things I'm liking (disliking)

It's been awhile since I've done a post on things I'm liking & disliking...

First off, disliking...It had been some time since I bought unsalted butter.

Whoa?! the brand of butter I've been buying has cut back...it used to be 200 grams, but now they only come in 150 grams.

The sad part is that the price is about the same as when it was 200 grams...eep!

Guess I'll be making less baked goods...

On to liking...found almond milk!

Granted it is only in these teeny 200 mililiter boxes (about a cup), and they don't have unsweetened, but I am happy that the food scene is changing in Japan.

Oh, the almond milk also comes in chocolate, coffee and tea flavors too, I picked up original (plain).

What are you liking (disliking) these days?

earth balance

While I was in Hawaii, I came across this...Earth Balance's coconut & peanut spread.

It is a little sweet from the agave, there is a hint of coconut from the coconut oil and since I bought "crunchy"...lots of peanuts.

You need to take it out of the refrigerator to get soft before using, but I really like this.

Is there anything you are enjoying at the moment?

3-day weekend

Saturday, Satoshi and I went to Aramaki Rose Park to have breakfast.

Our breakfast bento consisted of tamagoyaki (rolled omlette), japanese cole slaw, ninjin shirishiri, asparagus with orange miso sesame dressing & rice with edamame and pickled ginger. We also had yogurt with dried cherries and fig jam, basler lackerli, a swiss cookie that is similar to gingerbread, and also some Rusty's Hawaiian 100% Ka'u coffee.

It was my first time trying this coffee from the Big Island, it was quite pricey. $36 for 8 ounces. I prefer french roast (dark roast) but they were only selling medium roast at the DFS in the airport.

It has quite a bit of acid and there were hints of caramel and nuts. I'm glad I tried this, maybe next time I'll be able to try their dark roast.

Not wanting to go straight home, we headed to Minoo for lunch.

I had the yellow tomato margherita pizza at Per Caffe Bianco.

It also came with a salmon salad and of course I had their cappuccino too.

Satoshi had their pumpkin soup, a tomato pasta topped with lots of leeks and fish and to end, some coffee.

Sunday, Satoshi had his German language class, so we headed to Umeda.

I did some shopping while I waited for him. And after a light lunch at Dashi-chazuka-ya (I had their maguro chazuke, Satoshi had their scallop and shrimp chazuke, both came with some araimo (dasheen) and tofu), we went to check out the big Rubber Duck.

The place where it was docked had changed since the last time we saw it, but after asking around, we finally found it.

There was even this mirror ball car...

Monday, we went to see this film, "Les Saveurs du Palais", about a woman who is asked to cook for the President of France.

I thought it was a good film but would've wanted to see more close-ups of food.

All in all a great weekend filled with food and good weather. We have a typhoon approaching in the next day or so, stay safe everyone!

salvage

The day I came back from Hawaii, I was unpacking and getting ready to get some sleep when Satoshi says, "Kat, I tried to make rice..."

"There was a little more than 2 cups so I dumped it all in, but when it finished cooking it was super dry"

"So, I added more water and cooked it again"

"It was super junky"

So, I went over to check out the rice cooker...yup, clumpy, goopy, rice...

I told Satoshi, "I'll try to make ohagi from it"

He said, "you can do that?"

Well, the picture above is what I tried making...mini ohagi. I rolled a little scoop of rice into a ball then molded some sweet bean paste around it.

I also dusted some with green tea, some with kinako (powdered soy bean) and some were just as is.

He was impressed, I still have more "junk rice" but at least I know it can be salvaged.

To read more about ohagi, check out what I wrote here

kale with orange miso sesame dressing

Remember that kale salad we had at the Monkeypod Kitchen?

I think I came pretty close to re-creating it.

Here's what I did...

I picked most of the kale on my lanai and julienned it.

Then I made this dressing...

Orange Miso Sesame Dressing Adapted from Down to Earth's recipes
1.5 tablespoon white miso
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (with honey)*
pepper

Mix everything well.

NOTES: *my vinegar had honey already added to it, if you are using straight apple cider vinegar, you may want to sweeten your dressing up with 2-3 teaspoons agave.

After putting a couple handfuls of the kale in a bowl, I drizzled a tablespoon of the dressing and I tossed everything.

For toppings, I added some mandarin oranges, thinly sliced red onion, roasted macadamia nuts and dried cherries.

I liked this there was sweet-sour, crunch from the nuts...I hope to make this again.

made it!

Made it back safely. TSA opened my suitcase but didn't really touch anything...whew! Thought my bottle of crunchy biscoff was doomed, but it was neatly wrapped.

The flight was kinda empty, my row was too so I got to use all three seats...whoo!

I watched "Une Estonienne a Paris", "Monsters University" & "Kiseki no Ringo".

The last movie was based on a true story of how an apple farmer grew organic apples in Japan.

The menu for JAL changed too they served a tomato keema curry or shoyu chicken, I chose the curry. They also served us some Pineapple Dreamsicle ice cream by Tropilicious (hard.as.rock.)

And for the snack before landing was a blueberry scone (hard.as.rock.), fruits & some Big Island Candies cookies.

Amazingly, the flight got in an hour ahead of schedule.

On my lanai, only the kale is surviving.

Can't wait to cook with it.

The goya plant got bigger but no goya to be found...boo!

Well, it's a 3-day weekend here, I need to re-stock some groceries and clean up around here.

Hope you have a great weekend.

how are you?

(picture taken at sunrise on October 6)

Sorry it's been a bit quiet here.

It's been a short yet "long" 2 months...

LOTS has happened in that amount of time...LOTS

I learned a lot about the "things" involved after someone passes...

If you have a chance to get your "stuff" in order, do so.

And if you can put your name on your parent's bill statements and such, do so (most places won't talk to you unless you are on their statements or listed as a beneficiary of sorts).

Though, I would say that we were really lucky that my mom put everything pretty much in order for us. (Thanks Mom!)

I must admit it took some time calling around and getting things sent in, but I'm glad I was able to get through it.

I want to thank my aunties who helped me figure out what needed to be done...

BFF and my "niece", Malia, for keeping me sane...

I didn't post about this, but there were actually 3 more trips to the ER for my Dad (all for different reasons)...luckily, he is doing fine, but I guess "drama" and "excitement" refuse to leave us alone...

I am a bit worn for wear and am looking forward to getting back into my kitchen, spending some time with Satoshi, finding out what happened to my plants on the lanai...maybe even catching part of Autumn too.

I'm headed back to Japan today.

Talk to you from the other side of the world.

Be well everyone.