*white rice
*sweet potato yokan, not pictured
And, full disclosure, I ate some of the chocolate bunny that Izumi got at the Easter Egg Hunt yesterday. She's too young to appreciate Dove chocolate, don't you think?

What's the Real Spice Story?

2009-04-04T23:20:00.000-05:00

Supposedly eating spicy food gets labor going, right? Now that I'm 12 days from my due date and pretty uncomfortable, I'm all about getting my labor going.

That's why I was looking forward to going out to dinner with Cheryl Lynn tonight before my baby shower. We were going to go to Wholly Frijoles so that I could drink some salsa or something.

Then I started having contractions, not enough to send me to the hospital yet, but enough to make me stop and take note every 10 minutes or so. Since I hadn't packed my hospital bag, we decided to do that before going to dinner, which meant that we ran out of time and couldn't make it to our original destination.

Our second choice was El Tipico but when we pulled up, they were closed because they are in the middle of changing owners. Or something.

We were reduced to Panino's. The calamari was pretty good and came out very quickly. I decided that I like calamari with legs better than rings.

The beef and barley soup tasted like it was from a can, but I ate most of it anyway to try and stay hydrated, since I was having some steady contractions. CL and I shared the rigatoni boscaiola and the spinach salad. Neither met my usual resturant ordering criteria of "item I can't/won't make at home" but I did appreciate the company and the opportunity to skip cooking for tonight.

Skip I did! I made a pot of rice for Aogu and the kids but other than that, I have no idea if/what they ate. So this is what that phrase "ignorance is bliss" means. Hmm.

The baby shower my friends put together for me was really fun and special. Thank you ladies! The mini cupcakes, cookies with fruit on them, coffee cheesecake, delicious blackberries...everything was great. Too bad I forgot my camera....

Maybe I'll have baby news soon?!

Miso-Bean Sprout Stir Fry

2009-04-03T21:41:00.004-05:00

*white rice
*the ubiquitous Indian cauliflower in tomato sauce (and no, I'm not sick of it; I'm seriously considering making another round tomorrow!)
*wakame (seaweed) soup from a package with extra wakame and green onions added
*stirfry of bean sprouts, pork belly, leeks, ginger and miso which also contained sugar and sake and therefore was a little too sweet for us. Next time, reduce the sugar and add a bit of salt and pepper, would you? (talking to myself, please don't be offended)

No Fooling, Jess' Birthday

2009-04-02T22:02:00.000-05:00

As often happens around here, the best thing I made today wasn't dinner.

Rather, it was this cake for Jess' birthday (which was technically yesterday), and yes, it HAD TO BE ORANGE. And yes, I just happened to have this orange party tablecloth in the closet which went perfectly with the occasion and made even cheerier the gathering of friends to celebrate Jess.

Megan contributed the perfectly orangily (is that a word? it should be!) frosted graham cracker cookies. I was too embarrassed to admit to her that I had just been helping myself to a treat of graham-cracker-as-shovel-for-frosting earlier today. Her cookies were infinitely better, and neater, than that.

Michelle kicked in the blood orange sorbet from Ciao Bella and it was delectable. We thought it must have been procured at a hoity toity market, but no, it was from the grocery down the street (which shall remain nameless because I don't actually like or frequent that place).

In other words, people, as you see clearly, this was a well-deserved dessert feast in honor of Jess. Um, or we were using Jess as an excuse to make what we might have done anyway a little fancier and a lot more ORANGE. Either way, it was a delightful evening!

Back to my contribution: I wanted to make a chocolate orange marble cake but couldn't find a recipe that appealed to me after the success of the chocolate matcha cake from a couple of weeks ago. Finally, I decided I was determined to use the same recipe and just tweak it to be orange instead of matcha. I even emailed Bakerella to solicit her advice, and was impressed that she was willing and able to get back to me, and quickly! Thanks, Bakerella!

In the end, the changes I made were to:
*omit matcha
*add 3 heaping tablespoons of orange zest to the non-chocolate flour mixture
*after adding the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, put in 1/8 tsp. of orange oil, 2 tablespoons of Cointreau and a whole lot of food coloring paste

For the top of the cake, I made a butter frosting. Then, without thinking at all that orange and butter might curdle, I added 3 or 4 tablespoons of frozen orange juice concentrate. Phew. No curdling, though I can't tell you why it didn't happen, or why I was so cautious as to not add milk though I didn't hestitate to mix the OJ and butter....the frosting was much orangier than the cake but I don't know what I could have done differently to the cake. A bit more orange oil?

By the way, even with all this cake and cookie and sorbet induced excitement, I still managed to make dinner.

*gyoza
*white rice
*yesterday's Indian tomato sauce cauliflower
*stirfry of ground turkey, eggs, ginger, leeks and kikurage

Released from Prison into Subway

2009-04-01T22:01:00.000-05:00

When we went to the pediatrician last Saturday and got our official verdict of "influenza," we were also told that said sickness is highly contagious and we shouldn't try to resume regular life until observing at least 24 hours without fevers.

So today, EIGHT DAYS after the fever and etc. came on and left us huddled here in the house, we finally marked that milestone.

Therefore, I decided that Koji was probably up for his karate class this afternoon. Once we finished the karate class--he's a yellow stripe belt right now, I know that's relevant to this post--I also decided to treat us to dinner at Subway.

Still can't decide if that was really a treat or not. I enjoyed taking a break from making dinner. The kids enjoyed being out. But I didn't enjoy spending fifteen dollars on a couple of sandwiches. Should there be a next time, note to self: if, make that when, the kids "have to have" the toys, just get two kids' meals and eat their scraps. Though that makes me sound like the Prodigal Son in the pigpen, I prefer that idea to spending too much money, taking half of my sandwich home and eating the kids' scraps anyway because it seems like a waste not to.

Two redeeming points for today: one, obviously, is that the kids and I actually left the house together. I'll have to rebuild my stamina for doing that though likely not till after Baby Spice appears; what should have been a simple karate lesson and dinner left me pretty wiped out...but it was worth it!!

Two: for my lunch, I made Gobi Jhalfrezie or "Cauliflower in a Piquant Tomato Sauce" or, as I've been calling it, "Indian Cauliflower". Out of kindness, I left the kids out: it was too spicy for them, and they preferred hot dogs anyway. Surprise. Last time I made something with cauliflower, it was an Indian-inspired dish which must have subconsciously convinced me that cauliflower is better cooked with Indian flavors? Or something. This recipe is slightly modified from the-fast-becoming-beloved Indian Home Cooking.

Serves 4
2 T canola oil
1 T chile powder
1 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
1 small head cauliflower, cored and cut into bite size pieces
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 T white vinegar

Combine the first three ingredients in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook until the cumin begins to brown, about 1 minute.
Add the ginger, cook and stir for 30 seconds. Add the cauliflower and cook until it begins to brown, 2-3 minutes.
Add the salt and pepper and mix well. Turn the heat down to medium; cover the pan and cook until the cauliflower is almost tender, 7-8 minutes, while stirring three or four times and checking to be sure the spices aren't burning and the cauliflower is browning. Adjust the heat accordingly.
Add the tomato sauce and vinegar and stir well; cover again and cook for 2-3 minutes until the cauliflower is tender. Serve with rice!!

トマトソースのインド風カリフラワー
４人前

サラダオイル　大さじ2
チリーパウダー　大さじ１
クミンの種　　小さじ１．５
しょうが、親指位の大きさ、みじん切り
カリフラワー　１キロ、食べやすい大きさに切る
塩　小さじ１
コショウ　小さじ1
トマトソースの缶　２２５ｇ　
酢　大さじ１

大きめなフライパンでオイル、チリパウダー、クミンの種を熱めな中火で約一分炒めて、しょうがを加えて３０秒炒めて、カリフラワーを加えて、少しきつね色になるまで炒め混ぜる、２－３分。
塩、コショウを振りかけて、良く混ぜたら火をちょっと弱めて蓋をかぶせる。カリフラワーが柔らかくなる前まで７－８分蒸す。２－３回かき混ぜながら、スパイスが焦げないように見ておく。
トマトソースと酢を加えてよくかき混ぜる。再び蓋かけて２－３分煮込んだら出来上がり。ご飯と食べるととっても美味しいです！

Chili and Pokemon Shirts

2009-03-31T22:08:00.003-05:00

I made chili today and I got it done in like 12 minutes flat. That doesn't count the simmer time, of course, but I was still impressed with my own speed. You'd think I wouldn't mind spending a little more time on dinner now that we are back in influenza quarantine mode, but maybe I was preoccupied making these:

I didn't make the shirts but I did make and attach the patches, and if you ask those pictured, of the things I made today, these were infinitely superior!

Chicken Nuggets Are For When I'm Dizzy

2009-03-30T21:25:00.003-05:00

Thank God for leftovers. This morning I had hayashi rice, for lunch I had palak paneer and for dinner, mabodofu. You can see that I would have starved today if not for these provisions which remained from the last few days.

There was no cooking for me today; in spite of the flu shot I had, I think I'm starting to succumb after a week straight of nursing sick kids. BAD! Remember that I am 37 1/2 weeks preggo!! So I'm not feeling terribly spry on the best day, and topping that with a fever and sore throat pretty much incapacitated me today.

Thank God also for foresight; when we were at Costco the other day, I bought the five pounds of dino nuggets that I haven't in quite some time. I figured they would come in handy after the baby's here, but their day for handiness was today instead. The kids enjoyed them with ketchup, rice and edamame, and finished things off with ice cream and strawberries.

As long as I'm speaking of God, please God, let this flu, if that's what I have, be much more short lived for me than it has been for the kids!!

Clam Chowder

2009-03-29T21:24:00.003-05:00

Making it myself usually keeps me from feeling this way, but my concensus on today's clam chowder:

Would rather have eaten at Mo's.

Mabodofu from a Box

2009-03-28T21:23:00.002-05:00

I got to leave the house today!

I got to leave the house today!

Yes, this was an extraordinary and rare moment. The occasions for my release were a good-bye party and a baby shower. Aogu released me and I thank him!

Making dinner for the fam before I flew the coop was the least I could do. They had:

*mabodofu, only this time I couldn't be bothered making the sauce from scratch and used a sauce packet I found in the pantry
*white rice
*steamed broccoli?

As I was at a party, you know what I ate.

*pizza

Unprecedented Output

2009-03-27T22:20:00.009-05:00

I made a lot of stuff today! Perhaps I've finally made peace with the reality of influenza keeping us home for not just one or two days but many beyond? Or I'm just stir crazy...

In any case, I was struck with a fit of creativity and productivity! First, I decided that someone who can make their own granola can probably also make their own granola bars. Right? Sounds logical? Here's what I ended up with. They're a little hard to see with the light reflecting off the plastic I wrapped them in. And furthermore, though I'm finding it pleasing to be able to pull them out of the freezer anytime without wondering what exactly is in this snack food?! I'm still not actually sure that I love the way they taste. At the same time, I know I'll never turn my nose up at anything that contains oats and chocolate chips! Still, I think I can do better. One quibble I have with the recipe I used is, it called for cutting an 8x8 pan of bars into 24 servings?!! Um, not likely. I think I ended up with something like 18, and that felt scrimpy. Point here, does anyone have a granola bar recipe to recommend?

Next, it's not dinner or even food, but I can't resist noting that today I was bitten by a sewing bug and suddenly couldn't go another moment without fashioning some sort of garment. Maybe now that my sewing machine is back in its proper accessible position in the basement, I suddenly had to make up for the last six months, when it wasn't? Or maybe I was just challenged and inspired by my sister? At the same time, I don't have the stamina for a long project, or a body that I am planning to keep for longer than the next two weeks. So my solution was this skirt for my daughter. If you think you see me patting myself on the back, you aren't making it up!

Last but not least, I did actually make dinner in spite of making these other things. Perhaps having Aogu home to eat dinner for the first weeknight in ages had something to do with it? It's

*hayashi rice which was infinitely better this time, as I had the required thinly sliced beef on hand
*white rice
*daikon salad again...what can I say except that I really like daikon and ume (Japanese pickeled plum) together and I can't get enough lately. Must be Baby Spice's fault.

So, all this creativity is nearly enough to make me think that staying for home for days on end isn't so bad...?! Quote that back to me in a few more days and see what I say!

Pita Inn to the Rescue

2009-03-26T22:20:00.005-05:00

Izumi and I had lunch at Pita Inn with friends on Tuesday, but we couldn't eat it all and it's a good thing.

After I spent a large portion of today making this trifle for Craig's birthday, I wasn't up for making dinner.

But I'm really pleased with my creation! Too bad there wasn't any way for us to sample it...Happy Birthday to Craig!

Cornmeal Pizza, but I'm Still Avoiding Yeast

2009-03-25T22:19:00.002-05:00

Though we were home all day today in what will turn out to be the first of MANY days at home thanks to some nasty cases of influenza, I still couldn't plan ahead enough to try out a yeast pizza for dinner. But I really wanted to make pizza so I could use up that half full pack of pepperoni in the fridge.

I'm so glad that I got out this little pizza cookbook that my sister gave me quite some time ago: I found a great recipe for baking soda pizza with cornmeal. The whiter side of the pizza is "my" side, where I covered the pepperoni with pepper jack cheese. The other side is for the kids...but my efforts to use the pepperoni were a little overzealous, so they found it a bit spicy.

Well, there's nothing like having some leftover pizza available, so I count the pieces they didn't eat as to my benefit!

Mickey D's Again...

2009-03-24T22:19:00.002-05:00

...but is it really "again" if the last time we drove thru was in early January? I'm kind of proud of myself on this one; there was a point last year when I was driving thru at the Golden Arches at least once a week.

The back story to my "break down" for tonight is that we spontaneously went to play at a friends' house after school. We left around dinner time and had a bit of a drive ahead of us. I was worried that the kids would fall asleep and then not be able to go to bed easily when we got home. So driving thru to feed them dinner AND keep them awake seemed like an excellent kill two birds with one stone scenario.

As usual, in a moment of weakness, I got the double cheeseburger from the dollar menu, thought it was gross and ate it anyway.

Kale and Cabbage Gratin

2009-03-23T22:08:00.003-05:00

The kale I've recently experimented with by putting it in soup etc. has been a success, at least for me. I even got the kids to eat some by mixing it into their mac and cheese, if I recall correctly. If you're fact-checking me, you'll have to find that post on your own since I'm too lazy to link to it here.

In any case, I thought it was about time I branch out and make something other than soup with kale. So at long last, I made this kale and cabbage gratin. Here's what I learned:

*any recipe that calls for a pound of kale AND a pound of cabbage will turn into an exceeding amount of food
*ground thyme is nasty and should never ever be used under any circumstances, starting this moment
*more cheese would probably be better, at least from a taste standpoint
*if you don't know what to compare gruyere to when you are at the market searching for it in vain, try muenster instead

And with the hindsight of posting this several days later: this gratin is not bad, but if I should ever make it again, I will halve the recipe. After I ate it once or twice a day for the next several days and still had more than half left, I had to give that half to a friend. Trying to plow through it on my own was just overkale. Get it?!! Overkale = overkill...never mind...