Saturday - Soba and Asian slaw

Tonight's dinner was...

Soba noodles
Asian slaw
Green beans with black sesame sauce
strawberries


I don't really have much recipes to update tonight.
Tonight's dinner was "Let's get dinner ready in 15min" style ;p

The green beans recipe you can get from HERE

And the Asian Slaw... It's really not much to it.
But here's the recipe if you are interested...


Asian Slaw

Cole slaw mix (I used shredded broccoli stems)---1/2 pkg
*soy sauce---2tsp
*sushi vinegar---2tsp
*sesame oil---1tsp

Mix all the ingredients. that's all :)





We left early this morning and went to a fun place!

Can you guess where we went?
OH! and also can you see where my son is?
He's so small, and wearing a green T-shirt, he blended in the field! lol


We went to...

A FARM!!!


We picked strawberries, blackberries, carrots, turnips, and celery :)
We got a lot of juicy sweet strawberries! They are so good, I can't get over it!


The place we went is called, Underwood Family Farm

They had many children's attractions, such as pony ride, train ride, hey ride, tractor ride, feed goats, feed chicken...etc etc.
The admission was only $5 ($3 on weekdays) and you can play and eat as much as you want! (you pay for stuff you picked to bring home before leaving).

The farm itself was really large and have wide varieties of vegetables and fruits. So much fun! When we were walking around to look for strawberries, there were many sunflowers.

So cute!!! We wander off through the arch of sunflowers under the blue clear sky... mmm... I smelt summer, summer, SUMMER!!!



One interesting attraction they have here is...

Yup, goats are walking over your head! That's not the only spot. THROUGHOUT the whole play area (which is fairly big), there are those goat's ladders everywhere.
Pretty cool.
I wonder how they trained the goats in the first place. I mean, how do you start something like that. Would they ever decide to just jump off and be free? I couldn't help but wonder...


Anyways, 1 more day for this week.
Looks like I have a lot of vegetables left... I guess I don't have to get too much of stuff this week...

Except I'm leaving in a couple of weeks now, I've gotta start stocking up some stuff for my husband! Mostly frozen items...and maybe some pasta and cans of soup...

Friday - Okonomi yaki

Tonight's dinner was...

Okonomi yaki
Green beans with Portuguese sausage
Chicken with onion sauce
Tofu miso soup


I felt sick this afternoon, so my husband was going to pick up some food after picking up our son from school.
He was searching where he should get food from...I was gradually getting better after taking some medicine.

So I decided to cook. haha
But easy quicky stuff though.
Thank goodness I had some Onion sauce leftovers from the other night.
I poured them onto pan fried chicken.

I had a whole head of cabbage, decided to make some Okonomi yaki.
Of course, the easy shortcut style :)

Recipes of the day:

Okonomi yaki

(Makes 2 Okonomiyaki)
Cabbage---1/2 shredded
Okonomiyaki batter mix---1cup
Water---1/2cup
Egg---1
bacon---3sliced cut in 1/2

1) Make batter, then put cabbage.
2) In a medium pan, put 1 tbs oil, then put half of Okonomiyaki mix and cook on a medium heat.
3) Put some bacon on top before flipping.

4) It's done when the both sides are crispy brown.
5) Put some Okonomiyaki sauce or Tonkatsu sauce and mayonnaise before serving.

Topping option:
Bonito Flakes, some green seaweed, red pickled ginger (beni shoga)

Chicken with Onion sauce

You can get the recipe for Onion sauce is HERE


Green beans and Portuguese sausage

Hawaiian LOVES Portuguese sausages.
My husband is no exception :)
So this is what I used.

Green beans--- handful cut in 1/2 to 1/3 size
Portuguese sausage---1/2 pkg same size as green beans
Shiitake mushrooms---3 sliced

1) Cook sausage on a medium heat, then add green beans and shiitake.
2) Salt and pepper and 2 tbs of water or white wine.



I opened a bottle of beer to drink while I write this blog...
I'm not even half way, I'm getting super sleepy and tired...
Sorry, no story to tell tonight...

Good night everyone...


Picture of the day:

My daughter is only 4 month old right now.
But I'm getting ready for her eating gears!!!

Thursday - Japchae and Balsamic sauce

Tonight's dinner was...

Japchae (Korean noodles)
Orange Roughy with Balsamic sauce
Mizuna soup with shrimp
Potato namul


Here are some recipes of the day:

Japchae

Japchae noodles---1/3 pkg
Onion---1/2 (sliced)
Carrots---5 baby carrots (julienned)
Shiitake mushroom---3 (sliced)
Green pepper---1/2 (julienned)

Meat (anything. I used ground meat )---1/2 lb
*Soy sauce---1tbs
*Agave---1/2tbs

*Seasoning*
water---1/4cup
soy sauce---3tbs
agave---2tbs
sesame oil---1/2tbs

1) Cook the noodles and cut to edible size

2) Cook the meat with meat seasoning. Put aside.
3) Cook onion, carrots, shiitake, and green pepper in this order. salt and pepper to taste with a drizzle of sesame oil.

The real way of making this dish, you cook each ingredients separately. But since it's made by ME, I just make them all together...because it's faster ;p The result? To be honest with you, I couldn't tell the difference if the ingredients were cooked together or not.

4) In a large pan, put *seasoning* ingredients, then put the cooked noodless.

4) Cook for a couple of minutes, then add meat and vegetables. Mix well together on a medium heat.

Balsamic sauce

Balsamic vinegar---1/2cup
Red wine---3tbs
Soy sauce---2tbs
Agave---2 1/2tbs
Butter---1tbs

1) In a small sauce pan, put all the ingredients together, then bring to a boil on a high heat.
2) Lower the heat to medium to low to simmer until sauce gets thickened.

Mizuna soup with shrimp

Mizuna---1 small bunch (3 inch long)
Shrimp---2-3
Water---2cup
Chicken bouillon---1/2

1) Make a boiling water in a medium pot. Put bouillon until it dissolved, then add shrimp and mizuna. Add some salt to set the taste.


My husband is off tomorrow, so I didn't prepare a bento - :)

I made something Korean today.
I was born and raised in Japan. So I'm Japanese.
But I was born to a Korean family.
But my parents were also born in Japan.
So I am Japanese, really.
But in Japan, they call us Korean.
We carry Korean passports.
We speak no Korean.
I'm a 3rd Generation Korean Japanese.
I always hated the fact that I was Korean, because I was confused growing up. What was my real identity?
I had two names. Japanese and Korean.
I went to school by my Japanese name.
I traveled abroad by Korean name.
I remember hating my Korean name because it didn't sound like mine.
When I visited Korea for the first time when I was 14 years old, I was asked something in Korean at the immigration...
Had no idea what the officer was saying...but I remember her giving me a stinky eyes and said something like 'Why this girl doesn't speak Korean when she has a Korean passport!?'.
I felt ashamed.

So, when I came to the states when I was 15, I felt free for the first time in my life.
Free to say where I was from.
Free to say what I was.
Free to say who I am.


It's funny though, I married to a man who was born in Hawaii.
He was born to a Korean family.
He, like me, speaks no Korean.

I guess we make a perfect 'fake' Korean couple :)




Picture of the day:

My son goes to preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. So I try to find some activities to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
We usually go to a small local library near our house, but they are closed for a month for some reason. We went to a different one for a change.
In stead of reading books after books (which he usually do at library), he found some train toys (his favorite!)... I don't think he read any books at this library today. ha ha

Wednesday - Gobo sticks and Onion sauce

Tonight's dinner was...

Steak with Onion sauce
Gobo sticks
Cole Slaw
Corn


My husband is still not quite back to normal yet. So, I decided to cook something that might give him energy;

Beef = energy for men

At least that's what he told me long time ago :)


I wanted to make this delicious onion sauce that they serve at Steakhouses in Japan. The flavor of onion and soy sauce with a touch of sweetness. mmmm, yum.

So I've came up with a recipe!
Here it is...


onion sauce

Onion---1 medium size
Fuji Apple---1/2 large (1 small)
Garlic---1tsp
Soy Sauce---4tbs
Sake---2tbs
Agave (or honey)---2tbs

1) Put onion and apple in a food processor (or magic bullet). Make it puree.
2) Transfer into a sauce pan, then add the rest of ingredients on a high heat.
3) Remove from the heat once it comes to a boil. Mix well thoughout the heating process.

This is Agave. I used it instead of honey or sugar.
Since I started to write my ingredients here on my blog, I've noticed there are a lot of sugar use. I wanted to substitute some of the sugar usage to a different form of sweetener.


Gobo sticks

This is a recipe I found online.
Gobo (burdock) is a good root vegetable for breastfeeding moms.
Actually any root vegetables are known to be good for breastfeeding moms in Japan. I bought 2 long sticks of gobo this week, I wanted to make something new and different.
This recipe is really easy yet super good!

Gobo---1 stick (cut in 4th to 8th thick, 3in long..or longer)
Soy sauce---2tbs
grated ginger---1tsp
minced garlic---1tsp
potato starch---1/2 cup


1) Marinate gobo in a mixture of soy sauce, ginger and garlic in a ziploc bag for a couple of hours in the refrigerator (if you have time).

If you don't have time to marinate, just marinate them in the very beginning of your cooking. If you are making this for beer snack and don't have any time to marinate, advice would be,

- marinate - go open a bottle of beer - drink the whole bottle - then come back to cook

This is a really good beer snack too!

Ok, back to the recipe...

2) Coat them in potato starch.

3) Put 1/2 cup of oil in a large pan. Fry on a medium to high heat.

They are so crunchy and fun! My son, the picky eater son loved them too!


My husband is going back to work from tomorrow, so my bento making started again :)

Pictures of the day:

I'm making food to stock up in the freezer for my husband while I'm gone for a month. Today, I made Beer Chicken. It's like Chicken Adobo.

Chicken drumsticks---8
Beer---1 can
Soy sauce---1/2cup
Sugar---1/3cup
Sushi vinegar---1/4cup

Put them all in the pressure cooker.
When the spinning sounds occur, cook for 10min, then turn off heat.
Let it stand for awhile.

This is what you'll see once it cools down.

Mix and let it stand again.
Best result when you eat the next day.



I put them in ziploc bags, put the name of the dish and the date.

Pop them in the freezer.
This is so easy, but so good.

Tuesday - California rolls and green beans with black sesame sauce

Tonight's dinner was...

California Rolls
Green beans with black sesame sauce
Potato pancakes
Mizuna salad




My husband is still sick. I wanted to cook something that are easy to eat for him... He says he can't taste anything, so I wanted to make something with textures...like crunchiness.  If he can't enjoy the taste, at least he can enjoy the crunchiness of the food :)


Here's the recipes of the day:


California rolls

Avocado---1/2 sliced
Cucumber---1 Persian thick julienned
Imitation crab---2 (long sticks)
Mayo (optional)
Seaweed---2

Cooked rice---1 1/2 cup
Sushi vinegar---4~5tbs

1) Make sushi rice by adding sushi vinegar (seasoned rice vinegar) to cooked rice. Let it cool down.
2) On a bamboo sushi roller, put rice on seaweed. Cover rice with saran wrap, then turn over. Seaweed face up. Then put toppings.

3) Roll the whole thing with bamboo roller.

Green beans with black sesame sauce

Green beans---Handful cut half

*Black (or regular) ground sesame---2tbs
*sugar---1 1/2tbs
*soy sauce---1tbs

1) Mix all the *sauce ingredients.
2) Cook green beans in a boiling water.

3) In a medium bowl, mix them together well while green beans are still warm.


Potato pancakes

The recipe is here

But tonight, I used frozen mixed veggies and pine nuts for the crunch.


If you buy California Rolls, they can be a bit pricey.
But if you could just try to make them at home, you'll know how easy they are to make!
If you don't own any bamboo rollers, you can just try to roll with saran wrap. But make sure try to roll tightly :)

Last week, I bought 6 ears of corn, and I think I ate 4 to 5 of them by myself! I'm so addicted to corn, I think ;p
I have them cooked and saved in the refrigerator, I kept eating them every time I get munchies! hahaha


Picture of the day:

We went camping at Cachuma Lake (near Santa Barbara) last summer.
Looking at this picture makes me want to go back to camping this year again!
I don't know how easy (hard) it's going to be with an infant...

But camping is great.
My son is spoiled with many toys he owns. He plays with toys and video games everyday... but for some reason, he can find it super fun by just digging holes in the ground at a camp site, or just running around the tent... The nature makes all of us feel so close and connected.
I was never a camp lover person, EVER, until last year.
Just seeing my son enjoy every minute of it made me love camping with my family!!!

Monday

Sorry, no dinner photo tonight ;(

I made Meat sauce rice casserole, but I forgot to take a photo!

When I woke up, my husband was sick.
And come to find out he had a fever of almost 103F!!!
And his tempreture kept going up and up.
At around 6pm, took him to an Urgent Care to have a doctor take a look.
Possibility of a flu. boo hoo


Since we were out at around dinner time, my son's dinner was a Happy Meal from McDonald's tonight ;p

Will cook from tomorrow! I've got a lot of ingredients, hopefully my husband will be better enough to eat tomorrow...

Seems like some kind of virus is around...visrus that gives you crazy fever... so, everyone in LA-Pasadena area, watch out!!!

Groceries for the week 4

So this week, I went to grocery shopping at Marukai Market (Japanese store in Torrance, CA) and Fresh and Easy (because my coupon was good until today!)






All of those groceries came up to $52.80.
Add Beef, Pork, Fish and Chicken breast from freezer...$16.43
Total comes to $69.23
Stay tuned to see what I can cook this week!