Kitsune Udon

Have  you had your favorite snack sudden disappeared from a store shelf?

I was frantically looking for the Sppporo Ichiban Kitsune Udon early this year, then found it was discontinued.  I have been eating this more than 10 years. This instant noodle was my frequent midnight snack.  I gave up and forgot about it until recently.  Outside is getting cold, and I miss eating the noodle at night.  Then, hit me. Just make one myself.  Udon noodle is made of flower and water with a bit of salt.  I mixed up them with the food processor and made a noodle with the pasta machine.  I purchased the Inarino-moto, which is seasoned fried tofu used for sushi.  It came 16 pieces or so, I separated with a parchment paper, and put in the freezer. So, I can enjoy 16 snacks.  The boodle is cooked in boiling water for 4-5 minutes, while I make the soup.  Boil 1.25 cup of water, a pinch of salt, a pinch of dashi, and 1 table spoon of soy sauce and 1/2 table spoon of mirin. Add sliced scallions and an egg. It was very easy, and very close to that instant noodle.

 

Zaru Soba

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zaru soba (buckwheat noodle) has been my favorite food since I was little. I was not fun of eating up until the first year of my corporate world. I remember my parents were so disappointed whenever we went to the restaurant, I ordered the plain zaru soba. That all I could eat outside the home. It is not child food, more like older people's food. I just did not like the food grown-up. All changed when I started eating the dinner with clients almost every night, sushi, eels, tempura. I was a market researcher, and arranged lots of the focus groups and monitoring tests, almost every night. I was forced to eat new foods with other people, and all of sudden I developed the taste.  I cook almost every night because I still do not like easting, so I prefer eating something good.

Zaru soba is made of buckwheat, and eats cold. You dips a half of the noodle into the dipping sauce, and swallow it with noise. Swallowing probably was the key why I liked it.  Not eating like food. Sauce is made of dashi (bonito), sake, sugar and soy sauce. You add condiments, dried seaweed, wasabi, sliced scallions, grated daikon (white radish), or yamaimo. Better version comes with shrimp tempra.

Web of information 2

Strawberry short cake with strawberry cream

I have been spending some time on the pinterest. I started this mainly for the etsy.  People the marketing mix, facebook, twitter, and pinterest, to draw people to the store.  Sound great, but actually they are too foreign to me.  I am not good English writer, nor social butterflies.  I found a bit difficult to write in forum or leaving a comment.  I always regret after pushing a submit button.  So, I still in a dark on this marketing mix thing.  If I ever figure out, I will be selling like crazy.

Anyway, I slowly get the hang of the pinterest. I was collecting things to pin yesterday, and stumbled upon the worm composting.  I have been using the garbage disposal every night when I cook, and thinking about the composting, but never materialized.  I tried in the past, but did not worked well.  Maybe this worm composting may work. My wife really does not like the idea of me keeping the worm in the kitchen.  Yes, some factory made worm composts are meant to have in a kitchen.  I will buy couple containers, and collect some dozen worms from my yard to start, instead of spending hundred dollars.

Weather has been very mild and cooler side, and keeps flower blooming.  This has been the best spring so far.

Teapot 26 & 27

Here is teapot 26 and 27.  I played with the bottom while still wet.

[caption id="attachment_1812" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Teapot 26"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1813" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Teapot 27"][/caption]

I am working on the whole food diet thing, sort of.  We still eat meat, but the half of used to and added chickpeas or other peas in vegetable mix.  I go to the public market once a week to get vegetables and fruits.  It costs one third to quarter compared to the grocery store.  I leaned to cook the peas quickly with the pressure cooker and find some good recipes using pears. I eat more genmai rice (brown rice). I feel more energy during day.



I had another successful firing last week  (third firing in three weeks),  and am getting close to fill the wholesale orders and consignment stores.  Still need a couple more firing to get ready for the holiday rush.

 

Forks over knives

I watched the documentary, Forks over knives, last night.  This makes me really thinking.  I used to be a market researcher, and am familiar with the statistics. This documentary explains the extensive research done in China about the correlation between the meat consumption and the heart disease and cancers, in statistic significance. I knew our generation of Japanese is taller than my parents generation when I grew up 30 years ago as we ate more meat products, like McDonald.  I like eating meats as the source of protin rather from the peas.  I do not think I can become a vegetarian, but certainly try to curve the amount of meat consumption and gradually increase that of peas and vegetable. I cooked the pasta dish tonight, using the chickpeas instead of the chicken, that was not that bad.

 

Beef stew

Home smelled really good when I came home today.  Beef stew in a casserole dish.  I chopped onions, carrots, ｃelery, and tossed them with a cube of beef, white wine, can tomato and beef consomme, cumin, bay leaves, and water in the casserole dish.  I put it into the 325°F oven.  Actually I was not sure about the meat not browned, so I browned some, and some uncooked.  The casserole dish sit in the oven for 6 hours. When I came home, I added some potatoes for another hour, and added corn starch mixed in the water at the end.  It was pretty good, better than the pressure cooker cooked.  Meat is very tender, fall apart by spoon! I thought the meat not browned more tender.  This is the easiest stew ever made.  I will do it again.   I made this casserole dish 11 years ago. 



These are from the lase firing.  Kiln is loaded today.

[caption id="attachment_1542" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Teapot 3 Fired."][/caption]

McDonald's iced tea and Facebook

McDonald's iced tea, half sweeten and half un-sweeten. This is wired, but it cures my neck ache.  I found out way back from the show, felt dehydrated with very bad neck pain, like someone is pulling, and drank all in 5 to 10 minutes.  The pain went away soon after.  I tried the same thing with the Gatorade, but did not help.  I had success with this ice tea several times already, and I had the neck pain last couple days, so I stopped by this moring.  It worked like charm.



I have been trying to figure out the facebook fan page thing.  I found it at the Etsy forum, with help of JDWolfe (etsy mud team member), and set up the page.  I have no idea what to do with it.  If you have time, come and fan me.

It is getting quite chili out here. Studio gets the furnace running today.



Glazing last two days.  Dug out the buckets of glaze looking for the tomato red. I did not label them or fall out during the move. I have two prospect buckets...  I found the bucket of the chun glaze, though.  I will test all at the next firing.

I added the gallery page today.

Pressure cooker

The sign of the fall.



I have eaten the Korean short lib soup at the Secret Garden last couple years while in Syrucuse, NY during the syracuse art festival.  I have not seen this this dish in Rochester.  Once a while I got craving for it, and tried the other day with the normal pot. I simmered for two hours, but the meat was very tough.  Kinda impulse, I got this pressure cooker.



It took twenty minutes to cook the short ribs, the meat was very tender. Soup was very simple, nappa cabbage, soup stock, soy sauce, chill and red pepper paste.  Since then, I made the custard, chile, pasta sauce.  It cuts the cooking time to at least in third. I should have gotten it much earlier.

Glazed today, and firing on Wednesday. Clothesline festival this weekend.  This is my last show for the summer.

Scoliosis

Last Thursday, our daughter went the spinal fusion operation to correct her scoliosis. We have been dealing with the scoliosis since she was 10, and visited the doctor to check her curvature every 4 months to 6 months ever since. It started out a very small curve, went through the painful three years of her wearing the brace 24/7 when it progressed to 30 degrees. It had been stable for last three years around 50 degrees. It was supposed to be the last visit to the doctor in July, it progressed to 59 degrees. We were very surprised and felt sick to the stomach. It was considered that once the body became mature and the curvature will stay the same except the small percent of people. This new progress was the indication of the future progress. She said why I wore the brace if...

The operation took 7.5 hours, and installed two stainless steel rods with more than dozen screws to the spine, and attached the bone graft to fuse it. She came out the operation very well (she can move all arms and legs, and can see), and gained a couple inches in height, and her back was very flat. She was able to stand up and sit on the chair next day and walk the following day, and discharged on Tuesday. The car ride home was very horrifying experience as she got so much pain with the movement of the car.

She still has lots of pains, mostly in neck and shoulder; imagine how much of the body is shifted physically by the operation. We see the activity level increase every day, and think the time will heal her well, and she can attend the first day of her senior year. It has been very painful to see her suffer with lots of pains, but she has been very patient and has great will to get better.

Rice bowl

Rice bowls. There are two sizes, small (5”diameter and 2” high ),and large, in Japan. We call the small one, “rice bowl / meshichawan” and serve just the rice, and refilled as wish. Bigger one is called “donburi”, and the rice often covered with the main dish, such as tempura, tonkatsu (pork cutlet), beef with some source, called tendon, katsudon, gyudon, respectively. Of course, for the bigger appetite, the donburi serves just white rice.

Japanese holds the rice bowl up in the air while eating, which is considered polite way to eat. When I was a kid, if I did not , I was yelled at “do not eat like a dog”. I know different culture has its own way of eating. Rice is the most important part of the Japanese culture. Rice served like the gold standard in Edo era (1603-1867). The local government was measured how much white rice in stocks, like we used to back up our currency with the gold.

TV watching in studio

The studio is almost full of bisque and ready-to bisque wares. I hope to do at couple firings next two weeks. Outside is 17F degrees today, but the sun was getting quite strong. I enjoyed the sun! During the winter in Rochester, NY, it tends to be gloomy, and the sun is rare commodity.

I have been watching TV show, Lidia’s Italy. It opened my eyes on the Italian cooking, very simple but complicated taste and textures. I never thought the shape of pasta for the texture. She cooks up the spaghetti sauce while cooking pasta! This is tonight spaghetti, pancetta (Italian bacon) with tomato sauce. Took me less than 20 minutes and was very good. The other day, I tried the cauliflower and squash in tomato sauce. That was super good.

We use this pasta bowl a lot at home, from pasta to curry.

Teapot

I broke my teapot recently and needed replacement.. I worked on the teapot over the weekend. Here are the parts for the teapot.

Bodies, covers, handles and sprouts are wheel thrown. Bodies and covers are made yesterday, and are ready to trim, when I throw the sprout and the handle. Handle is a bit different. Teapot is small, one cups or so. Green tea tends to brew quickly, and you do not want leave it in the teapot for long time. If you are serving to several cups, pour the equal amount to all cups (each cup) at a time, and repeat the process. So every cup has the same strength of tea, and temperature. I make the built-in strainer, I explained before, usually with 3mm pipe, but bought 2mm pipe for this one. I can put more holes, close to 100. With my new eyeglass, this turned out very time consuming project. I could not focus very well, and kept making the hole at wrong spot.

I am getting close to the first bisque of 2009.

 

Teapot

I broke my teapot recently and needed replacement.. I worked on the teapot over the weekend. Here are the parts for the teapot.

Bodies, covers, handles and sprouts are wheel thrown. Bodies and covers are made yesterday, and are ready to trim, when I throw the sprout and the handle. Handle is a bit different. Teapot is small, one cups or so. Green tea tends to brew quickly, and you do not want leave it in the teapot for long time. If you are serving to several cups, pour the equal amount to all cups (each cup) at a time, and repeat the process. So every cup has the same strength of tea, and temperature. I make the built-in strainer, I explained before, usually with 3mm pipe, but bought 2mm pipe for this one. I can put more holes, close to 100. With my new eyeglass, this turned out very time consuming project. I could not focus very well, and kept making the hole at wrong spot.

I am getting close to the first bisque of 2009.

 

Happy Holidays

We had “Shabu Shabu” tonight. This is my favorite food, and I used to eat this once or twice a year at Zakuro Ginza in Tokyo. (was very expensive for that time for my pocket). Since I started living in US, I had a craving for “Shabu Shabu”, and decided to cook myself. With a knife, I sliced many steak meat and fingers over the years, but enjoyed the food. Ten years later, my uncle told me to buy the meat slicer. I freeze the NY strip steak, and defrost a bit with microwave, then slice. I have not had any accident since. I wish I knew sooner.



Cooking is very simple. You just “swish and swish” the thin sliced meet in boiling water. This hot water becomes the beef broth and cooks with vegetable later. Napa cabbage and Tofu soaks up the beef broth, which is the best part of this dish, I think.

Finished up with my daughter's birthday cake.



Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays

We had “Shabu Shabu” tonight. This is my favorite food, and I used to eat this once or twice a year at Zakuro Ginza in Tokyo. (was very expensive for that time for my pocket). Since I started living in US, I had a craving for “Shabu Shabu”, and decided to cook myself. With a knife, I sliced many steak meat and fingers over the years, but enjoyed the food. Ten years later, my uncle told me to buy the meat slicer. I freeze the NY strip steak, and defrost a bit with microwave, then slice. I have not had any accident since. I wish I knew sooner.



Cooking is very simple. You just “swish and swish” the thin sliced meet in boiling water. This hot water becomes the beef broth and cooks with vegetable later. Napa cabbage and Tofu soaks up the beef broth, which is the best part of this dish, I think.

Finished up with my daughter's birthday cake.



Happy Holidays!

Turkey revisited.

A foot of snow came down from 9am to 3pm on Friday.


It is certainly beautiful.


I cooked the turkey dinner tonight. I brined 6lb of the turkey breast overnight in one gallon of water dissolved with a cup of kosher salt and 1/2cup of brown sugar in the refrigerator.


I inserted the instant thermometer in the turkey about one hour in the cooking as someone of my family suggested. It took about 3 hours to reach 163, struggled after 150. I was expecting 2.5 hours or so.


It was a tiny bit dry side, but everyone enjoyed it.



When we were cleaning the kitchen, we noticed something wrong with the thermometer. Its clear cover over the meter was melted, and its needle got stuck. The cover is made of plastic, not glass!, to my surprise. That why it took more than I thought. Now, I am really glad that the turkey was not over-cooked. I guess I have an issue with the thermocouple recently (Oxyprobe is the thermocouple, too.) Do things always come in three's?