Pork Tofu

I followed Didi's recipe here, but had to modify it for a pound of pork instead of a quarter pound.  I also used shiitake mushrooms instead of enoki 'cause that's what I had.

Came out winnahs!  I need to go back to Foodland and pick up more of the thin-sliced pork belly again.  I think that was the key.

 

I have to show off the ceramic spouted bowl that I made for this exact purpose!

  

Sorry, but here's the recipe.  I'm too lazy to type it out.

Kai and the Chew Stick

I gave Kai a chew stick the other day and he didn't know quite what to do with it.

Borzoi

There were two of these dogs at the dog park early one morning last week.  Super white and tall with a stream-lined body and matching snout, they were eye-catching.  I approached them with my mouth agape.  

I asked if I could pet one of them.  So majestic and regal in their appearance that I felt that permission needed to be granted first. 

My reverence was disrupted, however, when Kai pounced in with his boundless energy and scared both dogs away.  Actually, it was more like chased both dogs away.  Not wanting to disturb their quiet outing, I took Kai away to a different part of the park. 

The owner had said that the dogs were called Borzoi.  I needed her to spell it for me.  She said that she had gotten them from Japan, but that they're originally from Russia.  The female was 4 years old and the male was just 14 months.  

My research later showed that they're also known as Russian Wolfhounds and are known for their speed, grace and calm demeanor.   They are affectionate with family but independent and reserved with strangers.  They have a high prey drive and can reach speeds of up to 40 mph.  I wondered how they get their exercise. 

I was hoping to see them again but never did.  Am keeping my fingers crossed though and will let you know!

Cy's Easy Corned Beef and Cabbage

This is so nostalgic to me.

Cy said:  Sautee half a medium onion with 1 tablespoon oil, add 4 gloves garlic, corned beef and a small cabbage. This corned beef has lots of oil and is salty, so don't over oil. Add soy and pepper per your liking.

This is the corned beef that he used.

Cottonball Clouds

I took this photo a few months ago.  Thought the clouds looked so cool.

Mapo Tofu on Noodles

I made Mapo Tofu following this recipe and had it on noodles instead of rice.  Ho, it was so ono, I'm thinking I should always have it on noodles from now on. 

 

This is the noodles I used.  Landon got it from Marukai, and it had been in our freezer for awhile.

  

Cleta's Baklava Cake

Cleta brought this to our Ceramics Class potluck, and it was a hit!

BAKLAVA CAKE

Keeps well at room temperature up to 3 days if it lasts that long!

350 degree oven.  Spray a bundt pan thoroughly.

BAKLAVA TOPPING: 1 cup nuts, chopped* 

1/3 cup brown sugar 1 Tbsp. corn syrup ☹

1/4 cup butter, melted 1 tsp cinnamon

CAKE BATTER: 1 box vanilla cake mix*

3 eggs 1/2 cup oil of choice

1 cup water 3 Tbsp. sour cream**

HONEY GLAZE:*** 1/4 cup honey 1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp lemon juice 1-1/2 Tbsp. warm water

Cake:  combine in a large bowl and mix according to pkg. directions.

Prepare the Baklava Topping and spread even in bottom of bundt pan.  Then pour the cake batter over.  Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack for 10 minutes. At the 10 minutes, invert the cake onto a platter.  Should the Baklava Topping not come out in one piece, with your fingers gently remove from pan and fit back onto cake. 

Combine the Honey Glaze ingredients.  Whisk together until you have a pourable consistency and drizzle over top of cake.

Notes:  * I used a mixture of walnuts, almonds and pistachio 

** or full fat, non-flavored yogurt 

         *** Using powdered sugar will give the glaze a whitish finish when dry. And thinking this could be overly sweet and I wanted a shinier finish, I used the glaze recipe below…

1/3 cup honey 2 tsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp. water 1/2 to 3/4 cup regular sugar

You may want to poke holes into the cake so that the glaze seeps in.

There are many similar recipes on Pinterest.

Ceramics Class

Here are our final pieces.  Next session begins in September.  Maybe I'll make more bud vases.  That was fun.

Kentucky Fried Chicken's Tuesday Deal

Landon picked up dinner for us yesterday.  He said that KFC has a Tuesday deal.  He got the 8-piece meal deal.

 

You get 8 pieces drums and thighs, 4 biscuits, 1 large mash/gravy and 1 large coleslaw.  Guess how much this costs on Tuesdays.

 

22 bucks!!  Good deal, right?!  Especially nowadays when one plate lunch could cost around that much. 

Cleta's Green Beans

I love this kind of old school dish from back in the day. 

Cleta made this.  She said:  Fry spam, add fresh string/green beans. I cover with a lid so that the beans cook faster. Then crack any amount of egg and stir until the eggs are cooked. Salt & pepper.

 

And here's another one.  Per Cleta: Boil string/green beans in salted water, drain and cool. Fry  scrambled egg, let cool and dice. Add to beans with salt, pepper and mayo. Chill.

Plant/Bake Sale on April 9 and 10 at the Kaimuki YMCA

This plant sale was originally scheduled for March 20th but was cancelled due to the severe weather.  Per Honolulu Aunty the plant prices will be reduced at this event.  

Thanks for the scoops, Aunty!

Ceramics Class

You can click on the photo below to see a quick video of our final bisqued pieces ready to be painted. 

Flour for Baking

 I thought this was interesting.

 

Bottom line:  They recommend these, especially for bread making.  

  

Kai Boy Keeps Me Active

No, I didn't want to go out into the cold and wind.  But the rain had stopped and Kai was bored and I had no excuse.  

Kai walks faster than at the leisurely saunter that I prefer, but I try to keep up.  Our walks down the street are short, around 1/2 hour.  Maybe good enough for him.  For sure good enough for me. 

Bird Deterrent

I saw a bunch of these very reflective, spinning things at Kahala Mall where Whole Foods and Jumba Juice are.  They must have a bird problem. 

 

You can click on the photo below to watch a video of one of them in action.

  

Wendell's Crispy Mayo Chicken

Wendell got this recipe from the FeedThePudge site.  It had a light, airy crispy coating and was really good.  But da splattah!

Ingredients

• 2 lbs Chicken Thighs

• 1⁄4 cup Oil, for frying

• Marinade:

• 1⁄4 cup Kewpie Mayo

• 2 tbsp Soy Sauce

• 1⁄2 tbsp Mirin

• 1 tsp Garlic Powder

• 1 tsp Ginger Powder

• Salt and Pepper, to taste

• 1⁄4 cup Cornstarch

• Garnishes:

• Green Onion

• Lemon Wedge

• Black Pepper

Directions

• Cut boneless, skinless chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces and trim off any excess fat
• Add chicken to a bowl and combine with Kewpie mayonnaise, soy sauce, mirin, garlic powder, ginger powder, salt, black pepper, and cornstarch
• Mix until all pieces are evenly coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours
• Heat a pan over medium-high heat with a few tablespoons of oil. Add chicken in an even layer without overcrowding. Cook for 6 to 7 minutes, turning as needed, until golden brown, crispy, and fully cooked through

Ceramics Class

Next week we build, the following we glaze and the week after is our last-day pot luck where we pick up the finished pieces.  This session went by so fast!

These are my pieces.  Erick calls me the Pinch Pot Princess. 

 

Here's Cleta's hanging planter.

   

And Erick's cow.

  

Battery Backup Bulb

When Wendell brought this home from Costco awhile back and told me about it, I barely paid attention.  I humored him and said, "Oh, cool!"

But let me tell you, when you suddenly don't have electricity and are engulfed in darkness, IT IS TOTALLY COOL!  It is a lightbulb with a built-in rechargeable battery.

 

You screw the bulb into wherever you normally have a lightbulb.  While it's in normal use, it is charging itself.    

And when you lose power, the bulb recognizes this and STAYS LIT automatically.  The box says it'll stay lit for up to 10 hours.  We were out for 30+ hours so it didn't last the whole time, but it was so handy in the beginning.  The 6-pack was under $20.

 

Here's the bulb at work in our bathroom.

   

And this is our light in the bedroom.  SO, SO COOL, WENDELL!

  

Cy's Easy Kalbi

 Cy made this for their dinner the other night.  He said that it was super easy!

 

He marinated short ribs in this sauce overnight and then pan fried the next day for dinner.  He bought the sauce from Walmart for $6.44.   

  

Back Up Again

We lost power from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning. 

Landon's power bank thingy saved our food.

 

This puzzle book saved my mind.

 

  

Power Outage

Just a heads up.  Our router got fried from the surges during the outage.  😒

Blogging will probably get delayed until I can get WiFi to my computer. 

Ceramics Class

Erick's lamb was my fave piece this week.  He also made the abstract figure in the back of it.  The ball fits into the pocket.  Both very cool!

 

I made three more bud vases.

  

Beastside Kitchen

To celebrate Kai's birthday we got takeout from Beastside Kitchen.  I loved everything, especially the Pork Belly Bao! 

Garlic Umami Shrimp ($27)

 

Kalbi ($32) 

  

Crunchy Garlic Kimchee ($18)

  

Fried Saimin ($24)

   

BBQ Pork Belly Bao ($23)

  

Kai had Steak and Sweet Potato! 

 

Dd's Garlic Bread Loaf

Didi says:  Dis was da bomb…da bottom gets super crispy from all da buddah and da top is gooey melty yummy !!  😉

GARLIC PULL APART BREAD LOAF

 

½ 6-8-inch round loaf country or sourdough bread

3-4 TB butter 

1 ½ TB olive oil 

2 cloves garlic, finely grated 

Kosher salt 

1 TB Italian parsley, chopped

1 tsp. dried basil 

3 TB Pecorino cheese, grated (can substitute Asiago or Parmesan cheese)

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Use a bread knife to cut lengthwise into top of bread loaf,

stopping short of cutting through to bottom of the loaf. Turn loaf and cut cross hatch

pattern; again, stop short of cutting through to bottom of bread loaf (so the loaf holds together).

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Add olive oil and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until very pale golden, 4 minutes. Stir in pinch of salt, parsley and basil. Remove from heat.

Place large sheet of aluminum foil onto baking sheet. Place bread loaf into center of foil.

Gently separate cubes of bread from top of loaf. Spoon butter mixture into “cuts” of bread.

Spread over cut surfaces, saving 2 TB of butter. Drizzle remaining butter on top of loaf.

Distribute cheese between cuts and on top. Wrap bread loaf in foil forming pocket on top

area of bread, making sure to not touch surface of bread. Bake bread until heated through,

10 minutes. Unwrap foil and continue baking until slightly crisp, 5-7 minutes more.

Serve immediately. Serves 2-4 depending on size of loaf.

Wendell's Easy Sautéed Yama Imo

Wendell found this recipe on the RecipeTin Japan site.  It's pretty much just three ingredients - yama imo, shoyu and butter!  And it came out so tasty that he made it again for pupu for his softball team.

Ingredients 

• 300-350g Chinese mountain yam
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• Pepper (optional)

Garnish (optional)

• Chives cut into short pieces

Instructions

1. Peel mountain yam and slice it into 1cm thick discs.

2. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and melt the butter.
3. Put the yam discs in the pan without overlapping.

4. Cook for 2½ – 3 minutes until the bottom of the yam pieces are browned.

5. Turn the yams over and cook further 2½ minutes until the bottom of the yams becomes browned.

6. Sprinkle pepper (if using) over the yam and add soy sauce.
7. Quickly turn the yam pieces over to coat both sides of the yam pieces with the soy sauce, then remove the pan from the heat.

8. Pile the sautéed yams on a serving plate, scatter the chopped chives over it.

Happy Birthday, Kai Boy!

 Kai is two years old today!

 

We went to Kai's fave place early this morning.  I'm so glad that I changed my mind about not getting another dog after Kona passed.  Kai is such a joy.

  

This is Kai's brother Teru!

Ceramics Class

These are the pieces that came out of our first firing.  I found out that the round flat things with pukas are frogs to put on top of flower vases to keep the flower stems separated.  So clever!

 

These are my pieces.

  

Here are a couple of Cleta's!

And this is what I made in this week's class . . . bud vases.  By special request.