Japanese Lunch

Lately I've been obsessed with Japanese food. The light and airy flavors paired with savory soy sauce are addicting! I don't live anywhere near an Asian market so I have to use ingredients I've bought here and there from co-ops and make hodgepodge versions of Japanese food at home.

My favorite successes so far have been fried tofu and udon soup. For today's lunch I followed a recipe I found online for dashi stock and used that as my base. Dashi stock in Japanese cooking is what chicken broth is to Western cooking. It's really easy to make; just soak a piece of kombu kelp in a pot of water for 30 minutes then add a handful of bonito flakes and boil for five minutes. Strain and it's ready to use! Some recipes called for using dried anchovies, but I didn't have any of those.

In my soup bowl I put one sliced green onion, two sliced and blanched mushrooms, udon noodles, dashi stock, and cubed tofu. In

another version I added cut up pieces of nori. What I really wanted to make was miso soup, but I don't have any miso so I settled for using just dashi stock and it turned out really well.

Here's a picture.

On the side I had a small cup of sushi rice mixed with jade pearl rice and a cup of match tea.

Happy New Year

Well it's time for one of those cliché, "I haven't posted in so long!" posts.

The past year and the current year have taught me a lot about change. Changes in life, situations, and feelings. I've always loved change, even when I'm not enjoying the uncertainty it gives me. I look forward to the future and wonder where I'll be living, what I'll be doing, what friends I'll make, what friends I'll lose, and more importantly how happy I'll be.

Like I said earlier, the past year taught me a lot. I learned that I'm not quite as prepared as I'd like to be for the real world. This unpreparedness has lead to a lot of fear about my competency in holding down a "career" job. I've worked small service jobs since high school, but nothing that will prepare me for the future. I've relied on my schooling to help with that. Now's the time when I have to push myself for what I want and not be afraid.

I also learned what it means to lose friends (something I'm far too familiar with) and gain new friends. With every friend lost there are two more to replace that one friendship I held so dear. New friends give you a new pair of glasses to see the world through and the ones I've made this far have done just that. I've learned what it's like to truly enjoy life and know that I have a great group of people standing beside me when times get rough.

I've also strengthened old friendships. I thought I knew people, but really I had no idea (how cool they were)!

So as 2010 keeps rolling I hope to make some big changes that will impact my life in very positive ways. I know there will be hardships and not everything will go my way, but what doesn't kill me will only make me stronger.

Have a very happy 2010 everyone!

Summer Vegetables with Gnocchi

I found this recipe in one of the Everyday Food magazines from Martha Stewart. I'd always wanted to try gnocchi and the recipe looked simple enough to try. The nice thing about this dish is that it only requires a few ingredients and the most expensive was the cheese, which I do recommend splurging on the good stuff!



Pint of cherry tomatoes
2-3 zucchinis
16oz package of gnocchi
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh basil
Pat of butter
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Assembly is pretty simple. Saute the zuccinis, add the halved tomatoes. Cook gnocchi for a few minutes reserving some of the water to make the sauce. Add the gnocchi to the vegetables. Add remaining ingredients, saved water, butter, and basil. Finish with the cheese.

This was delicious! The picture doesn't do it much justice. It is a bright, colorful, and savory dish. I've already made it twice now! The second time I made it I added some left over spinach I had and that's what in the picture above.

Cat's Summer Pasta Salad

This afternoon I felt inspired to try to recreate a pasta salad that my friend Cat made one night on the fly. She makes the best food ever. Only problem is that it's a one time deal as she doesn't follow a recipe or write anything down, which is also the exciting part of eating her creations.

Here's my version:
Gluten-free spiral noodles
Peas
Artichoke hearts
Chopped onion
Fresh chopped basil
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Scant amount of Rice vinegar
Minced garlic
Salt and Pepper
Newman's Own lime dressing
Capers
Morning Star veggie chik'n strips
Thinly sliced radish from my garden

This salad turned out really well in my opinion. I feel like it's still missing a little something. Cat's was much better than mine, but I would definitely make it again.

Album Review!

For those of you that know me personally know that I eat, sleep, and breathe MUSIC! It is truly my passion. So for this blog post I thought I'd do something a little different and review an album. I was in La Crosse, Wisconsin last weekend and picked up the following from Deaf Ear Records, an independent music store (I was a bit disappointed in their selection):

Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
Air - Pocket Symphony
Lady Sovereign - Jigsaw
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
Santigold - Santogold
Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
P.O.S. - Never Better
Royksopp - Junior

I'll be reviewing the album by P.O.S. - Never Better

I know I have the strangest taste in music so it's not really surprising I'd like a hip-hop artist from Minneapolis. Surprisingly, Minneapolis has a good underground hip-hop scene. I'll admit that I don't know much about hip-hop, besides the fact I think that the stuff they play on the radio is stupid and entirely commercialized, I do like thoughtful and poetic hip-hop.

The album starts out strong with the first track Let It Rattle then moves on to Drumroll (We're All Thirsty) which features Doomtree. I really like track three, Savion Glover which is a fun upbeat track, which references punk group, Fugazi. I pushed skip for the next two songs and stopped on track six, Goodbye, which is the single to the album played often on The Current on Minnesota Public Radio.

Track eight is probably my favorite, Been Afraid. I like the story of the two young lovers struggling with their own demons to finally trusting each other and healing.

The rest of the tracks are all good but none that make me stop and listen. I don't mean that it's a bad album, just none that I've been in the mood for lately.

Overall I really enjoyed this CD. I know it's an album that I'll grow to love even more as time goes on just because there are so many different moods present on the CD. What I like most about the album is that his lyrics make you think. They don't talk about getting lots of money and how many "bitches" he has. It's thoughtful and poetic set to a beat!

So if anyone is interested in exploring the world of underground/independent hip-hop I strongly recommend picking up this album!

I just Tweeted.

A running joke among friends, we used to wonder what the heck Twitter was. We knew everyone was tweeting, yet we still had no idea what it did or what it was supposed to do. Was it like Facebook? Myspace? Did you have a profile? What was everyone Tweeting about?!

Then I was talking with a coworker that asked if I was on Twitter. This was shocking to me because my coworker was the last person I thought to be on Twitter. Well she informed me what it was and I made up my mind that night to make a Twitter account. I mean, for research purposes only right?

Well now I'm following the Tweets of the editor for Gourmet Magazine, Terry Gross of NPR, and my own personal God of Rock, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

There's something that seems taboo about Twitter. Like those that Twitter (yes it's a verb too) get picked on. Why do us Twitterers think anyone would care about what we're doing at any given minute? Are we that narcissistic? Because humans are curious. We do care. Why does almost every cable channel on TV feature at least one reality show? The same reason why people like to read other people's Tweets. We want to know what other people are doing in their life. Maybe we think our life is boring compared to others or we want to know what our loved ones are doing. But we are constantly wondering about the world around us.

Maybe that's getting too philosophical for my little blog but it's just a fun observation. Anyway, if any of you wanted to know, I'm sitting in the library working on a project about wind turbines. I just Tweeted.

Le Creuset!!!!

I did it. I bought a Le Creuset dutch oven. It is the most beautiful piece of cookware I have ever seen. I've wanted one for so long but being as expensive as they are I held off. I finally decided to say to heck with it and get one.

What excites me the most is that it will last a lifetime and I will be able to cook pretty much anything in it. I can't wait to get little brown bits of meat stuck to the bottom to scrape off and make a tasty sauce with. As you can see I've got it all planned out.

I'm too poor right now to go out and buy anything worthwhile to make a meal out of so I broke it in with a hodgepodge curry I made. I'll make another post when I make a full-blown meal in it.