Caprese Galette

It has been yet another busy week, and Laura has been doing most of the cooking. In fact, the only new item I have to share of my own doing is today’s recipe.

Fortunately, though, Laura has been putting together some pretty damn tasty meals and she’s been taking pictures as she goes, so I’ll still be able to share those in days to come!

A few weekends ago, we had some good friends over for dinner. I knew they were a little adventurous in their tastes and were open to me putting together any kind of menu, so I decided on an Italian-Hawaiian fusion three course dinner. However, the only course I ended up documenting was the appetizer, which was more Italian influenced than anything else.

 

Date Night! Tsukuneya Robata Grill

Last Saturday, Laura and I were incredibly fortunate to have a good friend of ours offer to take care of Jack so that we could go have a night out. We hadn’t been out in quite a while for a date night, not since Laura’s 2nd trimester. Probably the Signal Corps Ball, actually. So, I took my friend up on her offer.

There is a Japanese restaurant down near Chinatown that we have been wanting to check out pretty much since we got to Hawaii. From what I could tell, it wasn’t like any other Japanese restaurant we’d ever been too. We have been fortunate in Hawaii because there is an abundance of authentic Asian food, including Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean. Not so much Chinese, though. When I say Japanese, I mean more than just hibachi, sushi, and Japanese steak houses. There are noodle houses everywhere, yakitori restaurants where you grill your own prepared food, and restaurants specializing in ononomiyaki. And then there is the restaurant we went to.

 

Coconut Red Thai Curry Beet Soup

Last weekend, Laura and I stopped by the local farmer’s market in Haleiwa, which is about 20 minutes north of where we live. It’s fairly small, at least compared to the big farmer’s market in Hawaii-Kai, down by Diamond Head, but there’s always a pretty decent selection. We had planned to go to the big one on Saturday morning. It opens at 7:30 am, but everybody gets there around 6:30. There are a lot of vendors there, and although no sales can be made before 7:30, the vendors are allowed to pre-sell their items, as long as money isn’t exchanged. Hawaii-Kai, being about an hour away, proved to be too ambitious for a baby that decided to fuss all  throughout the night before, so we settled for Haleiwa on Sunday.

Farmer’s markets around here are great, because it is always growing season, and only a few harvests are seasonal, such as mangoes. We can always get really good tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, yellow zucchini (which is different than summer squash), spring mix, arugula, mushrooms, and all sorts of other things. There are a variety of local and tropical produce as well, like a type of avocado that is the size of a grapefruit, dragon fruit, ramatan (which is very similar to lychee), and fresh coconut. The selection is really quite nice.

 

Char Siu Pork Ju Bao with Cold Soba Noodles and Japanese Cucumber Salad

It’s Monday already? Where has the time gone?

Jack and Laura

Oh, right, Laura popped out a little baby boy! XD

It has been an absolutely amazing week. We got home from the hospital  on Saturday, and it has been nonstop for us ever since. My internet presence has definitely decreased. It is weird for both of us to be home all the time, tending to our little bundle. I find myself constantly cleaning and doing laundry in addition to the consolations, feedings, and burpings.

Tiny face!

So, although things have certainly been busier for us, one thing remains a constant; we gotta eat. I ate a ridiculous amount of fast food, as the hospital (Army hospital) didn’t feed me (the guy in the Army,) so some healthy food was due. We had a hankering for some Chinese/Japanese fare, and I thought char siu pork ju bao, known as manapua here on the islands, would do the trick

 

iPhone Update: Dinner and a night cap

During the weekdays, dinner tends to be simple and easy at our house. And after all the baked treats I’ve been consuming as of late, I think it’s time to go back to the high protein diet, saving my carb consumption for just dinner time.

Well, Japanese style noodle dishes are somewhat of a staple for us, as they are both simple to prepare and generally healthy. This iteration is no different.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of chicken broth
• 4 tablespoons of white miso
• 2 chicken thighs, roasted at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes, cooled, and pulled apart
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 eggs, hardboiled and halved
• 1/2 carrot, thinly sliced on a bias
• 1/2 cup thin sliced cabbage
• 1/3 cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of liquid
• 1 package of fresh ramen or yakisoba noodles. If using dried noodles, pre cook them and discard seasoning packet
• 1 scallion, sliced thin

Directions:

1. whisk together broth, miso, and soy sauce and bring to a boil
2. Divide noodles in half and place in two large soup bowls.
3. Divide all ingredients in half and neatly arrange in bowls over noodles.
4. Ladle hot broth in each bowl. Garnish with scallion.

Later in the night? Hot cocoa! Now I have a use for the leftover marshmallow! Kind of defeats the point of a healthy dinner though 😉

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa
• 4 Tablespoons of sugar
• 2 cups of milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine in a sauce pot, whisk together, and heat!

 

Chinese Chicken Wings

UPDATE 11JAN2012: Playing with some div tags to try to make the recipe more visually appealing. WordPress’s editor only allows so much customized HTML, which can make things difficult. Still trying to figure out if there is a way to add a print button that will only print the recipe. Don’t know if javascript will work, and javascript isn’t really my forte anyways.

I’m trying to touch up on my HTML skills, so bear with me as I try to figure out how I want these entries to look. There may be a theme change here and there, as well.

I usually buy chickens whole. It’s cheaper that way. I’ll cut the breast meat off and separate the thighs from the drumsticks. I’ll even use the leftover carcass to make chicken stock for soups or sauces later. But then there are the chicken wings. I can’t make a meal out of just 2 chicken wings, so I usually just throw them in a zip lock bag and freeze them. I do this every time. Eventually I accrue so many in my freezer that I have no choice but to cook them.

But how?

That was the question I was faced with this afternoon as they were thawing in my refrigerator. How, especially, can I turn them into an actual meal, rather than just a cheap tasting appetizer?