Unsuccessful Recipe!

Blech!!! Blech! Blech! Blech! It was too good to be true! After three successful new recipes I had a bad one. I made "Ebi to Broccoli 'Gratin'" by Amy Kaneko from her cookbook called, "Let's Cook Japanese Food!" It's a wonderful cookbook. She's an American woman married to a Japanese man whose family taught her how to cook Japanese food. Once she moved back to the US, she tried recreating those favorite recipes using ingredients and cooking tools that you can find here. Since Japanese cuisines are influenced by other countries, there are plenty of "chuka ryori" and "yoshoku" dishes in the book. It's usually difficult to find those recipes except in Japanese language-only recipe books. Her recipes are pretty good. One night, we did an "izakaya" night. From her book, I made agedashi dofu (fried soft tofu), spinach in sesame dressing, steamed clams in sake and butter broth, and karaage chicken. I also made some gyoza, too. I took a photo of it, but I can't find it. It was fun, we had sake, too. Well, going back to the gratin... My husband and I have always had problems when we try to make creamy cheesey sauces for macaroni. The gratin was easy and all the flavors were basically good, it's just that the cheese sauce didn't come out very good. It was all curdly and super greasy. But I have to say it was the closest I've ever been to getting it right, though. So I think if someone who knew how to do it right would actually show me, I can do it.

Successful New Recipes!

Here's what I made so far this week since Saturday. All new recipes. And so far really successful!

Panna Cotta with Strawberry Compote - The Panna Cotta is my sister's recipe from Italy. The compote was improvised. I just chopped up some strawberries and simmered them with sugar, orange juice, and amaretto. It's garnished with a mint spring from my balcony "garden". The dessert was a hit when I took it to a game night/potluck. I still had some heavy cream left so I made some more but this time topped it with espresso that was simmered with amaretto. Mmmm!Grilled Salted Salmon Collar - This is one of favorite dish that my mom makes. I've been craving it for so long. I finally bought it myself and salted it and grilled it on the stovetop grill. The kitchen still smells fishy. :( But it tasted like home. It was so moist and salty. We were so thirsty afterwards though.Mentaiko Spaghetti - Mmmm!! I made this today for dinner. I found the recipe on recipezaar.com. I followed the recipe exactly and it was so easy! The only thing I did at the end was add about 3 tablespoons of the pasta water to the finished product. The noodles needed to loosen up. I garnished it with nori and a dollop of fresh karashi mentaiko that I had left over. I was annoyed when my hubby brought up his finished plate to the kitchen sink. He had left the sauce with the fish roe still on the plate. I told him to eat it because fish roe is a bit pricey. He scraped it up and ate it.

BBQ Dinner on the Balcony

Well, we don't have a BBQ grill so my husband grilled some pork ribs on those stovetop grill thingy that are really annoying to clean. He randomly mixed a rub and marinated it overnight and then grilled it with store-bought sauce. It was so yummy. And I made the side dishes using recipes from the July issue of Bon Appetite magazine. Yup, it's the one with Next Food Network Star's Rory's BBQ recipe featured on the cover. The coleslaw was just okay. And then I made the herby potato salad. That, I would make again. But of course, I modified those recipes since I'm so picky about my veggies and herbs.

Weird Kitchen!

July is a weird month for my kitchen! I got a carton of eggs and so far, each egg that I break has double yolk in it! Today I had medamayaki gohan (fried egg on rice). I was very excited to eat my double yolk egg. It tasted like regular eggs. I looked it up and I guess it happens when a young hen just begins to lay eggs. Then, after awhile, she lays the normal single yolk eggs. The other weird thing that happened was on Monday. When I was frying some zucchini for dinner, one of it smiled at me when I flipped it over! But my husband got the last smile because he ate it! And then, this morning, when I opened a fresh can of Illy espresso, the grounds exploded onto my face! I thought the grounds would blind or caffeinate my eyes! But I'm alright. The weird thing is that it never exploded like that at my husband when he opened a fresh can. It just released the gas. Weird, right?! I think so!!

Cards and Gift Tags

Whoa! I haven't blogged for a long time. I finally started working on my job applications so I got a little busy. Well, here are some things I worked on. Although, I think I worked on these in May... Yup. I did. Those are Mother's Day cards for my mom and my mother-in-law. I got the idea and patterns for those cards from a Japanese felt book. And the tin cans are filled with tea from Lupicia and chocolate from Scharffen Berger as gifts for my girlfriends. The gift tags are another idea taken from that book.

Smiley Kidnapper

My friend and her husband got me The Cute Book by Aranzi Aronzo for my birthday. It turns out that we both really liked the Kidnapper in there. It's weird that it's a kidnapper, but it's so awkwardly cute! I love how he has a white bag to collect the child. So, we finally got together on Friday to make him. It was difficult trying to trace the pattern of the body onto the black felt with the white pencil. Especially up the armpits and between the legs. So when I had to cut the shapes out, I kind of had to guess how far to cut up on those parts. And of course, sewing those parts got a little tricky. He's just so skinny! I didn't bother trying to fill his arms or legs with the fluffy stuff. I don't think you're supposed to anyways.

Once I finished the Kidnapper, my husband and I had fun positioning him out in the balcony to take different creepy or sneaky shots of him. Unfortunately, I didn't make his straight mouth long enough and he looks like he's smiling. My friend who has never sewn except to put on a button seemed to struggle with it, but was really persistent. She still hasn't finished it yet. I can't wait to see her finished product. I think we ended up with such a tricky one to do for a first time crafter.

Bird Swing

Yesterday, all I worked on was this bird swing for my parakeet that I don't quite have it. I would never try to make this again. Well, the swing part was easy, just get a stick and drill holes on either end of it and shape a wire through it to make the swing. Simple. The embellishments I would not do again. Not only was it painful on my fingers to sew those little flowers on it, but the parakeet will poop on it.

Now, why did I even make it then? Because I got this new Japanese zakka book called Kirippanashi de Dekirumono by Kiyuna Hareru that had a really cute decorating idea. It was strips of ribbon hung from a doorway and on each strip, there were flowers made of fabric sewn on it. I wanted to make it for my place but there just isn't a place for it. So, I decided to make it for my parakeet so that they can climb it and nibble on it.

The only change I made from the book design was that I sewed two different patterned fabrics together with a felt sandwiched in between them. That way, it was easier for me to handstitch in a way that the bird won't be shredding the fabric to pieces and possibly eating it.

I'm really happy with the outcome. It's colorful and the handstitching gives it a really charming, child-like feel to it.