Delicious Pumpkin Bread

I'm a sucker for recipe titles that include words like delicious, the best, to die for. I had never made pumpkin bread, wasn't even sure if I'd like it since I really don't care for pumpkin pie. But I had a can of pumpkin lying around, felt like baking but didn't want to spend too much time on it, so good ol' quick bread it was. This recipe was found on AllRecipes, it was a recipe she got from her mom, and had good reviews, so it was the one I picked. Oh, and it was called, Delicious Pumpkin Bread.

Pretty much followed the recipe. The only modification was the sugar amount. 3 cups of sugar for two 9x5 loaves (since I didn't have three 7x3 pans called for in the recipe) just seemed like too much. So instead I used 2/3 c. white sugar, 2/3 c. brown sugar, and 2/3 c. raw (turbinado) sugar. I threw in the raw sugar since that's the sugar I use in my banana bread. Overall, the bread was quite pleasant. Not to sweet and the spices weren't overpowering. The kids ate it, which was a good thing.

My Dad's Influence

My dad was a sushi chef, he had been working around food for many years. He's a really good cook (my mom too. Growing up we had good food.) Often times when it was a special occasion, usually our birthdays or holidays, he would make make-your-own sushi handrolls for dinner. Monday, March 3rd was Girl's Day, and typically people eat sushi on this day. Since the girls chose sukiyaki, I didn't make sushi, but had gotten some of the ingredients just in case. So we had a belated sushi dinner on Saturday.

On the plate is some asparagus, kamaboko (fish cakes), tako (octopus), kanikama (imitation crab), cucumbers, avocadoes, and takuan pickles [and not pictured, squid, ume (Japanese salted plum) paste, and natto (fermented soy beans.)] Natto's one of the favorite sushi items for my kids. They would be happy with just the natto and nothing else.

Making the roll... placing my fillings on the rice...

Roll it up like an ice cream cone. Can't get it any fresher, the nori is nice and crispy (unlike pre-made grocery store sushi.)

Part of the fun is making your own rolls.

Oh oh!~ Too much rice Sage! They will get better with experience. Sushi is so good, we're fortunate we can make it at home.

Back to Hiking

The weather is getting warmer, the snow is starting to melt, it's hiking season again. I have been feeling like a huge blob the last few months, a real homebody. Did a one-hour hike with David behind the art school. It was a little overcast and chilly, but it was nice being outdoors in nature again.

Out of nowhere we come across a good size pond that we didn't know it existed.

Cat-tails!

A real neat looking oak tree, I had to take a picture. It's a B&W taken with my digital. B&W pictures have such a neat look, I miss taking pictures as art. Having a digital camera puts me in such a snapshot frame of mind...

Attempt at Cute Bentos

Although bentos seems like more work, if you use dinner extras, it's not that bad. And I've been making them the night before, so it's been nice not rushing around in the morning to make their lunch. Yes, it's one more thing to do before bed, so this won't be a daily thing (*...*). There are days I'm too beat (or lazy, should I say) to even wash the dinner dishes, let alone make bentos...

This is their bentos today. Last night's salmon and spinach, rice, takuan, and a cherry tomato, with nori facial features. And I got to use the little bento side dish cups, yeay! I saw those nori cutters on ebay. One of these days...
The salmon was marinated in a sauce made of store bought teriyaki sauce, Japanese BBQ sauce (not sweet like American BBQ sauces), and some sesame oil. Generally I use 1 cup teriyaki sauce and 1 T. sesame oil as my marinade but since I didn't have enough teriyaki sauce, I added the BBQ sauce since they are both soy based. After the salmon was cooked, I broke it apart into big chunks and simmered them in the sauce again to further intensify the flavor since the marinade time wasn't too long, and I had overcooked the salmon and it was a little dry, I wanted it bring back some of the moistness. Serve with a lemon wedge, and it is so good. The spinach was sauteed in sesame oil as well, and seasoned with salt and pepper, and an egg (beaten) thrown in towards the end to scramble it all together. Very simple, but delicious.

Challah Bread

I don't know the religious significance of this bread, but I really like how fluffy it is. I know it's also called egg bread, but the bread is not eggy at all. And the braids look so pretty. This time I tried adding raisins. I added them halfway through the kneading process, afraid to break the raisins (which had been plumped up with a soaking in some apple juice,) and they still started to fall apart on me, so I just 'massaged' them in. The bake time was about 30 minutes, but 15 minutes in, they were already brown. So I covered it with foil and baked 15 min. longer, which unfortunately overbaked the bread, causing it to be a little dry and hard. We still enjoyed it though.

Gyoza

Made some gyoza last night for dinner. The kids like wrapping them so I let them do it. Sage got rather good at it, he can add ruffles to it, while Abby's still looks flat. The one of the left is Sage's, the right is Abby's. Gyoza originated in China (called Jiaozi), was introduced to Japan around the 17th century. These were made with ground pork, cabbage, nira (garlic chives), shiitake mushrooms, ginger, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sake, sesame oil, and cilantro. Adding cilantro had been a first for me, but I see it in thai potstickers, so I gave it a try. I really liked it. It added a refreshing taste to it. On the other hand, Emi couldn't tell the difference. I ask her, don't you taste your food? Aaaa, I guess not. Great...
They can be pan steamed or deep fried. These are pan steamed. The kids seem to prefer it this way, which surprises me since most kids love deep fried food. We eat ours with a soy sauce/ rice vinegar sauce, mine has a little chili oil in it for a little kick.

This is the kids' bento today. Last night's gyoza, steamed asparagus, rice, and takuan.

How is This Possible?

Japan has so many bento accesories and tools to help make the neatest creations. Just posted at Just Bento, an egg former that shapes the EGG YOLK. How this works, is beyond me. It just doesn't seem possible, but seeing is believing. This thing is called DREAMLAND, costs 1575 yen (about $15). Cool, huh?

Since we're on the topic of bento...another cool gadget, a nori (seaweed sheets) cutter. Awwww, these are so cute! These come in different faces too, like Hello Kitty just to name one.

Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day)

March 3rd is Girl's Day in Japan, called Hinamatsuri (Japanese Doll Festival.) It's a celebration for Japanese girls, and Japanese Boy's Day is May 5th in Japan. People display a set of hina dolls and props in the house, wishing girls' healthy growth and happiness. Parents or grand parents of a newborn girl buy a set of gorgeous hina dolls unless they have special dolls, which are inherited from generation to generation.
Emi starts off her day with a bento. Sage and Abby chose to take last night's chili. Homemade fish cakes with grape tomatoes and takuan, and a tangerine.
Hina dolls are dressed in Japanese ancient costumes and are displayed on the shelves of a stand covered with a red carpet from the end of February to March 3rd. It is believed that any hina doll display should be taken down soon after the festival day; otherwise girls might have to wait to get married. This one is Abby's.


And Emi's.
They had a book fair at the school today, so I bought them each a book since it is the girls' special day and I hadn't really gotten them anything. They also got to drink "ramune", a Japanese soda in a unique bottle.
What makes the bottle unique, is the marble inside. If you chug on it, the marble blocks the opening, so it forces you to drink it slowly and enjoy it.

The girls chose sukiyaki for dinner. Kinda like hot pot cooking. Today's sukiyaki consisted of thinly sliced beef, tofu, udon, baby bok choy, shungiku (edible chrysanthemum), shirataki (yam cake strings), green onion, shiitake and enoki mushrooms. They are cooked in the pan with a sauce made out of soy sauce, dashi (bonito stock), mirin (cooking sake), and sugar.
The kids each got their own, and the big one's for David and I.
For dessert, I made calpis jello. Calpis is a Japanese milk-based uncarbonated soft drink. I used concentrated calpis (called Calpico in the states, because otherwise it would sound like Cow Piss, and who'd want to drink that?), added some water, sugar, and gelatin and chill.

And then topped it with fresh pineapples. The Calpis jello was pretty refreshing. This would be great with berries too.

Pinyon Flats

Our first family bike ride on my SS, well sort of... minus Emi. She went bowling and movies with her friends. David found a flat, short loop the kids and I could handle. We went out to Pinyon, about 40 minutes from Idyllwild.

Pinyon Pine trees. Kim Marcus had told me about these.

These are one (of about 20) species of pine cones that have edible pine nuts in them. Harvest is usually around August, they get picked before they open and the squirrels and birds get to them. But I found a few that still had the nuts in them. Kim had offered to let us tag along when he goes harvesting.

Found a mustard (I think) plant that was blooming. The flowers in the desert should be putting on their show soon.

The bike rode great, except I think I want to get a softer seat. My butt started to hurt :) . I don't have buns of steel (yet.) There was a campground nearby, we might come out before it starts getting hot. A lot of trails in the area the kids (and I) can ride.

It's March Already

Headed down to Anza today to meet and pick-up David. He rode from the house to Anza, took him about 5 hrs. We browsed the swap meet, played H-O-R-S-E at the park (Emi won), and got some Mexican food. Here's Abby with her burrito kids' meal. Isn't the little burrito cute?
Tried a new dish for dinner... squid sauteed with green beans in soy sauce and butter sauce.
Also made some rice with some Jap. sweet potatoes. Cooked the rice with a little salt and sake, laid the potatoes on top and let the rice cooker do the rest of the work. It was quite tasty.

Tried sourdough bread again. I messed up, forgot the feed the starter before putting it into the recipe. (That part of the instructions were on the other side of the paper, and I didn't look there.) But I continued anyway, and it still turned out good. :)
Got some yomogi (Japanese mugwort flour), so I wanted to try mixing it in some mochi. It is often what makes Japanese rice cakes green.
Also has medicinal uses.

Nice pretty green mochi. I must not of put in enough, couldn't really taste it. Maybe we'll eat these for St. Patty's Day.