Mariko’s mom sent over a couple bottles of rayu ([ϋ) which is really popular in Japan now. This one is not the original one that became popular, but is a competitor’s brand. I wasn’t really impressed. It looks really hot, but in actuality I found it to have no heat at all. It seemed to me to have a bit of garlic flavor though. We added some scotch-bonnet flakes to it, and now it is very karai (h’).
Last night we went out for my Birthday dinner. Usually it’s something like sushi or (when I ate meat) a big juicy steak, but this time I went for something a little different. We went to Red Lobster! I recently saw the commercial for their “Endless Shrimp” dinner and thought it would be tasty, and it was actually pretty good! You get your choice from five different kinds of shrimp, plus one side and a salad. Here’s a quick summary of the shrimp offererings, ordered from least favorite to favorite:
A nice glass of Samuel Adams oktoberfest accompanied the meal, which was perfect. I ate so much shrimp, maybe about six or seven orders so I think I am done with shrimp for a good long while!
My entire life I have enjoyed eating eggs. Scrambled, omelettes, Eggs Benedict, over-easy (or is that easy-over?), hard and soft-boiled. It’s all yummy! But up until this past year, a thought has always been with me: “How come I’ve never seen any evidence of a baby chicken in any of these eggs?” It’s been in the back of my mind every time that I cracked open an egg that just this once, I’d see a partially-formed chicken embryo or something. It was only when I visited a farm for a friend’s son’s birthday party that I found the answer. I picked up a book in the little gift shop where it describes raising chickens. I discovered that the hens lay eggs whether or not they are fertilized. What a revelation! This actually explains why some people who do not eat meat, still eat eggs.
From Wikipedia:
Most commercially produced chicken eggs intended for human consumption are unfertilized, since the laying hens are kept without roosters. Fertile eggs can be purchased and eaten as well, with little nutritional difference. Fertile eggs will not contain a developed embryo, as refrigeration prohibits cellular growth for an extended amount of time.
I wonder if this is common knowledge or just something people don’t think about. I am guessing everyone but me knew this.
Over the years, I’ve watched a lot of cooking shows. I’ve seen Julia Child and Martin Yan on PBS, then on Food Network I’ve watched Mario Batalli, Emeril Lagasse, and Ming Tsai (PBS as well). But my favorite TV chef has always been Jacques Pépin. I haven’t seen him lately, but now that we are watching more PBS I happened to catch his show ”More Fast Food My Way”. Just as the name suggests, the dishes he prepares are quick and easy, but look so delicious. There’s something about the simplicity of the recipes that give the food a classic, time-tested quality about it. And Pepin is the master of cooking technique so he is just amazing to watch. Everything he does seems effortless. This is a quote from his book ”Jacques Pepin’s Complete Techniques” (on Amazon.com)
“People often tell me that what surprises them most is watching me cook and talk at the same time. This is because my hands are trained to the point where I do not have to think about the processes I use as I make a recipe-it’s automatic. Instead of fighting the mechanics of cooking. I can concentrate on thinking about the combination of ingredients, about taste, and about texture. You may be very creative and imaginative in the kitchen, but you cannot take advantage of those qualities if you don’t know the basics. A solid background must precede inventiveness.”
Pépin also has a charming, gentle way of speaking, and he also interjects a lot of understated humor into his instructions. You can’t help but to like him. It’s amazing that with the proliferation of Food Network and the hyped-up chefs they promote, the quiet master Jacques Pépin completely pwns them all.
Official Jacques Pépin Portal
More Fast Food My Way - Complete episodes
Interview at powells.com
Am I the only one who loves avocados but only if they aren’t warm? Room temperature is fine, but if they are inside a burrito or something, they better not be hot. It just doesn’t seem right to me for some reason. It’s probably just me.
We tried this pizza dough recipe the other day, and it turned out great! I prefer a thinner, dryer, tougher crust to the fluffier, chewier type, and so I loved this crust. It’s slightly modified from Bread Machine Magic’s recipe. We use the bread maker to knead the dough, and then a pizza stone for the actual baking.
Ingredients:
1 cup cake flour
1 cup bread flour
3/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons yeast
Directions:
Put all ingredients, except yeast, in the bread pan. Put the yeast in the bread machine’s yeast-dispersing place (that’s the best description I can come up with). Set the machine to Dough and press Start. After it’s done, spread out the dough on a lightly floured pizza stone. We made a stuffed-crust pizza by rolling cheese into the edges. Then put the pizza stone and crust into a preheated 350°F oven for about 15 minutes. Take out, then add your sauce and toppings. Turn up the oven to 450° and cook the pizza until toppings are done and cheese is melty. (we usually sautee the veggies beforehand) Enjoy!
If you have a bread-maker, here’s a good recipe that we’ve been using for some plain white bread. Nothing fancy, but good all-around bread for sandwiches and toast.
Ingredients:
1 cup warm water (110°F / 45°C)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package bread machine yeast (.25 oz or 1 1/2 tsp)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey or Agave syrup
Directions:
Put the water, sugar, and yeast in the pan of the bread machine. Let the yeast dissolve for 10 minutes. It should get foamy. Add the flour, oil, salt, and honey/syrup to the pan. Select Basic or White Bread setting, and press Start. In 4 hours, you’ll have a nice big loaf of bread. Enjoy!
Yesterday Mariko said to me, “I have on my calendar written that you were planning on making the raised garden today.” Oh yeah. I vaguely remembered saying that. Well, I had the afternoon with the kids, so I might as well spend some time out in the back putting together the raised garden. Bay and I made a quick trip to Home Depot to get the supplies. We got the wood cut to size (they never seem to charge for extra cuts beyond the single one you get for free), but at checkout I was shocked to see the price. However, when we did a search online for pre-fab cedar garden beds with similar dimensions (11’ x 4’ x 11"), we found that they ranged from $300-400. So we actually saved quite a bit of money, and the cedar planks I got were about 1.75” in thickness and have held up quite well in the other beds we’ve made.
Since I made this kind of raised bed before, yesterday’s construction went smoothly. In fact, I didn’t have any problems at all! It was a really nice experience too. They afternoon wasn’t too cold, the kids played nicely, I had a couple of cold beers, and the baseball game was streaming on my laptop. The hardest part was making sure the ground where the frame would end up was level, and even this went smoothly and quickly. At this point, I was thinking that this was going too easily. The only thing left to do was move the frame from the patio into position. It was pretty heavy, and having another person there would have helped, but the frame went down into the dirt without any problem. It was almost too easy! (Now I am really suspicious of what will go wrong)
When Mariko got home, I had already cleaned up the tools, had the kids done with their homework, and was enjoying my third or fourth beer. She looked outside at the new garden bed and said it was beautiful. Woohoo! Success!
Next step will be to add some good dirt and have it ready for planting. It will actually take quite a bit of dirt to fill, but maybe we can just do a portion of it. I have some extra wood laying around that I can use to section off the bed, so that is an option. When it comes around to planting, we’ve decided to have the kids take care of their own sections of the bed, and decide what they want to grow. I’m excited about my own section, and have some plans which involve lots of peppers and hopefully cilantro. Yes, I’m thinking salsa! But we’ll see. Anyways, I’m planning on spending some more time out in the backyard this summer, and taking care of the garden is pretty fun.
I was just chatting with my pal Mikey about the martini he recently enjoyed in Hollywood, and it occured to me that I don’t know what a martini tastes like. But I know for a fact that I have had one before. It was a super-long time ago when my brother and I were coming back from Hawaii and had gotten upgraded to first-class. The flight attendant came by and asked what we’d like to drink. I said “I’ll have a vodka martini.” She said, “Would you like an olive or twist?”. My brother leaned over to me and asked, “What the hell is an Oliver Twist?!”
Next time I’m out, I gotta get a martini. With an olive.
