Salad Spinner

I scored this salad spinner at the Kapolei community garage sale that me and Geri went to a few weeks back. It was $1!!!! I never owned a salad spinner before, and I just totally love it. It's so much easier than patting the leaves with a paper towel, yah.



It's an OXO brand too!


This part pops up, and I pump it to spin.


This is the salad that I made. It has romaine lettuce, Costco chicken, cucumbers, avocado, havarti cheese and parmesan cheese.


I used this dressing that I bought at Marukai.  The Japanese writing says "Yaki Round Onion Dressing". I like it a lot.


I added these "croutons", also from Marukai. It's actually fried mochi bits. I couldn't help myself.

Blog Study

Below is a portion of an email that I got a couple of days ago from a Ph.D. student at USC:

I’m interested in how the thoughts and experiences written by people like you on weblogs and other social media can be used to make conclusions about society as a whole. I am contacting you because I am trying to collect reliable data about bloggers’ opinions, experiences, and characteristics in order to refine and evaluate my analyses. 

If you are at least 18 years old and interested in helping me, please take the brief survey linked in this email. It should only take about 15 minutes of your time. Your responses will be kept confidential. 

In the course of this study, we will also be analyzing the public posts on your weblog using natural language processing technology. The goal of this analysis is to correlate your responses to this survey with what you write about your life on your weblog. 

His email contained several links that I wasn't about to click on . . . yet . . . because, you know, you just don't do that.

I googled the guy's name instead and was eventually led to the video below. It shows him interviewing various blogger people. They intrigued me . .  . mostly because they WERE me. 

When I first started blogging I was a bit apprehensive. Putting myself "out there" for the whole world to judge was intimidating. But the days, weeks and months flew by, and here I am today, 9 years from the start, being asked to participate in a survey about blogging. Who woulda thought?

Swap Meet DVDs

There was a guy selling DVDs for 50 cents each at the swap meet this past weekend. 50 CENTS!! I bought 10 of um. I bought some action ones for Wendell, some comedy for Landon, I got the movie HOP for Aunty and for me . . . KUNG FU PANDA 2!!!!!  Yee Haaaaaw!!

I had never seen Kung Fu Panda 2, and my nephew told me that he thought that 2 was better than the first one. I was so happy and couldn't wait to watch it.



BUT this is what happened when I put the disc in our DVD player . . . CANNOT . . .


PLAY.  Whaaaaa????  I put several of the other discs in the player. Most said the same thing . . . CANNOT  . . . PLAY . . .  Waaaaaaahhh!!


Then this is what happened when I tried to play it on my computer. 


I found this info on Wikipedia: The American DVD Copy Control Association requires that DVD player manufacturers incorporate the regional playback control (RPC) system. This allows film distributors to control aspects of release including content, release date and price according to the region.

Usually a configuration flag is set in each player's firmware at the factory. This flag holds the region number that the machine is allowed to play. Many websites exist on the Internet offering unlock codes entered via the remote control, often known informally as hacks.  They provide instructions for different models of standalone DVD players, to hack, and their factory codes. This code simply allows the user to change the factory-set configuration flag to another region, or to the special region "0". Once unlocked this way, the DVD player allows the owner to watch DVDs from any region. 

In most computer drives, users are allowed to change the region code up to five times. If the number of allowances reaches zero, the region last used will be permanent even if the drive is transferred to another computer. 

All I can say is: Bummahs. 

Kanji Studies

I'm still only in the Second Grade of my kanji book.  At my age, memorizing is so hard. If I take off studying for just a few days, I forget a lot. About once a week I go back to the beginning and test myself. That's why the stickies. 

I find that a lot of times I'll know what the character stands for in English, but I can't remember what it is in Japanese. For example, you see no. 22? I know that it stands for "earth" or "soil", but I have the hardest time remembering that it's "tsuchi".



BTW, thank you again to my mysterious reader for the book. I'm making good use of it!

Hawaiian Electric Recipe: Aburage Pupu

There was a bag of aburage left after Wendell made nishime for New Years.  I found a Hawaiian Electric recipe for Aburage Pupu, and it looked simple enough, so I made it. I shoulda known that 5 cloves of garlic was too much garlic, but I still followed the recipe exactly. In retrospect, I think maybe even three cloves woulda been enough.



I've been adding it to my tofu salads. It goes well.


5 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons shoyu
1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
6 aburage (deep fried tofu), thinly sliced

Mix all ingredients except aburage. Add aburage; mix well and chill overnight. Makes 6 appetizer servings.

Word Pyramid

I love to do puzzles. This one stumped me. The solution is in the Comments. 

Footwear

I'm not saying who, but one of my sisters went to the swap meet wearing these yesterday. 

Islands Burgers

A couple of weeks ago I suggested to Wendell that we go to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch because I have a gift card. Ala Moana Shopping Center was busy so it took us awhile driving around and around trying to find parking. And guess what? Maybe you know already. There is no Ruby Tuesdays at Ala Moana anymore!!

So we ended up at Islands Burgers. 



This was Wendell's Kilauea with Bacon. It comes with endless fries. I think it was around $14. 


Here's my Kaanapali Cobb Salad . . . around $13.


The salad was wonderful, and service was excellent.

Big Tomatoes

A few weeks ago, my son Landon said that he was going to Safeway and did I need anything. I asked him to pick up a few tomatoes. 

When he returned he said that he couldn't find the regular kind so he got these. Beautiful, yah. And they were good. Only thing . . . they were around $5 each. And he bought four. Yikes!

Cara Cara Orange

I discovered Cara Cara oranges sometime last year, and would buy them whenever I had the chance. But all of a sudden I couldn't find um anymore. It seems that the peak season for these oranges are between December and April, so now is the time to get them.

Last week Marukai had them on sale for $1.39/pound. I bought five. I ran out in five days. 

Yesterday, I took a chance and stopped at Don Q after work. They had um! $1.89/pound. As soon as I got home I peeled one and put um in a dish for this photo and then I scarfed um. They were nice and juicy.

Mitsumame

Coworker Connie gave this to me.  Her uncle brought it from Japan. I had to look it up online.  Mitsumame is a traditional summertime dessert made of fruit and kanten (agar-agar).



It came with a pack of Kuromitsu (literally "black honey", dark sugar syrup). It took me awhile to decipher what it said on the pack. It says something like: Be careful not to cut your hand on the corner of the "film".  Open the "film" so as not to scatter. After opening please enjoy right away.


I did what it said, although I did "scatter" a bit.


It was very delicious and refreshing.

Sayings

I saw this saying on Facebook. I like it. 



Here's another one that I saw on Facebook.  I like it too.



I saw this saying on my son's t-shirt. I don't like it.

Pipa Tofu

Wendell found this recipe in the recent 1/6/16 Star-Advertiser. They're light, airy tofu/fishcake puffs, and I could eat a ton of um!




1 block firm tofu, water removed
2/3 cup fresh fishcake
1 1/4 tsp. cornstarch
1 egg white
salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups oil for deep frying

In a large bowl combine tofu, fishcake, cornstarch, egg white, salt and pepper; mix well.

In wok, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Scoop tofu mixture with a porcelain spoon and carefully slide into oil. Deep fry until golden. Drain on paper towels.

Costco's Almond Cake

I think it was on Thanksgiving day that we had this cake. It was $16.99 and totally worth it. The outside frosting (under all the almonds) was a tiny bit too sweet for me, but everything else was exactly to my liking. The texture of the cake itself was moist and somewhat dense, kinda like the lemon crunch cake that I love from Diamond Head Market and Grill, which BTW is twice the price.

Microwave Gau Recipe

I first posted this Microwave Gau recipe back in January 2009. Long story short, since Chinese New Year is approaching, I wanted to share the recipe again by providing a link, but when I tried to format the post to my current preferences, I ruined it. So here it is redone and looking brand new. 

If you like gau, try make this. Tastes authentic to me.

1 lb. wong tong (block brown sugar, you can find it in the Asian section)
1 lb. mochi flour
2 3/4 c. water
1/4 c. vegetable oil



Heat 1 lb. wong tong sugar in 2 3/4 c. water on stove until sugar is dissolved. Cool.

Add 1 box mochiko flour.


Add 1/4 c. vegetable oil and stir until smooth.


Use ring mold (I don't have one so I just used a regular microwavable bowl).  Microwave 6 minutes on high, 6 minutes on 75% and 6 minutes on 50%. Cool; sprinkle with sesame seeds.


For my microwave, I had to adjust the time to 5 minutes at high, 5 minutes at 75% and 5 minutes at 50%. It came out kinda chewy but that's how I like it.

Pokipine - Day 13

Lookee!! Lookee!!  Wouldja believe that a couple of hours before Pokipine emerged, I had looked in on his cocoon and it looked so shriveled up and lifeless that I wondered if he might be dead. I even started composing his obituary in my mind.

Imagine my surprise when I looked in a few hours later and saw this!



In no time he started flapping his wings and started climbing the vine.


I quickly covered the bottle and took it outside.


I feel so grateful that I was home to take pictures when he emerged. 


Can you believe this is Pokipine!! So amazing, yah!


Too soon he fluttered off.


I'll remember him fondly.

Garden Bracelet

This bracelet makes me feel as if I'm in a garden so I gave it that name . . . Garden Bracelet. It's another swap meet find. It actually doesn't fit me. It's too small. And it's too fancy for me to wear anyway, but it was only $5 and I just love the beads so I bought it. 

I think about all the handiwork that went into its making. I wonder about the person who made the bracelet. I wonder how long it took her to make it. I wish I could let her know how much I like it and tell her thank her.

The Hardest Thing About Being on a Diet

For me, not being able to eat this is so hard.

Amazon Order

All of my Amazon orders are delivered to my working place because it's the most convenient for me.

Last month, Wendell ordered some running boards as a Christmas present for Landon to use on his truck. Worried that they would be too big and heavy for me to transport home, I asked Wendell about the size. He assured me that I could handle.

When the running boards arrived, I asked a coworker to take this photo with my phone so that I could send it to Wendell so that he could see that most assuredly I could not handle and most assuredly he would be coming to pick them up.

Pokipine Update

Pokipine is doing okay. I think. But he does strange things. Sometimes he dangles straight down as usual and then sometimes he lies horizontal. It's so weird.

Geri's Ozoni

So ono!



Oops! My bad.  Here's the recipe:  Geri's Ozoni

Hawaii Pot Shabu Shabu House

Me and Geri went to check out a community garage sale in Kapolei yesterday. The area is so foreign to us that it felt like we were on another island. 

It turned out that there were not as many homes participating in the garage sale as we were expecting, but we still did manage to find quite a few bargains. 

After we were pau "shopping" we went searching for an Eat the Street event that was supposed to be happening in the afternoon. It was pretty amazing that we actually found it because we were pretty much driving around lost the whole time. Unfortunately though, we were over an hour too early, and we decided that we didn't want to wait that long to eat.

We were so surprised to find this Hawaii Pot Shabu Shabu House in a nearby shopping area. Geri had just been telling me about it on our drive over. She had been to the one on Sheridan, and she really liked it.












Geri ordered Set B Beef with Mushroom Medley broth and I ordered Set A Chicken with Miso broth.


Geri enhanced her broth.


We each had a plate of vegetables.


I chose the House dipping sauce and Sesame dipping sauce. They were both really good. I would totally eat here again . . . but the Sheridan one. Kapolei is too far.