eG Foodblog: torakris/snowangel - When Pocky meets pad thai....

[torakris]

I didn't have time to think about breakfast so I sent my husband to the store to by some onigiri (rice balls). He got an ikura (salmon roe) one for me.

inside

see, we did take out too!

[torakris]

I was having a chocolate craving this afternoon so I pulled out the Polish chcocolates!

I have never actually eaten choclate from Poland before but on Friday at the store they had them on sale, 5 bars for $2, how can you pass that up?

They had three varieties, hazelnut, almond, and fruit & nut mix, I am guessing this because I can not actually read what it says....

then I received a call from a friend that I haven't talked to in a couple months and was on the phone for about 2 hours... dinner was a little late getting started and I almost considered going out.

[torakris]

Saturday dinner was clean out the refrigerator day for me!

fresh spring rolls, do-it-yourself style.

This is one of my favorite meals.

In the back:

sriracha, soy sauce (the kids dip in this) and lettuce leaves

on the cutting board top row:

avocado, peanuts, cilantro, cucumbers, garlic chives

front row:

tuna sashimi, kaiware (daikon sprouts), bean sprouts

small bowls from the left:

dipping sauce of nampla, lime juice, sugar and ginger, harusame (bean thread noodles), carrot and daikon with vinegar, sugar and salt

[Chris Amirault]

That is just beautiful! Nothing I like more than mise en place porn, Kristin....

[snowangel]

I was up so late with my brisket and those zucchini that I slept far later this morning that I had intended.

I scrambled and got coffee ready and got the baked beans in the oven.

Cooking breakfast right now!

[Susan in FL]

Good morning! I was wondering what the "morning after" was going to be like.

[Daddy-A]

Yes, smoked zuchini.  I tried.  Chalk it up to "another lesson learned."  Daddy-A talked about smoked tomatoes, so I figured, why not give it a try.

Susan,

Did you let the temperature drop in the kettle? 220F would be to much for the water-laden zucchini ... as it looks like you discovered.

A question on the brisket ... as you know, I am a Bullet guy. When you use the Kettle, did you have to add more charcoal during the 13 hours smoke? If so, how do you do that with the Kettle? Also, what wood did you smoke with?

Looks awesome btw!

A.

[snowangel]

No, Arne, the temp was about 180, and dropped over the course of time. I should not have cut them in half. That was my biggest mistake, I think.

As to the Weber Kettle. Yes, I have to add extra charcoal. If you look carefully at one of the photos above, you'll see that I have the hinged grate. On each side, a few inches can be lifted up so it's easy to add wood and charcoal. I used hickory.

Edited to add: if you go back up and look at that picture, be sure and take note of my high tech thermometer!

[snowangel]

For breakfast we had waffles and bacon

I love my stovetop waffle maker. The big can on the stove is my bacon grease can. Please ignore the rest of the mess on the counter!

This is probably Peter and Heidi's favorite breakfast

The kids really like their waffles topped with yogurt. I mixed some plain yogurt with some raspberries from the freezer. They get really juicy when they are thawed, so it colors the yogurt a light pinking purple. Peter also likes syrup on this mess (no accounting for taste) and loves dipping his bacon into syrup.

Time to get those counters cleaned up, floor mopped and vacuuming done. Guests in just over 5 hours!

[TPO]

The kids really like their waffles topped with yogurt.  I mixed some plain yogurt with some raspberries from the freezer.  They get really juicy when they are thawed, so it colors the yogurt a light pinking purple.  Peter also likes syrup on this mess (no accounting for taste) and loves dipping his bacon into syrup.

Time to get those counters cleaned up, floor mopped and vacuuming done.  Guests in just over 5 hours!

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My husband eats his waffles the same way as your son. He's a Minnesota native, maybe it's a regional Minnesota thing? I have been enjoying this blog so much, and I'm looking forward to hearing about the party. Good luck with the preparations!

As for Kris's part of the blog, I'm drooling over the spring rolls and the other amazing foods...

[snowangel]

Kris, for the bento boxes, did you make the onigiri and the minced chicken loaf?

[monavano]

Saturday dinner was clean out the refrigerator day for me!

fresh spring rolls, do-it-yourself style.

This is one of my favorite meals.

In the back:

sriracha, soy sauce (the kids dip in this) and lettuce leaves

on the cutting board top row:

avocado, peanuts, cilantro, cucumbers, garlic chives

front row:

tuna sashimi, kaiware (daikon sprouts), bean sprouts

small bowls from the left:

dipping sauce of nampla, lime juice, sugar and ginger, harusame (bean thread noodles), carrot and daikon with vinegar, sugar and salt

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That is beautiful, torakris! such good knife skills you have!! btw, you're kids are too cute

[Susan in FL]

I am reminding myself that the only stupid question is the one not asked...

Kris, what does bento actually mean? And bento boxes? Clearly it's a lunch box/packed lunch, but does it have more meaning than that? In my favorite sushi restaurant in this area, there are two entrees that are called bento dinners or something like that, and I've never been sure if they are primarily for take-out, or if it's proper for eating in the restaurant.

[Lori in PA]

Good questions, Susan. I wonder the same things -- we need a bento primer, please.

[torakris]

oh dear the last 12 hours has just been one crisis after another....

Last night Hide was playing with the new jump rope he received from the preschool as a gift for the sports day festivities. It had wooden handles with a round opening on the end, just the perfect size for a 4 year old's finger...

Of course he stuck his finger in and then couldn't get it out. It took a saw, tweezers, half a bottle of dish soap and 20 minutes but we were finally able to free his finger.

The jump rope is now in the garbage.

Then when I logged in this morning, I was unable to do anything, I couldn't post, see pictures, nothing. It has taken about 1 1/2 hours to fix it but I can finally post again.

Thank you Jason!!

unfortunately I need to prepare the food for today's BBQ (indoor BBQ since it is another dreary day), I will try to answere some questions inbetween cooking and salsa making...

breakfast is a glass of iced coffee,

my husband made fried rice for himself and the kids.

[Megan Blocker]

oh dear the last 12 hours has just been one crisis after another....

Last night Hide was playing with the new jump rope he received from the preschool as a gift for the sports day festivities. It had wooden handles with a round opening on the end, just the perfect size for a 4 year old's finger...

Of course he stuck his finger in and then couldn't get it out. It took a saw, tweezers, half a bottle of dish soap and 20 minutes but we were finally able to free his finger.

The jump rope is now in the garbage.

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Oh, man. That sounds awful and annoying, and yet so funny - one of those stories you'll be telling forever.

Sorry you've had a tough day, Kris - hopefully those spring rolls leading into it all helped soften the blow somewhat.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

oh dear the last 12 hours has just been one crisis after another....

Last night Hide was playing with the new jump rope he received from the preschool as a gift for the sports day festivities. It had wooden handles with a round opening on the end, just the perfect size for a 4 year old's finger...

Of course he stuck his finger in and then couldn't get it out. It took a saw, tweezers, half a bottle of dish soap and 20 minutes but we were finally able to free his finger.

The jump rope is now in the garbage.

←

Ah... life with little boys. My boys are 8 and 6, and since they each turned 3, they seem to get into predicaments like that at least once a year. I've got lots of grey hairs from them.

Thankfully my not quite 3 year old daughter doesn't seem quite so ready to stick her fingers in weird places.

[Pan]

What are product liability laws and enforcement like in Japan? Do people sue companies for dangerous products and food poisoning and so forth? That's really too bad, what happened to Hide; I'm sure he'll remember it for a long time.

[snowangel]

What a busy and beautiful day.

My house was spotless. It is still almost spotless. The guests (except for my cousin, who isn't really a guest anymore) are all gone, the dishwasher is running, the counters are cleaned off, and the house looks magnificent.

We had a wonderful time. The birthday boy got a new Springstein CD, a bottle of bourbon, and best of all, a trolling motor.

But, the best of all for him, was the brisket.

The point revealed a perfect smoke ring.

Please note that I finally figured out how to take close-ups of food with my camera! (A Canon Powershot G1 -- the cat's meow when I purchased it for an obscene amount a few years ago.)

The point was, IMHO, the best part of all, but then again, all of that fat absorbs the smoke and provides a succulence that is, well, never mind.

For sides, we had Waldorf Salad, cole slaw, and baked beans (this recipe from RecipeGullet). These baked beans were the best ever. Since I didn't want them to be too spicy (demuring to Heidi and my in-laws), I used a mess of chipotle salsa (made by Salsa Lisa) and a more restrained amount of chipotle Tabasco. These are the beans I will make time and time and time again from now on.

I did the beans in my LC in a low oven, as directed, and about 2 hours before I knew we'd want to eat, added the foil wrapped brisket to the oven.

Waldorf salad proved to a perfect foil to the rich brisket. It was a match made in heaven. I used Haralson apples. They are a tart, fairly juicy apple. This is an interesting apple, and the cooking choice of many Minnesotans. There are several apple orchards around that also offer baked goods, and for most of these orchards, Haralsons are not offered for sale -- they use them themselves for baked goods. THe Waldorf was standard -- apples, celery, walnuts and apples with Hellman's. I wish I'd made my own mayo, but I didn't.

Dessert was two pans of apple squares

Susan used Haralsons for these, too. They have a bottom and top crust, a thin smear of whipped egg whites, and a powdered sugar/cream/almond extract glaze. Minnesotan's will recognize the 5 quart pail of Kemp's vanilla, pretty standard fair for a party.

We had a grand time. Part of the what makes birthdays special is our table. It has a built in lazy susan, and I think I included the story of this table in my first blog. I can't begin to count the number of celebrations which have occurred for our family around this table

(not to mention regular meals eaten, homework assignments done, grocery lists written, cups of coffee or wine drank). Sometimes a table can tell a thousand stories.

I have some brisket left, and some baked beans left over. This time of year, when there isn't a lot of space in the indoor fridge for leftovers or things you want to cool quickly, we put them in the outdoor fridge

[snowangel]

oh dear the last 12 hours has just been one crisis after another....

Last night Hide was playing with the new jump rope he received from the

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This is sounding like me yesterday. Nothing went right. I forgot to mention that Peter fell off his bike, ripped the knee of his favorite pants and bled all over the carpet. And, given the storms and flooding of the past two weeks, it almost put me over the edge. Such is life of two blogging moms with a total of six kids and two husbands!

Edited to add: with the way things have been going for the two of us, I can't wait to see what we produce on Monday's Pasta night!

[Smithy]

Waldorf salad! I'm so proud!

That brisket looks luscious, Susan.

The table with the built-in lazy susan - well, I'd forgotten that story although I devoured your earlier food blog. What a terrific idea that was!

Kris, I also want to know about bento boxes. Most of my questions have been asked already. What I want to know is how the heck you find the time to do all those fiddly little bits for each lunch, and make them look so pretty?!? Somehow, I don't think you put those bento boxed together for us - but they look beautiful. When I'm in a hurry, my lunch will look like - oh, a big slice of cheese in one plastic bag, a hard-boiled egg in the shell, and a couple slices of bread in another bag. How do you manage to make it all look so nice? And how much time does that take? And were you already attuned to that before moving to Japan, or did you have to learn, or did you just make it pretty for the photos?

[Pan]

Susan, I loved the pictures of that meal!

Hang in there, you two. May you and your family have no more accidents or illnesses for the indefinite future.

[Daniel]

Saturday dinner was clean out the refrigerator day for me!

fresh spring rolls, do-it-yourself style.

This is one of my favorite meals.

In the back:

sriracha, soy sauce (the kids dip in this) and lettuce leaves

on the cutting board top row:

avocado, peanuts, cilantro, cucumbers, garlic chives

front row:

tuna sashimi, kaiware (daikon sprouts), bean sprouts

small bowls from the left:

dipping sauce of nampla, lime juice, sugar and ginger, harusame (bean thread noodles), carrot and daikon with vinegar, sugar and salt

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Wow what a fun idea.. Thats great..

[Daniel]

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Susan,

Is this a crusett.. I just bought something at the outlet store for 49 bucks... Its been great so far..

[snowangel]

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Susan,

Is this a crusett.. I just bought something at the outlet store for 49 bucks... Its been great so far..

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Yep, Le Crueset. Although the lighting is not right, the color is granite, which since it was discontinued was about that same price at the outlet. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 quarts.

The baked beans. Two pounds of dried beans just about filled this baby up. I was going to do one pound. But, dry, one pound looked so puny. So, I added another pound. I should state that the first pound was navy beans. The second pound some bigger white beans in an unmarked plastic bag from the coop. So, I dumped them into the stock pot and covered them with water to soak overnight. I don't usually soak beans overnight, but as I was waiting for my brisket to finish last night, activity kept me awake.

When I woke this morning I realized I had forgotten how big dried beans get! And, figured I'd have a ton of leftover beans. Wrong. These were so good that there is very little leftover. I certainly could have scraped it into some tupperware container, but I'm to tired to take care of the LC tonight. Call me lazy.