Ginger Pork

野菜たっぷりの生姜焼き

Royal Apple Bread

Chicken Shish Kabob

Pingu's Chicken Shish Kabob
～カスピ海ヨーグルトとハーブでマリネしました。

Simple Bread

シンプルブレッド　「ホームベーカリー　Recipe」より

Hijiki Gohan

ひじき炊き込みご飯

No-Bread-Flour Bread

Baked with 100% all-purpose flour.

Well, this was supposed to be 「薄力粉で作るシンプルブレッド」。I'd assumed all-purpose flour was "薄力粉" but a friend told me it's not! No wonder the bread didn't turn out so good. :(

Here's what I know now:

• All-purpose flour = 中力粉


• Bread four = 強力粉


• Cake flour = 薄力粉

Spaghetti with Ragù

野菜たっぷりミートソース

I've been losing this veggie battle with my kids, but this time I won! My ragù is loaded with vegetables: tomatoes, carrots, celery & onions. Both kids had second servings!

Baguette

My first regular-size baguette turned out to be pretty fat and short that it almost looked like a bug or something.

Wonton Pizza

ワンタンのピザ風 (Quality of Life by JUNA)

Pingu's relatives (yes, they ARE Chinese!) thought this was pretty interesting and loved it.

BBQ Chicken #2

Pingu's BBQ Chicken #2. The chicken was very moist because I marinated it in sauce with lots of grated onion!

「秘密のやわらかチキン」のソースでマリネした後、ピングが焼いてくれました。

Mini Baguette

Banana Nut Bread

Garlic French Fries

Gilroy’s own Garlic French Fries@Black Bear Diner in Gilroy.

Maruichi #2

Kuro Ramen@Maruichi in Mountain View

My daughter's first pizza

My daughter made this pizza at a friend's house! Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

Macaroni Gratin with Ragu

ミートソースでマカロニグラタンもどき

Mixed my homemade ragu into boiled macaroni, layered with deep-fried pumpkins and zucchini, topped with mozzarella cheese, and baked it.

Ground Beef Curry #2

M-san's curry for dinner tonight. I added some Caspian sea yogurt to the curry. Delicious!

Ground Beef Curry

My lunch today: M-san's Ground Beef Curry with grilled tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers (three colors), asparagus & deep-fried eggplants, pumpkin, and zucchini.

M-san made this curry just for me! It was one of the best Japanese curry I've ever had. The deep-fried eggplant tasted sooo good with the curry!!! ★☆★☆★!

Unagi Rolls

A thank-you gift from one of my friends since Pingu fixed her computer. :)

Mango Milk Bread

マンゴーミルクパン

Caspian Sea Yogurt

カスピ海ヨーグルト

I made Caspian Sea Yogurt first time in so many years! Years ago, a Japanese friend gave me some of this yogurt. I LOVED it and started making it at home. Unfortunately after a year or so, I killed it. :( This time, I asked another friend who was visiting Japan to buy some starter culture for me.

Pooh's Honey Bread

プーのハニー食パン

This bread has been our all-time favorite, but ever since we decided to cut eggs from our daughter's diet, I couldn't bake it any more. The kids kept on asking for Pooh's bread, and I finally find a solution thanks to EgglessCooking.com! Tofu!

French Fries

French Fries@McDonald's. Can't live without them.

Hiyashi Tanuki Udon

冷やしおろしたぬきうどん

また写真がぶれてるけど・・・。夕食時の写真撮影はすごーく難しい！だって横で三人がじーっと待ってるんですもの～。

Stan's Donut!

My son and I delivered two dozens of hot glazed donuts from Stan's Donut Shop in Santa Clara to Pingu's office this morning. This was one of the many many things I've been wanting to do with my son ever since his summer break started in June.

Banana Raisin Bread

バナナちぎりパン

Kumchi Don

豚キムチ丼

Shoyu Ramen

具沢山の「家庭でできるおいしいラーメン　しょう油味」

I made soup base for ramen from scratch for the first time in my life without relying on those soup mix packages that usually come with instant ramen! It was not bad.

Prune Nut Bread

プルーンパン

I wanted to bake raisin bread again, but since I didn't have enough raisins, I threw in some golden raisins and prunes as well. It turned out to be pretty nice and moist.

Stir-Fried Rice Rolls

炒腸粉

The kids' favorite lunch. This should actually be XO醬炒腸粉, but I only used soy sauce instead of XO醬. Is there such a thing as 醤油炒腸粉 in Chinese? :p

Green Onion Pancake #2

老苗's 蔥油餅

Pingu's aunt wasn't feeling well for many months. I'm so glad that she's doing a lot better and finally has the energy to cook again!

BBQ Pork

Pingu's BBQ Pork (soy sauce honey ginger flavor)

Okara Meatloaf

おからミートローフ

I had to somehow use the okara in my fridge, so I sort of made this up. My hubby liked it a lot, but I think it's a bit too dry. I'll need to experiment more. I really had no time to take good photos today since the hungry kids and Pingu were impatiently waiting for me.
この写真ブレブレ～　　Oh well.

Her First Salad

My daughter's carrot salad.

My daughter had "Chef Day" at her preschool yesterday and made her very first salad. She couldn't wait to show it to her daddy! We served it for dinner, and Pingu finished it all. What a good daddy he is!

Raisin Walnut Bread

ぶどうくるみパン

I got this recipe from a friend last week and baked my second raisin walnut bread today.

Andersen Bakery

Strawberry Shortcake

Now that Fujii Bakery has been gone for years (so sad!), Andersen Bakery is my number one choice for Japanese cakes.

Maruichi

丸一の黒ラーメン

Kuro Ramen at Maruichi in Milpitas is my favorite. Shoyu (醤油, soy sauce) ramen is a bit too simple さっぱりしすぎてなんだか物足りない, and something like Ajisen Ramen is way too rich こてこてすぎ～ for me. Kuro is just right. Yum.

I've been going to Maruichi for years, and I still remember the day when I saw somebody order ramen to go. Whoa~? I tell you, I was so surprised that I almost fell from the chair! HOW CAN YOU TAKE OUT RAMEN??? Any ramen chef in Japan would throw her out instantly!

麺がのびちゃうでしょー？

ラーメンが泣いちゃう！

I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND...

Another unbelievable thing is that I've witnessed a woman asking for a take-out container at least five times. How can you NOT finish a bowl of ramen??? Don't even think about eating ramen if you're on a diet! Or you really cannot eat that much? You must be kidding!

Ramen alone is never enough for me, so I ALWAYS order combo deals. At Maruichi, Combo A comes with ramen + three pieces of gyoza + a bowl of steamed rice. You'll get three pieces of California rolls (YES, California Rolls! Did you see the title of my blog? Whoever sushi chef who invented this sushi in the U.S. was a genius! I was born in Japan, but since I don't eat raw fish, they kicked me out of the country.) instead of plain rice if you order Combo B.

Combo B with Kuro

Oh, one more thing. So many people call tonkOtsu ramen tonkAtsu by mistake, and that _BOTHERS_ me!!! People, tonkatsu (豚カツ) is pork cutlet! It's tonkotsu (豚骨, pork bone) that you want to order at a ramen place!

Wait a minute... I have ordered a bowl of Phở to go when I couldn't eat anything but rice noodle in soup because of morning sickness. Were the Vietnamese people laughing at me?