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What's Cooking This Week--Saving 4 Legs for the Superbowl

1/30/2012

I'm purposely going without Four Legs this week. With the 49ers cruelly eliminated, our Superbowl potluck focuses squarely on eating and deconstructing the half-time show and the commercials. During that time, I'm quite sure we'll enjoy several of varieties of our four-legged friends.

And in the interest of full disclosure, I didn't make avocado poke stacks last week--we went to Kikusushi instead. I'm hoping to fit it in somewhere, perhaps at our Superbowl party. With that, here's what's cooking this week.

Monday
Crock-Pot Miso Chicken Wraps. (Lefotvers Roulette + feathers) This recipe is in the Greenhouse because it is has potential, but needs some serious help. It turned out way too sweet. I'm hoping the Spicy Asian Coleslaw will balance it out and make a good leftovers meal. It could also cause a dinner riot, a 1-day hunger strike, or we could all have apple pie for dinner.

Chicken Adobo

Tuesday
Chicken Adobo (Also feathers) and Japanese Potato Salad. The adobo is by request of my mother-in-law, who will be 'minding' the teenagers. What she says goes. Japanese Potato Salad at the request of the teenagers.

Wednesday
Lasagne (plants) A friend of ours made lasagne with Barilla no-boil with no-bake noodles, and it was awesome. Great taste and texture, in half the time. I'm using Spaghetti Sauce II as a base, but omitting Italian sausage. And since it is not zucchini season, I'm adding spinach and an eggplant.

Thursday
Garlic Cilantro Mahi (gills) and Tropical Rice Pilaf. I've not made this rice pilaf in quite awhile and I miss it. I'll have to see if I can scrounge up a mango this week at Marukai.

Friday
Techie Gnocchi (plants). Light meals leading up to the weekend.

As noted above, last week's Crock Pot Miso Chicken is now in the Greenhouse. Lemon Pasta with Macadamia Nuts will probably go directly to Plants as it has given the husband new-found, but grudging respect for arugula.

Go New Yor-ngland Patri-ants. I shall look forward to the commercials and lively company. Maybe we'll watch a little football.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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Eating Las Vegas, Re-visited

1/27/2012

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Just a few of the 150,000 in attendance

I was in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Officially, it's where the largest CE manufacturers showcase their latest and greatest gizmos. If you want to see 3,000 flavors of TVs, 4,000 variations on a cel phone, and more earbuds than there are people in Los Angeles, go to Vegas during the 2nd week in January.

I'm convinced that a huge chunk of the Silicon Valley workforce goes there just to gnarl up their traffic, meet with people they could actually have met locally, and let's face it, where the grown-up "Big Bang Theory" types go to be seen. Quite simply, it's nuts.

I was there for my client, but a girl has to eat (and drink). Like last year, I stayed at Paris Las Vegas. Great location and the room service continental breakfast and French press coffee is still excellent. For my client, it was also a good deal because it easily fed me for 2 meals and a snack in the afternoon. This was essential because I've had better food at the concession stand of the Honolulu Zoo than on the show floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Las Vegas, I know you can do better than this!

Sugar Factory, Paris Las Vegas

I ate at the The Sugar Factory twice. It not subtle or small and makes no apologies for itself. After all, it's the SUGAR Factory. However, you can easily get a table, no mean feat when Vegas is over-run with 150,000 frugal techies.

Desserts and drinks definitely live up the the hype. Hot chocolates (Coconut or Raspberry) are pricey at $9, but fab-u-lous. Split it with a friend, or take the leftovers in a to-go cup. Mix it with a little coffee for that last midnight drink.

I also LOVED the Red Velvet Sundae, so much so that I had it twice. But make sure you bring several or even a half-dozen of your friends to share it with you.

The Sugar Factory is great for dessert or snacks. The food is fine but not fantastic. Ahi sliders were OK, but a ratatouille crepe I had was pretty good. Be forewarned that they tend to add sugar to everything, including plain ole' cappuccinos or lattes. Best to ask them to hold the sugar on the coffee drinks.

If you want to Dine/Eat, 1) make advance reservations, easily a month ahead, especially during CES and 2) try Yellowtail at the Bellagio at the high end, 3) mid-range Mon Ami Gabi in Paris or 3) Noodle Asia at the Venetian for a more casual meal. And you can always take a quick bite at Nathan's Hot Dogs on the way to the Monorail.

After eating like this for four days straight, I felt a little like Morgan Spurlock. Las Vegas itself is Super-sized, and a person should not eat like this all the time. However, if you have to travel for work, it's great place to go.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--Kung Hee Fat Choy and What's Next?!

1/23/2012

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Snow, finally in Lake Tahoe

Today is the first day of the year of the Dragon. Being a Dragon Lady rather than a Tiger Mom, this is supposed to be my year for new undertakings. The signs are everywhere.

#1 sign. A friend has encouraged me to put together a book proposal. Whoa! and Yay!

#2 sign. Over a cup of Kona coffee on a getaway Lake Tahoe weekend, one of my dearest, most loyal and refreshingly candid Feeding My Ohana followers gently reminded me that, "Your recipes are all good and we all know you can cook, but you've not had many new recipes lately. What more are you going to do with Feeding My Ohana?"

#3 sign. Today, I had lunch with a former boss who asked me the very same thing, along with, "What are your plans for a mobile app?"

Food for thought indeed. Fabulous Ideas and a whole new year to Do Something. So Step 1: New recipes. Here's Week 2 of better four legs/feathers/gills/plants distribution and three new meals to foist upon the family.

Hot and sour soup in 30 minutes

Monday
PDQ Hot and Sour Soup (four legs). No gau, the Chinese mochi that is typically served for Lunar New Year's, so it'll have to be Jello mochi instead.

Tuesday
Crock Pot Peanut Butter Beer Miso Chicken (new feathers). I've been wanting to try this for awhile now-a Honolulu Advertiser recipe I brought back this past summer. I will post to the Greenhouse later this week.

Wednesday
Lemon pasta with macadamia nuts, mushroom and parmesan (new plants). This is based on a recipe that uses hazelnuts, and I'll likely throw in some arugula for color and a little peppery zap.

Thursday
Alan Wong-inspired avocado poke stacks (new gills) and Bri's Butternut squash. The avocado poke stacks are one of the doable-at-home recipes from the Blue Tomato cookbook, and I'm using the spam musubi maker as a mold. Balancing the lightness and saltiness of the ahi with the substantive creamy sweet of butternut squash. And perhaps some kind of wilted arugula for salad. This could be a great meal, or just plain weird.

Friday
Pannini using bread-machine bread with roasted tomatoes, mozzarella and arugula. Roasting tomatoes seems to be the best way to get good flavor from winter tomatoes, and we are two days with plants this week.

Any other suggestions for Feeding My Ohana are most welcome. What do You want to do this year?

Eat Well. Be Well.

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New Addition--Mediterranean Lamb Stir-Fry and Lemon Rice

1/19/2012

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This was supposed to be Friday's meal, but it sounded too easy not to do on carpool Wednesday.

The original recipe is called "Shawarma Lamb with Couscous Salad" from the November, 2011 Sunset Magazine. I already knew I wanted to add more vegetables and garlic, but I had to go even more off-recipe. The couscous I had expired in December.

Of 2005. I hate it when that happens.

While it looked and smelled perfectly fine, it went into the compost heap. I went with short-grain brown rice in the rice cooker. Quinoa would also work well.

This is quick, ono, and not so meat-intensive. Adding green beans and red peppers lightens it up visually and flavor-wise. Another great vegetable combo would be green, red and yellow peppers. This will be a most welcome new addition to Four Legs. Click here for the recipe as I made it last night.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--Better Balance for 2012

1/16/2012

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2012 brings a new normal to the house. Conscripting the kids last week proved wildly successful (from my perspective), and therefore, will continue. Every kid should know how to cut with a good knife and make rice and a simple stir fry.

I'm also trying harder for better distribution in our weekly meals. When we took cow out of our everyday dinner rotation, we ended up leaning on this little piggy just a bit too much--pork, spam, bacon and char siu. All of it supremely ono, but better moderation is key here, especially for Spam-I-Am.

Thus, I'm aiming for better balance among four legs/feathers/gills/plants for Monday through Friday eating. With that, here's what's cooking this week.

Spanish rice as enchilada filling

Monday
Now-Completely-Chicken-less Enchiladas. Instead of chicken, I'm using Spanish Rice as filling. This is the Plants meal. Livestock production generates 18% of the world's greenhouse gases, more than the transportation sector. While we're not ready to be weekday vegetarians, this is a start.

Tuesday
Pollo Nonna. Feathers Meal #1. Yes, it uses bacon, but only 4 strips as a flavoring element. We are going for a happy medium and not utter food austerity.

Wednesday
Teriyaki Chicken. Feathers #2. This is one of my go-to comfort meals. One pan, one rice cooker, one bowl of salad and everyone is happy.

Misoyaki butterfish and edamame rice

Thursday
Misoyaki Butterfish or Salmon and Edamame Rice. Gills. If butterfish is fresh and doesn't break the bank, I'll get some. Otherwise, it's flash frozen salmon. My mother-in-law is visiting, and this is one of her favorites.

Food Lab Friday
Shawarma Lamb and Couscous. Baa-baa-black sheep, aka, Four Legs, will be used to flavor, rather than as a centerpiece. The start of this meal is a recipe from Sunset Magazine. I'll be reducing the amount of lamb, and adding red peppers, probably green beans or maybe cucumbers. It looks like a stir-fry with Mediterranean ingredients and couscous instead of rice.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--Conscripting the Kids

1/9/2012

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My children: sous chefs in training

It's going to be a hectic week. So I'm conscripting my children sous chefs, and dinners will be a little off-website. I'm hoping sous-chef-ing will become a regular gig for them. This is what one of my girlfriends has done with her teenagers and it has worked out well.

To reinforce the idea of helping out, I keep reminding my children that to this day, my parents have gotten along perfectly fine without a mechanical dishwasher; Dishwashing is what my sisters and I were for.

With thanks (in advance) for my children, here is what's cooking this week.

Crock Pot BBQ Sliders

Monday
Leftovers roulette pasta with chicken, roasted tomatoes, broccoli and hot pepper flakes. The last of the Costco chicken and roasted tomatoes, plus an errant head of broccoli, cut into florets by the children.

Tuesday
"Sausage Stir-Fry" Chicken-apple sausages stir-fried with onions and peppers. Slice sausages, onions and peppers. Brown the sausages first, then toss in the onions and peppers. Eat with Asiago cheese bread from Safeway and salad. The kids may even make this one themselves.

Wednesday
Crock Pot BBQ Pork Sliders and salad. The children get a break today.

Thursday
Chicken, Rice and Cheese. According to my husband, this is going to be some sort of tortilla-less enchilada.

Friday
MaPo Tofu with green beans and rice. Tofu slicing, rice making and green bean shucking duties for the children.

After all the warnings about not touching knives and not playing with a hot stove, it's time to turn 'em loose.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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Asian-style Brined Turkey--Update from Christmas

1/6/2012

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Cilantro, cinnamon, green onion, cider and shoyu brine

This brine reminded me of "potion" I made as a kid when playing out in the yard. Pick some weeds, sticks, twigs, dirt and add water.

It's from the November 2011Bon Appetit turkey recipe and we tried it for our annual Christmas potluck last month. Click here for the original recipe (from Bon Appetit).

If I make this again, I will definitely consider an apple cider to apple juice swap. Besides about $4, what exactly is the difference?

Pasteurization. Apple cider is a perishable liquid that is not pasteurized or homogenized. Apple juices takes that apple cider, filters out all the solids, and then pasteurizes it. They say it affects the taste, and for drinking this is important. I'm just not convinced that using cider in brine makes it that much tastier.

The skin browns beautifully.

The turkey was a beautiful color as advertised, but in my head, I had "Chinese roast duck" flavor, which this definitely did not have. There was just a hint of anise and apple.

The biggest issue was that there was no liquid to make any kind of meaningful sauce with. An apple/shoyu/anise sauce, even a light one would have been a great complement to the turkey.

I'll keep the Bon Appetit page bookmarked, but it won't be going into the Greenhouse just yet. I may try it again with a chicken, using apple juice and seeing if I can get any kind of sauce/gravy going.
Any other suggestions are most welcome!

Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--A Break from Break

1/4/2012

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Love the possibilities of the Year of the Dragon

I love the festive rush of the holidays, but when the New Year turns, it always feels like the right time to move on.

And while I don't exactly welcome the return to work and school schedules, it does provide a familiar track to move to. There is something very satisfying in the annual ritual of starting my brand-new, old-school paper datebook. With that, here's what I've dutifully written we're eating this week.

Tuesday
Costco chicken, Won Bok Coleslaw, using honeycrisp apples instead of nashi and pan-fried potato "chips." I sliced Yukon gold spuds very thinly and then cooked in olive oil, Hawaiian salt and cracked black pepper. After two weeks of rice and mochi, it was good to see Mr. Potatohead again.

Wednesday
My Very Own Chili, with fresh whole wheat bread. I've been making my own bread using a breadmaker for about a month now. I still can't believe how easy it is to make bread this way.

Thursday
Steve's Grilled Lamb, which will be oven roasted instead of grilled since it's still too cold and dark outside. Rounding this out with Roasted Tomatoes, Baba Ghanouj and pita bread. Maximizing the oven today.

Friday
Thai Chicken Curry. I'll cave to rice today, but it will be the fluffier jasmine rice.

Welcome to 2012.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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Happy New Year of the Dragon

1/2/2012

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Happy New Year of the Dragon.

From 12:00 midnight January 1st until January 3rd, it's all about Japanese traditions. Here's not only what's been going on, but why. For this, I need to recognize my long-time friend C2, who did the homework on the meanings of all the New Year's food. All I knew was that we are supposed to eat it.

Midnight, January 1st
We eat toshikoshi soba (means "year-crossing") so that literally the first thing done in the New Year is together with your family, in your home, and in the hope of a year of good fortune. The idea of being in Times Square on New Year's just doesn't compute for me.

Soba are buckwheat noodles and symbolize a long healthy life and a prosperous family. We add kamaboko, or fish cake, with special New Year's designs. This year, I have ume (plum) branches and blossoms, and kotobuki (寿) kanji. Plum symbolizes new beginnings, purity and sweetness. Kotobuki doesn't have a direct translation, but has a rejoicing/celebratory sense with a wish for longevity.

Ozoni for breakfast

Breakfast January 1st
On New Year's morning, the traditional breakfast is ozoni, a clear hot soup with mochi, mushrooms, soba and then whatever particulars a family includes. One of my friend's ozoni actually includes hot dogs, definitely an Americanized version. Ozoni is supposed to help nourish you throughout the year.

Rest of the Day, January 1st
We spend the day with family and friends and pick our way through lunch, dinner and assorted bowl games. Here are some of the traditional New Year's dishes and what they symbolize:

Sekihan (red rice): sticky mochi rice and azuki. In keeping with a red (azuki)/white (rice) color scheme, it is a celebratory food. This is one of my favorites.

Kuromame: black beans simmered in shoyu and sugar. You're supposed to eat one bean for each year of your age to ensure good health for the coming year and general long life.

Kobumaki: rolled seaweed tied with gourd. Sounds like Japanese "rejoice" (yorokobu, 喜ぶ) and symbolizes joy.

Datemaki: a sweet rolled scrambled egg. It's supposed to look like the sun, another celebratory food.

Gobo: julienned seasoned burdock root. The tough texture symbolizes the Japanese way of life and perseverance.

Nimono/nishime: boiled root vegetables. Includes lotus (renkon), cut so that the holes show, symbolizing that you can see the year ahead; bamboo shoots (takenoko), symbolizing fast growth, and carrots cut into the shape of a plum blossom for fertility.

Tastukuri: dried salted sardines (anchovies) for a good harvest.

Satsuma: mandarin oranges, put on top of the mochi (for good luck) and eaten for a good life.

Wishing you all the good health and happiness for 2012. Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--Saving 4 Legs for the Superbowl

Eating Las Vegas, Re-visited

What's Cooking This Week--Kung Hee Fat Choy and What's Next?!

New Addition--Mediterranean Lamb Stir-Fry and Lemon Rice

What's Cooking This Week--Better Balance for 2012

What's Cooking This Week--Conscripting the Kids

Asian-style Brined Turkey--Update from Christmas

What's Cooking This Week--A Break from Break

Happy New Year of the Dragon

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