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!

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.

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.

Having a lot of fun getting acquainted with the new kitchen. A 10-minute commute means I get home, shed the work clothes, get a drink and snack, and can start cooking in about 20 minutes. Full disclosure, this week, the husband has taken over cooking, but with joint planning.

Easy stuff to get back into it.

Wednesday
Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs.
As you can see, husband likes bambucha meatballs. Where I can get about 35 little ping-pong sized ones, we had about 20 total this time. More efficient he says.

Tuesday
Fish Jun with Kochojang Sauce. 
​Plus rice and some leftover Orzo Salad from the proper Sunday meal. It sounds like a very weird combo, but worked out well.

We enjoyed another proper Sunday family meal with our birdie. It's a funny transition--birdie comes to visit, and we send her back with leftovers for the week. You know how everyone says you become your parents over time?

Happens pretty damn fast.

You can see on Insta and FB that we've been eating out with grown-ups more often now that the nest is empty. While fun, social, and convenient, I got the reality check with BioIQ screening at work this week. Cholesterol has inched up, and somehow, the weight of a newborn baby has decided to join me.

Hence this week's proper vegetarian Sunday meal was Orzo salad, "Better Burgers", and lower cholesterol.

Better Burger is promoted as "Non-Soy, Non-GMO, gluten-free veggie burgers that taste/feel like hamburgers" Meat-eating husband picked them up at Safeway to try them.

Even as your children barrel toward chronological adulthood, the mommy thing never ends. Nor would I ever want it to anyway. My ohana is my priority, so somehow, feeding them has to happen.

It's been tricky lately with a taking a new job and making new work pals, transitioning away from a long-time and well-loved job (yes, that's you Black Star Club!), yoga, volleyball, running (OK, NOT-running), and the general mundane but essential workings of life (SLEEP, determining which fall-season TV shows to follow, grocery shopping, dry-cleaning, doctor's appointments, kid drop-off/retrieval, Halloween candy).

Enter Sunday afternoon cooking. A great mind-clearer and occasional-birdie-bonding experience. This has allowed us to keep our sit-down-at-the-table dinner ritual as well as maintain my mind-clearing yoga schedule, and the only change is that dinner is admittedly much later in the evening then when the children were younger. The conversation is, thankfully, much livelier and challenging.

So here's what's in our freezer.

Laurie and the Jars Spaghetti Sauce. While I have been making homemade tomato sauce pretty regularly now, the jars are convenient. What I have learned is that jar sauce can be Very Very Salty compared to when you make your own. So don't add salt, even to the pasta, when using this version. Also doubled down on the veggies--lots of zukes, red peppers, onions and mushrooms.

Portuguese Sausage Jambalaya. Because there was no Andouille sausage in the freezer, and just so you know, this works quite well as a substitution. This one didn't make it to the freezer, but was eaten this week.

Any Kine Quiche, Variation #4. This version was artichoke hearts, red peppers, zukes, onions, and pepper jack cheese. One for the week and one for the freezer.

Japanese Chicken Curry. I LOVE House and Vermont brand curry blocks. A double recipe means a weekly meal and a frozen one.

Wonton, chicken and broccoli slaw variation. 67 of them, because one of my birdies would want to know the EXACT number made.

Spaghetti meatballs and homemade pork sausage. These were made awhile ago and will be consumed out in the next couple of weeks.

Three batches of Homemade Tomato Sauce. The base for simple spaghetti sauce, chili, chicken tortilla soup for a weekday if we need it. Probably the last batch unless we get a warm spell.

So now you know whose freezer to go for trick-or-treating. Happy Halloween all!

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!

All beds in the house are happily filled. The birdies have been flying in and out all summer, so it's nice to have them roosting for a bit. It's noisier, messier, crazier, and yet happier and more relaxed. 

A full house means feeding a full ohana. Hence, last weekend's hoard cooking included roasting a chicken, freezing the bones, making spaghetti meatballs, homemade pork sausage, another batch of homemade tomato sauce, which then was turned into Jambalaya (shrimp-less, so it freezes better). Oh yeah, and planting 12 more lettuce sprouts, which are currently Not Very Happy in the 100+ degree heat.

We've also gone a little beet crazy. Roasted six big ones and have stocked up on both goat and feta cheese, plus some lemons and pine nuts.

Sweltering Sunday
Nakayoshi Gakko Somen Salad (but with soba because that's what was in the pantry), seared furikake ahi and fresh hamachi. Please note that Mitsuwa in San Jose has excellent air conditioning.

Back to School Monday
Spaghetti sauce (with homemade tomato sauce as a base) and Meatballs fresh from the freezer.

Tuesday is #MeatlessOneDay & #Leftovers Roulette
Greek Salad and green onion bread. I cut up a ton of cucumbers and tomatoes, plus we have the feta cheese. It might be a kind of Greek panzanella. No stove, oven or grill needed.

Random Wednesday
Beets with goat cheese and pine nuts, soda crackers, hard-boiled eggs, hummus, and salad. Sometimes dinner means kinda foraging.

Thursday is In-N-Out Day
Volleyball playoffs mean birdies' choice. See what Bay Area Birdies crave. And yay, no stove, oven or grill. Note that In-N-Out also has excellent air conditioning.

Fish on Friday
Dashi salmon. My cousin's recipe uses the powdered dashi from S&S saimin, mayonnaise and chopped red, green and yellow peppers. It sounds weird but it's really good.

Looking forward to the last weeks of summer with a full house.

We've been doing a lot of work drought-proofing the yard, so cooking has been spotty, but we are almost done, and it's time to get back to cooking and bringing back the summer recipes!

Pasta on Sunday
Carbonara Hironaka. Using traditional bacon. The Japanese char siu is physically gone, and we are still exercising it away.

Monday is #MeatlessOneDay 
Summer Soba Salad for 95-degree weather. No cooking allowed. We may even skip boiling the soba or make it on Sunday.

Experimental Tuesday
Salmon Pouches, take 2. The household is a little skeptical based on the epic failure of Salmon Couscous (among others). But we have a literal boatload of Costco salmon, so it's salmon, shallots, potatoes, zucchini and this time, No Substitutions.


#LeftoversRoulette Wednesday
Kalua Pig Sliders, using the mini King's sweet bread rolls and kalua pig that we froze a few weeks ago with Tropical Fruit Salsa to balance out the salty/sweet equation

Experimental Thursday
Halloumi salad. I had this when I was in Israel, and found Halloumi cheese at the new, slightly-fancy-but-still-not-too-snooty market. Halloumi is a really sturdy cheese that you can fry or grill and I don't think I can mess up lettuce, cukes, tomatoes, maybe an avocado and some small pickles.

Aloha Rhode Island Friday
Dinner with love from my Rhode Island ohana. Baby scallops baked in butter, breadcrumbs and a bit of green pepper and Jane's Stuffed Zucchini! We have the first ginormous zuke of the season waiting for this.

Hello Summer Extras
Homemade Granola Mola
We haven't bought granola since using this recipe. It's easy, ono and way less expensive than box granola.

Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins
It's berry season!

Homemade raspberry sorbet (see above)
This is multi-day experiment with a new toy we received for Christmas.

Blackberry or Darjeeling sun tea, because orthodontia and carbonated beverages are a Big No-No-No.

Goat cheese and lots of crackers


Have a good week all!

We had a hunk of Japanese char siu in our freezer and thought we could slice off a little bit for some somen salad. It is a very rich cut of meat, and this is what we learned:

1) Our freezer is quite effective. That hunk was frozen to the point of ice sculpture.
2) A hunk of Japanese char siu does not slice well when frozen solid. 3 different knives prove this out.
3) Eating a large hunk of pork belly in  a single meal is a very bad idea.
4) Dicing smaller hunks and spreading them out over the week with lots of vegetable add-ins is a better idea.

So, we need to spread out a very rich pork product over the week. Here's what's cooking this week

Bonus Sunday
Nakayoshi Gakko Somen Salad. What started the pork bender.

Memorial Day Monday
I was in the mood to comfort-cook, so no BBQ today. Roasted Chicken (roasted in our oven and not Costco's), mashed potatoes, a riff on Portuguese sausage stuffing, fresh corn, and another riff on Make Ahead Mushroom Gravy. For three people, so we have lots of leftover lunch. For about 7 more people. This is Hawaii cooking.

Variations were as follows: Stuffing
1) Swap out Portuguese sausage for Japanese char siu
2) Used Za'atar Israeli spice mix instead of the traditional poultry seasoning, marjoram, thyme
3) Asiago cheese bread cubes

This worked out well. It's not hot-spicy, but it does have a good balance of flavors. Za'atar is really nice flexible spice.


Gravy, #LeftoversRoulette style
1) 1/2 bottle of white wine from a party
2) Remnant (but still fresh) sour cream
White wine works nicely, and I may make this a permanent swap since I can use it in more recipes than the original vermouth. Sour cream worked out OK, but much prefer the texture and mix-ability of creme fraiche.

Tuesday is #MeatlessOneDay
Super Simple Spaghetti. The garden is back! We don't have enough basil yet for this recipe, but another head of lettuce should be ready for a salad.

Wednesday
My Daddy's Killer Fried Rice, with char siu. I've already set up a big onion, a whole bag of shredded carrots and a bag of green beans to make sure we balance off the richness of pork.

Thursday
Stuffed Tuna Melts. My kids say this is "Regular American" food, vs. "Regular Asian" food. I'm not exactly sure what the distinction is, but I do like that they have variety in their diet.

Friday
Sorta-homemade ramen with what I hope will be the last of the char siu. Plus bok choy, green onions and hard-boiled eggs. Hopefully, the last of the hunk of char siu.

Bonus Food
Puffy Pancakes, with a much improved picture
Apricot Blueberry Cobbler. 
A friend brought over fresh apricots from the Central Valley.
Goat cheese is the latest household fad, after having some with some friends in Boston last week. We've gone through three packages so far.

Note to self: Next time, cut first, then freeze.

Enjoy the last week of May!

Variety makes for interesting dinners and funky leftover combos. Here's what's cooking this week.

Almost Meatless Monday
Serendipity Lemony-Bacon Farfalle with Greens. Leftover pine nuts; pancetta was on sale; two half-lemons (who knows how this happened!) and the respective mushroom and spinach containers don't fit in the fridge. The food gods have spoken.  We have the spirit of Meatless, just not the constraint of Monday. 

Meatless Tuesday
Sabih from Jerusalem, assuming I can locate some Zhouj (a spicy green sauce/topping). Lots of eggplant, tomatoes, cukes, parsley plus tahini sauce. Thinking this is vegetarian Jerusalem pizza.


Wednesday
Banh Mi chicken sandwiches. There is a Vietnamese Grilled Chicken recipe in the Greenhouse, but I'm trying a more traditional fish-sauce-based marinade and a daikon/carrot pickling (vs. namasu) We'll see what difference it makes. Definitely going with crusty fresh bread and (homemade) Sriracha mayo.

Nearly Meatless Thursday
Chicken Enchiladas. I'm hopeful that the weather will get cold eventually. Rain, will you be here? Half for dinner and half for the freezer to save for a really rainy day.

Fish on Friday
Sick and Wrong Fish, ume-musubi and Co-worker Kale Salad.

Extras
Sticky Rice with Mangoes
Yes again, but the mangoes are just so darn pretty. Mangoes and raspberries are nice here too.

Chinese Chicken-less Salad
Won bok keeps really well throughout the week, so I'm making another batch to. Just remember to keep the dressing separate.

Crackers, soft cheese, fresh apples and kaki are coming into season!

Have a good week all!