Sunday, February 28, 2010

Jellyfish at the Waikiki Aquarium

I'd been wanting to go back to the aquarium for awhile, and I figured with the rain and wind today, it would be easy to find parking next to Kapiolani Park. I was right. I was so happy to see the jellyfish tank stocked with my favorite blue jellyfish. I pretty much spent the whole time there.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Tsunami Warning 2/27/2010

My son Landon woke me with a phone call at about 2 a.m. this morning and informed me of the tsunami warning. I called our office manager at about 5:30 a.m. and soon thereafter was told that we didn't need to go in to work.

I took a walk down to the marina which is a stone's throw away from our house. The water was so still it provided me with this view.

We live a little past the tsunami evacuation zone, so after I got back to the house, I recharged my phone. . .
and my Nintendo DS . . .
gathered up my only valuables . . .
and waited for word.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Leslie's Spare Rib Soup


Leslie made this soup. It was really yummy. The following is the recipe I got from her . . . red parts are her words.

My mom gave me this recipe...I never really followed it though

Spare Rib Soup


1 1/2 lbs thin sliced spare ribs, Cut into small pieces, leave bone in!
1 pkg nishime konbu (1-1/2 ounce)
6 medium shiitake
(I used the already sliced shiitake mushrooms that come in a package)4 cup water
4 cup dashi (4 cups water with 1packet of hondashi) or 2 cans chicken broth
squash
(I used half of the big oval green one)2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon shoyu

Wash konbu, tie into loose knots, cut between knots. Soften shiitake in water remore stems, cut into fourths. (If using the sliced ones, just add them to the pot) Peel squash and cut into cubes.
Put spareribs, konbu and shiitake in saucepan with 4 cups of water. Bring to a rapid boil, remove scum and bubbles as they appear on surface. Continue cooking under medium heat for an hour. When spare ribs are soft, remove and set aside ribs, konbu and shiitake. Strain liquid. (I didn't do this, I was too lazy) Pour strained stock back into saucepan and add 4 cups of dashi or chicken broth, and let it come to a boil. Add ribs, konbu, squash and mushrooms back into saucepan and bring to a boil. Add seasonings and adjust to your taste.

(Look, my mom didn't strain the liquid either! --->) I didn't drain the liquid. Just leave it in the refrigerator overnight and scrape off the fat. (I didn't even do this, I should've though, it was a bit oily that night) I also used both dashi and chicken broth.
(I ended up adding 1 can chicken broth in the end so it didn't end up tasting like saimin!)My mom also adds mustard cabbage but I forgot to buy it from the store when I was getting my ingredients! :)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Jhrew's Birthday Party

A couple of months ago Jhrew celebrated her birthday with a fashion dress-up tea party. The girls had a blast getting all dolled up. It was a great idea.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Bonny's Tattoo

Me and Bonny both took an early lunch today so that we could try to get more photos of her arm. I took these in the lounge of our office. We lucked out cause nobody came to eat while we were there. These were taken using only the available light from the adjacent room.

The awesome artwork was done by artist Kevin who works at South Pacific Tattoo in Waikiki at 345 Saratoga Road. If interested you can reach him at 924-2198.