the past couple of days

Sorry it's been quiet here.

Satoshi went back to work today, so I'm back blogging...

On the 2nd, we visited MIL, she was in good spirits and was very chatty.

I'm glad we got to have lunch (sushi) with her and spend some time with her.

On the 3rd, the weather was nice so we went to our neighborhood cafe, Hiro, for breakfast.

This is my favorite at the moment at this cafe...egg toast & salad. The bread they use for this is called "English bread". The slice is quite a long rectangle, the outside crisp, the inside is quite soft.

They add egg salad and toast it with a drizzle of mayo. It isn't overly goopy with mayo, just enough.

This was how the skies looked on the 3rd.

While walking home, we got to see a Kawasemi (common kingfisher).

I had often seen posters boasting that they were around near the Minoo river, but never saw one for myself. I'm glad we got a glimpse at one, they are quite teeny! and fast!

That night we had pizza. We bought the crust and I topped it with salami and lots of onion and cheese.

Before baking the pizza, I sauteed the onions and salami...so good!

On the 4th, the weather was cold but tolerable.

For dinner we had lemon chicken using my recipe for lemon sauce.

I used pre-made karaage (fried chicken) and served it on some broccoli, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, carrots & onions sauteed in olive oil.

Yesterday the wind was icy and it was overcast for most of the day.

I wished it would snow or at least have flurries but Mother Nature wasn't listening to me.

For dinner we had beef broccoli.

Can you believe it was the first time I've ever made this?

I found a pretty easy recipe in "Hawaii's Best Local Dishes" by Janet Watanabe Hee.

I steamed my broccoli and set it aside.

And then I marinated my meat in this:
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon ginger, crushed
2 tablespoons sherry or whiskey
2 tablespoons flour

NOTES: these measurements for the marinade are for 1 pound of meat and 2 pounds of broccoli and is supposed to serve 4.

I think I either marinated the meat too long (6 hours) or using whiskey was too strong or the amount of marinade was too strong for the amount of meat and broccoli I had because it tasted a bit boozy.

Before I cooked the meat, I sauteed some thinly sliced onion in some sesame oil, then added the meat to cook.

Since the meat was quite thick from the flour I kept adding water to keep things "loose".

Then I added the broccoli at the end just to heat through.

I would make this again but cut back the marinade to half.

So that's what we've been up to the past couple of days, how is your 2014 going so far?