Blog Posts - feeding my ohana

Eating Santa Barbara

7/23/2017

Perfect weather

When birdies leave the nest, Mamma birdie flies the coop!

We took a quick weekend in Santa Barbara. If you think Bay Area weather is great, Santa Barbara takes that to a whole 'nother circle of paradise (See left).

Visiting a nearly-grown child is different.

We had a preview with the elder birdie in Boston. THEY fit YOU into THEIR schedule and therefore, you don't see them a whole lot.

We do get to meet and feed some of their friends, and their friends seem to like us. On the plus side, they arrange spectacular ohana eating sessions, actually cook for you, and seem genuinely happy to see the old 'rents.

#MeatlessOneDay

So here's what happens--Birdie knows where to go!

Number One--Dinner and Dessert
We enjoyed a fantastic Mediterranean 'grown-up' dinner at Zaytoon in downtown Santa Barbara with birdie and assorted friends. Ate al fresco and that Santa Barbara weather--perfect temperature, very little humdity, no bugs, and evening sunshine. Food is ono and the raspberry lime soda is puckery perfection.

Post dinner, strolled around downtown Santa Barbara. I have concluded that people look so fancy here because there is a) great shopping, b) a bajillion restaurants, c) perfect weather, and d) McConnell's Ice Cream of Santa Barbara. No pictures because well, it was so good. Tried Earl Gray with shortbread cookies, Pistachio Amaretto, Eureka Lemon with Boysenberry, Peach, and Apricot and Cream. Recommend 'em all.

Caught by Pokemom

Number Two--Pokemon Abound
Awhile back, my children taught me two important millenial phenomena--SnapChat and Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go is a much improved experience where there are lots of college kids. See the cute Pikachu with Ash Ketchum hat, caught a block away from Birdie's nest. It is a bonus that Birdie patiently still puts up with you, even though Pokemon Go is no longer 'a thing' and has been replaced by Magikarp Jump. Yes, I downloaded Magikarp, but my fishies keep getting retired.

Number Three--Birdie Knows How to Cook!
My favorite and beloved husband subsisted on Hamburger Helper in college, and I had to learn to cook so my birdies wouldn't starve.

Birdie made us My Mom's Chicken Katsu, and has arugula, beets, and berries in his fridge, plus lots of eggs.

Fed by Birdie

Mamma birdie breathes a sigh of relief.

The Weekly Menu Returns!

7/16/2017

Eating on the new dishes is so fun!

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.

Also on the new plates

Thursday
Mediterranean Lamb Stir-fry. We learned that the Safeway in the new 'hood does not stock lamb as an everyday item, but Sprouts does.

Aloha Friday
No Meat chili that we froze from last week. With cheddar cheese, tortilla chips and pineapple cider. A good pau hana dinner!

Bonus Breakfast
The husband's Ridiculously Good Scones with the leftover heavy cream we had from making lilikoi ice cream.

Already looking forward to the weekend!

Another Proper Sunday Meal...with Faux Meat!

7/16/2017

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.

Very much meat-like

Verdict
Pretty good grilled, but we'll probably stick to the real thing. Or make-your-own-veggie burgers. Beyond Meat definitely has the 'feel' of a good burger, tastes pretty good.

However, when we delved into the details of ingredients, newly minted Bachelor of Sciences in Biology birdie declared, "Still a lot of starch and fat, and and a lot of super-processed ingredients."

We then compared it to the Italian sausages sitting in the fridge as part of the Weekly Menu (yes, it's back!) Each serving had a comparable amount of saturated fat and protein, and sausage had more ingredients that we could identify.

We'd probably have them again when non-beef-eating Birdie comes home for Sunday dinner, but more likely, we'll stick with real-food items, exercise and moderation.

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!

Mouth full. No yelling

11/13/2016

Vote for cookies.

Not gonna lie. This past week was brutal. It was not our country's finest hour, by a long shot.

My creative outlet was cooking. My co-workers/testers approved the cookies. More importantly, the husband liked them. The best compliment was, "It tastes like maple syrup and pumpkin pancakes."

That is the comfort response I was going for.

Make these for Thanksgiving and find the joy in the small moments of life. They are there. Plus if mouths are full, there can be no arguing.

Click here for recipe.

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.

We Have Plenty of Time

9/11/2016

As many of you know, I’ve gone back to full-on, full-time onsite employment at a Silicon Valley Techie company. And yes, I’m the only female in my immediate team, one of the few female managers in the larger team, and many times the solo female in meetings, but that is a story for another kind of blog.

Anyhow, with the global-mobile workforce, and the normal one-up-man-ship culture in the quest for ‘the next big thing,’ hours can get long, and my beloved FeedingMyOhana has suffered longer periods of inactivity than I would like. It wasn’t looking good for this past weekend.

So I was shocked when one of our Big-Time Executives responded on Friday night regarding work I was planning to do over weekend.

"Don't work over the weekend on it. Not that important. We have plenty of time."

Let’s be clear. In all my years of working in Silicon Valley, this has NEVER HAPPENED. The paranoid part of my psyche wonders if this means I’ll be laid off (also a common thread in Silicon Valley), but still, it was a blast of fresh air and perspective.

Here is what happens when your Boss-boss-boss tells you not to work over the weekend.

You cook a proper Saturday dinner with a couple of friends and your beloved baby birdie.

Crock Pot Kalua Pig

Not-so-tropical fruit salsa. Mangoes were looking bad at the store, and peaches are in season. Easy swap.

Apple/Watercress/Beet Salad. I’ve been making all sorts of ‘weird/wonky’ salad combos. This is an actual new recipe that works well. And I even created the page for it!

King Eggrolls because they are awesome and on the way back from where the husband and friends were golfing.

Banana pudding. Which we didn't get quite get to after all of the above-noted food, so my co-workers will have to eat some this week.

Butterscotch banana bread. Baby birdie made this one, and I need to get the recipe.

For a Sunday encore, a batch of fresh tomato sauce because the tomatoes were still so pretty.

And now we're ready to start the week off right.

Where in the World!? Quick Post from Close to Home

8/22/2016

Nearly FOUR long months have passed since I last blogged.

WTH happened?!

A lot of family milestones done and upcoming—happy, sad, and bittersweet. Lot of travel for work and for fun. A little bit of cooking in between.

There is plenty to back-chronicle, but while it’s fresh—let’s get started with dinner at Din Tai Fung.

Last night, after booking a month in advance, the ohana was seated at the full-of-fanfare world-famous, Michelin-star restaurant. First off, score one for the service. Fast, clean, friendly, and helpful without being intrusive. Water and tea filled regularly and quickly, and steamer baskets streamed in and cleaned up at regular cadence.

They are are world-famous for xiao long bao, or soup dumplings. We had two orders of pork xiao long bao and one pork/crab. As a nice touch for those of us who are seriously allergic to crab, they even mark the dish with a little crab made from wonton skin.

LOVE the way they help out those with allergies!

Perfectly made, every time.

Three important pieces of advice.
#1 Put them on the spoon. There really is soup inside.

#2 Do not take a big bite. You will burn your tongue, splatter soup all over, and the rest of your table will mock you. Loudly.

#3 Nibble off the top and allow the soup to flow onto the spoon.

They do not disappoint. How they get actual soup into the dumplings is like WIlly Wonka secret stuff for dim sum.

There are six in an order. With five of us, and there was none of the usual “Let’s be good Asians and leave the last one.” We gobbled up every last one.

The other food is pretty darned good too. We had noodles with spicy sesame sauce, Shanghai rice cakes with chicken, wonton soup, sticky rice and pork shao mai. And dessert. Definitely stay for dessert. We had sweet taro xiao long bao (again six in an order, but not broth), black sesame bao (individually ordered, and we all had our own).

At tad pricey at $120 (including tax and tip), and we had absolutely no leftovers. We would definitely consider going again—food is very, very good, and the restaurant is super-duper clean right down to the bathrooms. It is ideal to go in a group of 6 because the orders come in 6s, and then you can try different things.

That said, a friend of ours has mentioned a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the ‘burbs that has soup dumplings that we may try, but Din Tai Fung did indeed live up to the hype.

Banana Pudding--Maximizing Taste/Effort Ratio

4/25/2016

The weekly menu will have to wait because there's banana pudding to be made. And eaten. Right now, as I type, and I am Very, Very Happy. Plus, I promised a Feeding My Ohana-er I would post this recipe today, so here it is.

Click here!

I’ve gone a little “Julia and Julie” with The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. So far, I've made four items and all were pretty successful, but I’m posting the By Far the super easiest and potentially the most flexible.

Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding.

Make it today! Lot of recipes on backlog, sorry! Will trying to add them on.

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.