torakris

my daughters after dinner decided to make teru teru bouzu these are sort of like charms to help bring good weather. They did this so it doesn't rain tomorrow for Hide's undokai, they also sang the teru teru bouzu song, you can read the words and listen to the music here: http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/sounds/teruteru.html

Well my husband and I had our kimchi chige, wow did that hit the spot! This is what it looked like all ready to be eaten The ingredients included thinly sliced pork that was first sauteed in sesame oil, then I added shiitake, daikon, carrots and konnyaku and stirfried it a bit. Next I added water, korean beef stock granules, sake, soy sauce and kojuchang (Korean chile paste) and the stem part of the Chinese cabbage, simmered it a bit then added the kimchi, leaf part of the cabbage and the tofu, simmered it a bit more until it was done. I then decided to do soemthing we had never never done before and I served it sukiyaki style with a raw egg. this was great! and I am going to serve it like that again. we also had the ika no shiokara (squid feremtned in its own guts) that my FIL made rice was a mixture of regular white and genmai (brown)

I was searching the internet for various things related to black sugar and I was surprised to find this Facial scrub -- black sugar (kurozato) is great for greasy summer skin! It dissolves very easily in even a little water, so even the lumpy types seem to be OK. Add a little katakuri-ko (especially the genuine one!) for extra squeaky-clean skin. from here: http://www.alientimes.org/2004/18-07july.html#frugal hhhmmm....

prep for my kimchi chige or nabe (hotpot), using mostly leftovers from the kids dinner I even made fancy shapes with the konnyaku sorry they aren't very clear

there is a full color step by step recipe of ton-jiru in my eGCI class on Japanese cuisine: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=28058

prep for the kids dinner and the final dishes mapo dofu and ton-jiru (miso soup with pork and vegetables)

Wow everyone is eating mapo dofu, this is sort of creepy... I always keep a pack of instant ama-kuchi (mild flavored) on hand for days like this when I need a dish and fast that the kids love. I too, love the spicy kind and currently have to settle with splashing ra-yu (chile oil) all over the mild one.....

Good eyes! It is going to be part of my Korean style futomaki, that is if we ever have the undokai.....

I don't know, that is what I am trying to figure out as well. Thanks for all of those links I will be checking them out!

I have bought more snack foods this week than I normally buy in a year! My kids are going to be shocked when they get home from school.

I just had a phone call from my husband and he said he is going to be a little late tonight, he works at huge construction sites and they need to get everything tied down before the typhoon hits tomorrow...... He should be home by 8:00 but that is too late for the kids to wait and nabe (hotpot) isn't exactly a food that waits around well..... Soooo... I have decided to split dinner and make the kids something easy and something they love ma po dofu (a Chinese style tofu dish) and I will make a kimchi nabe for my husband and I. this is something the kids don't eat so I rarely have a chance to enjoy it. I had to run back out to the store to pick up some kimchi and I had to try the Reverse Pocky that Jason keeps talking about, so I also picked up the one on the left is the Pretz mentaiko (spicy cod roe) flavor The reverse was really good, but i think I still like the regular Pocky G the best. The mentaiko was also quite good, I wish it had a little more flavor but it did have a good kick to it. Hide seems to love it and has run off with the rest of the box as well as my glass of water...

Just came back from the store, I had to taste this Pocky reverse (and buy kimchi for dinner tonight), I got the one on the left is the Pretz mentaiko (spicy cod roe) flavor The reverse was really good, but i think I still like the regular Pocky G the best. The mentaiko was also quite good, I wish it had a little more flavor but it did have a good kick to it. Hide seems to love it and has run off with the rest of the box as well as my glass of water...

回転 kaiten means to revolve, to kaiten sushi refers to sushi that is served on a conveyer belt type apparatus. The word kaiten can be used with anythings that revolves/rotates, swivel chairs, revolving doors, etc here are many more http://www.excite.co.jp/dictionary/japanes...9129&offset=522 not all kaiten places in Japan are made using robots/machines, most of the kaiten places I have been to have a couple of chefs standing at various places in the tangle of conveyer belt putting out sushi made by hand.

You know it is strange but when I was in school we had sports day as well and I think we just called it sports day. This was at a private, catholic elementary/jr. high school and we even had the school divided into red and white teams! We didn't wear the hats and parents didn't attend, but we did some similar games as well as some others. There was also no dancing, I loved this day it was always a lot of fun, though I always came in dead last in the 50 yard dash....

some pictures from the undokai at my daughters school Mia and Julia ready to go off for the big day, they were both on the red team, thus the red hats Julia (with the braids) in one of the dances done by the first graders 3rd graders dancing Hide enjoying himself with friends, everyone sets down mats and that is where you eat your lunch

The undokai (sports day) is probably one of the most important days of the Japanese school year. Most school hold them in the fall around the time taiku no hi (sports day) that this year fall on October 11. My daughters elementary school had theirs 3 weeks ago and many of the schools in the area are now holding them in May. The school is divided into two teams, the red team and the white team and they compete against each other in various events, like 100 meter dashes, obstacle courses, etc these events are also interspersed with the different grades doing various dances and such. this event is attended by parents who cheer the teams on and at lunch the whole family gathers together to eat the benot lunch the mother spent hours specially preparing, then it is back to the games. It is an all day event, usually from 9 to 3. My husband couldn't attend the elementary school one this year, so I made a very simple bento for the 3 kids and I

Yesterday i erceived a flyer for this company in my mailbox: http://www.dinnerservice.co.jp/ you need to click around to see some pictures.... They offer various types of food, from prepared bento style, to fully cooked homestyle that you just need to heat up, to sending all of the ingredients for the meal with recipes and you just put them together. There are various plans, weekly (5 or 6 day) plans or various price ranges, montly plans, occasional plans, special sets for women, or those with health considerations, etc. The prices depend on the type of plan and the number of people you want to feed.

I picked up Hide at 11:30 today, they get half the day off so they can rest up for the undokai. He wanted a peanut butter sandwich, so I made myself some udon noodles. This is a frozen product called sudachi oroshi udon, sudachi is a small green Japanese citrus fruit and oroshi refers to grated daikon. The package contains the noodles as well as a package of a soy based sauce, some sudachi juice and a package of grated daikon. the finished product, I had no scallions in the house but it was still quite good, I ate it cold but you can serve it hot as well.

it is called berry and it lists both strawberry powder and raspberrry powder as ingredients. The cookie is still chocolate.

Though you don't see them as much anymore, they are still around and we have one that comes around our neighborhood about twice a week. It is 2 to 3 times more expensive than tofu in the supermarket, so I rarely buy it.

Hiroyuki asked if I go shopping everyday actually no, I normally go shopping once maybe twice a week to a supermarket and maybe once a week to a drugstore type place. I also have my food delivery that comes every Tuesday. This week is unusual in that I had to go shopping for my cooking class and today I had to buy some preparations for the undokai (sports day) that will probably not happen tomorrow, it was also our monthly Costco trip this week.... I also don't normally buy this many snacks except f or right after payday.....

Today Ifound this the one on the left is called kokuto no brulee, so a black sugar brulee. It tasted nothing remotely like brulee and I couldn't even detect a kokuto flavor, it was just white chocolate tasting, very dissapointing.

today I picked up the one on the left kokuto (black sugar) brulee and on the right in Pocky G berry flavored. The berry was was ok but I prefer the chocolate one, the kokuto brulee was gross, there was no taste of the "black" sugar and all I could taste was white chocolate... I hate white chocolate.

I finished off the rest of the cake with a glass of juice while watching The Practice this morning, then I went shopping and bought I haven't decided dinner tonight, but looks like the making for a hotpot (nabe).... I also ate a couple of the pocky snacks ....

from here http://www.joyofbaking.com/sugar.html Raw Sugar is what is left after processing the sugar cane to remove the molasses and refine the white sugar. In North America raw sugar is actually not "raw" as it has been partially refined to remove any contaminants. The color is similar to light brown sugar but it's texture is grainier. Demerara sugar is a raw sugar that has been purified. It comes from Guyana and is a dry, coarse-textured amber sugar that has a toffee-like flavor. Muscovada or Barbados sugar is another raw sugar that has been purified. It has a finer grain that Demerara and very moist. Its color ranges from light to dark brown and it has a strong molasses taste. Turbinado sugar is a raw sugar that has been steam cleaned. It is light brown in color and coarse grained, with a slight molasses flavor. These are the types of "raw" sugar available in the US, but hehy aren't really used to the extent I see kurozato in Japan, and tehy are that lumpy stuff...