rice balls

I've wanted to make onigiri for a long time.

I have to admit this desire mostly began when I saw characters eating them in my favorite anime. Okay... so my interest was piqued entirely because of anime, just like 90% of the rest of my Japanophile tendencies (I credit 10% to the fact that Japan was the birthplace of my first love and temporary home of his sister, my best friend... it's only fair).

(I try not to talk about my nerdy side too much, so let's move on, shall we?)

While poring over my favorite bento site a few days ago (nevermind, this whole post is just going to be nerdy) I came across an excellent description of how to make the stuffed rice balls. I gathered my ingredients:

(smoked salmon + brown rice)

I didn't have any nori (the seaweed used to wrap most onigiri), but the recipe assured me that plain riceballs were just as authentic.

Of course, wanting to be even more authentic, I ignored the clever advice about using plastic wrap to shape the salted and freshly-cooked grains. I would to do it with my hands like I had seen over and over again, like a real Japanese person! How hard could it be?!

it hurt. a lot.

So, as I was saying, I decided to be smart and use the plastic-wrap method, since I was a beginner.

Lay some plastic wrap in a tea cup, sprinkle in salt + walter, add rice, make a little hole, insert filling (salmon in this case), cover, twist up plastic wrap, squeeze and shape...

And voila!

My quick and tasty Japanese-style dinner.

Smoked salmon onigiri,

salad with sesame-ginger dressing,

and of course kukicha (green tea made from the twigs of the tea plant).

Success!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the rice grains stuck together even after several bites. I had done it! 

I had made onigiri like a real Japanese person (sort of)!

(so tasty and delicious)

Yes, it was a wonderful accomplishment. 

I promptly celebrated by watching the next episode of Kaleido Star.

lemon blueberry upside-down cake

Not sure how I actually managed to do this (I feel pretty crummy today), but... I really wanted to make a cake for Easter. I used this recipe from epicurious.com and I think it turned out okay!

My brain's too foggy to say much so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

assemble...

put in the oven...

"garnish with lemon slices"...

As you can see it took several attempts to come up with a worthwhile lemon-slice decoration. 

I finally settled on this:

Hopefully it'll taste as yummy as it looks!

If I could've gotten away with it I would've sampled a slice this afternoon... 

))))))Best Easter wishes, all!((((((

with lots of love from Tab

food, food, more food!

Who knew I was so obsessed with food? Well, I mean, I kind of did... anyhow I spent almost my entire yesterday in the kitchen! (The part not spent in the kitchen was spent buying ingredients.)

But wait, before I start sounding like a crazy chef, let me explain... 

I'm not so much obsessed with food as I am very interested in how it affects people. Specifically how certain ingredients affect people... bad stuff (sugar, chemicals, etc.) and good stuff (you know what this is). My health-conscious cycles go up and down (after all, I did just compose a chocolate cheesecake post) but no matter what I eat I can't help noticing that I feel and look tremendously different depending on what I consume. For instance, eating salads every day just makes my skin look better. Too much sugar gives me a headache. Overeating at supper makes it hard to wake up in the morning. Lots of common sense stuff, but anyways... I've been slacking off a lot in the whole health/taking care of yourself department these past few months, so I'm eating VERY healthfully this week as part of a gentle, get-ready-for-Spring cleansing process. Lots of herbs, seeds, vegetables, juices, etc.

Unfortunately, the recipe book I'm using only has directions for 4-6 servings at a time... so that's where I got the brilliant idea to make A WHOLE WEEK'S worth of meals in one day! I would make it all, and then divide it all up into single portions to freeze/refrigerate! Genius, right? Let's take a peek... 

gaaaaa.. chaos!!!

Sorry for the poor photo quality... the light in my kitchen is very dim. Almost as dim as me for trying to accomplish so much in one day in one kitchen. I ended up getting about half the recipes made. Whew.

However, I must admit there is something very soothing about roasting a whole chicken, especially the washing/marinating part; it feels like you are bathing a little creature, giving it a spa experience complete with herbal soak:

awww.

And after all is said and done, there's something very, very soothing about eating your own delicious, completely-made-from-scratch, insanely healthy meals. Only 5 more days to go!

Happy Wednesday, my dears.

xo, Tabitha

muffins + mayhem

Some things just go well together. When I'm having a bad day (which, incidentally, happened a few days ago... it was a silly thing all from a misunderstanding and is happily fixed now) I find it very comforting to bake. And watch comedy. 

And this time, it was all blueberry muffins and Black Books.

First, the muffins! I'm crazy about muffins because they're SO easy + quick to make and only use one bowl.

I always use the old Betty Crocker recipe but doctor it up accordingly.

INGREDIENTS:

1 egg

1 cup milk (or soymilk)

1/4 cup oil (canola, olive... whatever you have on hand)

2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar (I usually use brown)

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400. Grease bottoms of 12 medium muffin cups. Beat egg; stir in milk & oil. Mix in remaining ingredients just until flour is moistened.* Batter should be lumpy.

Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan.

Makes 12 muffins.

*Here's the part where I thrown in random stuff... blueberries, chocolate chips, nuts, cinnamon, apple pieces, etc. I also replace about 1/4 cup of flour with 1/4 cup ground flaxseeds for extra heartiness.

They're so perfect to make when you don't want to run to the grocery store just for a little baking, 'cos you usually have all those ingredients on hand. Plus it's fun to get creative with the add-ins. It's like the mix-ins at the ice cream shop, but [usually] healthier!

I love you, muffins!

Second, but definitely not of lesser importance, is the mayhem. 

It's silly, it's British, and it has a perfect combination of wittiness, sarcasm, and slapstick... Black Books, of course!

I just finished the third (and final) season of this series and am so sad to see it end.

Dylan Moran plays Bernard Black, a hopelessly grouchy & mean-spirited bookstore owner who hates all his customers. Add in Manny, his good-natured assistant, and Fran, their loony neighbor, and you get the recipe for many, many hilarious shenanigans... this is one of the few sitcoms that actually makes me guffaw! I can watch the episodes over + over again and still be amused. In fact, there's one particular scene that had me laughing many hours later as I thought about it!

Here's a "Best Of" clip on Youtube. Not what I would consider to be the funniest bits, but it definitely gives you an idea of what the show's like.

(Just a little disclaimer if you decide to watch the entire series... this is a British show, and while for the most part it's PG-clean, there's some very random stuff that would not have made it on American television. It's much cleaner than, say, the British Office, but it's not perfect.)

oh, and yes, Dylan, I love you too!

chocolate cheesecake

I've been promising my Monday night illustration class a treat for a while, but today was the first day I actually had the chance to make something, so I decided to make a chocolate cheesecake.

I think this is the first cheesecake I've ever made (it's the first one I ever remember making), so I was quite excited.

After I mixed the batter, I sent the children outside to lick the beaters. I know, I know, raw egg and all that... but I always licked the beaters as a child and was fine, so I think they'll be okay.

When it was cooled I cut it up into slices and stuck strawberry halves on top with melted milk chocolate. I gave some to my sweet neighbor Ophelia (isn't that the best name??) and arranged the rest on plates to take to class. It's going to be a little messy and hard to carry, but it looks (and tastes!) yummy, so it'll be worth it!

I even got my own little stove-top slice!