torakris

plans ar getting messed up here as well! It really looked like was going to rain so I asumed Saturday's sports day was going to be canceled until Sunday, but he call came at 6:15 in the morning the sports day is on! So I had to rush to make a decent bento lunch and we are now about to walk out the door. I hope it doesn't pour on us, though it looks like it is going to. Be back in a little while. Susan that brisket looks incredible.

If you have some time you might want to check out the laab thread, all 20 pages! I still consider myself a laab newbie, I am sure Susan, a laab expert, can give us a lot more information. Laab is really incredibly easy and the taste is just out of this world. If laab is on the table there is no need for anything else...

I had a couple of problems with dinner tonight... I broke the most important rule of not reading the entire recipe through before starting. I picked 3 recipes from Hot Sour Salty Sweet that I had never made before: Silky Coconut Pumpkin Soup pg 51 Som Tam with Yard Long Beans pg 76 Laab gai pg 196 (I have made laab many times before but always with a David Thompson recipe) The soup went together quite easily but I had the impression from the title that it was a pureed soup and it wasn't... This was really good though and I will definitely make it again. The beans were raw. I read the recipe about 20 times trying to find out why I was missing the step where they boiled or at least blanched the beans and it turns out there isn't one. The paste ingredients (garlic, dried shrimp, peanuts, chile, etc ) are ground in a mortar and pestle then lime juice, nampla and tomatoes are added along with some of the raw beans and pounded. Raw beans don't pound real easily and there was a lot of liquid. I actually considered taking a shower when I finished... My husband really loved it, I like the flavor but after a couple bites the raw taste of the beans was starting to bother me. It was a really good match with the jasmine rice though. Is it supposed to be so watery? My third dish the laab was wonderful, how can laab be anything but? I found this really nice red stemmed spinach at teh store and decided to use it as a base. I chopped the chicken thighs in the food processor and then it is supposed to be simmered for a very short time. I thought I turned off the burner before I went outside to talk to my neighbors but apparently not. They must have simmered for a good 20 minutes... It did turn out fine though. I set out some lettuce for scooping I wasn't sure how much of this the kids would enjoy so I deep fried some frozen shumai. It was a really good meal, but of course it is an excellent book! It was all enjoyed with jasmine rice.

They have cheetos at Costco? I don't remember seeing them at my Costco! Maybe I'll have to check it out again. Haven't been there in a little while, and I think I need more grapes. It seems, though, that our Costco stores carry some different products. They still don't carry Thai rice at my Costco. And I'm almost out of the bag I bought in Thailand last year! (I don't eat a lot of rice, anymore, so a 5kg bag lasts me a loooooooong time!) ← They sell it with 5 smallish bags inside one large one, it is quite cheap too. I haven't seen that jasmine rice at Costco for over a year now, I bought it a couple months ago at Carrefour. I am almost out again though....

Narrowing in...do you find that Japanese-made cheetos taste a bit...weird? They remind me of creamed corn (the canned kind). And speaking of snacks, do you children like root beer, at all? I've noticed that most Japanese people don't like root beer. Not necessarily a bad thing, as that leaves more for me, but it makes it a bit harder to find! ← I don't like the Japanese made cheese-y puff snacks, yeah they do taste something like corn.... I buy the cheetos from Costco and they taste just like I remember. My kids like rootbeer, they drink it in the US (my father loves it) but I have never bought it here. About a year ago they were passing out samples of it at Costco and the reactions were hysterical. I don't think I saw anyone finish it and many people were making the comment that it tasted like medicine.

A very loud party of about 14 kids (currently) is going on., I was planning to make chocolate chip cookies but the kids brought along so many snackks there is no need for them. Everyone is currently snacking on chips, cheetos, marshmallows (sp?), various cookies and drinking orange juice and calpis. Time to get to work on dinner. Anyone have any favorites from Hot Sour Salty Sweet? oh and I just remembered I was asked if I will be doing a cooking class during this blog, because of the number of events and half days of school this week I don't have one scheduled... sorry

I forgot to add the link for Wendy's showing the sesame chicken sandwich... Sesame chicken

Well, I'm happy to report that the weather has taken a decidedly nice turn since this morning (at least here in Tokyo). The weather channel is claiming 23 but stepping outside I'd swear it's hotter. Unfortunately, it was also showing a possibility of clouds and rain for tomorrow so may need to use the shichirin instead of the coleman in case we have to suddenly move the grill out of the rain! Our current plan for tomorrow's bbq calls for karubi, scallops, some of those big costco dogs and home made corn bread. ← Bruce, welcome to eGullet!! and what a great place for your first post. It did clear up quite nicely this morning didn't it?It was definitely warmer than 23. Unfortunately now (1:00pm) is is really starting to cloud over, I am going to have to pull my laundry inside soon. I really hope it doesn't rain tomorrow..... A look at the weather channel, now has rain today and tomorrow but cloudy through Weds. A couple hours ago they had rain through Weds. I really hate this Tokyo weather....

Susan, that dinner looks great! My kids would have loved that. I spent the morning running around picking up loads of food in prep for the weekend, made it back in time to pick up Hide at 11:30 and then back out for some more shopping. For lunch Hide and stopped at Wendy's, unfortunately it never occured to be to bring my camera.... I had their new sesame chicken sandwich, Hide had a hamburger and we shared fires and a Pepsi. The sandwich was good, I won't be running back again in the near future, but I would order it again. Now I need to get ready for that party that will be starting in about 30 minutes...

Just finished breakfast... an apple it is sort of weird that we both start our morning with coffee and apples.. I am now off to a couple stores to buy things for the weekend events and tonight HSSS dinner.

pasta, bread crumbs, bacon and a green thing...

take a look at the Order of a Japanese meal thread. There is a lot of information there!

Susan, I can't believe it is so cold already, but I do remember occasionally trick or treating in the snow back in Cleveland. Yesterday it was a chilly 70F here, and that actually is chilly for this time of year! Tomorow it is forecast to be mid 80's but rain all day.... I am so jealous of your farmer's market! I can't believe the great Asian produce you can get, I live in Asia and can't get any of that!! I have a very busy day planned, I need to go to a couple stores to buy foods for the Sunday BBQ and the Saturday sports day bento (if it happens, but I need to prepare anyway), then Hide has a halfday so I pick him up at 11:30 and we will go out to lunch. Two weeks ago his sisters had a day off while he had to go to school and I took them out shopping and to lunch and he was really mad, so I promised him I would do the same... This afternoon my girls are having a party, planned from three days ago, with about 20 of their friends coming over..... I am supposed to make cookies.

I gently boiled it in salted water for about 30 minutes.

sangyetang is a very simple dish it is stuffed with glutinous rice, jujube, ginseg, garlic, ginger, chestnuts.. They can all be added or in any combination. it is seasoned simple with salt and pepper. here is some more info on the dish

Dreary day #4 and we have rain forecast everday through next Weds!! Even in rainy season (June) it doesn't rain this much. Our BBQ on Sunday is probably going to be meat grilled on a hotplate party.... I was talking to my friend about what we should make and she said her husband requested that I make my guacamole and roasted chickpeas. So I will be making a chips plate wih guacamole and maybe two salsas, the roasted chickpeas- which I hestitate to call mine as it is actually a recipe from Jack Bishop's Vegetarian Italian book. I told her I would do some kind of dessert and another vegetable dish. I am halfway through my iced coffee..

They are getting big, aren't they? I actually avoided putting Mia in ballet for a couple years (she really wanted to take it) because all of the places we went to look at were very strict. Hair must be pulled into a perfect bun for every practice, everyone must wear the same leotard, the teachers screams at the kids when they aren't doing it right, etc, etc I finally found the most wonderful teacher, she smiles through the whole class, the kids are free to wear their hair as they like (it must not be loose though) and wear any color leotard they like. She also hand makes all of the costumes, she has 30+ students with 3 to 4 constume changes each. A costume like the one in the picture would set the parents back $300+(for one), in htis class we just pay for the material andI think it will be something like $50 for all 3... I do not know how the other classes are about diets, etc but there is nothing in this class, in fact after the class the kids all share snacks with each other.

Don't worry about malt sugar. Using any brown sugar would do. ← I was even out of brown sugar, so I used just plain white sugar and it turned out great. This dish just screams out for white rice!

Again it is past my bedtime... Good morning Susan!

taadaa! I made it tonight as part of the tag team foodblog (snowangel and myself) This was soooo good! My whole family loved it and it was really easy, I didn't have malt syrup (not even the Japanese kind) so I just added sugar. Next time I will use a little it more garlic, I don't know what I was so scared of... Thank for the recipe, I will be making it quite a bit. I served the pork over shredded cabbage and the combination of the cabbage and sauce was sort of a sweet and sour coleslaw, I am going to try a coleslaw with a simialr sauce, the kids devoured it.

you will never see a picture like this in the dinner thread... only in Kristin's blog

Thursday dinner: RecipeGullet We got home from ballet at 6:30 and I had prepared some of dinner ahead of time. I made simmered kabocha ok this is actually a recipe I posted.... but I didn't have the time to do the other thing I had planned. It is a wonderful recipe! Then I made pork chops with honey and garlic from a thread in the China Forum, the recipe is from hzrt8w my picture doesn't look as good as his though... I served it on some shredded cabbage and the sauce tasted so good with the cabbage that I think I am going to make a coleslaw with it! This was a wonderful recipe, the whole family loved and it really couldn't have been easier to prepare. Finally I had a samgyetang, this a Korean dish of chicken stuffed with rice, ginseng, jujubes and garlic. I didn't actually make this. My Korean friend brought the stuffed chicken over last night, she had made a bunch of them and couldn't eat them all. So all I had to do was cook it.... I went to put it in the dish and it landed like this It looks like it is saying "help me! that crazy woman has scissors!!" After cutting (with the scissors) The meal was eaten with plain Japanese white rice and some nori seaweed.

After the restaurant I was parched so I drank two larges glasses of ice water when I came home. I then took the girls to ballet practice, they have a recital next month and today was a dress rehearsal. Julia (middle) Mia (on the right) this is just one of three costumes they wear and they are all handmade by their teacher.

Today I had lunch with 4 friends at a buffet in the Prince Hotel at Shin Yokohama, it was ok, bit nothing that I would recommend... My first three dishes the fourth dish dishes 5 and 6 I also had a couple glasses of water and some tea

Well I am off to lunch with some friends I will be back with lots of pictures! Susan, That soup looks great! That book has been sitting in my cart at amazon for some time now, I guess it is time to make an order...