Okonomiyaki

Yesterday I decided to make okonomiyaki for the first time. Joe got to try some okonomiyaki (savory pancakes) in Japan, where he was simply amazed the general public was allowed to sit, cook, and eat in front of the hot sizzling cooking surface at a restaurant. So he kind of remembered how it should taste like.
Now that Lent is over, like previous years, I once again hope to continue Fish Friday. In the okonomiyaki I put chopped lobster meat instead of little dried shrimp, small scallops and squid as main toppings. The flavor was wonderful, though I made up my own sauce.
Fish Friday, only loosely. Sweet and sour venison meatballs were on the side.
Today was the opening day of trout season. A big day for Joe! He left home around 6:30 this morning to catch the picture below. No fish as expected. Water is too high and too cold. They had fun. Hoping for a good season.

Like Thai Takeout

An order of drunken noodle, fried rice, and sweet&sour pork for dinner tonight.
Beef drunken noodle below.
Leftover sweet&sour pork. The fried rice was also made from leftover white rice.
Instead of fortune cookies... I decorated fresh pound cake slices with whipped cream and strawberries. Our first strawberry pick from a grocery store this season... not bad. Gotta enjoy a taste of spring, though it snowed a little again today.

Good (Fish) Friday

What's for dinner with no meat? Well, fish. But what do I have in the fridge/freezer? Tonight's festive meal surprisingly consisted mostly what I had on hand.
The last time I made sushi for Joe's birthday with smoked salmon, the salty salmon was too much. I told myself to retry again. This time, with some cooked shrimp.
I also cooked the rice with kelp flavoring (thanks to Kozue for sending some Japanese cooking supplies). The result was amazing!! I must say myself. The best sushi I've ever made. Pretty to look at, too.
Accompanied was a bowl of soup with scallop dumplings. Yum.... Again, I must say it was quite nice.
We will be celebrating Easter with Joe's big family tomorrow. Everybody should be home.
Happy Easter to everyone!

Earth Day

Joe came home early today, Good Friday, so he decided to plant some seeds INDOORS, of course. Prior to the last couple of snowfalls, we had already bought some seed packages that we couldn't resist: bak choy, spinach, daikon radish, and small Japanese cucumber to help my cooking Asian food.
Guess who was checking/ sniffing around our gardening spot?? The bunny (not the Easter bunny)! Don't worry we are going to put wire fence around this year.

Alien vs. Joe

On this snowy day off we went into town for grocery shopping and a record sale, then went to see Joe's parents..... When we came home and opened our grocery bags, an alien jumped out and attacked Joe!!!
The truth was that the store had a rare seafood sale. We bought shark stake, squid, and a whole octopus (cleaned, thank goodness).
We tried some squid and octopus in Thai coconut seafood soup tonight for dinner. I need to research on octopus a bit to find better recipes though.
Our weather guys were right about the snow..... Robins and morning doves looked rather confused on snow covered branches.
And Joe's garden gnome, too.
Joe found a few older Rolling Stones records, which turned out to be quite good. Despite the weather we got to enjoy our day off together.

Fish Friday, Thai Style!

All these years I've been up north, grateful to be close to the Big Lake and trout streams, still missed the kind of variety fish you taste in islands like Japan. But I realized I can change up the flavor on the same fish! Tonight we had whitefish fillet from our local Thill's fishery in a new style, gingery sweet/sour sauce (above). Yum....
Accompanying was a plate of fried zucchini and asparagus with sweet chili sauce. A little taste of spring.
Speaking of spring, a couple days ago (yes, past tense) when we had a day or two of spring, our neighbor chipmunk was also enjoying out in the sun. We have buds coming up from the ground, too. Tulips, daffodils, even poppies. Exciting. However, they are forecasting some snow accumulations for this weekend. Oh well.

Think Spring... (really trying to!)

Our twiggy wreath with silver bow served us well for Christmas and the New Year... but now that days are noticeably getting longer and snow melting, it needed a change. Thinking of spring arrival and also of Japan... I chose pink cherry blossoms. Then Jeff the floral designer quickly added with a professional touch.
Of course, it snowed two days ago! We have a long way before spring....

New Paintings

The last several blog entries made you think this was actually a food blog.... We won't stop cooking or eating good food (in fact, Joe grilled his famous RIBS tonight for the first time this year!), but I felt the need for posting something, anything, other than food. Now that the winter starts melting, slowly but surely, and it's time for me to share my new artwork from the long winter with galleries.... This past month really got me up and painting on canvases!! Right, only two pieces... but a good start.
Especially if I can continue painting between my consistent work schedules, and still cooking. I can't say I'd gotten hang of it, but gotten better.