Hope everyone had a good Christmas. 

We've had a great time with assorted family dinners and thus, have a fridge full of assorted leftovers. This is my 'off' week, when we eat very modestly and with lots of leftovers. It's a Japanese tradition to clean your house for New Year's, so this is the week to flaunt my inner OCD. We purge  outgrown toys/clothes/stuff, clear out the computers/email, clean the house from top to bottom and generally, get ready to start New Year's clean and fresh.  We also write thank you notes (on paper) and mail them out before the New Year. Again, all to start out the New Year clean and fresh. 

So here's what's 'cooking' this week.

 Monday
Scrambles with leftover spinach salad, ham and a grated cheese.

Tuesday
The ever-popular fried rice with ham, leftover green beans, kim chee and carrots. I use very little shoyu because the ham is so strongly flavored.

Wednesday
Leftover sticky rice, roast beef and Anna's Broccoli Salad. (See below)

Thursday
Nearly chicken-less enchiladas with the last of the turkey

Friday
Sandwiches of some sort, with fresh baked bread.

Eat Well. Be Well. Happy New Year of the Dragon. 

Don't get me wrong. I love candy canes, gingerbread and peppermint bark. And we will surely be making and decorating cookies this week. 

But sometimes it's good to be a little salty.

In addition to our ginger sugar Christmas cookies, these are some of our favorite funky alternatives, all using not-sugar bomb cereals as an essential ingredient.

Furikake Chex Mix
It's easy, packages up well, and is a most welcome change-up from all the sweet action going on during this time of the year. My son, the Chex Mix Jedi, declares his preferred combinations to be Crispix and pretzels or Rice Chex, Honeycombs and pretzels. Capn Crunch steer clear you should for this.

This takes a little more than an hour to make. However, in the spirit of full disclosure, it didn't take me much time at all because my #1 son made this batch for me. 

Click here for the recipe.

My Daddy's Energy Bars
This is probably one of the healthier treats. Yes, it has marshmallows, Rice Krispies and butter. BUT it also includes oatmeal, raisins, nuts and peanut butter.

My Dad made these for years and now my nieces have taken over the annual 'baking,' which means microwaving for less than 10 minutes.

Click here for the recipe.

Cranberry Cereal Biscotti
This has been one of the most popular items at our annual Christmas party for the past two years. The cereal makes it crunchy but without becoming molar-cracking, as when some biscotti can be a tad hard.

Click here for the recipe.

'Tis the Season. Eat Well. Be Well. 

This past weekend, we hosted our annual Christmas potluck. And yes, with respect and appreciation for other religions and cultures, it is still Christmas in this household. 

The main meats this year were Crock Pot Kalua Pig and a new Asian-style brined turkey (more on that later this week), for which our guests were guinea pigs. We also attempted a miso-mustard sauce for green beans that we wisely tasted before subjecting out guests to it. Miso and mustard were just not meant to be friends, so it was a quick fix with a Shoyu-Sesame sauce instead.

What can you do with leftover Kalua pig and turkey? Here's what's cooking this week.

Monday
My Daddy's Killer Fried Rice using kalua pig and kim chee. Any salted pork product makes a mean fried rice. Pairing kim chee, which gives a little more crunch and zing to the overall texture, and kalua pig, which is very soft and almost sweet, is winning.

Tuesday
Turkey Satay Pillsbury Manapua. This is a grand experiment. I'm tossing the leftover turkey, shredded carrots and probably chard with Chicken Satay sauce and then using the construction techniques of Pillsbury Manapua.

Wednesday
Hot Chicken Salad, using turkey. I love this recipe and don't make it often enough because the majority of the household is not crazy about olives. However, the influential minority that cooks dinner loves olives, so it's on the menu this week.

Thursday
Pistachi-zu Tofu. Something light before Christmas.

Friday
Amici's Pizza and Hockey Night. I've been craving Amici's Boston and Milano pizzas for a good month now and have also saved up for it. 


I'll be posting the Asian brined turkey later this week as well as potluck items for Christmas eve and Christmas Day. 'Til then...Eat Well.Be Well.

A friend of mine said, "There is no perfect recipe. The good ones always evolve."

Willows Shrimp Curry is a perfect example. 

At a library cast-off sale, I found an out-of-print "Taste of Aloha" cookbook from the Honolulu Junior League. It's a beautiful book with Pegge Hopper illustrations and throwback recipes like Punahou Carnival Malasadas, baked kumu from the old Maile Restaurant at the Kahala Hilton, or opakapaka from Hy's Steakhouse. Honolulu restaurants like Bagwell's and Michel's, circa 1980, that you went to for special occasions: prom, grandma's birthday, family reunions, and the occasional funeral. 

I remember Willows Shrimp Curry as something fancy and special from my childhood, so I was looking forward to re-creating it at home. But one look at the recipe, and it was clear that some serious updates were in order. 6 tablespoons of butter, 9 tablespoons of curry powder and 1/2 gallon of coconut milk to feed 6 people? Perhaps 6 people the size of Rubeus Hagrid. 

General health and time-to-prep parameters also influenced the alterations. When you are trying to get a weekday dinner going, you simply don't have time to let something sit for a few hours nor do you desire to strain a sauce before you can use it.

I streamlined to 1 can of light coconut milk, 3T of plain butter (did not clarify it) and 4T of curry powder. It took about an hour and the end result was pretty good.

It's much thicker, creamier and definitely milder than a Japanese or Thai curry. It's the kind of curry that works best with traditional accessories. We dressed it up with honey-roasted peanuts, cranberries and dried (unsweetened) coconut. Chutney would have been good too, but we didn't have it. Definitely worth repeating.

Click here for what I came up with. 

What restaurants do you remember? Eat Well. Be Well.

It's going to be a busy week. Kids are on their last week before winter break, and the happy Christmas frenzy is in full swing. It's finals, finish-up-for-pay-work-before-shutdown, ship presents to Hawaii, finish Christmas cards and letters, take photos, get presents for the kids' teachers/coaches, and finish shopping week. 

Yet we still need to eat. During weeks like these, eating dinner together is a long slow exhale of relaxation. Here's what we're eating this week.

Sunday
(Leftover) Chicken Tortilla Soup. A full Tupperware of frozen soup is one of the great benefits of making soup for an army. Just make sure that it's completely melted and heated through. Soupsicles are not a desirable dinner.

Monday
Christine's Clam Chowder and fresh baked whole wheat bread.
I have re-discovered our breadmaker. Next to my beloved rice cooker, this is becoming my favorite household appliance.

Tuesday
Simple Tomato Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs. Doubling the recipe for meatballs to bank another meal in the freezer.

Wednesday
Mayonnaise Chicken, rice and Sesa-miso eggplant. Mayonnaise chicken plays well with any side dish.

Thursday
Omi's Shoyu Fish. No tilapia for this recipe. First of all, my sister will disown me. Equally important, this requires a good sturdy white fish. Think halibut or cod, both of which are sustainably harvested. Using fresh mochi as the starch here. Sounds very promising.

Friday
Going meatless with Techie Gnocchi. Instead of butternut squash, I'll be using the kabocha that I grew over the summer.

Hope you all get a chance every day this week come home, exhale and have dinner. Eat Well. Be Well.

This was mochi weekend. 

Two of our friends had their ohana mochi-making fests, and the Mountain View Buddhist Temple held their annual Mochitsuki fundraiser. We are the lucky recipients of fresh mochi from all them.

Mochi is pure and simple. Sweet glutinous rice, (mochi kome) is soaked an then steamed. The recipe is simply mochi rice and water. It's made into sticky, smooth, slightly sweet dumpling devoured for dessert, breakfast, lunch or dinner.

My favorite ways to eat fresh mochi are dipped in a mixture of shoyu, grated daikon and ginger, or grilled slightly so that the outside gets brown and crunchy and then drizzled with shoyu and sugar. Many people also like fresh mochi with natto (fermented soy beans), but this is not for me.

The old-school way to make mochi is to dump the cooked rice into an ancient stone bowl, poke it with a stick to start the process, and then pound the be-jeebers out of it with heavy wooden mallets, without smashing the fingers of the daring person who wets the mochi between smacks (see right). Jello mochi may be fine for other occasions, but traditional mochi is a requirement for Christmas and New Year's.

The process is just as important as the actual food. Mochi weekend is a pre-Christmas homecoming. Grandparents, aunties and uncles, cousins, sig-o's, work-orphans (which I was in this case) and any interested friends all come together to eat, gossip and make mochi. Everyone takes a turn to either "stick" or "pound" for good luck in the coming year. Everyone is welcome and everyone helps. At least 800 pieces of mochi were lovingly hand-made with 100 pounds of rice.

Symbolically, mochi is very important for the New Year's Japanese celebrations. The stickiness is supposed to keeps people together. Mochi is filling, symbolizing that you won't be hungry for the next year. 

Mochi is soul food, just in time for Christmas. Eat Well. Be Well.

Say tilapia to a Hawaii person, and you'll get, Eww! Why on earth would anyone eat this?!

Yet at the organically-focused, responsible-marine-stewardship bastion known as Whole Foods Market, tilapia is $9.99/pound. Even the Monterey Bay Aquarium lists American-farmed tilapia as a "Best" choice in its Seafood Watch.

Yet many Hawaii people (myself included) dismiss tilapia as a ditch fish or rubbish fish. The yuck-factor is deeply rooted because tilapia thrive in the dirtiest water. Think murky, red dirt filled sugar cane ditches, Ala Wai canal, or the Ala Moana Park drainage ditch. No wonder that given the choice of a lovely moi, a silvery-blue papio or a perfectly pink opakapaka fresh from the crystal blue ocean, a mushy, bottom-feeding, dirt gray tilapia isn't even close.

Yet at the Taste of Hawaii event, Chef Alan Wong noted that he had served tilapia at the venerable Halekulani, and that farm-raised Hawaii (US-raised) tilapia should be appreciated as a sustainable fish choice.

Hearing this, I wo-manned up to a blind taste dinner. The household ate Shoyu-Shiitake-Butter-Sauced tilapia said it was good. They didn't throw up when told it was tilapia. To be fair, the sauce would make a shoe taste good, but for a mild white fish, tilapia wasn't bad. It's not very 'fishy', and didn't make the house smell, but it is definitely softer than halibut or 'paka, about the texture of mullet. By itself, it doesn't really taste like anything.

However, tilapia is no savior super-fish. Some good information on both sides of Ditch vs. Switch are from the New York Times and About Tilapia. While US tilapia is raised in clean, open-water pens where they are not allowed to become dirt-flavored bottom feeders, overseas farms, particularly in Asia, are not regulated and can resemble more Ala Wai than open pen. So much so that Asia-raised tilapia is on the "Avoid" list of the Seafood Watch. And while tilapia is lower in saturated fat than red meat, it is also lower in heart-healthy fish oils than other fish.

So while I won't completely "switch" to tilapia, I will no longer categorically "ditch" it from the kitchen. It would work for fish tacos, cornmeal fish or even karaage fish. But I wouldn't use it for sashimi, teriyaki fish, misoyaki fish, or Omi's shoyu fish, anything that needs a sturdier, more flavorful fish.

Tell me your tilapia stories. Eat Well. Be Well.

We are are turkey-ed out. 

This week brings some much-needed variety back into the rotation. Plus, my husband is saying that we haven't had rice in quite awhile. Here's what's cooking this week.

Sunday
Farewell to turkey with simple sandwiches. Open faced with cranberry sauce, or just turkey, lettuce, mayo, tomato, cracked pepper. This was pure comfort food that we ate while watching football.

Monday
Shoyu-Shiitake-Butter-Sauce Fish, rice, a green salad, and a little sashimi on the side.

Tuesday
Kim Chee Pork. I'm obsessed with this really simple stir-fry. This time I'm adding some fresh chard to up the veggie content and see what happens. If nothing else, it will look prettier.

Wednesday
Poulet Grandmere. It's a little close to turkey, but we can't eat by rice alone.

Thursday
New recipe of the week: Willows Chicken Curry. From an old Honolulu Junior League cookbook. Curry from scratch, but I'll have to figure out how to scale it down. You just have to love a recipe that starts with a block of butter and half a gallon of coconut milk!

Friday
Korean Chicken Soup. The baby bok choy is looking very good now that it has turned cold.

In between that, I'll be decking the halls, thinking we're going to make for our annual Christmas party, and figuring out what new baking recipes that husband should try out.

Eat Well. Be Well.

With any luck, I'll never have to buy a lemon again. My very thoughtful friend/neighbor just gave us a bunch of fresh Meyer lemons from her Mom's house in Fresno. 

It's much too cold for lemonade, so Lemon Bars are up, and baker/engineer husband's are especially popular. He is the master of "mix-dump-bake" recipes. These never last long and are oft-requested. Click here for recipe. Use pecans or macadamias in the crust.

While we can still get berries in California in the winter, all manner of pears are in full season and honestly, a lot more flavorful and much less expensive than what we grimly call "December raspberries".

Here again, baker/engineer husband makes a mean Pear Sour Cream Coffee Cake. It is descended from a long-lost Better Homes and Garden recipe. This is another good cake that can be both breakfast, plain with coffee or dessert, with whipped cream and coffee. Click here for the recipe.

These are both quick and easy options for home, potlucks, or office parties. Husband's and my office will vouch for this. Lemon Bars make good "here-and-now" goodies and look prettiest when the powdered sugar has not soaked into the lemon filling. Be advised that Lemon Bars will last a good week, but the sugar will soak in after a few days.

Pear Sour Cream Coffee Cake reminds our household of the Hobee's blueberry coffee cake and it is fabulous when it is slightly warm, either out of the oven, or microwaved. And unlike the Hobee's version, it doesn't require the ball of butter on top. The layer of pears keeps everything from drying out. Happy Baking. 

Eat Well. Be Well.

Shepherd's Pie is ideal for leftovers roulette, and when you use the Thanksgiving leftovers instead of the more traditional ground beef or lamb and canned peas and carrots, it's that much better. I found a skeleton recipe from PGEW (Poor Girl Eats Well) for our post-Thanksgiving Shepherd's Pie. This is a knock-it-together kind of dinner, so here's what I used:

1 onion, chopped
The rest of the leftover baby carrots (about half a bag), chopped
4 stalks of celery, also chopped
1/2 carton of leftover chicken broth (vegetable would work also)
A few handfuls of eftover turkey, chopped
About 1 cup of the leftover Make-ahead Mushroom (+ Onion) Gravy
Thyme
Marjoram
Poultry seasoning
The rest of the mashed potatoes, maybe 3 potatoes worth
Milk
Grated sharp cheddar cheese

Chop vegetables and turkey so that they are all approximately the same size. Toss the onions into a large pan with the rest of the chicken broth and cook over medium heat. Add carrots and celery. Add chopped turkey, thyme, marjoram and poultry seasoning to taste. Toss in the rest of the gravy and stir. Let the mixture reduce slightly, but it shouldn't be dry. Pour into a 9 x 13 pan. 

I then microwaved the mashed potatoes. Add milk to re-hydrate. NOTE: This may not be necessary, but our mashies got a little overcooked the first time, so some help was needed. Toss in a little bit of grated cheese.

Spread mashed potatoes over the turkey/vegetable mix. Lightly sprinkle grated cheese over the potatoes. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and mixture is bubbly and the edges are turning brown.

Turned out well, emptied out 3 Tupperwares, and the kids had seconds and requested it for lunch the next day, so this is a good sign.

Eat Well. Be Well.