i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
Our second daughter was born in the year of the monkey–a sign that pretty much describes her to the T. Inquisitive, funny, mischievous, and very, very precocious, my cute little monkey girl inspired this bento today. You can use either chicken or pork–I just so …
I absolutely love Gudetama–he’s just so adorable! I even have a mug with him on it that my husband has ferreted away because he likes it so much too! In this bento, I have him laying on seven grain rice (recipe below), with the egg …
It’s winter, with quite a bit of snow on the ground, so there’s very little for me to do in the garden, This means I can focus on a hobby I had abandoned after I had kids: Kyaraben (or “charaben”) making. Since it’s been a while, I decided to get my feet wet with an easy character–one from Sanrio’s wildly popular Sumikko Gurashi line (of which I have a cute soy sauce dispenser from.)
I fried the rice ball in some sesame oil tinted with a bit of turmeric for the yellow color, and the hamburg steak recipe is from another blog post I have (view it here). The bow (which is actually the tail of the tempura shrimp character) is made from a piece of red pepper.
The rest is just some sauteed carrots, and a couple of muenster cheese stars.
Hope you had as much fun looking as I had making it!
As you all know, I’ve been slowly getting rid of the plastic in my life in an attempt to be environmentally friendly as well as becoming more self sustainable–and in the event of the collapse of society/apocalypse, I would much rather have a kitchen well stocked …
I first learned how easy it was to make pastry cream from my sister (The Chef) two Thanksgivings ago. She made choux cream puffs which is a little more involved than just filling a graham cracker pie crust with pastry cream and piling berries on …
1. Precook the chicken wings (I did it in the pressure cooker) because we fought a bout of salmonella from undercooked chicken this year, and I don’t want to take any chances. Allow to cool.
2. Heat vegetable oil on high (or in your deep fryer if you have one) to prepare for frying.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine sweet potato starch, baking powder, salt, and pepper together.
4. Toss wings in bowl to coat lightly.
5. Fry twice, allowing to drain and cool slightly between fryings. Toss into soy garlic glaze sauce after second fry.
6. To reheat, preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and roast until crispy again (about 12-15 minutes directly from the fridge.)
Recipe for Soy Garlic Glaze
1. In a saucepan, combine everything except the water and the corn starch and bring to a boil.
2. Combine water and corn starch, then add to saucepan. Turn off the heat and stir quickly until sauce is thickened.
3. Drizzle over the chicken wings.
Recipe for Cheesy Kimchi Topping
I had been dying to try this recipe since I have a can of sweetened red bean in my pantry that will expire sooner or later. It was a huge hit with everyone in the house, and I absolutely loved how pretty it came out. …
Colds blow through our house like a tornado, and despite the fact that neither of the kids go to daycare, the husband-unit often brings something home with him. While his immune system seems to be impervious to the viruses that ravages the winter seasons, myself …
One of the plants I was super excited to get my hands on this year was Crocus Cartwrightianus, otherwise known as Cartwright’s crocus or wild saffron. It’s widely accepted as the wild ancestor of our modern saffron, before it mutated into the sterile triploid form (propagated only by corm division).
I got this because I absolutely love how beautiful the all white variety (‘albus’) is, not that I would like to use it for the spice itself (the flavor is not as strong as the domesticated saffron but can be used in the same way.)
Since it is diploid, it will set seed if pollinated, but due to the fact that it comes out so late in the year, (it is also an autumn crocus) most insects will have died off/gone dormant so hand pollination is preferred.
Evidently, it is possible to cross cartwrightianus with sativus to produce viable seeds, and that may be an experiment in my future.
It’s growth habits is identical to Crocus sativus, coming out in late fall, needing full sun, well drained soil, and not watered too much. A relatively easy plant to grow and it looks divine against the dark brown leaves that have fallen from the trees.
The last of the dandelions are holding on as the cold weather moves onto Long Island. I saw them as I worked in the yard yesterday, and knew that if I didn’t nab them now, I wasn’t going to see them until next spring. They …