Colin's Oatmeal Cookies

Colin and Cy have been making a lot of these oatmeal cookies lately. That's really good because me and Wendell are hooked on them. 

The recipe is from Simply Recipes and can be found here. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup (1/2 pound or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, OR 1 cup shortening
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 3 cups rolled oats (We use Quaker Quick or Old Fashioned. Do NOT use instant.)

METHOD

1 Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Grease two large cookie sheets or line with Silpat or parchment paper.

2 In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add the brown sugar and white sugar, beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla extract.

3 Mix flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in medium bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture. Stir in the raisins and nuts. Stir in the oats.

4 Spoon out the dough by large tablespoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between each cookie.

5 Bake until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. Note that the cookies will seem underdone. That's okay, they will firm up as they cool.

6 Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets. Then carefully remove them, using a metal spatula, to a wire rack. Cool completely. They will be quite soft until completely cooled. Store tightly covered.

Wagyu

Wendell's birthday was yesterday, and he said that he didn't really care to go out for dinner, but rather preferred to just have steak at home. 

So I went to J shop and bought some wagyu. Landon prepared it three different ways . . . all delicious . . . with the meat so tender that even people without teeth could've eaten it. 


Straight up


Tataki


Sukiyaki


Lan also picked up some sashimi, sushi and Japanese potato salad.

Hats

Some of the kupuna at the Day Care are having High Tea on Thursday afternoon, so I was asked to make hats for some of them. I think they came out so pretty! Fun!

Wendell's Araimo and Shrimp Fritters

Chef Tatsuo Saito made this on a recent Dining with the Chef on NHK, and it caught Wendell's eye. The recipe actually calls for chicken, but Wendell used shrimp instead. The araimo added a nice twist to the fritters.

The recipe and instructions can be found here. 

Annie's Pickled Watermelon Rind

My friend Annie made this for the first time and shared it with me. She said it's her aunty's recipe.

It's very refreshing and ono, but it's kinda hard to describe. It's kinda like shoyu pickled mango, but not. And it's kinda like tsukemono, but not. 

Next time you have watermelon, don't throw away the rind. Make this instead, and let me know what you think.



Cut off the hard part of the rind. Chop into pieces. Salt and let sit for around 45 minutes. Rinse and squeeze out the liquid. Drizzle shoyu and rice vinegar. Add cut-up shiso leaves ("on the far right at Kaheka Don Q above the green onions"). Toss. Add water if too strong.

Thanks Annie!

Finding Comfort

If you google "finding dimes" you'll find explanations such as this:

A sign that positive changes are afoot; a reward or token of approval from beyond. Ancestors, spirits, guides, or deceased loved ones want you to know they're looking out for you.



I found this dime in our yard a few days ago and found my hurricane-worried state of mind immediately start to calm down. 

Do you often find dimes?

Kona Kai

We celebrated Landon's birthday at Kona Kai this past Wednesday. According to our waiter it was a "soft opening" so he warned that the food might be slow in coming out. He was right. We were there for 2 hours, but the food was ono so we didn't mind.  Oh, except Landon said that they over-shiso'd too many things. Overall, he gave a rating of 4 out of 5.

Kona Kai Dynamite ($10.00). The fish in this dish was a bit too fishy for me.


Salmon Skin Salad ($9.00). Dressing was good.


Assorted Tempura ($14.50). I loved the green tea salt.


Baby Calamari ($7.99). Just like at Sasabune.


Miso Salmon Scallop Roll ($17.00)


Kinmedai ($17.00)


Langoustine ($10.00)


Unagi ($6.00)


California Roll ($??). Comped because of our long wait.


Gunkai Trio ($15.00). Lan said that the uni was very good . . . no bitter aftertaste. Ikura was very fresh.


Ootoro ($18.00). Lan said that it had a weird texture at first bite and then softened up after.


Salmon ($7.00)


Spicy Tuna Roll ($8.00). Comped because they thought we ordered this, but we didn't.


Hirame ($8.00). Landon's Engawa order looked exactly like this, so we suspect that he didn't really get the Engawa.


Hamachi ($8.00).  Looked more like hamachi when Wendell flipped over the fish.

PearFleur

I discovered this awesome YouTube artist who goes by the name PearFleur. I watched her Underwater Scene video over and over, and I just had to try and copy it.



Here's my kitchen countertop work desk. I've been doing a lot of my craft/art stuff here lately because Kona doesn't like to come into my craft room, and I don't like leaving him by himself when no one else is at home.


I completed two paintings. If you get the chance, try check out PearFleur's other videos too. She is amaaaaaazing.


Hurricane's coming. Stay safe everybody!

Wagaya

About a month ago, my drawing class buddies and I went to Wagaya for lunch. We had a great time. And food was good.

Erick had the Tan Tan Ramen ($13.75)


Cleta and I both had the Hiyashi Men ($11.95). I had the vegetarian version.


Thanks for treating, Cleta!!

Oama Fishing

Wendell caught these two papio this past weekend. He and his friend caught around 10 oama  and then used them for bait to catch the papio.

Oama fishing involves standing in a circle around the school of fish with shrimp, aku belly, etc. for bait while using some mysterious use-the-force technique to sense the nibble.


I've only gone oama fishing twice in my life because being as weak-forced as I am, I usually only succeed in getting majorly annoyed at hooking nothing while everyone else around me brings up fish after fish.

Sump

Sump:  a pit or hollow in which liquid collects, in particular.

I never heard of "sump" before until our yard flooded . . . twice. 

Workers were at my house yesterday creating a sump. 


It runs along the whole side of our property. Hopefully, this will solve our flooding problem. 


Kona's enjoying the new smells for now.

Gokoku Sushi

We splurged one night last week and had dinner at Gokoku Sushi. It was sooooo goooood!!

Gokoku Special Sushi Set ($35.00 including tax)


Tempura Set ($18.00 including tax)


Ala Carte Stewed Pork ($12 including tax)


Hamachi ($4.00), Salmon ($3.00) Spicy Tuna ($3.00)

Don Lee Farms Veggie Burger

I had this teriyaki veggie burger for lunch yesterday. It was ono . . . just like W & M's BBQ burger. Okay, maybe not. But it's good.



I don't necessarily like all veggie burgers, but I like this one. They served this (and real-meat kine) to the volunteers at this year's Special Olympics event, and that's how I found out about it.

I was happy to find that Costco carries it.


I pan fried the burger until it had a crisp outside and then poured about a teaspoonful of Yoshida sauce into the pan.


The bun I used is from Whole Foods. It's da bomb.