Pasta Sunday

   I was raised, like most Italian Americans, eating a huge meal on Sundays.  Some families may have had several courses, which always included pasta.  My family always had just pasta, therefore we named it Pasta Sunday.   When I moved in with my husband a few years ago, I of course brought my tradition of Pasta Sundays with me.  It may have seemed weird since we were living in England at the time, but in fact it was perfect.  Every Saturday there was a market in town with very fresh produce.  Better then anything you can buy at the supermarket.  So every Sunday I would make a huge dinner with Saturdays purchases.  Eventually, my husband told me that's why he had gained so much weight after we met.  After we moved to Japan, I stopped Pasta Sundays.  And of course Pete missed them. So last night I made huge dinner.  A traditional Pasta Sunday with salad and bread with olive oil just like if I was home.
   I made a dinner that Ive made a few times before, but I added something extra!  I made a tomato sauce with olives and eggplant.  My husband loves olives so I always like to add them when I can.  This sauce is similar to a putanesca but I like it much better.  For this thick sauce you need a short pasta, so I made rigatoni.  Before I added the sauce I crumbled some ricotta on top of the pasta.  The hot pasta sauce melted the cheese, and I topped it with fresh basil.  It looked beautiful!
   In fact this dish was remarkable!  It was probably the best sauce I have ever made.  My husband said it was the best pasta Sunday ever!  I don't normally comment on how good my food is.  Usually I will just say its not bad or its pretty good.  But this was great!  I actually impressed myself.  Maybe this Italian girl can actually cook Italian food!
  The only sad thing is that I didn't take a picture.  I was too hungry or blinded by the food to take a photo.  Halfway through the meal I thought of it.  That's usually how it goes with me.  I forget until I have eaten too much of it to look appetizing to anyone else and I take a picture.   I will just have to make it again soon and take a picture and have an updated post.

Laptop Meltdown

   Last week my laptop crashed.  But not just crashed but epically crashed.  And I lost everything I had saved on it.  And I know I should have saved everything on an external hard drive or something like that  but I didn't.  And I have a hard drive I just never got around to doing it.  So I'm out all the pictures that I had stored. 
   I had about 1000 pictures saved on my laptop from the past year.  All of my vacation pictures and of course the entire folder of Lucygirl pictures.  I don't think I will ever get tired of taking pictures of that dog.  But the reason why I'm writing this post is because I lost all the pictures that I had stored for this blog.  I had at least 6 posts worth of pictures from places I ate at and meals I made.  While Pete has been gone I was planning on catching up on my blogging.  But now I had to resort to talking about my pets.
   Yes I sad Pets.  Of course there is Lucy.  Miss Lucy Hanya is the cutest little dog ever. I mean Cutest!  I just want to squeeze her and cuddle her all day.  And thats why Im so sad I lost all her puppy pictures.  She looked like a little stuffed animal when she was a puppy.  But the day before Pete left for his trip he got me a fish.  Yes a fish.  I love fish.  And I named him Horace.  Horace after the roman poet not the Egyptian god.  It's a strong fish name I think.  I like to have strong names for my fish!
   So hopefully soon I will have some more posts related to the topic of my blog.  No more pet stories!  Now that Pete is home I can get cooking again!

I want to be a Thai chef when I grow up!

Thai cashew chicken and shrimp rice

   I want to be a Thai chef when I grow up!  As I am aware, in the eyes of almost everyone I am grown up.  But I don't actually see myself that way.  I like to think of myself as a young adult, still trying to find their niche in life.  If you were to base my age on my cooking skills alone, well then I'm pretty old.  You also have to take into consideration that I'm not Thai, nor Asian at all.  So wanting to be a Thai chef  seems a bit off.  Not really.  That bazaar statement seems to be exactly the sentiments of my life.  Its weird and it pertains to Asian shit!  Its a very Marissa centric statement!  
   The last few years I have been becoming obsessed with cooking all types of Asian foods.  From laksa to yakisoba and everything in between.  But I just cant get enough of the Thai flavors!  Now that I've been to Thailand and had the true Thai flavors, spicy, sour, sweet, and salty,  I'm even more in love with them!
   A few years ago my mom gave me a Thai cookbook for Christmas.  The book seemed easy enough at first but once I started reading it I came to the conclusion that I would never use it.  It seemed ridiculous that I might have to order some of the ingredients online.  What a stupid idea.  But about a year ago after I came to Japan I started looking through the book and finally used it.  And now I probably would get ingredients shipped to me if I could ship them to Japan.  After going to Thailand and tasting the simplicity of the food,  its now even easier to to make.  And easier for me to follow a recipe.  At first I thought that it was too easy or it should have more ingredients, but now I realize that Thai food is actually a lot easier then one would think.  When I cook I like to think that each meals should have many layers of flavor.  But the ingredients in Thai food give it the layers it needs without making more work for yourself.
   My husbands favorite dinner is Spicy peanut noodles.  I  invented the recipe a few years ago when I first moved in with him.  He actually didn't like it at first.  But now its his favorite.  He wants it once a week.   I created this recipe just on a whim.  My friend Erik once called me the mad scientist of the kitchen.  I like to experiment sometimes and this one was perfect.  I now have it down to an exact art on how to make the sauce.  Its similar to a satay dipping sauce but used on noodles, and has more depth of flavor. 

Spicy peanut noodles

   The other day I finally found Thai rice sticks.  They are thick Thai rice noodles.  I was so excited because when we went to Thailand I wanted to bring back so much stuff from the grocery store and Pete talked me out of it.  But next time I go I'm getting whatever I want!!!  Last night I finally used the noodles.  I must admit I didn't cook them long enough, but life is all about trial and error.  Next time I know how to make it better.  I followed a recipe perfectly from the book my mom gave me.  And I got the page a little dirty.  That's how you know Its a good cookbook in my opinion. Just slop it up!  Since I didn't get the outcome perfect I have been thinking about it for the last 24 hours.  So much so that I will probably been making it again very soon!

Beef and Broccoli with Thai rice sticks

   I most admit it is weird that an Italian girl, born in Jersey,  would want to be a Thai chef.   But life does throw you a curve ball or two.  It would be too obvious if I made the best Canoli, but I do love to make Pizza!   Plus I need to go where my talents take me.  And since I enjoy cooking  Thai food so much I'm going to keep up the experimenting!

with a grain of salt



Okinawa Sea Salt



   Last week I went down to Naha with my friend.  We wandered around all the tourist places on Kokusai street.  We spent hours looking at all the glasses and trinkets one could buy.  Some of the stuff is pretty ridiculous.  Japanese people seem to like things that are far from necessary.  Towards the end of our adventure we came across a store that we thought looked like a spice store.  Since we both like to cook we decided to take a look.

   As soon a we walked in you could smell the spices, but it wasn't overpowering like I had expected.  Normally a spice store or market smells so strong its almost unbearable.  But this store was very subdued.  As we started to look around we realized it was a salt store.  An entire store of salt!  I thought it was pretty weird when I realized what the store was, until I started looking around.  Some of the products had English on them or a picture so we could tell what they were.  And you could taste them too.  Seems weird to just eat salt but they were much more then just salt.

   I had never seen so much salt in my life.  They had different types of salts that had spices mixed in like garlic and onion or pepper and lemon.  But then they had some strange things like rose and orchid.  They even had a green tea and sesame one.  It wasn't too bad but I don't know what you would make with it.  They also had salts from all over  the world.  From Europe to the Himalayas.  They even had Merlot salt, which I think I may go back for!

  

Sesoko Island

   Now before I tell you about this beautiful little island, I need to explain a law.  This law is like Murphy's Law, slightly, but not exactly.  Once when I was younger I went to work with my dad, and he had a newspaper clipping on his desk  The clipping said " ORLANDO LAUGHS LAST" .  Now it took 15 years, but I finally get it.  Orlando Laughs Last is the name of this law.  And I will tell you why.  As an Orlando, there are certain elements to life you need to learn.  The most important that pertains to this post is, traveling is never easy!

   In Murphy's Law, it states anything bad that can happen will happen.  Orlando Laughs Last Law is, when you travel something ridiculous will always happen!  Now by ridiculous I mean something that is a set back at first, and usually make you very angry, but in the end makes you laugh.  Hence, ORLANDO LAUGHS LAST".  The law entails losing your bags, getting searched and or threatened to get arrested.  That really has happened.  Also wrong trains have been taken.   But the trick to this law is that once you marry an Orlando, the law affects you as well. 

   A couple of weeks ago I planned a day trip.  While my husband was away with work, I looked up places to drive on Okinawa that looked beautiful.  And I came across Sesoko Island.  Sesoko Island is a very small island, about 2 kilometers in diameter, close to Nago.  You take a bridge from Okinawa to the island.  It seemed like an easy enough drive.  So one Monday we packed up the cooler and went for a drive.  Now I had planned to go on a Monday that my husband had off.  The whole weekend was perfect so I figured it would be perfect.

   Once we walked out of the house it started to get a little cloudy.  But I figured it wouldn't be too bad.  So we set off for the road.  About 10 minutes from our house the skies opened up.  Crazy lightning and pouring rain for the hour drive up there!  The closer we got the darker the clouds looked pretty much right on top of where we wanted to go.  So I thought " at least we have sandwiches for the car picnic we are going to enjoy"!  But we lucked out.  Perfect weather by the time we got there. 

   Once you cross the bridge, you drive through a little town then take a right.  Seemed simple enough.  My husband took the directions way too literal.  The directions we found said take a right after the last house.  I think he wanted to actually find the last house on the island.  After we found ourselves at a dead end in the middle of a field, i decided I would navigate to the beach.  We turned around and found the right that we should have taken.  We then parked the car and walked down the hill.

   We were the only non Japanese here.  They were selling floats and beach toys at the top of the hill, and there were stairs down from the information desk.  I chose to go down the little path and avoid being stared at with those eyes that scream white devil.  After we walked down the path we were right on the beach. It was so beautiful.  White sand and aqua water.  Part of the beach was netted of so kids could play, but I walked down the beach a bit where it was quiet.  It was our own private beach!

   After the ORLANDO LAUGHS LAST LAW kicked in, we ended up having a perfect day.  Great sun, picnic on the beach, and a nice walk with pictures to show!  Now that Pete fully understands what its like to be an Orlando, maybe he will think about changing his last name!  Probably not, but we'll have great travel stories!

Shelton Sushi!

   One Saturday afternoon, my husband Pete and I decided to make our own sushi.  We have lived in Japan for over a year now, so we thought we could try and make brown rice sushi rolls ourselves.  It seemed like it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon.  So as I normally do, I started planning in advance.  As soon as I came up with the idea I started buying all the stuff I would need.  I even made sure I got the ingredients for spicy sauce.  I also I got the expensive nori which turned out to be a bad idea.   I got everything for this sushi day.  Salmon, tuna, octopus, and of course avocado.  I even got Japanese cucumbers instead of normal cucumbers.  It turns out they are not that good.  Next time I will use normal ones.

   I was so excited to make sushi.   A couple of years ago Pete got me a few cook books for Valentines day.  One of them was a Sushi book, and I finally got to use it!  I read the entire thing trying to get my bearings on the jap stuff, and I thought I had done a pretty good job!  I told Pete I was gonna kick his ass in Sushi making!  His answer went something like, How many girl sushi chefs are there?  
   Although I was was excited to make the sushi I was even more excited to use all my plates!  I got so may cute plates for my Engagement shower, and I finally got to use them, including my sushi plate set.  I couldn't be more excited about it!  Until I had to wash all the dishes.  Then I wished we ate on paper plates.  Now I know why my mom always made us eat on paper plates when my friends came over.  Doing dishes really sucks!  Not to mention I'm not that good at it.  I get water all over the place and the dog usually stands behind me and licks the water from the floor.
   The most time consuming part of this process was the rice.  And I truly mean process.  You need to make this sauce with sugar and rice vinegar which has to boil.  But you cant pour it on the rice hot.  The sauce not the rice.  Then you have to fan the rice while you pour the sauce over it and mix it with short, choppy strokes.  For fifteen minutes or until it is room temperature.  Stupid annoying.  But before you can do all these fun steps, you have rinse the rice several times with your hands until the water is no longer milky. The most I have ever had to do to make rice.  I could have made risotto and paella in the time it took me to make sushi rice.
   Once this was done we could get the competition under way. I was for sure going to win the Shelton Sushi roll off.  Or so I thought.  Once we started it was clear that Pete really was better then me.  SHITTY I KNOW!  And the sad thing is I had done this before!  I'm going to blame my sad performance on the fact that was  very excited to eat!  I had even bought gyoza and shumai at the Japanese store so I just wanted to eat.  And I figured the faster I rolled the sooner I could eat.  That's why there are no girl sushi chefs.  We just want to eat it all!



Finished product of the Shelton Sushi roll off!

    So our table looked pretty good and I couldn't wait to eat.  I had even made salad with goma dressing( sesame).  I was so excited!  I tried mine first, so I could taste victory!  Then I tried Pete's, actual victory.  Seriously, it killed me that he was better then me!  We are are going to have to do this again so I can win! 
   So I didn't win, and to make matters worse, I got hives.  For the first time in my life the nori gave me hives!  Stupid expensive Japanese seaweed!  Next time I'm gonna but the cheap stuff so I know its made from algae.  Normally, I'm fine from sushi rolls because I did my research and I know that most nori I made from algae.  And since I'm allergic to seaweed no algae I'm fine.  But of course I had to get the only one made from seaweed.  Thats what you get when you cant read the language!

Ramen Noodles

   Now as an American, when you hear ramen, you think of the stuff that comes in the block of dry noodles that you can buy for 25c.  But that's not what I'm talking about.   Ramen actually means noodles in Japanese, to be specific a type of noodle soup.  And its not the kind you can make in the microwave out of block of dry noodles. 
  The other day my friend took me to a place she has been telling me about for a year.  She has been talking this place up for so long, that finally getting to go was almost too much for me to handle!  Almost.  Once she told me where it was I felt like an idiot.  I drive by it everyday on my way to the gym, and I have even been to the Starbucks next to it.  Yea I said Starbucks.  I live in Japan, we don't have dunkies here. 
   So I met my friend at the restaurant for lunch the other day.  I left right from the gym, because I was in the neighborhood.  It was over 90 degrees and super sunny, but we were still going to get a huge bowl of noodle soup!  Soup is always good!  She said she always gets the signature dish.  So I figured i should go for it too.  Tan Tan Ramen.  The food came out pretty fast so I was even more excited.  In fact I was so excited I kind of forgot to take picture until I was half way through eating!  Sorry guys, I just have to destroy food when I see it sometimes!   The noodles where in a spicy broth with bamboo shoots and green onion.  There was a pile of nicely spiced ground beef.  It was slightly sweet with a bit of ginger and garlic. And of course they had extra chili and chili oil on the side so I had to add some as usual!

Half eaten Ramen

   The restaurant itself was pretty cute.  Small with an open kitchen so you can watch the cook if you sit at the bar.  There was a huge dragon painted on the wall which was actually pretty cool.  Next time I go I think I will sit at the bar so I can watch them cook.  I love to watch Asians cooks.  They are so fast and efficient.  Maybe I can get some of their secrets!        
   This place was so good I cant wait to go back!  I'm sure I will taking Pete there for some diet cheat days real soon.  Especially since its right down the street from the gym.  There was so much more on the menu to try that I'm sure I will be back.

Cheesy picture eating

Sorry its not funny.  Its friggen soup.