Pages, Pucks and Pantry

Quail Eggs and Karubi

Mr. L and I are sushi lovers, though he more than I. He tends to order strange things like Tobiko with Quail Eggs. I tend to stick to things like Super Albacore or San Diego Rolls. But as much as possible we head to our local sushi joints for a meal.

Since  the place I get my nails done is in San Jose's Japantown (I go to the Sakura Nail Bar, a great place to get a mani-pedi), Mr. L and I have lots of places to choose from when it comes to Japanese food. We've also become fond of the little Japanese grocery store that's in the area. The Nijiya Market is barely bigger than my living room but it's packed full of all sorts of interesting items. I love going in and walking down each isle looking at the wonderful fresh sashimi, strange shaped vegetables, fresh noodles and boxed goods. I could get lost in the candy isle since the boxes they are packaged in have such vibrant colors and cool designs.

Our last trip to the market resulted in our buying a little carton of fresh quail eggs. Since Mr. L had just had some Tobiko with Quail Egg for dinner we thought we might try to fry up some little eggs for the next days breakfast. We also picked up a package of 'beef prime short ribs karubi". I think the beef is normally put on skewers and grilled but it had great marbling and a sort of "steak and egg" breakfast came to mind.

Cracking open the quail eggs and getting them into the pan wasn't the easiest thing to accomplish. The first couple just kinda broke into the pan (which didn't bother me much since I like my eggs cooked over-hard anyway), but Mr. L wanted his eggs over easy. I ran to my computer and tried to find something online about frying up these little eggs but it seems most folks either hard boil or poach them (which I want to try sometime). I did read that if you used a sharp heavy knife and gave the little eggs a quick whack in the middle, it might help open them a bit better and it seemed to work okay when Mr. L tried this. As you can see by the photo he was able to perfect his "over-easy" technique. The eggs tasted great...they were so tiny and cute on the plate. I think of them like little silver dollar pancakes, little disks you just put in your mouth hole. I envision a breakfast at some point with quail eggs, silver dollar pancakes, tiny english muffins, a mini-muffin tin sized serving of hash browns and...well...do they even make tiny bacon????

The quail eggs and the wonderful Karubi (the meat was very tender) made for an interesting and tasty weekend breakfast!

And the Winners Are....

I'm not sure what's going on with this woman. First she deprives me from food for half a day because she thinks just because I hacked up a little hairball that I need to be Petromalted. Then she sticks that stuff all over my mouth and it takes me hours to lick my self clean. After that she decides that it's time to clip my nails...sheesh, they were giving my old body such  great traction trying to get up on the bed.  That little hole in the duvet cover is hardly noticeable.  And then she wakes me up in the middle of a nice nap in the sun because she wants me to chase after little pieces of paper with numbers on them? What is this woman thinking? Harrumph. In any event, she got on that electronic doohickey she sits in front of and I think she had it run around chasing numbers on paper. Something about a random cat who chases generators. Then she had a little freak out cuz she couldn't figure out how to capture the screen. Doesn't she know all you have to do is stick a paw out and snag it with a claw? I don't know, all I know is that I think I should just freak her out and go cough up a hairball on that prized duvet cover of hers. But, maybe later, I think it's time for another nap....

Hockey Winner - Ginger

Scrapbooking Winner - Ilona

Food Winner - Louise

Toaster is right. I figured out the number generator but how was I supposed to post the image? I had to run and get my camera and photograph my computer screen. I know there has to be an easier way! So the winners just need to e-mail me at hkydiva1 at yahoo dot com with their addresses. I'll try to get the packages out this next weekend. Congrats! I may have to do this again sometime.

Cut-N-Seal

Back in, oh about '92, I heard about this new "Tupperware like" company called Pampered Chef. Except instead of plastic food containers, Pampered Chef (PC) sold kitchen gadgets. At that time there were maybe two consultants in the entire bay area and none really close to me. I heard about it through someone at work who had a sister-in-law who sold the stuff in Michigan. Even back then I was addicted to food gadgets so in order to get even more gadgets, I became a Pampered Chef Consultant. Considering my trainer was in Michigan I pretty much was on my own out here in the big Bay Area.

I didn't do to bad as a consultant. I was able to get most of my friends and co-workers to have parties (and as an aside, my now husband, who was just another geek friend of my then roommate, even had a party to help me out and smack me in the head why didn't I see the potential of this guy back then? But I digress....). Most of the money I made I turned into buying more product and I even had plenty of money left over to get some new cookbooks. But just as the business was taking off, something else happened. Hockey happened. The Sharks started playing in San Jose. Having a full time job and being single didn't leave a lot of extra time to sell PC stuff. Add to that two or three hockey games a week and...well...I ended up choosing hockey over some extra cash (which I could have used to buy hockey tickets but that's beside the point). My extra job as a PC consultant came to an end.

But my love for Pampered Chef stuff has never wained. I still have most of the stuff I bought back then and it's all still in pretty good shape. It was only a few years ago that I tossed the veggie peeler they so admantly pushed back in the day. My favorite go to knife is still a PC one that came with it's own sharpener.

And yes, I still have, what was back then one of the biggest sellers and something they pushed, the "Cut-N-Seal". An ingenious gadget that will seal a filling between dough or pastry. I've used it to make cute little peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which are great to serve to kids but I have yet to use it to seal anything with dough inside. Though I'm thinking something with Nutella might be a future experiment. I think, though the website doesn't have both, that I have two sizes of these Cut-N-Seals. In fact, I think once I go through the boxes in the garage, I'll find that I own three or four of these things (and I'm sure my mom owns one too!). Would I be lost with out them? No. But they are pretty neat to use every now and then.

I do think sometimes about what would have happened should I have continued to sell Pampered Chef stuff. Would I have started to cook sooner? Would I be retired and a millionaire now as the grand dame of all those Pampered Chef consultants currently pervaiding the Bay Area? We'll never know. But I do have all my cute little PC gadgets to keep my company and to pull out and use every now and then. And yes, I still go to friends Pampered Chef parties and I still continue to buy more cute little gadgets.

Food Giveaway

Before you reply to this post, remember to read the rules here.

The food giveaway consists of the new Food Lovers Companion book. Plus a little extra to be named later.

It's Giveaway Time!

A bit late, but at least I'm consistently late!

Once my blogiversary came around last month, I had planned on giving away some items to celebrate the fact that I was still cooking after a year...and maybe that I hadn't burned down the kitchen yet...or poisoned my husband. I've actually scrapbooked in the past year AND I've gone to some hockey games, so a food, hockey, scrapbooking giveaway seemed in order. I know I'm a bit late for the blogiversary...I'll do better next year.

There will be three giveaways...one for scrapbooking, one for hockey and one for food. I will make a separate post for each. You will have to decide which giveaway you are interested in. You can only sign up to win ONE of the three. If you don't see something you like, what the heck, try to win it anyway and give it to a friend! I debated on whether to keep this strictly US based but since I know I have at least one regular Canadian reader (Hi Jan!), I figured what the heck, anyone can play. Just realize that if you win and live in a foreign country, you will have to help me figure out how to do the paperwork and get it to you as cheaply as possible. This is my first giveaway so be gentle with me! Remember the rules:

Giveaway Rules:

• There will be three separate posts, one for hockey, one for scrapping and one for food
• Put a reply on the post that corresponds with the item you would like to win
• You can only post for ONE of the three (if you reply on two or all three posts, you will be disqualified)
• You will have until Sunday at noon Pacific time on the 22nd to play
• Winner will be picked by Random Generator...if I can figure out how to use it. It not, names will be thrown in the air and which ever Toaster the cat claws first wins.
• Winner will be announced Sunday evening...or Monday morning if I have too many margaritas with Sunday brunch.
• Am I forgetting anything?

Good luck!

Answers to the Questions

Over the first year of doing this blog, I've gotten quite a few questions from family and friends. I thought I'd address them here.

Do you come up with the National Days for Small Plates?   No, these are actual real days. I don't make any of them up. Yes, there really is a "Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day", a "Crab Meat Newburg Day" and a "Take Your Pants for a Walk Day".

Where do you find these days?   Just do an Internet search. There are a ton of places that have most of the food days and plenty of the off the wall days. Even places that send out e-cards list special or strange days.

Do you cook everything on the National Days?   I do see what days are coming up during the month and plan maybe four of five meals that correspond with special days. The problem is, life sometimes gets in the way and it may be several days after the National Day that I actually cook with that ingredient. Because of this I rarely post a National Days recipe until quite a while later.

Do you take your own photos?   Of the meals I cook yes. Usually I just plate the dish and take it with the lights on the stove if there is no natural light. I take most of the hockey photos and scrap photos. I don't have any special lights though I did get a nice light box from my mom to use once I have room to set it up. If the photo isn't mine, I try to give sources. I use Wikipedia a lot for generic photos. As for the photo above...yes, I took a ride in a B-17 a couple of years ago and this was from the top of the plane (no I wasn't riding up there, they had a hole in the roof you could take photos out of...I just reached up with my camera and took the shot). That photo was taken with my old Minolta SLR.  I like photography but honestly, I photograph in auto mode most of the time.

What kind of camera do you use?    Though I have a Canon Rebel XT, I use my little Canon PowerShotSD500 for most of the food photos (I am upgrading to a SD950 this coming week). I rarely photoshop my food photos.

Who does these taste tests you talk about?   Mostly Mr. L and my mom. I do take some things into work and every once in a while I get enough courage to take something I've made to a potluck. I think in the past year, other than my mom and husband, I've only had two people that I've actually cooked a meal for at the house.

How many cookbooks do you own?   Um. A Lot. Too many. More than I could ever use. Yeah, that answer is another post entirely. I can't tell you the count without trying to justify the answer!

Why haven't you learned to cook earlier?   See cookbook question. That will be answered when I get enough guts to post about my cookbook collection.

What cooking magazines do you subscribe to?   HAHAHAHA. Just a couple. Bon Appetit and Gourmet. And Food and Wine. Oh and Savour. Of course Cooks Illustrated. Should I include Sunset Magazine since I cut out the recipes? And I pretty much buy most of the Fine Cooking magazines...and...well, maybe the question should have been which cooking magazines I DON'T subscribe to!

Do you ever eat out at restaurants? You talk about them, why don't you review them?   Honestly we do eat out a fair amount, especially when we travel. I've felt a bit uneasy about restaurant reviews since I'm not an expert. That being said, since I enjoy reading others reviews, I think I might start posting my own. I would have given the review of Manresa earlier, except they never sent me the menu I was promised. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what we ate!

How do you chose the recipes you make from cookbooks?  There is no set way. Sometimes, if there is an interesting National Day, I may look through my books trying to find a recipe that has that ingredient. More often than not, I just pick up a cookbook and try to find something to cook. Sometimes this is easy as only a handful of recipes pop out at me. Other times it's a gargantuan task as I want to make everything in the book. Sometimes it's by default...I may be in an "orzo" phase so those are the recipes that stand out and scream to be cooked. Or maybe I've been cooking a lot of meat dishes and look for a fish dish. I may make a dish because it's something I know my mom can eat. Sometimes (most of the time) I'm really tired and busy and want to make something simple. Or maybe I just got off the scale and all those delicious fattening recipes just remind me of extra inches on my hips so I try to go low-cal. Currently I only have access to about one sixth of my cookbook collection so I try to find things in the books that are available.

How often do you buy new cookbooks?  I never buy new cookbooks. Never. Really. They just show up on my doorstep. Yeah, that's the ticket, they just show up asking to come inside and be part of my collection. Yeah...be sure to tell Mr. L that if you ever run into him. Yeah, tell him you give me cookbooks, that's why new ones are in the house. Seriously, they are like rabbits, they just multiply.

Just how old are you anyway?   Like I'm going to tell you that.

Why don't you use real names or post photographs of yourself?   Because we are actually government spies...no wait, we are in the witness protection program...no wait, we are complete paranoid freaks...no wait...I honestly don't know. Mr. L and I talk about it. You may catch photos of us in the coming year, and most of you know our names anyway, but, we like the little air of mystery.

Do you go to all the Sharks games?   I used to. For many many years a group of us went to every pre-season game, every home game, the playoffs, various road trip games and yes, even to some practices. And I watched or listened to every road game on the TV or radio. There was no life outside of hockey. Then there was the lockout and I found Mr. L and other things in life started happening. I still have season tickets. Mr. L and I go to around ten games a year plus the playoffs.

Do you ever scrap?   Not as much as I'd like to. I'm hoping to get to a point where I can balance my life and get to do all the fun stuff I like to do such as scrapping. I do like to, ahem, collect a lot of scrap stuff though. Yes, I have an entire room devoted to scrapbooking. Yes, I hope to post more scrap pages and projects in the future.

Well, I think that's all the questions I remember people asking over the last year. If you can think of something else, just let me know.

And really, I never buy cookbooks....wait, why is everyone laughing????

Blogging By Mail

My friend Barbie2Be had tried to get me to join in on the Blogging By Mail event even before I had officially started this blog. But I was hesitant to participate until my blog had been going for a while. When the latest round of Blogging By Mail started this past January I figured it was about time I gave it a try.

Blogging By Mail is where food bloggers, from all over the world, send goody boxes to other food bloggers.  You send your name to the event host who passes it on to another blogger. In turn, you are  sent the name of a participating food blogger (the person you send to isn't the person who sends to you). I let this events host, Dispensing Happiness, know that I would be willing to do international shipping (international obviously costs more, you did have the option to stay within the US). This Blogging By Mail's theme was "Little Things Mean A Lot". You were supposed to send some of your favorite things: spices, teas, chocolates, recipes. I figured I could do that, and sent my name in to participate.

I was very excited when I got the name of the person who I would be sending a goody box to.  Karen, from the blog Bucaio, lives in the Philippines. Since my mom was born and raised there finding Karens blog was a treasure. She mentions food and places that I've heard my mom mention. I've had fun reading her reviews of Filipino restaurants and checking out her wonderful recipes.

But once I actually had to gather those "little things" my mind went blank. What do I send? What could I show Karen of my life? I decided the best thing to do was just pick up little things here and there as I lived my life for the next month (you know I had to send her a Sharks pin!) . Once I'd gathered some things, I sent my package of goody's off.  I got worried that it might have gotten lost since it took so long to get there, but it seems to have found a home at the post office for a while before it made it to it's final destination. You can check out her report of what I sent her here. And do check out the rest of her blog, it's a fun look into life and food in the Philippines.

As for the goody box that was to have come my way? Alas, I am one of the six folks, out of the 85 bloggers who participated, who got stiffed. Whoever had my name didn't end up sending me a package. But I haven't lost hope. Maybe mine will show up someday. Even if it never does, I'm still prepared to participate in the next Blogging By Mail.

McDonalds Chicken Biscuit

So I stopped at my local McDonalds this morning to pick up a free McDonalds Chicken Biscuit. I have mixed feelings about this "new" product. It tasted fine. But. It was just the biscuit and the chicken patty. That was it. Biscuit.
Chicken. Pretty dry together. I ate the chicken separately which had an okay flavor. The flavor came from the light breading, not the chicken though. I then put butter on the biscuit and ate that separately. My Dancing Assistant went and got the free Chicken Sandwich and had the same complaint. It was just the bun, the chicken and oh yeah, there was a pickle or two. The product supposedly had a "buttery tasting bun"...uh yeah, not butter flavored, not buttered, just "buttery tasting". Hmmm...I doubt this is something I will order again in the future (unless it's free of course).

Anyone else try them today?

Feed a Cold, Feed a Fever

Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever...or is is Feed a Fever, Starve a Cold? Doesn't matter. With me, I eat. Even with a fever (which you are supposed to starve) if I'm hungry, I don't really care what's correct, I just want to eat.

The two standards when I'm sick are 7-up and Saltine Crackers. Though I usually go for the Diet 7-up, with the crackers, none of this "unsalted tops" crap. I have to have the salted kind. The 7-up and the crackers sit next to me on the bedside table to help me feel better "between meals".

When I was younger, my "sick comfort food" was Cream of Potato Soup. In my twenties, it was Taco Bell Bean Burritos (add sour cream). Yeah, I know, how can I eat that crap when I'm sick? I can remember a boyfriend being horrified that this was my request, and I think he cringed when, with a fever of about 102, I devoured the burritos he had so lovingly brought me...and then went back to bed moaning and groaning with the flu. But if you think about it....the beans aren't really "fried", and with the tortilla, the whole thing is pretty bland. Don't ask about the sour cream. I'm all about the carbs when I'm sick.

In my thirties, my sick food of choice was Kentucky Fried Chickens Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. Of course this was also my comfort food for having my boss yell at me, getting dumped by a boyfriend, my car breaking down...everything could be fixed with those KFC potatoes. I would just order a large batch  of mashed with a side of gravy and any cold or flu (or broken heart) could be conquered.

In my forties (good lord, did I just admit my age?), my sick comfort food has changed to Macaroni and Cheese. But not the Kraft blue box kind, no, the red Stouffer's box kind. Easy to just throw in the microwave. Though if someone like Mr. L  is making it for me, I might ask that it be thrown briefly under the broiler to get a crunchy top before it hits my bedside table.

Recently though, I have found another item to toss into this sickbed food mix. Shedd's Country Crock Deluxe Loaded Mashed Potatoes. Microwave this (it has bacon already in it), add some butter and sour cream (my sickbed condiment of choice) and to me, it helps get rid of the aches and pains of being ill.

But the big thing is, that even if I'm not completely well, the "feed me food" gene kicks in and I want to eat. Everything. Lots of everything. Pizza with jalapenos. Jack in the Box tacos. Girl Scout cookies. Fajitas. A Cheeseburger with extra mayo and pickles. Country Fried Steak with Sausage Gravy. Shrimp in Garlic. Baby Back Ribs. Not to mention, real Coke in the red can. In the middle of fever, aches and pains and coughing up a lung, all I can think of is my next good meal. If left to my own devices, I'd probably  eat the worst foods for me in quantities that would make me even sicker. This is why it's probably a good thing that Mr. L is around to keep me on track.

Why all this talk of sickbed food? Because for the past ten days, I've had one nasty virus. I was out of work for seven days, thought I was going to cough up a lung (thank the Lord for cough syrup with codeine), had to buy a humidifier for the room and, something that is driving me crazy, haven't been able to sleep for ages without propping myself up into a sitting position. Per my doctor (who said he had this same virus by the way) I had the nastiest of the nasty version. I had to cancel my birthday celebration in Disneyland, miss a National Scrapbook Day function with my girls and I completely missed out on the end of the Sharks season (which, considering, might have been a good thing). Having a fever for eight days straight is a first for me and something I hope to never repeat again.

I was able to go through a stack of magazines, read several books and bond with my cat (who loved having me home and in bed all that time) during my down time. Several of the books I read dealt with Italian food so I'm not sure I'm going to rest until I've found a place that makes Deep Fried Zucchini Blossoms and Braised Pork to Taste Like Wild Boar.

I will admit, that with no idea that it was a former sickbed comfort food, Mr. L called this past Thursday on his way home from work and asked if I wanted Taco Bell for dinner. And he ordered pizza last night. Just another reminder of why I married this man.

I'm looking forward to (slowly) getting back into things...cooking, going to work, blogging, scrapping, catching up on TV shows and figuring out who to root for in hockey (most of my favs have been knocked out).  We've rescheduled our Disneyland trip to September, realized maybe "slowing down" a bit may help keep me well (and sane) and I hope to get together to scrap with my friends sometime soon .

Of course all that will have to wait until we find out if the fever and sore throat that Mr. L has had for the past couple of days is something small or the ten day version. It wasn't my fault, I'm not responsible.

The photo above comes from The Wireds Star Wars Fan Captures Secret Lives of Stormtroopers. I thought it only appropriate that the Stormtroopers were eating sickbed comfort food.

Scrapping, Hockey and Food

Well, April sure has had an interesting start. Last week I went to the dentist (for a crown), a Sharks game (pizza we get), a trip to the doctor (for tendinitis in my finger), a trip to the specialist the doctor sent me to for a cortisone shot (which didn't work) a classic migraine (complete with me on the floor in the bathroom at work with nausea) and a three day scrapbooking adventure in Sonora. Did I mention my full time job squeezed in there somewhere?

My Sharks are in the playoffs. Tomorrow starts the real season. 16 wins. That's all it takes. 16. I will be there. Bleeding teal.

Scrapping in Sonora was a blast. I was able to complete quite a few layouts, have a great time with my friends, and even cook something. It made the pre time of page planning worth it. You just might see a layout or two posted one of these days. The photo above was taken outside Cover's Apple Ranch. Several of us took a bit of a photo excursion. The ranch had some awesome old trucks in the back pasture.

Haven't had time to do much cooking. Doesn't mean I haven't been eating. The girls on the scrap trip made some tasty dishes over the weekend. I'll have to post about our pizza excursion as it was quite interesting. But I'm happy to be back and happy to have time to start to cook again. I'm finding that now, when I don't cook, I miss it. I miss planning and shopping. Figuring out which cookbook I'll cook from next. Reading the next food blog that will have me drooling. Keeping up on all those National
Food Days.  Yep, I'm obsessed with food...and there is nothing wrong with that...