torakris

Tuesday night: mushroom fritatta with shiitake, shimeji, and eryngii fresh corn on the cob herring "sashimi" with a sweet-sour orange sauce (purchased) served on a bed of arugula and onion tossed with a little EVOO and a drop of basalmic Japanese rice

shopping with children.................... I try to do the bulk of the shopping on Sunday mornings because this is when the best sales are and also when my husband is home. About 2 yeasr ago he suggested once "why don't we all go?" we being my husband and I and our 3 kids who at the time were all 5 and under, he has never asked again! Grocery shopping in Japan with children is not fun, first off the stores are tiny, the aisles are so narrow an American sized shopping cart would be knocking things off the sheves on both sides. Also most stores don't have carts that children can sit in. so it means your toddler is walking or else you are trying to maneuver a stroller while holding a basket. Most of the stores are also bag your own groceries which gives the toddler time to do something teribbly embarassing/dangerous/ just downright annoying while mommy is busy bagging the food. I try to shop with a list and be in and out of the store as soon as possible, I also shop while the 2 older ones are at school, so I only have to deal with the soon to be 3 year old boy. I have a food delivery service that comes every Tuesday which is a lifesaver, but I still end up at te store at least 2 times a week with at least one child in tow. There are times when shopping with all 3 of them is actually fun, usually on Saturdays I take all three of them (my husband is only off on Sunday) to a nearby store that is one of those large supermarkets combined with discount shop that even has a game center/play area and a food court. We make a couple hours of this and it is actually quite fun, however this is not the store to go to when you are in a hurry because you will never get out in less then 2 hours!

My kids are pretty good eaters so I rarely plan meals around them. I tend to have 3 to 5 dises on the table and they are welcome to eat what they like. If nothing appeals to them then there is always rice and some furikake available. Occasionally I will plan a meal that is not child friendly (usually extremely spicy) and at that time I will make up something different just for the kids. I plan my meals around what I want to eat! Hey I am the one doing the cooking! I tend to cook with seasonal ingredients because they taste the best and are normally the cheapest. I also plan my meals by what is on sale but that is due to financial circumstances rather then the fact that i have children. But then again if I didn't have 3 kids I would have a lot more money...........

It can't look any worse then mine!

word for 9/17: マッシュルーム mashurumu (mah-shoe-rue-mu) mushroom this refers to the plain old button mushroom, these tend to be quite small here no more than an inch or an inch and a half in diameter. They are available in white (whaito) and brown (buraun) and are used mostly in Western style food preparations such as sautees, pizza, salads, etc and show up a lot in Chinese stir fries.

This is one of the worst foods I have ever eaten and I actually like the guts of some animals!

Mont Blanc Chocolat and Strawberry Gateaux? Are these Eurotrash Pocky flavors? I picked up a pack of the mont-blanc chocolat ones today and just pulled them out now. The box says (in English) Just like a decoration cake on a stick! I just ate 3 and didn't really care for it, the chocolate part is too thick and tastes like cheap whipped buttercream, there is no chestnut flavor that I can determine. I doubt i will try the strawberry ones, because I detest fake strawberry flavor.....

Ok I have a small problem. Yesterday I started my bread at 10:00am I mixed one cup of the starter with one cup each of flour and water and left it in a warm place until 3:00pm, at that time I tried to read the rest of the recipe but was unable to log onto egullet for the next 6 hours. I kept getting sent to a different Invision board site! I had no idea of the amount of ingredients to add next and scouring various baking books I couldn't find anything similar to what we are making here. I put the bowl into the refrigerator at about 6:00pm last night and it is now 8:30am the next morning, can I just continue with the bread? or should I start over from scratch again? Help...........

Heather you cook like I do! I have lots of plans for the meal, then have problems with the kids and the meal gets simpler and simpler. I agreee with the fact that kids eating habits seem to suddenly change around their second birthday. This ahppened to all 3 of mine as well. I often think of them as picky, but then when I see what an average child their age normally eats, I guess they are not picky at all. Glad to see the blog continuing, I was getting worried about it

word for 9/16: 松茸 matsutake (mah-tsu-tah-kay) This is the king of mushrooms in Japan, available only fresh (matsutake aren't dried) and only for a short period of early autumn it is loved by the Japanese. Matsu means pine and its distinctive pine fragrance is due to the fact that is grows in the undisturbed stands of red pine trees. Dark brown with a thick meaty stem the Japanese prepare this mushroom as simply as possible so as not to lose any of the delicate fragrance normally either briefly cooked over charcoal to be pulled apart and eaten witha sqeeze of citrus or in a dobinmishi, a clear soup served in a teapot like container. The demand for these is so high in Japan that more and more are imported every year and it is becoming harder and harder to find Japanese specimens and if you do they will easily cost 3 to 6 times more. the matsutake: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/matsut2.jpg

Saturday dinner pasta with roasted kabocha squash and onions that had been "roasted" in basalmic vinegar (thanks to Jun in the onion thread! ) Sunday dinner: had a large BBQ lunch and wasn't hungry for dinner, but my husband made some incredible ribs and we threw some potatoes on the grill and I nibbled on those. dessert: one of those monster sheet cakes for Costco, my in-laws bought this for us for some reason and it is taking up 1/2 of my refrigerator!

word for 9/15: venturing away from mushrooms once again........ 敬老の日 keirou no hi (kay-rhow-no-hee) Today is respect for the aged day in Japan. It is a national holiday that was started in 1966 and various events are held nationwide to give thanks to the elders.

I haven't ventured into the depachika areas for a while, they are so tempting and I always find myself parting with a lot more money then planned. I just went with a Japanese friend a couple days ago and felt like I was seeing it for the first time again, I just love these places. They were giving out samples with abandon, we were so full we didn't even need lunch. My friend and I were standing at one "store" (stall would be more appropriate) that had only 6 items for sale, we sampled each one at least 4 or 5 times each. The prices average about 3 to 5 dollars for 100grams (less then 1/4 lb) and to feed my family of 5 is just out of our budget. It is fun to go for all of the free food though!

It seems as though tsukimi celebration have really dwindled in Japan, at least in the Tokyo/Yokohama area. I went shopping with a Japanese friend on that day to a depachika (department store basement) and was really surprised by the lack of celebration. I only saw two places (out of about 40) that even had a sign announcing the event and they were both stores that specialized in dango. We both looked at their little set of jugoya dango but for $10 it was just a little too much. It was a gorgeous moon that night though!

Don't worry Jin! That is the way most people in Jaapn get them too! They are extremely pershiable and are rarely found fresh.

word for 9/14: なめこ nameko (nah-may-koh) I don't know of an English name for this slimy mushroom loved by the Japanese. Imagine natto but slippery, once you get past the slime factor (if you can even pick them up with your chopsticks) these are a wonderful mushrrom, almost sweet in taste. Normally quite small about the size of a small finger tip, they can be as large as a thumb. They are most popular in miso soup and occasionally nabes as the additional liquid makes the slimy-ness disappear. The are sometimes used in "dressed dishes or mixed with grated daikon and used as a topping. the nameko mushroom: http://www.maruka-ishikawa.co.jp/images/ve...ure/nameko1.jpg

now the Jaapnese no longer need to bother carving their hot dogs to make their children happy, Ito ham has come out with hot dogs stamped with popular characters: http://itoham.mediagalaxy.ne.jp/product/pr.../character.html

The newest pocky just made it debut this week, pocky decorer in two flavors: http://www.glico.co.jp/pocky/decorer/index.htm

Just the thought of that combo makes me smile. Interesting visually and texturally. Any dressing on it? Or are they summer tomatoes so who needs it? Of course, you could always improve it with a little bacon. Mmmm...bacon. they were dressed with a little lime and a drizzle of EVOO with a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt. This is my new "thing" I could eat it all day long.......... Last night my husband had a dinner meeting so the kids I pulled out the boxes of Mac and cheese It was mommy's day off!

I love fish heads! Larger head I dig out the meat, but on smaller ones like shishamo, sardines, and small horse mackeral I jst pop the whole head into my mouth! It is quite good actually.

Of my estimated 160, I would say there are about 10 then have never been used and maybe about 10 to 20 that have been used only once (they have all been read!) I have about 30 that I use on a fairly regular basis, others get pulled off the shelf to compare recipes or to look for an ingredient nad some I pull down because they are just a great read!

Jane, welcome to egullet! I just made those steamed rolls earlier this week! I had never heard of them until that day, they had a pork and a clour ear mushroom filling and were served with a scallion oil and a nuoc cham dipping sauce. Taken from the dinner thread: banh cuon (steamed rice sheets with pork and mushrooms) served with fried scallions with oil and nuoc cham from Essentials of Asian Cuisine by Corinne Trang Spicy black bean mussels with rice stick noodles from Blue Ginger by Ming Tsai Carrot and daikon pickled salad (dau chua) from Hot Sour Sweet Salty by Alford and Duguid Jasmine rice dessert: leftover Costco coconut-macademia nut tart

It seems like a waste of a good mushroom to me, but the Strawberry Cones pizza chain now has a matsutake pizza: http://www.strawberrycones.com/index.html

word for 9/13: エリンギ eringi (eh-rin-ghee) Known as eryngii or king oyster mushroom, this member of the oyster family first hit Japan in 1993, by ｔｈe end of the '90s it burst into store nationwide and today is one of the most popular mushrooms. The Japanese particularly love it, particularly sauteed or deep fried.

Shu-Hi are great! I can't really drink alcohol but I can occasionally hnadle about 1/2 of one of those, it seems as though new flavors are coming out every week. I had a lychee flavored one that was wonderful. My husband bought the Calpis one two days ago, but it was much too strong for me!