Anna N

Here it beats recyclables being blown all over town and into all the ravines on a windy day.

At least you did not drown it in some sickly sweet syrup.

Pork soboro (protein condiment seems to be the most appropriate explanation) with zucchini and onions.

They are very substantial plastic bags that are worth washing and reusing. One of our better class supermarkets uses them for produce. They do come on a roll but they have no handles which many of the cheaper ones do. They are just a rectangular plastic bag. I don’t even think a photograph would help.

Hey! Whatever works I say. So long as I never have to wear the damn things again.

Rice with ginger pork, asparagus and tomato confetti.

A new series is coming to the CBC network in June. It looks at life beginning in the 1940s. Click. I have to say this. Having lived through the 1940s, not in Canada but in Britain, one cannot capture the reality without understanding the mindset. The vast majority of housewives tried to make the food as tasty as it possibly could be given the limitations whereas this appears to be just slapdash comedy almost. Too bad.

I was with @Kerry Beal a day or so ago when she picked up (new) pantyhose in the thrift store for just that purpose.

I have one in the refrigerator but to me it’s precious commodity.

I may be starting to “think” in Japanese. I had some asparagus and a “ramen” egg from yesterday. Sesame oil, sake and soy went into the cooking. A keeper is born.

Right then. Something more to add to my shopping list as I hope there is enough time left for a visit to the Asian market before @Kerry Beal and I head north! (I am hoping to improve my Japanese cooking skills while we are there hence my need to get to an Asian store before hand.)

The rehydrated dried shrimp and scallops. I have never tried them. I’ve never even seen them. I suspect they just must be an acquired taste.

The kind that Fat Guy used to liberate here. The kind that Costco uses.

We really need a symbol that says, “I like that you liked it but I’m not sure I would like it.”

Damn. Been watching the price on the those for ages now. Don’t know if I would ever actually spring for one. They are damn cute.

Here are some hints.

Cuisinart steam oven

Pork tonkatsu with an untraditional side of tomatoes and sugar snaps dressed with miso vinaigrette.

I love cabbage rolls and so I was quite intrigued to discover that they are a popular dish in Japan. I bought the cabbage more than a week ago and as so often happens, It got incorporated into some other dish. So when I picked up the other ingredients yesterday for my cabbage rolls I was forlorn to see what was in my crisper drawer was half a cabbage sliced right down the middle! Damn. But I’m not that easily discouraged. I was sure I could work something out. And it turns out if you were not fussy about a perfectly rolled end product and don’t fuss about symmetry and such silliness you can make cabbage rolls even with only half a leaf of cabbage. For the filling I pretty much winged it. I took some ground pork, a minced shiitake mushroom, some grated carrot, some grated ginger, a few Panko crumbs, an egg and salt and pepper. They were cooked in a mix of chicken stock and soy sauce. I quite like them. They are light and clean. Best of all of course, like all cabbage rolls, they will lend themselves to freezing very well.

From Nancy Singleton Hachisu’s Japanese Farm Food. Heirloom red lettuce salad with soy sauce. This is a variation that she offers. There is so much wrong with my interpretation but it is going into my notebook under “Rinse and Repeat with Modifications”. My lettuce was certainly not heirloom and there is little I can do to change that fact. My eggs were indeed farm fresh and behaved somewhat differently than my last batch. 6 1/2 minutes was not quite enough this time. The “Japanese mayonnaise” was a cheat on my part. I used Hellmann’s with some added rice vinegar and a little sugar. This made it a little too runny and combined with the not-quite-ready eggs my plating looks like a dog’s dinner. But it is an intriguing combination of flavours and I do intend to try it again.

I was given some pingue prosciutto and had just picked up some fresh asparagus and so the two were wedded together and anointed with some parmesan.

Today we were on Fairview Street in Burlington and when lunch was mentioned we pulled into Ichiban Sushi House. This was only minutes after we noted that the branch of Chapters that has been in Burlington almost from the beginning is now empty. I am sure I have spent the equivalent of many months browsing the shelves of books in that store. Now back to the main story. As usual tea for Kerry and warm sake for me. Complimentary Chap Chae: Glass noodles stirfried with shiitake mushrooms and vegetables and served with soy sauce and sesame oil. A bowl of miso soup for both of us. Takoyaki. Bento box for Kerry with chicken teriyaki and shrimp and vegetable tempura. Bento box for me with bugogi beef. (I would’ve liked to run off with the box.) Small fruit plate brought with the bill.

Second this.

Wait a minute… There’s a kitchen appliance I don’t have? How can this be?

@Kerry Beal sent me a link to this recipe and initially I thought it very doable. But I was quickly brought up short about my confidence in my baking skills. Something you need to understand is that I was brought up in postwar rationed Britain. Eggs and sugar were precious commodities. Today eggs are cheap. Most of mine are free as I receive them as gifts. But the old fear kicked in. And I didn’t think I would ever actually start the recipe. When I did start it I was positive I would cook the egg whites until they were scrambled. If I didn’t scramble them in the cooking stage then I would surely over beat them in the mixer. And if I didn’t do that then I would surely undercook or overcook them. I didn’t want to imagine the consequences of wasting a whole cup of egg whites and 2 cups of sugar. I finally talked some reason into my befuddled brain and tackled the recipe. My biggest mistake was making these things at least three times larger than they should be! Not as pretty as they could be and they would never be my favourite cookie but I made them and somebody will surely eat them because they have damn good chocolate in them.