pesto and cheese milk bread

It is really too hot and humid these days to be baking, but it is probably the only time of year for yeast to proof, so I baked.

I love this milk bread recipe, you don't need to weigh ingredients nor knead the dough and it comes together rather quickly and easily.

I've made pizza with the dough and also fried it as savory doughnuts.

This time around I stuffed half of the dough with pesto and the other half with cheese.

Both were delicious but my favorite was the cheese version because the cheese gets a little burnt.

We had this with canned sardines which I always jazz up with some sliced garlic then put it under the broiler/in the fish grill.

I timed it so that the bread would come out just as we are about to eat.

So good!

kyusuke

Learned something new the other day.

We picked up these tiny baum kuchen at Benny called kyusuke baum.

I looked online to see how to read the kanji and learned that in the factories, namely senbei/arare (rice cracker) factories, they called the broken pieces or imperfect items “kyusuke”.

They usually sell kyusuke for a reduced price because of the imperfections.

These were moist and delicious and if there were any imperfections we didn’t know what they were.

I'm glad we tried this and learned something new in the process.

this and that

I don't remember seeing tiger lilies that were pink before...I always thought they were orange...

These kind of remind me of jellyfish for some reason...

Have you tried this granola? I love that it is a good reason to eat chocolate and nuts for breakfast.

It has been so hot and humid, so we cut our walking route.

We usually go to Benny Supermarket and a convenience store along the way and then we try to get back home as soon as possible.

Now no detours or exploring...too krazy hot.

The premade foods at Benny are old skool...nimono (simmered foods), some fried foods...when we get tired of convenience food, their food hits the spot.

Been trying all the taco salads at the convenience stores...

So far the ones I have tried use soy meat...

Didn't like the texture of the "meat" at Family Mart, but loved the colorful assortment of veggies and cheese, they also add nuts and grains.

I loved the taste of the Seven Eleven one.

Plus they had a spicy salsa dressing.

Almost forgot, one other thing we like from Benny is their ohagi.

This one is made by Daruma Beika and their factory is located nearby.

We like that they don't add preservatives to their sweets.

Yesterday's case number was 5042 for Tokyo and overall everyone's numbers are up.

Did you know that they don't have enough hospital bed space in Tokyo so there are over 10,000 cases at home?!

Many have also died while at home because there is actually no real care being administered while people wait for a hospital bed.

Experts are saying Tokyo’s daily case numbers will hit 10,000 in the next two weeks, I’m pretty sure it will be sooner.

All I know is if they decide to cancel the Paralympics, there will be a angry world to deal with.

So…not only do we need to worry about the Delta variant, and maybe getting heatstroke but there are also 3 typhoons roaming around Japan!

Stay safe everyone.

caramel custard

Had some milk that I needed to use up so I tried making caramel custard for the first time.

This what the Japanese call purin (pudding)

The recipe I tried makes 6 but we don't need 6 around here, nor did I want to use 6 eggs, so I cut the recipe down to make 2.

Plus, my oven isn't that big and I don't have a pan large enough to make a water bath for 6 jars.

The recipe starts by making the caramel and then goes on to make the custard.

It was my first time making caramel and I should have read up more about how to do so from the internet because I did all the things you shouldn't do...

Despite my failures, I salvaged some of the caramel for the bottom of the jar.

The custard itself was on the softer side, but everything tasted good.

The caramel had a little bitterness to it and the custard was rich and creamy.

Oh and it was a nice way to use the Oui yogurt jars too.

At least now I know how to do this and will definitely try again when the weather gets cooler.

hatsubon

Over the weekend BIL had a service for MIL's hatsubon.

If you are interested as to what hatsubon is please look here.

Since everyone's case numbers have been going up, plus it is so miserable and hot, BIL said that we didn't have to come.

I think we should've gone, but Satoshi said "if BIL said no need then no need go" (well he didn't say it in pidgin...)

The only reason I am relieved that we didn't go is because Satoshi always eats and drinks too much whenever we all get together which is not good.

Since BIL held the service at his home, we sent some Japanese sweets to give as offering.

And the other night for dinner we had unagi, which is MIL's favorite.

I hope to get some flowers to place in front of her photo today.

Missing you MIL.

bread pudding

Used the last package that I received from Val.

First off, the recipe calls for 4 eggs! that is like almost my whole container...there are only 10 eggs per container here.

On top of that, my eggs were not large, in fact I think they were small.

It also called for 9 slices of bread...had to guesstimate because most loaves in Japan are small...instead I used 1 boule.

Instead of melted butter I used melted coconut oil.

And I had 100% chocolate which I received from a friend awhile back, but didn't know how to use, so I added it to this.

I figured this bread pudding might be super sweet, so using the 100% chocolate would cut the sweetness...semi-bad idea, 100% was kinda too bitter.

I prepped this the night before, so the bread could soak.

Then I woke up super early since the instructions says it takes an hour to bake and an hour to cool, so that we could eat this at 6:30-ish...naps are so important, yeah?!

Love the top, it got all crispy after baking.

I froze the rest of this so we'll be eating this in the coming weeks…gonna add some kind of protein when we do.

Thanks Val for all these packets to try they were a little too much for just the two of us but I think these are great to make for parties or pot luck.

beef tomato

Not sure what made me crave beef tomato, but I did so, luckily there was a recipe for it in this cookbook that I have.

Beef Tomato : makes 2 or 3 servings, adapted from "Hawaii's Best Local Dishes"

200 grams thinly sliced beef

1/2 onion, cut roughly

3 small bell peppers, cleaned and cut roughly

2 tomatoes, cut into 6 wedges

2 teaspoons oil

Marinade for meat: 1 nub ginger, grated

1 clove garlic, grated

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

several grinds of pepper

1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

Gravy:  1 tablespoon okonomiyaki sauce

Marinade the beef for 20 minutes.

Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan and saute the onion and bell peppers for about 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute.

Take the veggies out of the pan and cook the meat.

Put the veggies back into the pan with the cooked meat and add the okonomiyaki sauce.

When everything is well coated, serve and enjoy!

NOTES:  I didn't have all the ingredients for the gravy, which asked for worcestershire and ketchup, instead I added okonomiyaki sauce because it tastes like worcestershire and ketchup, kinda.

Also, I didn't have sherry to marinade the meat and used balsamic vinegar, but should have used sake instead.

This was pretty easy to put together and tasty, I would definitely make this again.