torakris

When I first came to Japan about 15 years ago I remember being surprised by the size of the frozen food case, notice I didn't use the plural. It was just one small case in most stores I shopped at and it pretty much had ice cream and maybe a couple packs of frozen vegetables. Frozen foods have really taken off since then, especially products aimed at bentos. Though none of the stores by me have a complete aisle of frozen foods they do take up at least half an aisle now. Though I rarely buy frozen foods outside of some vegetables I love looking at some of the products that appear on the shelves. This one caught my eye recently called an "Asian burger" it consists of pork yakiniku (Korean style grilled pork) wrapped in chijimi (Korean savory "pancake" called pajon in most other parts of the world), there is also a version with a chicken patty and an ama-kara sauce. Some interesting bento products chile con carne deep fried corokke filled with spaghetti and for those who like variety One of the newest entrants to the frozen food market are the frozen pastas. This is just one company's line-up Have any favorite frozen food products? What are some of your most interesting finds?

I could have written this word for word... I am also a homemaking mom of 3, who also plans meals 5 to 7 days at a time. I have a notebook where I write it all down, complete with lists of most of the food products in my house. I can look at the lists of vegetables, meats, etc and plan meals with what I have on hand supplementing with what is on sale. I browse cookbooks and mark pages that I am interested in trying out and when I find the ingredients on sale I add it to my menu. Like Lori said, it saves a lot of money and frustration.

Domino's new croissant pizza crust

Ok, this is the same picture that I posted 2 years ago, but yesterday's ozouni looked exactly the same... grilled square mochi beef gobo daikon carrot naruto mitsuba

As usual we had osechi with the in-laws, as requested I made meatloaf... I also baked a banana bread for my MIL as she really loves it and I had some bananas that were way past their prime. For 6 adults and 4 kids my MIL purchased a 3 dan (level) osechi box of which less than a 1/4 was probably touched. The main part of the lunch was ozouni (traditional New Year's soup) and the crab. My FIL had purchased two huge taraba kani (king crabs) that were almost as big as my son. I could live on this stuff. He had also prepared some plates of sashimi with maguro, tai, salmon and octopus. I forgot to take my camera...

This site has some nice pictures and descriptions of regional differences of ozouni.

bump! This is my favorite dish of New Years... I really have to learn how to make it like my MIL does. What is going to be in your ozouni this year?

well Christmas is over and it time to get ready for New Years. I have started my cleaning and have 6 large bags to go in the trash today plus an additional 3 bags I am giving to people... and I am only 1/4 of the way through my house. I can spend so much time cleaning/organizing because my MIL does the food shopping for our osechi every year. Two days ago she reminded me that I will be making meatloaf for osechi this year again.. and I should bring along anything else that would go with it. So what is everyone else doing/preparing?

Helen, that sounds delicious! I was drooling on the keyboard at the description of the pork... I don't have much to add but at a party once my friend made a shrimp cocktail sauce with just ketchup and wasabi that was really good.

So who got the honor of eating the tomato??

It is Christmas morning in Japan! Here is what many families will be enjoying tonight.

miso soup with pizza? potato chips with miso soup? We did our cheese fondue for Christmas Eve, though it was actually the day we celebrated Christmas. Tonight I will do chicken legs complete with the white frilly thing and red bow. I will take a picture but I can't post it until my new computer gets here. My computer crashed 10 days ago and I have been on my husband's laptop since then, 2 people on one compter does not work!! Now if I could figure out a way to get my computer running one last time so I could save all my important files and transfer them to my new computer....

sakana wo sabaku means to to clean/gut/cut up a fish. The character you used is also sabaku but it means to judge (like in a court), sabaku for cutting fish is usually written 捌く. This could be some sort of play on words that I am not familar with though.

Not all yuzu are juiceless. I am not sure if there are different types or they are just older fruit. I have on occasion purchased yuzu that were juiceless. Even a normal yuzu won't have the amount of juice you will get from a lemon or lime though and they often have more seeds than flesh. The only thing you can do is feel them, the heavier they are the more likely they are to have juice.

The whole atmosphere is really different, we have a smallish tree with a mess of presents underneath but I still can't believe it is almost Christmas. We rarely celebrate on Christmas day often choosing the 23rd instead since that is a national holiday here, my kids have found santa to be very flexible. Gruyere is very expensive here so I usually make fondue with a mix of mozzarella and other cheeses. This year I have gouda.

Santa ia coming a day early this year since Christmas is on a Monday and it isn't a holiday here so my husband has to work. So on the 24th (our Christmas) for dinner I will make cheese fondue, a family favorite which is slowly becoming our family's Christmas Eve dinner tradition. The night before on the 23rd we will drink hot chocolate and eat Christmas cookies leaving a little bit of both out for santa. I wasn't planning anything special for the 25th but then I went and ordered some prepared (soy sauce braised) chicken legs, they complete with a little white frilly thing for the top of each leg and a red ribbon. I will probably prepare a potato gratin, a salad, and another vegetable side dish to go along with it.

Want some maple syrup with your pizza? The newest from Pizza Hut includes a pack of honey maple syrup.... Instead of a regular crust the new Cheesy Roll Pizza consists of little cheese filled rolls surrounding the pizza. The rolls include mozarella, cheddar and parmasean cheeses, complete witha pack of maple syrup for drizzling. of course I would include a picture!

SAL is economy air mail, the packages only make it onto a plane when there is an open space. It usually takes about a week longer than airmail, maybe 2 weeks max. I usually send things by airmail, which arrive in less than 5 days or by surface mail which arrives in about 4 weeks. It should have been there by now...

If you can find the apple ones get them! I had these a little while ago and I loved them. I normally avoid things with apple flavor because I can't stand it, but a friend gave me one of these and I ended up eating the whole pack, for some reason none of the kids liked this flavor...

I am glad you asked! I haven't had time to look in the candy aisle recently, so I pulled up their website and apparently their current limited time only flavor is yuzu. I am going to have to find a pack today! Here is the homepage, click on the red odd circle shaped thing on the bottom left to see the line-up. The staple flavors that I can always find in the stores are: yogurt, strawberry, green apple, grape and now lemon.

Kristin I just love these! A few chunks with anything is a welcome addition. Is this your personal recipe? Yesterday I made more, but forgot to soak em first, they taste the same. Whats up with the soaking first? I added more lemon, yum! I take it you are a sour fan... I am a huge lemon fan. I supreme lemons and add little bits of pure lemon to my tuna salad. ← I love sour foods! I guess this a personal recipe, I got th idea from a magazine but have simplified it a bit. I am not sure about the soaking and taste, everything that uses satsumaimo always says to soak them for at least 15 minutes so I always do. I have had some that brown almost instantly on cutting, but usually it is fine.

All I can find is that it is a shrimp and macaroni gratin burger with a special sauce, with or with out cheese.

At yakiniku shops there are usually 3 types of beef: harami ハラミ　(the least fatty and cheapest) karubi　カルビ (this is usually a belly cut with layers of fat) rosu ロース(this is the usually the marbled kind of fat and most expensive) Harami is my favorite as it has the best beef flavor. The amount of fat on the karubi and rosu can really vary from restaurant to restaurant.

The pita mac is back!

I really like Ume no Hana for tofu. I have been there a couple times now and am never disappointed. The food changes with the seasons and the prices (for lunch!) are very reasonable. There is some discussion, with pictures, starting with this post in the Kaiseki thread.