Ako-san, Rick’s secretary, knows I love red bean paste sweets. So she is always sending me yummy treats. This morning I found these on my kitchen counter so I had one for breakfast. It is red bean paste wrapped in a gooey mochi like substance and then wrapped in leaves and ties with string so that they stay fresh (and look really cute). Yum!
Today after our trip to the 6 story 100 yen store (Japanese dollar store), Michelle and I stopped at Nishin. It’s the other international store. I was excited to see these great looking hamburger buns.
It sounds crazy to get excited about hamburger buns, but I haven’t seen hamburger buns that look like this since leaving the US almost 10 years ago. The buns I normally buy are very small and always dry. I bought them and decided to make sloppy joes. As I was making them I wondered what the Italians who make my expensive tomato paste in a tube would think about an American using it to make Sloppy Joes.
In the Harajuku and Shibuya areas of Tokyo there are several stalls that sell fresh crepes. Each location has a window with plastic replicas of each crepe they sell. A few years ago when Alex and Kristina were visiting they wanted to get one, but were reluctant to order them since they don’t speak Japanese. What they didn’t know is that because a lot of tourists frequent the area and that the young people who work in the crepe stalls are students, English works fine. I agreed to order for them and said, “One strawberry and one chocolate.” We still laugh about it!
Ever since I made the really fabulous Red Velvet Cupcakes and the not so fabulous Lemon Filled Cupcakes, I have wanted to create a lemon version using the Red Velvet recipe. So to keep this rainy Monday from getting me down I decided to try it. So now I have a fabulous Lemon Filled Cupcake recipe to go along with the others in my collection. You can find the recipe by clicking on Vanilla Carrots
PS I have them all packaged to deliver to the full time missionaries serving in the area office.
Two of my former early morning seminary students have been doing annual concerts as fundraisers for the AIDS orphans in Kitwe, Zambia. First, they raised enough money to build a school and now they are raising money for supplies. Since they have been in Japan they have included Japanese friends as part of the concert. I am excited for the concert tonight. Erica is a very accomplished cellist and is also amazing in her musical theater roles at the American School in Tokyo. Elisabeth has just finished her first year at the University of Michigan. She’s majoring in musical theater. She is incredibly talented. My favorite part will be watching and listening to Erica play her cello. Her music touches my soul and allows me a glimpse of hers.
I have been longing to try out a red velvet cupcake recipe I’ve had for awhile, so I offered to make some for after the concert. I made a batch and they are beautiful. The girl’s mom, Lisa, requested lemon. I decided to use the lemon recipe from Hummingbird Bakery, but I am not happy with the texture. I may take this fabulous red velvet recipe and figure out how to turn it into lemon. I’ll post the recipe if it turns out. So click for the fabulous Red Velvet Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Frosting recipe . When I wrote that the Red Velvet Cupcakes were fabulous I had not tasted them with the frosting. They are the best homemade cupcakes. The texture is perfect the tops are nice and rounded. All I can say is, “oiishi desu!”
This morning I woke up thinking about casseroles. A bit odd? Not really, since we are having a branch party today and the first letter of my last name falls under the “bring a casserole” category. I have not made a true casserole since….hmm…maybe the very early 90’s. When I met Rick I had never eaten a casserole, ramen noodles, Kraft macaroni and cheese or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I grew up in a meat, potatoes and lots of fresh vegetables kind of family. Sandwiches were bologna or cheese, tomato and lettuce or grilled cheese with chopped onions. The only thing we ate that mixed our food mixed together was chili, beef stew or creamed tuna on toast. Macaroni and cheese was of the homemade variety.
Rick grew up in a family where they ate lots of casseroles. So…I quickly learned to cook all of them. My mother even found a few she made after joining the church and being called to the RS presidency. You can see the recipes for the ones I made the most at Yum! I am trying to remember when or why I stopped making casseroles. I think it was when we moved to Saudi Arabia. I remember a complete diet overhaul during that time.
This morning, I could not bring myself to make a true casserole. I don’t really like them and the Campbell’s soup included in almost all of them is just too salty. This morning I pulled out my French Laundry cookbook and began preparing the lasagne. It’s the only recipe I make from this cookbook. That makes it a pretty expensive recipe. (I have stopped buying cookbooks since I can find amazing recipes for everything I want to make online). I didn’t buy the cookbook it was a gift from a friend in London. It is a wonderful recipe made from all fresh ingredients. I can’t believe I am taking the time to make it for a branch party, but I do love my branch!
These are some of the best cupcakes I’ve made in a long time. It could be because I loved the Hostess brand chocolate cupcakes growing up. I loved the way the chocolate frosting could be peeled off in one piece. I probably couldn’t eat one now. The thing I liked the best about them was the cream filling. I have been looking for a great cream filling for my chocolate cupcakes and I finally found it last week. You can find the recipe here . I used chocolate butter cream frosting, but next time I am going to try a whipped chocolate ganache.
I just returned from spending the last week in Utah. I went to spend some time with my mother after her most recent stroke. I stayed with Alex and Stacey in Provo, so I made a daily “Trip to Bountiful.” Last Wednesday, I was feeling particularly sad, it’s hard watching my my mom suffer. I decided that cupcakes might lift my spirits. Of course I know that it is called emotional eating! I made two quick stops in Salt Lake on my way to Bountiful. The first stop was at So Cupcake at 3939 Highland Drive. I purchased three cupcakes, Cinnamon Sugar, Chocolate and Key Lime.
So Cupcake's Cinnamon Sugar
So Cupcake's Chocolate
So Cupcake's Key Lime
The next stop was at Mini’s at 14 East 8th South where I purchased six mini cupcakes. (Mini’s only makes mini cupcakes-hence the name of the store). Mini’s motto is “Cupcakes Make You Happy.” I tend to agree. Just being in Mini’s made me feel happy and it had nothing to do with wanting to consume large quantities of cupcakes. It was fun just looking at the tiny cakes and taking in the fun decor of the shop. I selected Tainted Love, S’more, Chocoholic, Snowball, Diva and Pretty in Pink.
Mini's Tainted Love
Mini's S'more
Mini's Chocoholic
Mini's Snowball
Mini's Diva
Mini's Pretty in Pink
My personal favorites ended up being So Cupcake’s Key Lime and Mini’s Chocoholic. So if you are ever in Salt Lake City stop by one of these great shops and see if cupcakes make you happy. Well, I am off to make my own famous lemon cupcakes for my eight year old friend, Maurielle’s baptism.
Fruit Fly Catchers
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As much as I dislike bats I was really wishing I had one last week to eat the fruit flies invading our house. It all started on the day we left for China. I was checking the refrigerator and found two cucumbers that would be bad by the time we got back so I tossed them in the garbage can fully intending to empty it on my way to the car. I forgot!
When we got home the house smelled a bit weird, but I wasn’t sure what it was until I opened the garbage can and a swarm of fruit flies flew out. They quickly settled back into devouring the rotting cucumbers and as soon as they had I quickly closed the top of the garbage bag and took the whole thing down to the trash room. Over the next week and a half I would see a few drifting around the house. I didn’t think too much about it until we had a fruit fly population explosion. It seems that the fruit fly egg incubation period is about 10 days. They were everywhere!!!!
So I googled how to get rid of them. There was a handy video that showed how to make a fruit fly trap. This involved a bowl of wine (not an option!!!). At the end of the video it said I could also use apple cider or red wine vinegar. My cider vinegar had expired so I thought that would be a great choice. First, put a small amount of water in a bowl and add a few drops of liquid dish washing detergent and mix it up gently. Then fill the bowl about halfway with cider vinegar. The dish detergent does something to the surface of the water that causes them to sink immediately. Place the bowl in the area where you notice the most fruit flies.
I made one up and literally within minutes I had trapped at least 30. At this point their living friends were sitting on the edge of the bowl and they were not going in.  I am not sure if they could see their buddies floating below or smell death. I am not sure how you could smell death through all that fermented vinegar though :). At this point I decided to empty the first trap and make a new one. They jumped right in! After the same thing happened three times I had two fruit flies that refused to take the plunge. So I switched to the more expensive fresh bottle of red wine vinegar. The remaining two took the plunge in seconds. Picky fruitflies!!! I haven’t seen a fruit fly since yesterday. With a trap like this, who needs a pet bat??? The big question is did this group lay eggs??? I think I’ll keep a bowl of vinegar out for the next week just in case.
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After two years, I finally bought my first “container” of Japanese gum. Yes, I normally think of gum coming in packs, too.  You may also wonder why it took two years. When we were living in London I bought several packs of gum only to discover that they tasted like Vick’s vapor rub, yuck. I have only bought Wrigley’s at the international market. At least, I know what it tastes like.
Last week, a young couple sitting across from me on the train were comparing their containers of gum. The girl had hers in a plastic teddy bear head which turned out to be inferior to the boys sleak purple container. He was able to provide her with a square white paper to dispose of the piece she had been chewing. Intrigued by this feature, I headed to the corner convenience store to get my own. The gum in the container is the chiclet type. The container has two sections the large one holds the gum and a small narrow one holds the white paper squares used for disposing of chewed gum. Japanese packaging never ceases to amaze me.
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