everything flatbread crackers

Since I had everything seasoning on my mind, I wanted to make a cracker like the one I had bought this summer from Target.

Found a recipe in a crackers and dip cookbook that I have and tried it.

I subbed yogurt for sour cream.

The dough was super sticky and couldn't be kneaded nor rolled out like the instructions said

I suspect I need to cut back the amount of water since I used yogurt.

Next time I know.

Flavorwise it was delicious, but didn't come out crispy.

From the photo in the book, I envisioned lavosh, so these definitely needed to be thinner.

Will try this again.

ps Yesterday was a holiday…we also survived typhoon #14 (Nanmadol), lots of wind and rain, but we were lucky, Kyushu and other areas took the brunt of the storm.

Have a good week.

meh

All hype...this wasn't something to try especially if you are watching your sodium.

You cook the noodles...add a tablespoon of the cooking water to the contents of the soup packet and garlic butter oil packet.

Since abura soba is a soupless dish, the tablespoon of hot water to soup packet makes everything super concentrated.

Add your own toppings.

If after hearing me out, you still want to try to make this at home, buy a package of the shoyu flavored ramen, add a tablespoon of the cooking water to the contents of the soup packet, then and add your own garlic, butter & toppings.

We still have one more package of this and I will use only half of the soup packet next time.

We also still need to try the mazesoba, but I'm not getting my hopes up...

nian gao

My IG friend, @yumyumtofu shared a nian gao (Chinese New Year Mochi) recipe that her mother had given to her (thank you!)...

I finally got to try it and while it was baking I realized I forgot to add the sugar...sigh.

After posting about it on IG and FB, some readers gave me suggestions (thank you!) and in the end I drizzled it with chocolate, because chocolate can save pretty much everything.

At least it was edible and I didn't have to throw it out.

I need to buy more mochiko, but still have some coconut milk and half of the evaporated milk...hope to get around to making some muffins or something with the milks in the coming days.

energy dust

The other day, as I waited for typhoon #16 (they don't give them names in Japan), to pass. I made half a batch of energy bars.

This was a new recipe that I was trying and the photo of the finished product was WAY different from what mine looked like.

The most depressing part was that when I tried to cut it after cooling, it just poof fell apart...dust!

Instead of throwing it out, I scooped everything into a container and "dusted" our oatmeal with it.

I'm thinking I will use it on yogurt too.

Reasons why I think this recipe may have failed...a)I over-blitzed everything in the food processor, b) there wasn't enough "glue" (honey) to hold everything together, c) the baking time (2 or 3 minutes) might have been a typo, d)all of the above...

Debating as to whether to try this again...will decide after the long weekend.

Since today is a national holiday, Autumn Equinox, we're off to Shikoku.

Talk to you when I get back!

"gingerbread men"

Major failure the other day...I was trying to make gingerbread men, but they poofed.

I know part of the problem has to be my cutting the recipe down, but they also didn't have enough spice.

They tasted more like sugar cookies.

At least they were a little chewy.

My friends on Facebook had lots to say to cheer me up. (Thanks guys!)

Anyway, I had this with some homemade chocolate ice cream.

My intention when I made this ice cream was to add some chocolate covered pop rocks, but what I bought, which was supposed to pop, didn't, it was more like chocolate covered cereal. (boo!)

The next day, I made ice cream sandwiches with these...

fondue failure

The picture looks good right?!

Actually the cheese wasn't smooth, quite lumpy, a big lump to say the least.

After dinner, I went online and found out, you need to coat the cheese a little with flour or cornstarch.

You shouldn't mix it too much....there were quite a bit of "don't"s, all which I think I did...oops!

The fondue pot that I have uses a candle, but this doesn't heat the whole surface, only where the candle is.

I used Samsoe and Maribo (Denmark cheeses), 80 grams each and 1/2 a cup of cooking sake (rice wine) because I didn't have any white wine.

According to my fondue pot's directions, it said to melt the cheese with the wine on a double boiler, so I did.

Afterwards, I read something online that said to melt the cheese first then to add the wine already warmed....

Anyway, next time, I think I will make it more like a bechamel, just adding more cheese to it.

Satoshi, who is always a good sport about what I serve, liked it, he said, "it doesn't taste bad, it just isn't oozy"

We both agreed that sweet potato pairs nicely with cheese, I am making this again.

so...

So, it was my birthday the other day...just another day, Satoshi had to work, so we wouldn't be doing anything special.

Since I didn't want to cook on my birthday, the day before (Monday), I made a batch of hoisin sauce chicken and some cole slaw.

It had been awhile since I had opened the hoisin sauce bottle and...it was "welded" shut, not even that rubber thingy I have to get a firmer grip on it would open it.

To be a housewife, I think you sometimes have to be a handyman a.k.a. McGyver, so to remedy the situation, I took out tools...a hammer, a long screwdriver, the can opener...

Well, the can opener didn't work, and I was about to pound a hole into the cover of the jar with the screwdriver, instead I slipped the screwdriver between the bottle and cap and gave the screwdriver a little jiggle, and heard the air release...whew!

I was able to open the jar. (Will I be able to open it next time?! I'll have to wait and see)

Before dinner on my birthday, I decided to open a bottle of wine which I had bought on Monday too.

Weird, the corkscrew was having a hard time going in...little did I know that the cork was dry...bah!

So dry that it broke the opener...

I again took out the hammer and screwdriver...I also remembered we had a waiter's corkscrew (it is the type that has a knife on it) and took that out as well.

Only problem was I didn't know how to use it because I was used to using the one with the "wings/arms". Thank goodness for the internet, they had video of how to use the waiter type.

So now that I knew how to use the waiter type, I tried it but it was all in vain because the cork was not budging.

So, I took that broken corkscrew and the hammer and used it to push the cork down.

There were splats of wine until the cork finally went all the way into the bottle, but I was at least able to get the bottle open.

As I poured some wine into a glass over a filter, the cork blocked the entrance and then there was a point where I got a flood of wine when the cork moved...eep!

Micro-bits of cork in my glass and much stress later...I was finally able to sit down to dinner.

How was the wine? meh, it was a little light for my liking, for all I know, it oxidized a bit with all that "drama"...

By eight, Satoshi wasn't home yet, so I lit a candle and had cake.

The cake I bought was a roll filled with chocolate ganache by Mior. The cake was a honey chocolate cake that was very moist.

Delicious.

Lots of adventure on my birthday to say the least, hopefully the year will be a happy and healthy one.

We had the other half of the cake for breakfast, with the addition of some fruit for some nutrition (ahem)

Satoshi is off for the next couple of days, so hopefully we'll be able to go out for dinner on one of them (minus any drama).

madeleine failure

Note to self: do not bake when you have not had much sleep. I woke up this morning at 5:55 (yes, it is Sunday), Satoshi had to go to work and meet a client at 8:30. Since he was leaving the house at 6:30, I wanted to send him off with a musubi(rice ball) for breakfast.

So, after he left, I did a little stretching and then had my breakfast. Since I was up and it was only 7:00, I decided to bake.

I found a recipe in a Japanese book for madeleines, while reading the recipe I didn't know if it made 6 large ones OR 18 small ones or 6 large ones AND 18 small ones. It was neither.

I overfilled the large pan, so there wasn't much batter left for the small ones. Plus, I counted the grooves in my small pan and there were only 15. I guess I could blame it on the recipe, as it didn't say how much to fill each groove, but as I was filling the pan, something in the back of my head was telling me, "only half or three-fourths is good", which obviously I didn't listen to because I filled them up to the top.

Anyway, when you overfill your pan, this is what happens. The batter bonds with its neighboring madeleine and then you can't get them to separate from the pan or each other--I had to take a butter knife to these.

This is actually my second attempt at making madeleines, the first one was also a failure.

Still, the texture of the madeleine was nice--moist and not dense...sigh...unless you don't mind eating ugly madeleines, please don't come over for tea.

Have a nice week!

pizza...failure

In Japan, it is Golden Week. Most people are on the freeways and stuck in major traffic. Others have gone abroad to destinations like Bali, Hawaii and Guam.

Since Satoshi has to work in between of this Golden Week, plus the airfare, hotels and transportation fees have skyrockted during this time, oh and we also don't want to deal with the crowds, we are just hanging around our area.

Tonight's dinner....pizza!

I decided to try the pizza dough recipe in "The Silver Spoon". It was really easy to make and didn't take many ingredients.

I topped it with roasted veggies like onions, eggplants and tomatoes. And also salami and mozzarella. I heated up the salami to take out some of the oil.

Here's the recipe:
Impasto per la pizza (Ricetta Base) Serves 4
1.25 cups all purpose flour, preferably Italian type 00, plus extra for dusting
.75 teaspoon salt
.50 ounces fresh yeast
.50 cup lukewarm water
olive oil for brushing (optional)

Sift the flour and salt into a mound on a counter and make a well in the center.

Mash the yeast in the water with a fork until very smooth and pour into the well.

Incorporate the flour with your fingers to make a soft dough.

Knead well, pulling and stretching until it becomes smooth and elastic.

Shape into a ball, cut a cross in the top, place in the bowl and cover.

Let rise in a warm place for about 3 hours until almost doubled in size.

Flatten the dough with the palm of your hand and roll out on a lightly floured surface to a round about .25 inch thick.

Brush a cookie sheet with oil or line it with baking parchment.

Put the dough round on it and press out until it covers the area.

Make sure the rim is thicker than the center.

Sprinkle with the topping ingredients, leaving a .75 inch margin around the edge.

NOTES: I couldn't find fresh yeast, so the book says to use half the amount of dried yeast and to follow the dissolving instructions for it. The dough was quite sticky, but keep using flour and it eventually came together nicely. It was still a bit sticky after the proofing, so I should have used some oil on top of the parchment. Plus, I didn't read the directions too well, it says to bake at 425F (225C) for about 20 minutes, the result was that it didn't brown and stuck to the parchment. Still, it tasted pretty good, although we had to use our teeth to scrap the crust off...

Gotta try this recipe again...have a great week!