New Recipes: February

I am writing this post just before lunch, and it's making me pretty hungry. I hope you can find some delicious inspiration from this month's recipes too.

A 2 for $4 mango special helped inspire these Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa Verde from Cooking Light. I think fish tacos are a great weeknight meal because they come together quickly with minimal effort and are quite satisfying without being heavy. The mango salsa verde was a yummy addition, and I added a bit of sriracha mayo for a little tangy heat.

Making these Peanutty No-Bake Truffles from BH&G was my attempt at making something festive for Valentine's Day. They were not the most beautiful chocolates I have ever seen, but they were rich and tasty. I have some assorted leftover ingredients and have been thinking about making a hybrid peanut butter/chocolate version soon.

Black Bean, Corn & Turkey Soup (link to a similar recipe). This was another meal from the several freezer-crock pot dishes I brought home back in January. In this one, the turkey was pre-cooked, which reduced the cooking time to only 1-2 hours on high instead of all day. The first round was a little bland, but nothing some extra hot sauce couldn't fix. The reheated leftovers the next day were much better. Served with tortilla chips, and gobbled up in its entirety both times without a photo.

I can't take any credit for this last recipe, but it's been a long time since the second betsu bara has been featured on here. Keizo made a batch of Secret Nishiura Family Recipe Pickled Onions this past week, which we enjoyed along with fried rice and as a flavorful addition to my regular lunchtime salads.

I find myself wanting to repeat a lot of old standby recipes lately--maybe it's the cold weather we've been having, or just wanting dinner to come together quickly--but it's going to require a little more effort to find some new things to try in March.

Meals of March

Well, selected meals from the crazy month of March.  Note the two place settings!

Welcome to Charlottesville, VA, a medium sized town with enough restaurants to seat the entire population at once! Let's stay in and eat some chili...

with some gorgeous corn muffins on the side!

Keizo and I ate a lot of kale chips while he was here.  Wash kale, tear from stems, place on baking sheet, drizzle with 1 Tbsp olive oil, coarse salt and pepper.  Bake/broil for about 10 minutes, mixing once until saku saku (light and crispy).

Homemade pizza on no-rise whole wheat dough.  This stuff sticks to your ribs.

Banana/coconut/PB chip pancakes.  Difficult to flip over, unbelievably easy to eat.

Teriyaki fish, buttered rice, leftover pasta and spinach salad with yogurt-y dressing, broccoli, nectarine and Craisins.

Poorly photographed fried egg sandwich, one of several that were consumed.  One of the Saturdays I had to be at school, Keizo and my housemate drove out to Polyface Farm and returned with eggs and breakfast sausages.  The eggs did seem "firmer" than the ones from the grocery store, but were the same pale yellow color.  Taste also seemed about the same.

*****

Since he was in C-ville for goodness sakes, we did have to eat out occasionally.

The gelato sampler at Splendora's.  I will have to show immense restraint not to order this just for myself the next time I go there.  Clockwise from top: mint, coconut, mango, tiramisu, and hazelnut, with a scoop of Guiness in the middle (it was St. Patrick's Day after all!)

Blue Mountain Brewery's nine beer sampler, enjoyed on the patio at sunset after an afternoon of hiking.  It was as amazing as it sounds.  I hope to repeat several times this summer.

Historic Michie Tavern's endless Southern buffet!  The stewed tomatoes were my favorite part, although that isn't to say didn't also get seconds of the BBQ pork and buttery biscuits.  If you go, I highly recommend fasting both before and after.

Sunday Stew

The Crock-Pot made another appearance this week, working hard on dinner for me while I spent two and half hours attempting to redesign a strip mall with my group for class. We thought we had something pretty good, until Monday's critique with practicing architect/recently elected city council member sent us back to the drawing board.

At least my dinner was good; and on the first try too! I chose this recipe to help use up some of the family size bag of fish filets I bought months back and haven't used since. I liked that it called for a bunch of vegetables too, a complete meal in one pot!

It's still too early for holiday references in my book, but white onion, green zucchini and red bell pepper do look very festive tossed together.

Not quite so much with frozen fish and dried cilantro liberally sprinkled on the top.

My apartment smelled pretty fishy when I got back from my group meeting, but once I turned off the Crock-Pot it wasn't as noticeable. And after I took a few bites, I didn't even care. Served with some fresh foccacia rolls from the store, it was an excellent dinner.

Mid-week Madness

The title of this post refers mostly to my inability to control myself at the grocery store, not an overwhelming work load (thank goodness!) Apparently, I feel so confident with where I am in my work that I not only have time to spend an hour at the grocery store, but then another hour cooking/eating and a good 40 minutes cleaning up various areas of my apartment, but blog about it all too!

Today's grocery haul. Most people who live alone probably don't spend $86 on a trip to the grocery store. In my defense, I am still stocking up on some basics like sugar and flour, but the most expensive items were the "family pack" of frozen tilapia fillets and 10 pack box of granola bars at $9.99 and about $7.00 respectively. The fish will keep and come in handy, but I might need to re-examine my granola bar preferences.

These were not on my list, but they looked really good. And if you end up with something not on your list, it may as well be vegetables. The green beans and garlic are drizzled with a little olive oil, salt & pepper and baked at 400*F for 20 minutes. I took them out once in the middle to mix around and make sure stuff wasn't baking to the pan too badly.

While the beans were roasting, I started on the main dish that sent me to the grocery store in the first place--fish tacos! I defrosted two fish fillets, cut them into taco sized chunks, coated them with a mixture of cornmeal, chili powder and crushed black pepper and put them in a pan with a bit of olive oil.

Beans at the end of their roast, crispy on the ends, sweet in the middle and smelling gloriously garlicky.

I set the table with the necessary condiments and warmed up the tortillas in the microwave.

And voila! Dinner time!

All of the post dinner clean up helped me avoid a total food coma, but didn't stop me from putting on my elastic waist PJ pants right after I finished. Like my pantry, I am FULL.

Training Camp

When we first met, it took me a few dates to realize that Keizo actually played rugby for a living. At first, I thought rugby was his hobby; this was due in part to the language barrier as well as the fact that I had no idea Japan even had a professional rugby league. Even after dating him for 3+ years, I still have some difficulty wrapping my head around everything being a professional athlete entails. Twice a day practices, treatments, visits to oxygen chambers and 6, sometimes 7 day work weeks during rugby season all make his current profession quite different from a regular 9-5.

In addition to regular practices, his whole team gets on a bus/plane/train and heads to training camp for a week, twice a year in a different location. This spring's camp was in Miyazaki, about 4 hours south of Fukuoka by car. The purpose of these camps is to build camaraderie and get their bodies used to performing in different environments. My interest is less in the workouts and more in what they ate (surprise, surprise) and whether there were any fun, camp-like activities There aren't usually, but this recent camp ended in a fishing tournament where Keizo caught a blowfish, but it didn't count towards his team's tally because it was deemed inedible. Shucks.

The food is usually pretty standard Japanese cafeteria fare, easy to make and serve in large quantities. And who can blame the hotel that has to put on 3 meals a day for 40 some rugby players for wanting to keep it simple. I would love to know how much rice they go through!!

This hotel intrigued me though because they had real table cloths! Keizo said that they were the fanciest part of the room they ate in, but I am still impressed.

For dinner on the last day of camp, Keizo's team was treated to quite the spread, including the sashimi tray below. While I prefer any animal product I consume to not resemble the living creature as much as possible, I still love the attention to detail in Japanese food presentation.

On the bus ride home, the team stopped at a michi no eki (road station) for snacks. Keizo chose the gigantic メロンパン (melon bread) below and got a rude shock at the register when they charged him 600 yen for it. Most melon bread (named for its shape, not the flavor) is usually 200 yen or less. Regardless of the cost, the picture below is priceless in my opinion ;-)

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.

Family Affair

Much to my mother's delight, both my brother Andrew and I have developed an affinity for experimenting in the kitchen. I tend to do more baking, but Andrew has really taken the metaphorical cake with some of the dinners he has prepared for us during his breaks from school.

Over the weekend we enjoyed turkey chorizo burgers and Baja inspired fish tacos, both of which were accompanied by Andrew's signature guacamole.

The fish tacos consisted of fresh baked tortillas topped with breaded tilapia fillets, "Baja" sauce (mayonaise, sirracha hot sauce, jalapenos, onion and cumin), cabbage and guacamole.

Andrew breaded the fish with a mixture of cornmeal, chili powder and salt and pepper for flavor, then pan-fried it. The preparations took a while, but the actual cooking time in this recipe was quite minimal, easily less than 15 minutes.

Delicioso! I wish he made it home more often.