A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, or so I have read; but what does that mean?? Really! Someone please explain.
Kimono & cupcakes
Whew! Sorry it’s been so long since I wrote any updates. It’s not that I didn’t have anything to write about, I just didn’t feel like it.
Today I feel like it because I have had two major culinary triumphs in as many days, and they both happened because of food homesickness. If you didn’t know, I really like to cook, bake, and eat. One of the things that make me homesick is not being able to procure proper comfort food here. I mean, there are Japanese foods that comfort me, but when I am homesick, I need comfort food from home. So the only obvious thing to do in times like the aforementioned is to make whatever it is I’m craving (provided what I’m craving is something you can make at home). The hard part is you usually can’t find exactly what you’re looking for in ingredients here, without going out of your way to a specialty import foods store. Sometimes I can make do and take solace in the fact that whatever I made was good even though it wasn’t the same as what I wanted. This past weekend however, was not one of those times. I needed junk from home. I needed cake from a box, and I needed chili.
So I bit it, and went all the way over to the store that sells imported stuff, and I came away with two cans of black beans (try finding a normal can of beans in Japan other than azuki, I dare you), a box of Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix (almost 6 bucks!!), a half-pound brick of Hershey’s chocolate (I’m going to make cookies from the recipe my mom uses, and Japanese chocolate chips are tiny and taste cruddy), and a bag of generic peanut butter cups (peanut butter sweets are unheard of here).
My first victim was the cake mix. I figured since I was cheating on the cake part that I should make a really awesome frosting. I always liked the Dover Station restaurant’s chocolate cake with caramel icing, so I checked the internet and found a suitable recipe for caramel frosting. When I first tasted it, I thought it wasn’t very good and was in fact a little gross. I was wrong though. Jesus Mary and Joseph, the devil, and Dracula, this is the best frosting I have ever tasted in my entire life I think. Everyone should definitely make this frosting. Then let it cool and just eat it out of the bowl. Be careful though, because caramel gets really hot while it’s a-cookin’. Really, it melted my manicure. The cupcakes do not disappoint, even though they look like they are topped with Number Two (see top photo). You can see more photos here.
My other kitchen triumph (well ok, the only one, since the cupcakes were made mainly in my living/bedroom) was this chili. Wow! I ate two bowls of it for dinner tonight (followed by two cupcakes). Check it out: chili in a pot.jpg and chili in a bowl.jpg. A couple of things I changed about the recipe: Instead of ground turkey (which does not exist in civilian Japan), I used Johnsonville hotlinks (which are inexplicably sold at my regular old supermarket, albeit for nearly 8 dollars); I substituted celery for zucchini (which isn’t in season, even if they did have it here); and I also added some cinnamon and nutmeg. The fact that nobody will do the favor of making a family woman out of me is to blame if I ever get fat, as I am forced to eat all of this stuff by myself.
In other news, now I love House (both the doctor and the show). I didn’t want to love Dr. House at first, because he is a jerk. Let’s face it though, women love jerks. If you don’t believe me, just ask one. A woman or a jerk. They’ll both confirm what I’ve just said; but a jerk will make you fall in love with him and then break up with you first.
I also currently love (although for how long, I don’t know) this guy from CSI, which I have been watching on the internet (like House).
That’s all for now.
End transmission
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Yes, I know what it looks like.
