My First Day of Staycation and Thoughts on Asian Cuisine

Originally I was taking A. to Las Vegas to see his grandmother. Then I remembered he started Kindergarten on the 19th, so pulling him out of school for three days at the beginning of the school year was probably not the best of ideas. Silly blasted education. (I won't admit how many other appointments I had to reschedule from the same brain fart. At least most of the receptionists were kind enough to hang up before they laughed at me). A.'s school instituted a new quasi-dress code - the boys can only wear white and navy blue shirts (solid colors) and khaki or navy blue shorts/pants (no jeans). He looks so cute! (Tika just looks lost - which is her default expression). First and second day of school!



A long story short . . . the trip went, but the PTO stayed - so I am enjoying my first ever Staycation.

So far, I like. I do a few housechores, play on the computer, do a few more chores, watch some anime, do a few more chores, prepare dinner . . . I could get used to this!

And speaking of dinner - I recently purchased a book of Asian recipes because it seems that a) Asian food is healthier, b) Asian food is cheaper, and c) Asian portions tend to be smaller (and yet VERY filling). Since there is not a lot of meat readily available in Japan (I won't speak to Korea, China, Vietnam, etc.) there tends to be a heavier reliance on vegetables, rice, and spices. So the very first step was to actually stock my larder with some standard Asian cooking materials. This led to a fascinating hour wandering around the Pacific Mercantile market learning how ingredients are categorized (let's see . . . this aisle is seaweed and curry - alrighty, then). Luckily, most of the labels sport English translations - but I'm confident enough in my hiragana and katakana that I think I could have located all of my ingredients even without the assistance, which is a neat feeling. Four grocery bags later (I bought sesame oil, chile oil, two kinds of sesame seeds, daikon radish, tofu, green onions, fresh ginger, canned pink sushi ginger (MMMMMMMmmmmmm), rice vinegar, mirin, srirracha sauce, frozen dumplings, frozen edamame, dumpling dipping sauce, and a 1/2 gallon of soy - okay, maybe not a half-gallon - but it's a huge bottle!) - the register rang up at around $40.00. Oh, yeah. I could get used to that!

And my first experiment was a sweet sesame tofu dish with a side of daikon/carrot salad. Aside from the fact that "sweet" apparently meant "burn your tastebuds off hot (the recipe called for a tablespoon of chile oil), it turned out beautifully and tasted wonderful!


Of course . . . if I keep this up, I'll actually have an excuse to buy all of the absolutely adorable Japanese serving ware at the Pacific Mercantile. MU HA HA!!!

The following day I decided to experiment with making cupcakes (a totally non-Asian food in practically every way) based off a recipe from the book Hello, Cupcake! Behold - the first batch of butterfly cupcakes!

For someone who lived off of Raviolis and fast food for 1/3 of her life . . . I'm not doing too badly! The funny part is, I think I might take to Asian cooking like a took to Japanese. For some reason - it makes sense to me. I like the ingredients. I love the recipes - and for someone who is usually a little timid about trying new things - I've actually enjoyed the experimentation. And as for the cupcakes . . . the book gets all the credit. It is filled with brilliant and easy ideas for making eye-popping cupcakes. And I definitely need to practice - A. is already demanding shark cupcakes for his birthday! (The sharks are so cute! They include blue frosting, water dingies, sailboats, and red and white rescue donates to help set the scene.

Don't worry - if I make the shark cupcakes, there will be pictures. Apparently I can't stop myself from taking pictures of my culinary creations. Heh.