I've got a secret!
Go to the Food and Drink tab and read my latest post. Find out what my secret is.
Go to the Food and Drink tab and read my latest post. Find out what my secret is.
Earlier in the week I hinted at a project I was working on. It was actually a belated Christmas gift for my son's girlfriend,Katie. So without further delay, here it is! 
Sorry for the grainy picture. I made her some pajama pants, a pillow case and sewed a matching pocket on a T-shirt.
I hadn't sewn in so long. It made me want to get my sewing area put back together again. I had a good time sewing this! I still have my son's PJs to finish now. -1GMG I've been working on a project for the last 2 weeks or so, and I finally got it finished and shipped off to the recipient today!
As soon as I know it's been received, I will post it here!! Since the project is done, I'll have a bit more free time to work on this blog. I still want to tweak the general design and see if there's a way to personalize it more. Stay tuned! -1GMG OK, sorry for the bad joke, but I just made one of my favorite meals: Miso soup. I had never had Miso soup until this past year. A friend and I went to a local restaurant called Zing Japanese Fusion. I was floored that I had never tasted something so amazingly satisfying before. Well, I made it a personal mission to find out how to make this yummy soup at home. After lots of research I found that the main ingredients were available at any local Asian market! The basic ingredients that I prefer are: - Miso paste (I prefer Shiro miso) - Bonito soup stock, also known as Hondashi -Tofu (I prefer using extra firm) The basic recipe is - Mix 4 cups of boiling water with 4 tablespoons of miso. Add 1/2 tablespoon of Hondashi. Add 1/2 - 3/4 cup of diced tofu. That's it!! But, I have been experimenting with other ingredients and have found that I prefer to add the following: - 1 to 2 small Vietnamese red chilis - 3 scallions, coarsely chopped The above 5 ingredients are my preferred basic Miso soup. It has become my favorite soup. (I'm sorry Mom, it has replaced Oma's chicken noodle soup as my favorite, but it's a VERY close second!) Today was so dreary and icky that I decided I wanted some Miso soup. Well, I didn't have any tofu. So I tried something different - I do love to experiment!!! Here is aftermath....  Tonight's AMAZING miso soup started with the 3 main ingredients above and then I added bean threads (the clear noodles), green cabbage, scallions and shreds of purple carrot. Interestingly enough, the purple carrots turned yellow after cooking a few minutes. I had several bowls of this yummy comfort food and now I'm feeling warm and sleepy.
Below, I have listed some links to show you some of the ingredients - (please know that I do not endorse, nor am I paid by the websites or companies listed below) Hondashi Tofu Shiro Miso Bean Threads Vietnamese Red Chili - it's hard to see but these are small chilies - about 1 - 1.5" long -1GMG I used to be really great at HTML editing and creating web pages. This? Not so much. Please bear with me as this blog evolves. I'm still trying to figure out how to make this nice to look at and fun to visit. OK, back to the cabbage from yesterday. Yeah, I used purple cabbage for my cabbage rolls. 
 OK, so yeah, I need to brush up my photography skills.. Not bad for an iPhone 4 though, right? Anyway, it tasted great! I didn't use a recipe as such, but was inspired by an episode of "The Barefoot Contessa". (Food Network Episode: BX0301H).
My eyes are starting to droop and the pup is already out for the night, so I better sign off and get some sleep. I will leave you with this picture of my beloved Corgi, Bogart. Good night all! Sweet Dreamies!! -1GMG Well, today I'm starting a new project. This blog. I hope you enjoy it. It will basically be about my adventures in cooking, weight loss, Corgis, and well, life from my perspective as a first generation American.
Quite a few years back, my mother heard that you should eat pork and cabbage on New Year's day. I know that the cabbage is supposed to represent money, but I don't know what the pork is supposed to represent. So, in my infinite curiosity, I decided to Google it and here's what I found: I found that in the Midwest, the cabbage took the form of sauerkraut on New Year's day. (well, that's what I've been doing wrong all these years!) Cabbage is green and thus represents dollar bills. It is said that pigs always root moving forward (as opposed to chickens and turkeys which scratch backward for their food) so pork represents moving forward in the year. Well I really mucked it up this year. The store was out of green cabbage (yes, they were completely sold out!) so I grabbed a purple cabbage. I wonder what that means for me???? I decided to make cabbage rolls for New Year's day. I don't know why, but this is something that we never, and I mean NEVER, had growing up. I know we had sauerkraut a lot (I hated it), so I know that cabbage is part of the Dutch culinary spectrum, but I don't know why we never had any other sort of cabbage? But I digress.... And I just noticed the time...way past my bedtime and I have to get up and go to work tomorrow. ugh..... So I want to wish all my family and friends and Corgis a very very Happy and Prosperous 2015! (I'll continue this post tomorrow) -1GMG | 
AuthorI'm a proud first generation American. My family came from the Netherlands in 1957. Join me while I share life from my unique perspective. ArchivesCategories |
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