My Farmer's Breakfast

I made breakfast the other day.

I first threw a big potato into the microwave . . . 3 minutes on high, flip potato over, another 3 minutes on high.

Fry some bacon with an onion. Throw in some diced Portuguese sausage and other meats, if you have. Add the cut-up potato. Add beat-up eggs. Season with pepper. 

Regrowing Celery

Has anyone ever tried doing this?  I think it's so cool!

Thanks for sharing, Karen!

Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix

A few times a week Wendell makes these buttermilk pancakes. They're light and puffy and taste good.



He uses this mix that he gets from Costco.


You just add water!

Choke Garlic

I peeled choke garlic the other day and Landon made some of that garlic rice that I blogged about previously.  Came out good. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of the rice. It looked the same as on the video.

On Da Desk

This was the last thing I painted before my sewing machine took over da desk. 

And now, after nearly a month . . . 

I'm happy to say . . . . I'm baaaaaaaack. 




This is the YouTube video by Coco Bee Art that I followed.

Facebook

I closed my Facebook account. A scammer emailed me and said that he knew my password. And he did. Bothers me that he got ahold of my password somehow. 

He said that if I didn't send him $2000 bitcoin he would reveal all my immoral secrets. Luckily, I have no immoral secrets. As you know, I barely have secrets. I tell you guys everything. 

I hardly ever use Facebook, so it's not worth the worry to me. So I changed my password (just in case) and closed the account.

Mask Gone Wrong

Honolulu Aunty shared this. Thanks Aunty!!

Sing for Hope

Thanks for sharing, Harri!!

Mayuki Kato - Ceramic Painter

Amazing skill. 

Safeway Pizza

This was good!!!



Looking at the picture on the box, it looks like Landon enhanced ours. 

Waste Not

Highlight of the Day

Wendell's Steamed Spareribs with Black Beans

Wendell made this last night. The recipe can be found here. 

The best thing about the guys doing all this cooking lately is that the freezer is getting cleaned out!!

2 pounds pork spareribs, cut into 1-inch cubes

3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 teaspoon ginger, peeled and minced

2 Tablespoons Chinese rice cooking wine

2 Tablespoons light soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon Salt

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 Tablespoons fermented black beans, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons green onions, chopped

1. Rinse pork ribs and drain very well. Pat dry.

2. In a bowl, combine pork ribs, Chinese wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, salt, and sugar. Stir to fully coat meat and marinate for about 20 to 30 minutes.

3. Add cornstarch and combine until ribs are coated. Add black beans and stir to distribute.

4. Transfer pork into a heat-proof wide, shallow plate.

5. Prepare a steamer by bringing about two inches of water to a boil.

6. Place plate of ribs in the steamer basket, cover, and steam for about 15 to 20 minutes or until meat is no longer pink and cooked through. 

7. Sprinkle with green onions if desired. Serve hot.

Sign of the Times

Wendell's Pork Loin Roast

Wendell made this a couple of nights ago.  The aroma while it was cooking was amazing. He found the recipe here on the Food & Wine website. 



Ingredients

6 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped 
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped rosemary 
1 tablespoon whole fennel seeds 
1 teaspoon ground fennel 
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper 
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 
One 10-rib pork loin roast 
Salt

How to Make It

Step 1    
Preheat the oven to 400°. In a mini processor, combine the garlic, rosemary, fennel seeds, ground fennel, crushed red pepper, black pepper and olive oil and process to a paste. Set the pork roast on a large rimmed baking sheet and cut shallow score marks all over the fat. Spread 1 tablespoon of the garlic paste on the underside of the roast; spread the remaining paste all over the scored fat and meaty parts of the roast. Season all over with salt.

Step 2    
Roast the pork, fat side up, for 1 hour. Reduce the oven temperature to 325° and roast the pork for about 35 minutes longer, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat registers 150°. Transfer the roast to a carving board and let rest for 15 minutes. Carve the roast into chops and serve at once.

Make Ahead
The uncooked herb-rubbed pork roast can be covered and refrigerated overnight. Bring to room temperature before roasting.

Landon's Short Rib Roast

Landon made this a few days ago, and for the first time I was able to get a pretty detailed recipe from him. Hooray!

It was very, very good.




Season boneless short rib with Dd's Season All (or your favorite multipurpose seasoning) and thyme. Sear meat in oven-proof pan on stove.

Add and sauté:
1 onion, large dice
1 bell pepper, chopped fine (for flavor)
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tomato, diced
1 bay leaf

Add and deglaze:
1 can beef broth and 1/2 cup wine

Top with fried onions (optional)

Put pan in oven and bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours

Add:
2 potatoes, large cubes
3 bell peppers, large dice

Bake additional 45 minutes.

Sour Cream Pear Coffee Cake

Wendell is a dessert eater, and since he hasn't been out to buy his favorite treats lately, I made this the other day.  

I cut the recipe in half for an 8 x 8 pan. It's from the Del Monte website here. It came out less dense than I expected. It was good.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

⅔ cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

salt, optional

2 cans (15oz.ea.) Del Monte® Lite Sliced Pears in Extra Light Syrup [or Cling Peaches in Extra Light Syrup], drained

1 cup Light sour cream [or low fat plain Greek yogurt]

⅓ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans

½ cup uncooked old fashioned oats

½ cup packed dark brown sugar

1½ tsps. cinnamon

3 Tbsps. butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a 13x9-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. For Coffee Cake, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, if desired, in a large bowl. Add pears, sour cream, oil, eggs and vanilla; stir well with a whisk, mashing pears into small pieces. Smooth batter into prepared baking pan.
3. For Streusel, stir together pecans, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter in a small bowl; sprinkle evenly over batter and pat lightly.
4. Bake, uncovered, 40 to 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Place on wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sign of the Times

Anybody else getting this kine dry "rash" from washing hands so much?

Then God Sent a Cleaner

I'm not a particularly religious person. I would say that I'm of a sometimes Christian sometimes Buddhist sometimes Agnostic persuasion. 

My sister Geri is very much of the Christian faith. She shared this video. It really touched me.

Shoyu Packets

Do you save these shoyu packets?  The other day I decided to fill an empty shoyu bottle with them. 



It filled the bottle!!!  The Yamasa Shoyu went into another special Yamasa bottle. 

Colin's Fishcake Patties

My nephew Colin made these fishcakes!! He used my sister Didi's recipe that can be found at Cooking Hawaiian Style website here. 



Good job, Colin!!



1 ½ lb. Chinese fish cake paste 
2 large eggs, beaten 
4 stalks green onion, finely chopped 
1 medium carrot, peeled, grated, optional 
½ -inch ginger, peeled, grated 
1 tsp. salt 
1 tsp. sugar 
½ tsp. sesame seed oil 
½ tsp. white pepper 
½ c. cornstarch 
Oil for frying 

In a mxing bowl, combine all ingredients well. In a large skillet on medium heat; warm oil Spoon heaping serving spoon size of mixture gently into pan; pat mixture down slightly. Cook 2-3 minutes per side until slightly browned. Drain on paper towels.

Landon's Shepherd's Pie

Landon made this last week, and . . . um . . . I wrote down his instructions "somewhere", but I can't find it. I no like ask him again because No. 1 He won't remember and No. 2 He might get irritated.

As far as I can remember he fried up 3 pounds of hamburger and added frozen vegetables and 2(?) cans of Cream of Mushroom soup. "Thyme" comes to my mind because I remember wondering how to spell it. 

Then he put everything in a pan and topped with hash brown potatoes. He baked at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 

It was good. We wiped it out in 2 days.


He used this. It's from Costco.

Mail Quarantine

Right next to our front door is my mail quarantine box. 

The white package had come from Japan and took quite awhile to arrive. There were lots of chances for all kinds of bad microbial stuff to adhere to it, right?

Anyway, Wendell didn't know about my box, and when he noticed it, he lifted up the package and said, "What is this?"  I said, "It's being quarantined." 

Wendell is usually okay with my current cautious practices, but this time he said, "OMG, and now I gotta go wash my hands?"  Then to the tune of Mamma Mia, he sang, "Para Noia, Para Noia!"

Sign of the Times

FaceTiming with my mom. If you tell her you saw this, I won't have to worry about the virus killing me because she will.




And by the way, to see how masks are supposed to be worn, check out SoraNews24.  Thanks for sharing, V!!

20 Seconds

Not 5 seconds. Not 10 seconds. It needs to be at least 20 seconds or no sense . . .  sing "Happy Birthday" twice.

Here's why:



Thanks for sharing, Harri!!!

Easy Garlic Fried Rice

I haven't tried it yet but . . . let's DO IT!!

Setting an Example

My friend Chet emailed this photo to me and I love it!! 



I busted out my sewing machine yesterday, and I made this mask. Cute fabric, yah. I got it for Christmas from my nephew Daniel's wife awhile back.


I'm still tweaking and I have a bunch of requests to fill, but I need more pellon.  We'll see how it goes.


Kona woke me up at 2:30 this morning and I couldn't go back to sleep because of . . . you know . . . all the stuff on my mind.  I feel kinda out of it right now . . . 

But anyway . . . stay safe peoples!