Teishoku Tuesday

Teishoku is Japanese for "set meal," a common feature in many restaurants and cafes in Japan, especially during lunch hour. A typical teishoku includes rice, miso soup, pickled vegetables, meat or fish and maybe a salad--all for around 700 yen! Oh, how I miss teishoku; all the variety and the bargain price.

Keizo has been keeping me appraised of all the delicious things I have been missing though, sharing photos from his cell phone when we talk on Skype.

Meal 1: Homemade teishoku at his parent's home in Tokushima. Rice, grilled fish, sashimi, potstickers, pickled vegetables and some really amazing looking soup.

Meal 2: Typical restaurant teishoku, again with rice, miso soup and pickled vegetables. The main here looks like fried shrimp and some kind of croquet. For all the attention the Japanese diet gets in our media for being really healthy, there are plenty of fried entrees to choose from!

Meal 3: From a bento shop (bento meaning lunch box;) again with the rice, some grilled fish, a meat ball, fried chicken, tamagoyaki, vegetables and a side of fruit.

Yum. Bet you can guess what I wish I was having for lunch.

Easter Eats

This year my family ate Easter lunch with long time family friends. All four of us got in the car around 11, each holding a contribution in our laps with the exception of my dad since he was driving. Upon arrival we all enjoyed mimosas with fresh squeezed orange juice from the backyard orchard (no joke!) while the last minute preparations were underway.

Our host carved the ham...

...and all sorts of delicious options are laid out on the table.

Vibrant spring flowers adorn the outdoor dining table. It was an absolutely perfect day, around 80 F with a nice breeze.

On to the food! Corn on the cob, creamy potatoes, ham, pecan rolls and salad with some extra fruit on the side.

Like most special occasion meals, this Easter lunch also ended with dessert. The dessert was my contribution, a pink velvet cake decorated with yellow icing and iconic Easter candy.

Getting ready to be served...

...and my piece.

After looking for easy red velvet cake recipes on the internet, and finding that most of them called for at least a cup of vegetable oil (gross) I got this faux velvet cake recipe from allrecipes and went easy on the red food coloring. I am really happy with how the colors turned out, and don't think there will be leftovers around for long.

Carrots gone bad

Bad for you, that is. While I found this carrot cake recipe in the April edition of Cooking Light, I think the only difference between their version and a traditional recipe is the serving size. The magazine claims to have cut "1,000 calories per slice" of carrot cake; yet when their recipe still includes standards like butter, eggs and sugar the only way they can do that is by making a much smaller piece.

The recipe starts out on the healthy track with 2 cups of grated carrots,

but it's pretty much all down hill from there when the carrots get mixed into the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, I beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and added eggs one at a time.

Mmmmm beaters. I once met a girl whose mother never let her lick the beaters because of the raw egg. Poor deprived child. I've been lickin' beaters my whole life, and so far so good!!

Dry meets wet,

and gets poured into the pan and put into the oven.

Later, it's time to put together the frosting. Start with nice "light" ingredients like cream cheese and butter.

And a few cups of powdered sugar and a dash of vanilla.

Mix well, and you get heaven in a bowl. Rather ironic for a "light" recipe, I ended up with about 3/4 cup of extra frosting, and that is even after I took 1/2 of the sheet and make a small round layer cake with it.

Last but not least, quality control. This piece is probably a tad larger than the recommended serving, which was 1/20 of the 11" x 13" pan, but the tiny spoon makes it look a lot bigger, doesn't it? Almost all ice cream and many other desserts in Japan are served with tiny little spoons, which is great idea in my opinion. Tiny bites means dessert lasts longer, and less material is used to manufacture tiny plastic spoons than regular sized ones!

Overall, a tasty recipe, but certainly not one I would consider "light." Nor is that a quality I even consider in choosing my desserts. Snacks and meals, sure, but dessert is dessert--it wouldn't be nearly as good if it wasn't a little bad for you!

Beans & Rice

When combined, legumes and grains form a complete protein and are an essential part of a vegetarian diet. I can't really call myself a vegetarian these days, but that doesn't mean I've been eating bacon-wrapped steak. I love beans and rice because they are simple, filling and can be made in a variety of flavor combinations.

First up, lunch from a week or so ago, brown rice covered with leftovers (a mix of kidney beans, onions, tomatoes and sausage,) topped with some parmesan cheese.

And second, a lunch from just the other day. Leftover pilaf with black beans with melted cheddar cheese, topped with a healthy serving of mango salsa and a side of tortilla chips.

Add some carrot sticks on the side, and you've got a complete meal.

Spring has sprung

I know this because my eyes are itchy and my nose is runny, but thankfully over the counter allergy meds seem to be doing the trick this year. The temperature outside is just about perfect, mature plants are blooming left and right, and the backyard garden is now dotted with a bunch of tiny green leaves! From a distance, it still looks like a bunch of dirt with odd shapes dug into it, but up close you can see the beginnings of what I hope will be a bountiful harvest in a few months.

When I planted a few weeks ago, I put some seeds directly into the ground, and made 4 small pots that I brought inside to start. Last year, none of the plants I started outside made it and I was expecting similar results this year. I wasn't even sure the ones inside would take, the seeds having spent the summer in the garage where temperatures hover around 105 F, at the very least.

Within the same week of planting, there were tiny green leaves poking out of the soil in the pots inside. Now, they are really taking off! I have tomatoes...

...and several enthusiastic cucumber vines.

Outside, things are doing equally well, even if they were a bit slower to start. I have the start of a zucchini plant...

...new growth from an old broccoli plant...

...and the beginnings of what I hope will be an awesome watermelon vine.

I also have roughly half a dozen sprouts that are a complete mystery to me. They are coming up along the edges of the areas I have planted and don't really look like any of the other plants. My best guess is that they are from seeds that were in the compost I used to prepare the soil, and I will just have to wait and see what they become. I initially thought the one below was a cucumber, since it came up exactly where I had planted them last year, but now that it's had a few weeks to mature, it is clearly not (see second picture in post.) I am not even sure it is anything edible.

While I find all of this growth very exciting, I am also getting worried that the garden is going to become really crowded. Apart from the marigolds, all of the seeds sown outside have come up, leaving very little space for me to transplant the ones I started inside. I am planning to deal with this tomorrow on my day off.

T.G.I.F.

And unlike last week, I don't have to work on Saturday! Sunday is another story, but I don't want to get into that here. Oh, the joys of retail.

Because I worked through the weekend last week, this week has seemed kind of long. I had Tuesday off, but Wednesday was a long day and everyone seemed like they were in a rush yesterday, so I am really looking forward to my day off tomorrow.

To get the pre-weekend celebration started before my last shift this week, I made myself an extra fancy bowl of oatmeal this morning. I'm calling it berries-n-cream.

I topped my 1/2 cup of quick cook oats with 1 Tbsp plain yogurt, 4 sliced strawberries, a sprinkle of dried cranberries and some white chocolate chips.

After the photos, I gave it all a big stir with my spoon and dug in. The chocolate chips melt in the hot oatmeal and combine with the yogurt to give the whole bowl a nice creamy taste that is just a little bit sweet.

Box-o-Love

There are very few "good" things about a long distance relationship, but getting care packages from Keizo filled with Japanese food is pretty awesome. I received a "Sorry we missed you!" slip from the post office yesterday, and went to collect my box of treasures today. I knew it was coming because I had asked Keizo to send me a pair of black work pants I left in his apartment, but he went above and beyond (like usual--I am a very lucky girl!) and sent a whole slew of goodies.

Feels like Christmas!!

Under the pants, folded nicely on the top were several packages of instant Tokushima-style ramen noodles...

...four flavors of "Choko-boru" snacks. The one below is caramel...

...and sauces to make Ma-bo eggplant and goya melon champuru.

Also included was a kids "sushi" making kit, where you mix mysterious powders with water, pour into molds and then create your own gelatin sushi. Interested? You can watch videos on YouTube featuring similar products. While I will try it out, I think I have to save it for the next time Keizo and I are together. For one, it wouldn't be very fun without him; and two, I am pretty sure I prefer sushi made out of fish and rice over sushi-shaped gelatin (even if it's high in calcium, as it states in the pink writing along the bottom edge)

I also got back my Japanese study materials, as requested, plus a new book in the off chance that I decide to buckle down and take a Japanese Language Proficiency Test. My next stay in Japan is likely to be a way off, as I am leaning towards starting my Master's degree in the fall at the University of Virginia, but if I ever want to find a job there, having proof of my Japanese language skills (or lack thereof at the moment) will come in handy.

Nice light reading---not! At least I now have a lot of snacks to keep my brain fueled.

すばらし箱を送れてありがとうございました！！

Mmmmmmmocha Chip Cookies

After a super lazy Tuesday involving little more than a marathon of Law and Order after work, last Wednesday was by necessity a very productive day. I worked from 8 to 3:30, stopped by the bank, went to a pilates class and got everything ready to leave town for the weekend. This involved printing out confirmations and directions, packing (which always stresses me out more than it should,) and preparing something yummy for the people hosting me.

I cut the recipe for these cookies off the back of a brownie mix not too long ago, and it was the perfect thing to try on day when time was of the essence. They were a cinch to make, and all of the ingredients were already on hand.

Start with a box of brownie mix.

In a large bowl, combine mix with 1 egg, 2 Tbsp of instant coffee dissolved in 3 Tbsp of hot water, 3 Tbsp of vegetable oil and a dash of cinnamon. Stirring it all together was quite the upper body work out!

Lastly, fold in 1 and 1/2 cups of chocolate and/or white chocolate chips (nuts would also be a tasty addition)

Drop by teaspoonfuls on lightly greased cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 F.

Let cool a few minutes and remove cookies from cookie sheets and place on cooling racks. They taste really good all warm and gooey.

Later in the evening I boxed up the cookies for my hosts and left a few behind for my parents, but I really should have packed some for myself to eat on the plane. There was no trace of the cookies that I had left behind when I returned. I guess I will just have to make some more--shucks ;-)