Blog Archives

What's Cooking This Week--Stay Dry and Safe!

10/29/2012

Be safe. The ocean always wins.

What a crazy natural disaster few days. The tsunami alert for my Feeding My Ohana-ohana in Hawaii has passed. To our Feeding My Ohana-ohana on the Northeast, stay safe and dry.

Sandy looks like a bad one, so please take care!

Make sure you have lots of water, canned goods like tomato sauce, black beans and tuna, bread, peanut butter, batteries, band aids and gas for your cars and grill.　Out west, here's what's cooking.

Monday
Korean Egg Meat, using fish. I LOVE egg meat, but since my son doesn't eat cow, I'm using Dover sole. Fish jun is standard for Korean restaurants in Hawaii, so I think it should work, and cooking will be much faster than beef.

A proper Monday meal with musubi, kim chee, kale chips and a new kochojang dipping sauce.

Liking the sound of this already!

Meatless Tuesday
Sweet potato curry. This seems like a very fall kind of dish.

Wednesday--Happy Halloween!
Kamaboko Sandwiches. A childhood favorite of mine that I'm foisting upon my children. They can decide if it's a trick or treat. Not nearly as strange as the kimchee/peanut butter or sardine/onion sandwiches I've also liked and eaten as a kid.

Thursday
Christine's Clam Chowder. Feeding My Ohana's Virtual Food Drive kick-off day. We will be matching donations again this year.

Friday
Seared Furikake Ahi Salad. Something new and light to go with Halloween candy.

Extras from the bakery
Butterscotch pumpkin bread
Banana-Nutella bread, from last month's issue of Cooking Light

Eat Well. Be Well. Stay Safe!!

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Logic and Linguine

10/26/2012

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After the Great Tofu Disaster, it was back to cookbook research for another creative endeavor. This time, I started with a Russell Siu recipe from By Request by Betty Shimabukuro. Some context: Russell Siu is one of the founders of 3660 on the Rise, my mom's favorite restaurant and Betty Shimabukuro is the Food Editor for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, but not my cousin.

The ingredient list below, logically arranged in Venn diagram form, and indulging my inner geek. For reasons that should be intuitively obvious (NOT!) I've deemed the recipe Italianese Chicken Pasta.

Part Japanese, Part Chinese, Part Italian. 100% American.

This dish starts out classically Mediterranean with browning chicken and then tossing in the eggplant, sundried tomatoes and mushrooms. While I used Japanese eggplant and shiitake mushrooms as per the original recipe, you could substitute Italian or Chinese eggplant and portabello mushrooms.

Then you think, "OK, stir-fry" and add hoisin, sriracha and shoyu. The "ai-yah!" moment comes when you pour in that carton of half-n-half. Do not panic, even though this combination will feel very wrong. Chef Russell Siu will not steer your awry.

But it worked! Click here for the recipe and click here for Venn diagram intricacies.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--Cooking for Rain

10/22/2012

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Monday Night Tacos!

Today was the first rain of the season. Time to transition to soup/oven weather. Three of this week's meals are good 'stock-up' meals. Eat 1. Freeze 1. Here's what's cooking for the shorter days.

Monday
Tacos with no seasoning packets. Here is what is in one of those spice packets: yellow corn flour, salt, maltodextrin, paprika, spices, modified cornstarch, sugar, garlic powder, citric acid, autolyzed yeast extract, natural flavor, Caramel Color (sulfites).

JUST SAY NO to those sodium-saturated (430mg) spice packets. Go with fresh onion, cumin, chili powder, bay leaves, cayenne peper and fresh garlic.

おいしい！好きな　食べ物

Tuesday
Number 1 Udon. Char siu was on sale at Marukai, and bok choy is coming into season now that it's cooler.

Wednesday
Japanese Chicken Curry. A double-batch for dinner and freezer.

Thursday
Double down on Chili and a fresh Quinoa Salad, the go-to option for the choir potluck.

Friday
Corn Chowder. This was major comfort food when the weather got 'cold' In Hawaii, meaning the low 70s. Trying a new version based on Tyler Florence and the Barefoot Contessa, two of my favorite cooking references. Trying to say no to canned cream corn.

Saturday
Quiche. Make two save one for later!

Reminder
Feeding My Ohana's Virtual Food Drive to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank will start November 1st, and we will again be matching donations.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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Do Not Try This at Home

10/19/2012

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No. No. No.

So many blogs filled with beautiful tasty food that you can whip up in minutes, and while wearing nice clothes in a sparkly kitchen.

That is not real life. The pitfall of trying many new recipes is that once it awhile, you serve up a Huge, Colossal Fail.

Thursday night's dinner was just that. Here are some of the NICE things that were said: It's not poisonous. It has GOOD ingredients. What happened?! Not as bad as salmon couscous, the household standard by which all unsuccessful meals are judged.

Subtle reminder

It was called Mom's Tofu Loaf. Tofu, tuna, onions, celery, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, eggs and shredded carrots. Mix together and bake like meatloaf. I even followed directions.

The liquid is supposed to evaporate and the loaf should turn golden brown. At the end, smother a can of cream of mushroom soup on the top, and cheddar cheese optional.

While the recipe is a goner, it made for lively dinner chatter. We can't even FEED IT TO THE DOG I'm not very hungry and I have A LOT of homework. My favorite: Looks like cat barf. I'm taking this one as a battle scar and have today's another experiment.

Eat Well. But not this one!

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What's Cooking This Week--Craving Hawaii

10/16/2012

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My own private Waimea Bay. Sigh.

Someone very dear in my Hawaii ohana is making the big jump to the "Mainland". Wishing them good luck, and sending them off with a view of one of my favorite places in the universe--summer morning at Waimea Bay. As the song goes, it's my "pocketful of paradise". I did not get to go to Hawaii this summer, and Waimea gestalt is one of the many things I really miss.

With that, a mix of Hawaii and Mainland cooking this week.

Sunday
Steve's Grilled Lamb. We ate it with Spinach Bolani (Afghani flatbread) and fresh grilled eggplant that we got from the Mountain View (CA) farmers market that day.

Love my Daddy's Fried Rice!

Monday--Grandma's Birthday
All you can eat buffet, as requested by my mother-in-law for her birthday dinner. With strawberry chiffon cake from Whole Foods. The seasonal apple cake is also quite good.

Tuesday
My Daddy's Killer Fried Rice. For A LOT of leftover rice.

Wednesday
Tofu Loaf, inspired by Green Garden Restaurant, a long-closed and very local-style restaurant in Hanapepe (Kauai). In addition to an awesome lilikoi pie, they baked up a tofu dish with onions, shiitake and mayonnaise. This version also includes tuna, carrots, celery and cream of mushroom soup. It shall be a grand experiment.

Thursday
To balance out the Perhaps-Not-So-Great Green Garden experiment, I'll try a fancier Hawaii Regional Cuisine recipe. This one is Hoisin Linguine from Russel Siu, one of the co-founders of 3660 on the Rise. This also happens to be my mother's favorite restaurant, and by utter only-in-Hawaii coincidence, Mom used to go to water aerobics with the other founder. Very small island.

Meatless Friday
Taking the last gasp of summer with Roasted tomato pizza.

Baking Extras
Todd's Pound Cake. I grew up with Sara Lee Pound Cake, but I dropped her for husband-made. The 5 eggs and 1/2 pound of butter means it is should never been a weekly staple, but it's marvy as a once-in-awhile indulgence.

Go Giants. Beat Cal. Hockey Come Back!

Eat Well. Be Well.

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10 Reasons to Love October

10/12/2012

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October makes it easy to be a whiny weather wimp. It's getting cold. It's dark in the morning and dark when I drive home. Hockey season is slowly dooming itself. There can be lots of reasons even for non-ex-pat-Hawaii-girls to be October-challenged.

It's time to sort to the positive. October can be downright glorious. Here are 10 reasons to love October.

1. My beloved and twisted Headless Horseman and Lilo and Stitch Trio that I shall keep out until the rah-rah-rah Christmas decorations come prancing in.

2. Pumpkin-anything. Let's be honest. No one brings pumpkin pie to the beach, to Easter brunch or to a BBQ. I'm hoping my baker husband makes Butterscotch Pumpkin Bundt Cake soon. Planning to try Pumpkin Coffeecake and what might be Pumpkin Malasadas/Donut Holes, currently tacked on my Pinterest board.

3. Halloween candy. When else can otherwise responsible adults buy gobs of KitKats, Midnight Milky Ways, Twix and Snickers? That's what we're handing out and hoping for leftovers.

4. Switching to flannel sheets. Cozy-toasty.

Boo Chips. Food should be fun.

5. Boo chips. Ghost and ghoulie-shaped potato chips. Genius. From Whole Foods and only during October.

6. Better running weather. I will never love running, but it is certainly more tolerable in colder weather. The leaves crunch under your shoes, the air is crisp and most importantly, it offsets the Halloween candy and Boo Chips.

7. Sweater and boots. By default, people look more stylish in the fall. I firmly believe it's because they have more clothes on.

8. An extra hour of sleep when daylight savings falls back.

Not everything has to be beach food.

9. Apples, pears and cranberries. All the better for Pear Sour Cream Coffee Cake and Apple Cranberry Pie, and fresh cranberry sauce.

10. 115th Big Game. Though that used to be in November. I have many, many dear Bezerkely-related friends and family.

But for the next two weeks, Beat Cal!

Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--Hello Fall

10/8/2012

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I was at the Farmer's Market yesterday and it feels like everything is in season. We can still enjoy the last bits of summer--tomatoes, zukes and berries, plus the great fall produce--apples, pears and kabocha. I'm in a soup and sandwich-ey mood, so here's what's cooking this week.

Meatless Monday
My son's favorite Simplest Spaghetti with a side of farmer's market heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella.This is a bread-less tomato sandwich.

Tuesday
Fall panini. Using Homemade Pork Sausage Patties. Defrost them and cook them.Then stack it on toasted sourdough with arugula, Havarti cheese and sliced pears. Finish them in the microwave for about 30 seconds, just enough to melt the cheese so that everything sticks together.

Wednesday
Dinner inspired by Mom. Braised Kabocha and My Mom's Miso Soup with an egg dropped in. Believe it or not, we might even get the first rain of the season.

Thursday
Another riff on fall panini, inspired by Ike's Sandwich Lair in Cupertino, CA. Roasted turkey (or possibly chicken) with fresh (traditional) cranberry sauce, havarti cheese, mayo and Sriracha. Why save cranberry sauce just for Thanksgiving?

Almost-Meatless Friday
Jane's Stuffed Zucchini and Roasted Broccoli with lots of garlic and a teeny bit of pancetta.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--Indian Summer

10/1/2012

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This is the funky time in the Bay Area when the temperature can be 102 degrees in particularly-un-Pleasanton, especially when it's on Sunday afternoon, and you are on a soccer field with no trees. It was 96 degrees...in San Francisco today. Thankfully, we will be back to temperate Bay Area weather soon. Here's what's cooking this week.

Monday
Tofu Steaks. Warm enough to grill outside, but because the days are shorter, you end up eating in the dark.

Tuesday
Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya. Does eating spicy food in hot weather somehow cool you down? Or does spicy weather in cool weather warms you up? Who cares, this is yummy and fast.

Wednesday
Mayonnaise Chicken, Roasted Cauliflower and garlic Mashed Potatoes by Microwave. Dinner by the ovens. College kids--this is an easy 'real' dinner to try.

Thursday
Sick and Wrong Fish. I missed going home to Hawaii this summer, so it''ll be Mom's comfort food instead. And rice with umeboshi. I'm also trying out a long-overdue Chinese Chicken Salad recipe from Mom and Pinterest.

Friday
Chicken Goulash. I hadn't made this for a long time and was considering yanking it. This is still a keeper.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--Stay Dry and Safe!

Logic and Linguine

What's Cooking This Week--Cooking for Rain

Do Not Try This at Home

What's Cooking This Week--Craving Hawaii

10 Reasons to Love October

What's Cooking This Week--Hello Fall

What's Cooking This Week--Indian Summer

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