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Halloween Candy--Polling Here

10/27/2013

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Li-hing candy does not pass go.
We hold a Very Serious Annual Discussion to determine what Halloween candy to give out to the neighborhood trick or treaters. 

First of all, we are traditionalists and give out candy. We long ago gave up on the idea of finding a suitable yet satisfactory alternative. More on that a little later.

Secondly, the family stipulates that we have to give out Good Candy and not Weird Candy. 

Thus, no matter how much I lobby, li-hing rock candy is out.
After some ruminating in the candy point-of-purchase at Safeway, these were also nixed for cause.
The No-Go List
1. Milk Duds. Who wants to eat something called "Dud"?
2. Twizzlers. Red Vine pretender.
3. Junior Mints. These aren't even good--who buys them in real life?
4. Mr. Goodbar. Peanut allergies. In all its seriousness.
5. Werther's Original Caramel. Old people food.
6. SweeTarts. Chalk.
7. Airheads. Bad Hi Chew molar extractors.
8. Nerds. Looks too much like crazy aquarium rocks.
9. Blow Pops. I nixed this one because it's a badly named product on so many levels.
10. Dum Dums. Who wants the free candy they give you after your flu shots?!
The "Hmm, Interesting" List
I heard a Trader Joe's radio ad promoting frozen turkey meatballs for Halloween trick-or-treaters ("because canned tomato sauce is so last year." This got me thinking about the unusual items my my children have received by well-meaning or perhaps ill-prepared households. Here are some of the all-time oddballs:

1. 1 walnut, in shell
2. a bag of prunes, and not the individual snack size either!
3. a full 12-oz can of pop
4. a toothbrush, with mini-floss and toothpaste, but to be fair, this was from a dentist
5. State quarters. Of all the non-candy, this was the best alternative, cost-effective yet satisfying.
6. loose change. This one, not so much, but the very young children were pretty excited with 17 cents in coin.
This is what we've settled on: The multipack of Twix, 3 Musketeers, Milky Way and Snickers, a separate bag of Kit Kat Mini thrown in, and Hi Chews. Yup it's the American Asian candy bowl.
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Snickers, Milky Way, Twix. With a KitKat Add-in.
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Hi Chew is very popular in the household.
What are you doing for Halloween? What are your candy preferences? Talk to me Junior Mint lovers!
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What's Cooking This Week--Going Global

4/8/2013

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This week's menu goes around the world in 6 days--tofu, Alfredo and jambalaya. We are meatless x2 during the week with a bonus Meatless Sunday.
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Be vegetarian, at least for a day.
Meatless Bonus Sunday
Tofu Steaks, edamame and rice. Can you say "soy"?

Monday
Basil Chicken. With tofu steaks last night, there is lots of extra basil.

Meatless Tuesday
Almost Alfredo Pasta, with broccoli instead of spinach.


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Homemade gyros
Wednesday
Gyros, to use the last of the feta cheese from Grapefruit and Manoa lettuce salad.

Thursday
Jambalaya. Besides tofu steaks, we had Japanese Chicken Curry over the weekend and there is some leftover celery.

Meatless Friday
On the Fly Orzo Salad. Reasonably sure the husband will tolerate the third meatless day in a week.

Extras
Haupia from scratch. In this context, 'from scratch' not using the 'just add water' packet, but using coconut milk and cornstarch. It does not mean pounding coconut and arrowroot. I'm hoping for a smoother texture than the packets version. I may even make this tonight!

Li Hing Kettle Korn. My cousin told me I took Kettle Korn and made it even more addicting. If you see my relatives or me with the tell-tale red fingertips, you'll know why.

What are your favorite snacks?


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What's Cooking This Week

3/11/2013

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Front yard as produce stand.
It was a glorious spring day in the Bay Area today, enough to work through that lost hour of sleep. We are going to enjoy this lovely week of darn-near perfect weather.

Meatless Monday--Breakfast for dinner
Chard picked from the garden this afternoon sauteed with garlic, onions, grape tomatoes, a shot of balsamic vinegar, sunny-side up eggs and Parmesan cheese. Inspired by a recipe on Pinterest, and eaten with a side of toasted asiago bread.  Unanimous household approval.

Any ideas for a catchy name for this would be most welcome.

Tuesday
Crock Pot Kalua Pig. I have a rare night meeting, so this will be ready for the kids and hubby. All they need to do is cook rice and make a salad. And then eat ice cream.

Wednesday
Chicken Fajitas Nachos, using leftover chicken, vegetables grilled by the husband on Sunday. He used a pre-made spice rub for the chicken, plus a lime. With guacamole with avocados from a friend, salsa and sour cream.

Might be Meatless Thursday
Pad Thai, yet again. Possibly bypassing the chicken and using only tofu. I'm still looking for a tamarind paste-less version and I have two more options Pinterest to consider.

Friday
Pretty Much My Mother-in-Law's Corn Chowder. It's supposed to be 72 degrees of Friday, but I'm craving a good soup.

Bonus
Soccer season is starting, so it's very important to keep *lots* of food in the house. Here are the teenager-approved items for the week.

Jello Mochi
Jello is on sale at Safeway this week. I'm trying fruit punch, cherry lemonade and mango. Except for the color, I'm pretty sure it's all going to taste like "sweet".

Li Hing Kettle Korn. Trader Joe's kettle korn tossed with li-hing powder. I eat this 'til my fingers are vermilion.

Homemade Pork Sausage. Time to re-stock.

Frozen green onion pancakes and eggs. My son has been going through packages green onion pancakes and cartons of eggs. Best of all, he can make them himself.

Have a great week!
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Miscellaneous Foraging

2/3/2013

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The cure for winter tomatoes
Go Niners! I can't even claim to be a hanger-on because this will be the first full NFL game that I have watched this season. And even then, I'm in it for the food and commercials. What to name that Budweiser horse?!

So instead, I made some long overdue additions to the site before the Superbowl starts. Both vegetarian too.

Tomato Tart 
We had this a in early January, and I've been tardy getting the recipe up.

Greek Pasta Salad
From the same week as Tomato Tart. Pasta, cukes, red peppers, tomatoes and feta and olives. It was supposed to include tuna, but I nixed it at my daughter's suggestion. Smart girl.

Li-hing Kettle Korn--homemade version
We received this as a Christmas gift and I found out just how easy it is to make at home. The kids and I ate the whole bag and so we'll have plenty for Superbowl Sunday. 30 seconds to do. Get the following:

1) Trader Joe's Kettle Korn
2) Li-hing powder

Pour kettle korn into a large bowl that has a lid, or a very large plastic bag. Sprinkle li-hing powder in. You can be a little more generous with the powder in this case. Shake it up. Eat. It will turn your fingers li-hing red, but you'll be happy.


Enjoy the game!

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What's Cooking This Week--Back to School

8/27/2012

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The kids are back in school, and soccer, piano and carpool are starting up again. So dinner has a decidedly academic theme. Here's what's cooking at our house this week.

Monday
Home Ec Review Assignment #1. A hodge-podge I've made before called "Philly stir-fry." For the entire family, I used only one Cajun and one Sheboygan sausage from the newly re-opened Dittmer's in Mountain View, CA. I sliced the sausages very thinly and then stir-fried them with onions, mushrooms and green and yellow peppers. This way, the sausages are really a flavoring agent, rather then the centerpiece of the meal. The children eat a lot of veggies this way. We ate it over rice and a bit of sriracha sauce. Leftovers will be eaten Philly cheesesteak-style in a traditional sandwich roll for lunches. Started at 5:45 pm and eating at 6:30 pm

Tuesday
Science Experiment #1. Egg and chunky tomato sauce and chard topped with bread crumbs and parmesan. I'm working on this as a kind of Italian loco-moco. This is an amalgamation of two recipes, one from Gale Gand's Brunch!, and one from Cooking Light. This could turn out spectacularly or not, but that's the fun of it. 
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Wednesday
Economics 101. Costco Chicken. I *LOVE* when Feeding My Ohana-ites send me suggestions. Keep 'em coming! This week, I received guidance on how to use Costco chicken bones to make  jook (Chinese rice porridge), and this sounds too good to pass up. I may even buy two so that I'll have extra for chicken salad sandwiches and for Friday's Tortilla Soup. 3-4 meals on 2 chickens!

Thursday
Editing Assignment #1. Ginger cilantro fish, possibly with chicken. I'm cleaning out the Greenhouse and will probably transition this page to my Pinterest board. It's time for this one to put up or be purged.

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Friday
Economics 202. Chicken Tortilla Soup, with the rest of the Costco chicken.

Extra Credit for the Afternoon Teenager Feeding
Spinach dip, pre-packaged snow peas and baby carrots. I used Knorr's as the starter pack.
Fresh jalapeno/jack cheese tamales from Whole Foods
Crackers and cheddar cheese
Yogurt, nuts and fresh berries
White Cheddar Cheezits, but only because they are on sale
Watermelon
Li-hing pineapple if I can find a good one. My girlfriend made this over the weekend and I need to eat it again.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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The Trans-Pacific O-miyage Exchange

11/18/2011

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The Trans-Pacific o-miyage exchange never fails to bemuse me. 

O-miyage (pronounced "oh-me-ah-gay) is a Japanese word describing little gifts one brings back from travels, or sometimes just a little something you take to someone's house. Whenever we visit in Hawaii, we never go empty-handed and never leave empty-handed. 

Here is how this dynamic plays out across blue Pacific.

I have relatives visiting from Hawaii. This is a good thing because besides in addition to being allowed to turn the heat up to slightly-above-tundra, we are on the receiving end of various gifts and snacks, including a brand-new Hawaii Regional Cuisine cookbook, Big Island snack mix, private reserve Kona coffee, various forms of macadamia nuts, and all things li-hing mui.

Now for the quid-pro-quo, or what my husband sometimes calls the accounting of affection. 

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My Hawaii-based ohana asks for Trader Joe's and Archer Farms food. Yep, you read that correctly. Target food. And yes, there are 4 Target stores in Hawaii, but they don't have the same stuff as our neighborhood Target. Like Lemon Raspberry Granola Bites or Paul Frank Kids clothes. Go figure.

But Trader Joe's is my Hawaii-based ohana's version of the Holy Grail. What I not-so-fondly call squirrel food and what serves as my post-Hawaii plate-lunch detox, is what my relatives lust for. 10 bags of trail mix, 6 boxes of Trader Joe's Mac and Cheese and assorted bags of pistachios, almonds, cashews and dried apricots.

The best part is that we all think we got the better end of the deal.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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    I love to eat, so I had to learn to cook. This is my personal reference and I use it daily. Looking forward, when I turn a profit, 95% of net profit will go to programs to feed the hungry.

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