Anna N

I suspect she will have them “straight up”. She is a bit of a purist that way when it comes to brownies. She inhales them and I’m not sure how well whipped cream would work when inhaled. 😊

Tomorrow is my granddaughter’s 19th birthday. These are her favourite brownies.

There are many learned people who could explain the genesis and evolution of the bento lunch in Japanese culture. But I think the concept sprang fully formed from the mind of a Japanese woman who was tired of standing at the sink washing hundreds of tiny dishes. Anyway, curry udon (lots of potatoes because I want to freeze the rest of the curry), cucumber pickle and carrot kinpira. Cleanup will be a breeze.

Wow. It would be hard to get confused about what city you’re in.

Bacon and egg musubi (shaped using an empty Spam can). Tamagoyaki, bacon, rice and a squirt of tonkatsu sauce and a nori wrap. My first reasonably successful tamagoyaki (rolled omelette). The slight discolouration is my failure to properly incorporate the seasoning. The right nonstick pan makes all the difference. I bought the medium size TeChef brand from Amazon. It is actually very tiny!

Wow. Things are really going downhill as far as cheer of flying goes.

Was this your only meal on this long flight?

So I am forced to confess that this book is among those in my Kindle collection. Apparently I did at least begin to read it at some point and then became distracted. A check back with Amazon tells me that it cost me almost $20! Damn. Still I am enjoying it now.

After all you have done and been through I think you did rather well. I would’ve settled for a barley sandwich.

While @Kerry Beal was over at my house we began to discuss flatware and sought to investigate what Thomas Keller might be using at the French Laundry. Not surprisingly he uses something very traditional. Attractive, certainly, but not in any way “in your face”. Grant Achatz on the other hand.... Just interesting to see two very different chefs and their choice of flatware.

Cannot make out most of what is on this plate.

Rice, cucumber pickle, sous vide short ribs with ponzu dipping sauce and carrot and parsnip kinpira.

Breakfast yesterday morning was zosui ( Japanese rice porridge). Breakfast today was an onigirazu with sous vide short ribs, horseradish and iceberg lettuce. (And horror of horrors this was the last sheet of nori in the package.)

Japanese curry using up some leftover ground beef patties and served with a simple cucumber pickle.

After my rather disastrous attempt at coconut cookies last week, two members sent me links to recipes that they thought might work better. Today I tackled the recipe linked to by @JohnT (here.) My first attempt was not particularly successful. That was probably my own fault. John had said that sweetened coconut was not available in South Africa so that his mother made these with unsweetened coconut. Not having any unsweetened coconut in the house I decided to simply cut down on the sugar from one cup to 2/3 of a cup. I was able to determine from the reviews that the 1 cup flour large probably indicated a mounded cup of flour. There is nothing in the recipe to indicate doneness other than to bake for 12 minutes. My first batch came out looking like anaemic, mini drop biscuits. They barely spread at all. I attempted various things to improve the outcome including sprinkling coconut on them baking them much longer then indicated. But all in all they were disappointing in both taste and appearance. So back to the drawing board. I arbitrarily measured the flour as 1 cup +2 tablespoons. I used a full cup of sugar and sweetened flaked coconut. (The coconut had been a gift from another member earlier in the year.) This time they spread appropriately and I baked them until they had some colour. This meant increasing the baking time by three minutes. The other modification I made to the recipe was to add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. These are much closer to my imaginary coconut cookies. Next time I will try those recommended by @Tri2Cook.

Good plan. "There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters." No idea who the credit for this.

And anything else draws attention to itself immediately.

My first thought was bones retrieved from a mass grave. I vote no.

Jazzed up instant noodles. Spinach, egg, nori and beef short ribs.

I too like Scandinavian design. I own Georg Jensen tableware. Wouldn’t recommend mine though! Without flash but showing distortion to avoid shadows. With flash. Less distortion but the colour of the handles is washed out. My late husband chose these in Copenhagen. Initially they appealed to me. I am sure there are patterns I might appreciate more. But these almost left us bankrupt back in the day.

That’s what I was trying to say earlier. Should be an extension of your hands so that you can pay attention to the food.

My thought was exactly that if the cutlery catches my attention more than fleetingly then it is wrong!

Was “rehearsing” a recipe that called for crispy onion bits. Seemed a shame to bin them. So I didn’t.

Planned-over Japanese-style hamburger onigirazu.

Hambagu donburi. Japanese-style hamburger with onion and shiitake gravy over rice. Accompaniments are blanched snow peas and beni shoga.