Ishikari-Nabe

石狩鍋 (salmon stewed in miso-based broth with vegetables)

This is one of the well-known nabemono (one pot dishes) in Japan, so I wanted to take a picture of the whole pot before serving it into individual bowls, but there was too much broth in the pot that it didn't look so pretty, unfortunately. I was happy the kids liked it though. :D

Honey Mustard Bread

Baked with Grey Poupon country Dijon mustard

Pork & Mushroom Meatballs

油で揚げないヘルシーふんわり肉団子 (Quality of Life by JUNA)

Egg/Dairy/Peanut-Free Red Velvet Cupcakes

Egg/Dairy/Peanut-Free Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting by The Allergy-Friendly Patisserie

These were the BEST cupcakes I've ever had in this country! So much better than the ones at Whole Foods. How do they do that? :o South Bay Area parents of kids with food allergies, you gotta try their cakes!

Fish Stick Escabeche, Nanban Style

白身魚フライの南蛮漬け

No-Mayo Potato Salad

マヨネーズなしポテトサラダ

Ingredients:
instant mashed potato flakes
ham, chopped
marinated onions
green onions, chopped
vinegar
olive oil
salt & pepper

Make mashed potato according to the package instructions. To make it dairy-free, use soy milk instead of milk, Smart Balance Light (this is the only Smart Balance without whey) instead of butter. While the potato is still hot, mix in vinegar. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients.

How to make marinated onions: Slice onions as thin as possible (I use a slicer to do this). In a glass container, mix onions, vinegar, oil (either vegetable oil or olive oil), salt, and pepper. Cover and store in the refrigerator. Marinate at least a few hours before using. You can keep it in the refrigerator for about two weeks.I recommend Pyrex rectangle food storage container with a lid for marinated onions. These are also great for storing vegetables that I slice/chop/steam/boil in advance.

Oven Roasted Chicken & Vegetables

チキンとお野菜のオーブン焼き (Quality of Life by JUNA)

Japanese Sweet Potato Bread

さつま芋パン

Bacon French Bread

ベーコンフランス


What you see in the back is my daughter's hand. She couldn't wait to eat the bread!

Penne in Consommé Soup

Slow-Cooker Smothered Pork Chop

"The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2008" pp. 176-178

Angel Hair Pasta with Spicy Pollock Roe Sauce

Mentaiko (Alaska pollock roe) Pasta

This is something I get to eat only when I have lunch alone... which hasn't happened often for a long time until very recently. With two older kids at school and the baby sound asleep, this was the perfect opportunity today. Although I usually have this sauce with spaghetti, I thought I'd try it angel hair pasta. It was pretty good. :d

エンジェルヘアで明太子パスタを食べてみた。なかなか美味しい。

Hiji Rice & Tofu Miso Soup

This is a meal my three-year-old daughter and I made today!

When I'm with a toddler and an infant all day long, it's very difficult to cook, so I figured the only way to get things done is to get my daughter who loves to help in the kitchen involved. Since we had to use small chunks of time between my baby's feedings, and any task takes extra long when a child "helps," we slowly started preparing dinner in the morning.

Grating carrots is so easy with this daikon grater.

I love the lid! Since we weren't going to cook the carrots until later in the afternoon, we stored it in the fridge.

These stainless steel 5 qt. mixing bowl and colander are perfect for soaking hijiki (small pieces of seaweed).

The miso strainer set is easy and fun to use even for a three-year-old Princess!

Spinach & Orange Salad

I've been wanting to try the new garlic press that OXO gave me recently and decided to make this spinach salad with mikan. It wasn't bad. Pingu was surprised that the salad dressing had no oil.

Dressing ingredients:
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 garlic clove - pressed, of course
1/2 tsp. dry basil
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. country dijon mustard
black pepper
nutmeg

Old model (left) & new model (right)
Mr. Old wasn't so happy first and a bit jealous of the newcomer, but now they happily stay together in my kitchen drawer.

It was fun to try using the brand-new garlic press. It looks like it can hold more than one clove of garlic and is easier to press. I also like the handle part since it doesn't hold water after washing unlike the old model.

Peasant Bread

We love the bread they serve at Romano's Macaroni Grill Italian Restaurant, and I've been wanting to try to bake something like that for a while. I finally searched for peasant bread recipes for bread machine and tried one of them with some adjustment. Since I didn't want to have to take out the dough, shape it, let it rise, AND bake it in the oven, I took out the bread pan right before the bread machine would go into the baking cycle, brushed the dough with olive oil, sprinkled with salt, and put the pan right back into the machine.

The bread was fantastic and came pretty close to Macaroni Grill's bread! I was so proud of myself. :) Of course, everybody in my family loved it that we finished the whole loaf again. It made my day!

Ingredients:
bread flour (250g)
water (165g)
olive oil (38g)
salt (5g)
sugar (15g)
fresh rosemary (1 tbsp.)
yeast (1 tsp.)

This silicone pastry brush by OXO worked perfectly for brushing olive oil.

Creamy Chicken Curry

By using coconut milk, I was able to make this curry very creamy without milk, heavy cream, or yogurt for my daughter who's allergic to dairy.

I grated two BIG organic carrots that I bought at Nijiya with its skin on using OXO daikon grater.

At the kids' bedtime, I read this very short book called "carrot" (I wanted to read a longer story, but I had to feed my baby). It ends by saying, "Who likes carrots like rabbits?" My son and daughter both said, "Not me!" I then said, "Didn't you eat carrots in the curry tonight?" My daughter responded, "You didn't put any carrots in your curry, did you?" Ha! I won this time. :D

Pasta Shells with Chickpea & Lemon Sauce

With the crispy bread...

OXO Garlic Press

I won this beautiful garlic press by OXO last month at this "Closer Look at OXO... through 20 years!" web site. Can't wait to use it. OXO is such an awesome company!

Crispy Bread

フォカッチャ風サクサクブレッド

This was a big hit! Four of us ate the whole loaf during dinner!

Happy Girls' Day!

I learned earlier this week on Facebook that my favorite company, OXO celebrates Girls' Day or Hinamatsuri. What a nice surprise! I then decided to try to cook a Hinamatsuri dish with as many OXO items as I could. Although I couldn't spend so much time as I would have liked, I think I did a pretty good job for having a one-month old baby (I had to work small steps between feedings)!

I also had some other challenges:

1. I had to make sure the cake had no dairy or eggs for my daughter (the yellow color of eggs would have been perfect for decorating it though). I was going to use ham (cute pink color!), but it was raining this morning, and I didn't want to go to a grocery store with an infant in the rain, so I grabbed a can of SPAM from my little pantry and shredded it.

2. Last year, I made Hina Doll rice balls and used quail eggs for their faces (I didn't know that my daughter was allergic to eggs back then!). Since I really couldn't think of anything white and egg-shaped this year, however, I completely gave up on making the doll part edible and used paper dolls instead. Using mini magnetic clips for holding the Emperor and the Empress was a very last minute idea I got, and I hoped OXO people would notice it without me telling them when I posted a photo of this sushi cake on their Facebook Page.

3. I made flower-shaped carrots and daikon for miso soup, but you know what? They don't float!!! What was I thinking? I should have made osuimono (clear broth)! So I scooped some of the carrots out of the miso soup pot, rinsed them, and put them on top of the cake. Phew, it kind of worked, didn't it?

So, here's a list of OXO tools I used today:

Flexible Vegetable Brush
4-Inch Mini Santoku Knife
Swivel Peeler
Miso Strainer Set
Rice Scoop
Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl (as a mold)
Magnetic Mini Clips
Pie Server

Now OXO people, if you're reading this, please leave some comments, please!

Santoku Knife & Swivel Peeler

Rice Scoop

Miso Strainer Set

Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl (as a mold)

My sad miso soup. The carrot and daikon flowers are in there though!

Happy Hinamatsuri!!! My daughter loved this cake and ate so much! That made me really happy. :D