Category: Gills - feeding my ohana

What's Cooking This Week--Favorites!

9/5/2017

Go-to somen salad

It's been awhile for these old favorites. This week's menu is dedicated to people and places that hold fond memories for the ohana.

Not Meatless Tuesday
My Grandma's Meat and Macaroni. Takes me, and by extension, my kids, back to 'small kid time'. My grandma called this "Creole Macaroni" and my kids call "Meat and Macaroni" My Issei Grandma made all manner of Japanese food, and worked wonders on the side with American catsup and a can of tomato sauce.

Weekday Grilling Wednesday
Chicken Satay. This is from a Draeger's cooking class team-building session many moons ago. This was one of the best teams I have 'played' on. To this day, I still keep in touch, even though we all have long since left the original company!

Thursday
15-minute Fish and Anna's Broccoli Salad. When I was driving the piano/soccer carpool, 15-minute fish was always a good meal to get on the table after unloading various children and equipment. We've grown out of that rhythm, but it's still nice to have a proper meal on the table fast.

Aloha Friday
Nakayoshi Somen Salad is just the thing to end the week. My kids spent summers getting in touch with their inner Yonsei, and the husband and I both served on the board of this fine summer program. Good memories for all.

Looking at this week's menu reminds me of how broad and wide and open and welcoming our ohana is.

May yours be the same!

What's Cooking This Week--More Experiments

8/21/2017

Hooray for Libraries!

New 'hood means a new library. New library means new cookbooks, and this means it's guinea pig time. Here's what's cooking this week.

Teeny Tiny Friday aka Monday is #LeftoversRoulette
So I made it to the library but not Safeway. We've all been here, or maybe it's just me. On principle, we did not resort to take-out.

In-home foraging yielded the following: Cheese and tomato quesadillas, two pieces of Na-omi-take Tofu Recipe, a green onion pancake, the last of the teriyaki chicken, three fingers of milk, half a bottle of magenta vitamin water, and three fingers of pineapple cider.

New Recipe Tuesday
Lamb chops with apricot salsa from a Williams Sonoma main dishes cookbook that is pleasingly organized by color. See red book at left.

Wednesday
More from Damn Delicious (middle cookbook above). Salmon with a Lemon Cream Sauce.

Thursday is Pizza Day
A friend's homegrown crop has become Roasted Tomatoes Recipe , so we'll have Boboli Margherita-style pizza. Just add some garlic, fresh basil and some fresh mozz!

Aloha Friday with a Dr. Shintani Recipe (Top cookbook, above)
Roasted Teriyaki Potatoes. I'll have to think of a protein, but how can this not be good?!

Have a good week all!

What's Cooking This Week--New Stuff Old Favorites

8/13/2017

Clearly I need better lighting!

In our new 'hood, I found 1) the local library and therefore, 2) stumbled onto a great cookbook, Damn Delicious, and borrowed for the umpteenth time, the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. Real books made from paper. Armed with that, here's what's cooking this week.

Proper Sunday Dinner
From Damn Delicious--Balsamic salmon with strawberry/mango salsa. OK, so I used a peach because they are in season and smell so good. And because the Safeway mangoes were icky, and I miss Hawaii mangoes, and am still a little resentful that I actually have to Pay Money for mango. This worked out just fine, and Sunday Dinner Birdie remarked that one should really be able to eat fruit salsa with a spoon because it's basically seasoned fruit cocktail. You go Birdie!

#Meatless Monday aka "Teeny Tiny Friday"
Quinoa Salad. We went through a period where we made this all the time. Then, as my children say, it got "OP'd" and we forgot about it. It's time to bring it back--a good full-meal salad and will work as a side or leftover. Along with the strawberry-peach-that-was-supposed-to-be-mango salsa.

Fridge to mouth in 20 minutes, tops

Tuesday is Grill Day
Banh-mi chicken sandwiches. While said Safeway had icky mangoes, they did have 'right-sized' daikon. Not too humongous, not limp and mushy, just right. We can make the pickled carrot/daikon slaw ahead of time, marinate the chicken in the morning, and short commute means weekday grilling.

Wednesday is Another #MeatlessOneDay
Mondays and Tuesdays at work tend to be very meeting heavy, so by the time Wednesday PM rolls around, that "blah-lahs" kick in. Na-omi-take Tofu requires no cooking and packs a ton of protein, plus uses the rest of that right-sized daikon. Mid-week winner.

Thursday
Another attempt at Pad Thai, this time with guidance from Damn Delicious, who recommends using regular pasta. Will probably add the leftover Banh Mi chicken for a little more protein.

Aloha Friday is #LeftoversRoulette
Leftovers and Game of Thrones. I've joined the rest of popular culture and have started watching Game of Thrones. Empty nest means lots of leftovers because we've not figured out the cooking for fewer thing yet.

It feels great to be cooking creatively again! Have a good week all.

What's Cooking This Week--Empty Nest Cadence

7/24/2017

Can you see the pickle mango?

It feels good to get back into a rhythm of cooking again, but boy, is it an adjustment. Two middle-aged adults eat significantly less than a family of four with two metabolism-busting children. But the upside is that foraging works much better and with zero parent guilt! Here's what's cooking this week.

Foraging in the Fridge Monday
The last of Mediterranean Lamb Stir Fry, tomatoes, bread and some cheese.

Grilling on Tuesday
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken and Yaki Corn. Short commute and Daylight savings means weekday grilling is in play!

Fish on Wednesday
Cornmeal Fish and My Daddy's Tartar Sauce. Note to self--tartar sauce, or some kind of condiment is a requirement. Plus salad.

Thursday Night with the 'Rents
La Paloma, a nice, homey, non-chain Mexican restaurant in Santa Clara. Another note to self--exercise extreme self-restraint on free AND unlimited chips and salsa.

Pie and new dishes. So fancy!

Friday is #MeatlessOneDay
Korean Mushroom Tofu, with bean sprouts and watercress from the Korean grocery, plus some kim chee and rice.

Bonus
A peach/raspberry pie and a boysenberry crumble pie from Avila Valley Barn Bakery. A convenient stop on the way back from Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo. Their sandwiches are also quite good.

Can you believe August is next week?! Have a great week all.

Where Did the Time Go?

7/9/2017

Sunday dinner when the birdie(s) come home

11/13/16 thru' 7/10/17.

What the heck happened?!

We certainly didn't starve, especially if you have watching Feeding My Ohana on FB or Insta, but I am still figuring out empty nest cadence.

And while the election results rocked our entire household's world, close-to-home events like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's work travel, family-related travel, graduations, aging relatives, downsizing the house, various corporate restructuring, the occasional head cold, and moving birdies out, in and out again, all happened.

Without going down a political minefield, I'm navigating how I can be a positive difference in my corner of the world, particularly now that children I have watched grow up are graduating from high school and college, and entering the workforce. It should be a more equal playing field for them than it was for me.

What I am happy to continue to share is our proper Sunday meal, and finally, getting back to a weekly meal cycle.

Here is our proper Sunday meal, all the tastier on our non-chippy dishes. If anyone is looking for new dishes, let me know. I looked around. A LOT.

Misoyaki salmon--an old favorite for the new house
Grilled asparagus
Musubi and family
A simple salad with a box of greens, beets that I cooked earlier in the week, a handful of nuts and raspberries, drizzled with blueberry balsamic vinegar.

Thank you all for hanging with me through the radio silence. There was much to share along the way, and I'm looking forward to getting back to the blog and cooking in the new place!

What's Cooking This Week--Diversions from Real Life

11/7/2016

Godzilla sculpture in Tokyo--such a clever diversion from real life!

Middle age is definitely not the chaotic fall-of-the-Roman-Empire-Black-Death-Dragons-and-Crusades upheaval of the real Middle Ages.

Middle age is full of adjustments--empty nest, aging relatives, and serious work commitments/travel. But it has also included learning how to SnapChat, a milestone anniversary, a really lovely wedding, and the down-in-your-soul-quiet-happiness that your birdies have wings. And can fly!

Add to that an election cycle that has also consumed my psyche. Those of you who are connected with me personally on Facebook--thank you for your support of my post. I purposely kept the Feeding My Ohana voice away from the body politic, and this week, I definitely needed cooking as both diversion and solace.

Thanks to the election, here's what's cooking this week as I keep trying to figure out how to cook for two. The freezer is chock-full of stuff, so I'm still learning!

Meatless Monday
We have been making a full-ohana portion of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and keeping it in an airtight container. Sometimes it's Greek Salad. Sometimes it's just this with with mozzarella and bread. The rest of the days, we use the rest as a side salad, sometimes by itself and sometimes adding leafy greens.

Election Tuesday--Go VOTE!
Jambalaya with toasted green onion bread to watch returns. I'll use the last batches of homemade tomato sauce from earlier this summer. About half of the jambalaya will go into the freezer.

Recovery Wednesday
Whatever happens on Tuesday, we will need a respite. Gyros sounds about right. Another way to use the tomatoes and cucumbers.

Thursday
Myles Last Resort Meatloaf sandwiches. Have not made this in awhile. Will use some of the green onion bread as part of the ingredients for meatloaf and then the rest for sandwiches that include, you guessed it, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Friday
Leftovers. Or maybe date night?!

Bonus Stuff
Homemade Granola--sometimes we ship this to Birdie #1, but not this time!

Maple Pumpkin cookies--this is a new recipe I will post this week. I guinea-pigged it at work today and the not-secret-at-all voting was unanimous as a repeater. I might make a batch for Thanksgiving too.

This election has tested everyone. Vote tomorrow and be kind to each other.

What’s Cooking This Week—Stocking the Freezer (Again)

4/10/2016

Enchi-lasagna

A very dear friend of mine recently asked, “Do you ever call it a night and have PB&Js for dinner?” The answer is actually no. Our Survivor dinners are cereal and milk, or takeout.

But not this week, as baby birdie has taken to cooking! Here's what's cooking this week, and not all by me.

Sunday
Nearly Meatless Enchiladas. I went lazy and instead of rolling enchiladas, my baby birdie and I stacked ‘em up like lasagna. The results were tasty, but not so pretty. Half to the freezer to try to avoid Cheerios and takeout.

#MeatlessMonday
Sabih and Greek Salad. We had a fantastic Israeli dinner at a friend’s house last week, and this is the Asian girl’s reasonable facsimile.

Tuesday is Dinner by Baby Birdie
My Mom’s Chicken Katsu, Weird Watermelon Salad and rice. Baby birdie even had a list for us to go shopping for. I love that kid.

Wednesday
Zippy’s Chili When You Are Far Away. I made on Sunday, so we’ll heat it up mid-week and then freeze the rest.

Takeout Thursday—Let the NHL Playoffs Begin!
Game 1 of the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings. Candidates for Takeout include Ike’s Sandwiches, Nick the Greek, or Nijiya Market.

Friday
Misoyaki butterfish or salmon and sekihan.

One mid-week dinner already made and two dinners for the freezer bank. Hockey playoffs starting. It’s going to be a good week.

What's Cooking This Week--Birdies Gotta Fly

3/29/2016

Just add eggs.

We had a full house this week, and all was well. But one of the most "oooh, my heart is full and heavy" moments was realizing that the birdies gotta fly--it's college notification week; they have learned how to cook and drive very, very far; and they are bigger than me. OK, that last one is not the least bit impressive. But it was a great week, and here's what's cooking.

Family Dinner by Birdie
Pillsbury Manapua and Weird Watermelon Salad. Shopped. Prepped and made by my baby birdie, with assistance from college birdie. Best comment from the dinner table after making ONE meal, “Wow, Mom, it’s pretty amazing that you did this for us every night for all the times we were little.” Parenthood FTW.

Traditional #Meatless Monday
Going with Shakshuka from Ottolenghi and Samimi. Made the sauce last night and it's doing its thing in the fridge today.

Tuesday
Romescu Chicken Sandwiches. We haven’t had this in quite awhile and it’s time to bring it back. Plus, we have a cilantro plant that’s exploding out in the front.

#LeftoversRoulette Wednesday
Guacamole with the aforementioned cilantro, plus the leftover red onion from Weird Watermelon Salad. Tropical Fruit Salsa and Carnitas (by crock pot).

Thursday
Seared Furikake Ahi, but with fresh ahi. We ended up making Omi’s Shoyu fish with the flash frozen ahi, which was fine, despite the very serious disconnect between photo and product.

Soup-er Friday
Corn Chowder. It is getting warmer, a good hearty chowder is always good comfort food after a full week.

They are not babies any more, yet they will always be my babies!

Not so sashimi. :P

What's Cooking This Week--Dinner by Bookmobile

11/15/2015

Simple is sometimes best.

Every two weeks, the bookmobile comes to my workplace. This means new cookbooks and the occasional brain candy. This week, the ohana is guinea pig for a crock pot book of soups and an apple/pear cookbook. Perfect for the early nights and cooler weather.

Sunday
Pork Loin from Scratch, Bri's Butternut Squash with a sprinkling of Za'atar. A bonus of Apple/Parsnip/Onion Soup as a side soup, and Pear/Almond Clafoutis for dessert, both as experiments.

Monday is #MeatlessOneDay
French Onion Soup, crock pot version. It started on Sunday afternoon, and can be re-heated quickly after yoga class in evening. Experiment #2 is an Apple/Beet/Watercress Salad and some bread.

Tuesday
Salmon in a Bag. It's like a school lunch bag, only for dinner.

Wednesday is #DinnerByFreezer
A few of the Chicken Gyoza I made awhile ago. If it's cold they will be wonton soup. Otherwise, it will be crunchy gyoza and ponzu sauce with the fancy yuzu a friend got me from Japan.

Thursday
General Tso's Chicken and rice. A quick stir-fry for volleyball night.

Friday
Bacon Sweet Potato Galettes, another experiment. If it works out, it could be a Thanksgiving side.

Starting to think of old favorites and new ideas for Thanksgiving. Have a good week all!

What's Cooking This Week--All Together Now

9/1/2015

We (OK, I) have savored these past few weeks of a full house, but bird's gotta fly, so this week, we cram every favorite that we can muster into one golden week. School's in session, and even though you know in your heart that this is exactly what your birdies are supposed to be doing, we are (again, I am) definitely at the corner of bitter and sweet this week.

Here's what's cooking this week.

Fish on Monday
Omi's Shoyu Fish. By request of Birdie #1

Tuesday
Teriyaki Chicken, Won Bok Coleslaw and Yaki Musubi. This is our quintessential home cooked dinner.

Wednesday
Banh Mi Sandwiches, probably with chicken, maybe
with pork, or remotely with tofu.

Thursday is #MeatlessOneDay
Almost Alfredo Pasta

Friday
Papa Chevo's. If you are ever in Marina, CA, this is a modest taco stop next to a gas station. Their breakfast burritos are fantastic, particularly the chorizo, and in case you didn't see it on Instagram, Carne Asada French Fries is genius.

Have a good week all!