She Eats

Masterpiece

2009-11-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

Lots of cheese and lots of veggies and how gorgeous this one did seem but I couldn't taste much and now my throat hurts and so does my head.

I hope it's just a little cold.

Yorkshire Pudding

2009-11-10T19:22:00.001-08:00

My kids love teriyaki steak and they love Yorkshire pudding so that's what I made for dinner tonight.Like spaetzle, it's easy to make but sort of unknown to Americans. This is a side dish I would recommend every Mom add to her rotation because it really is that easy and that delicious.

Extra Virgin

2009-11-07T19:58:00.001-08:00

Friday lunch. I do love me some cheese.

But Matt made me eat beef tongue and for that he owes me one of his spactacular dinners.

So when is it going to be?

I did love the mushrooms, the bread and the cheeses were all fantastic but the fish thing was not good.

I love fish but the one thing I can't take is when it tastes fishy or like citrus.

Sometimes I wish I were living in Japan again so badly I can't take it. I need to just buy some tickets and plan a trip to my beloved Amami.

How big of a nerd does it make me that I am home watching Smallville with my cat on a Saturday night?

6 Weeks

2009-11-06T06:58:00.001-08:00

In 6 weeks my boyfriend is moving closer to me. He'll be 50 miles away instead of 800. I don't remember when 6 weeks ever seemed so long.

Chapter 41 says, among other things: the greatest love seems indifferent.

I know what this means but I admit I haven't reached those heights with Matt.

Our love is still like the ocean in a storm.

Sushi House and White Chocolate Kahlua Rum Cake

2009-11-04T18:50:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I am most thankful for intense suffering. I know that doesn't make sense but when I feel the worst I am moved to the greatest compassion for others and that makes me feel closer to g-d than anything else.

Humility.

Tonight we went to Sushi House for the umpteenth time. I do not like that place. We go there and order bentos for my children. They are ridiculous. They are full size bento boxes full of steak, rice, tempura and california rolls. The crazy part is that my daughter eats almost all of hers.

The kids actually like it and I guess my parents do too but I think it's not very good. They don't even have red snapper sushi there!

This is what I ordered: one hamachi-negi (yellowtail, green onion) roll and one avocado roll. They were both pretty yucky.

My Dad always gets this totally disgusting lobster roll. But, in his defense, I don't like lobster so maybe if you do it's good.
I am boycotting Sushi House from now on. I love Kaiyo and it's just around the corner. Or, Sakura, with the sushi train, even though it's not that good is at least fun.

So tonight I made a rum cake and I decided to share how to do it with everyone because when you know how to do something you should teach other people and when you know to how make something delicious you should teach everyone!

Chapter 74

2009-11-04T07:36:00.001-08:00

Men are born soft and supple;
dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant;
dead, they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.

bluestem and Korma Sutra

2009-11-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

It's funny to me that there are a few restaurants in midtown that I am willing to drive to just for a particular item on their menu.

bluestem is one of those places and the dish I love is the below appetizer:

Waygu beef tartare, which is a hunk of chopped up raw meat topped with a raw egg and delicious parmesan. It is served with spring greens and potato chips! It's sooooo good.
I asked the chef why I like my cooked meat medium and then I like this raw meat.

He answered that I don't really like my meat medium. And then he said that it's different when you start cooking meat because of the blood and the texture and a lot of yucky stuff that I didn't want to hear about.

Whatever the reason, I love this dish!

I had a day with my daughter recently and she asked to go to Korma Sutra for lunch. I don't like to do that because the lunch buffet is too spicy for me. But I agreed and found out that I could have asked Mr. Singh for mild tikka masala and he would have made it special for us!!

I am in a really bad mood - and if you see the quiz to the right of my blog you will know why. Please take this quiz if you are a man.

Oh yeah, it's Halloween

2009-10-31T17:32:00.000-07:00

Look at this gorgeous thing!

So, I love, LOVE having people over and although it wasn't fancy food, I got to cook pizza for my kids' friends and some very lovely adults.

These are my kind of people. They said I could put any veggies on there and any cheeses!

So this guy features olive oil, garlic, some red sauce, green peppers, onions, mushrooms and get this list of cheeses:

Mozzarella, provolone, asiago, Romano, Parmesan, cheddar, feta and Gorgonzola.

Yes, I am serious. The beer drinkers who were eating this guy called it an ocho formaggio. Funny.

This was the first year I didn't take my kids trick-or-treating at 5pm. In fact, it looks like I'm not invited to take them at all so I'm home alone, drinking and passing out candy!

Best quote of the night: is it a handful, or what?

This was a 5 year old who wanted to know how much candy to take. Oy these kids!

And I don't know who these kids are either because I have barely seen a one from the neighborhood. They are being bussed in these ones!

Anyway, when my kids get back I'm going to the cul-de-sac down the street to check out this one house that is super-decked out on the inside and they promised me this afternoon I can have a tour after dark.

Wow, that sounded so much more ominous than it's going to be!

Happy Halloweenie people!

A Snoring Cat

2009-10-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

I have an old cat who snores next to me in bed. I think he is adorable.

Recently I went to a class where a Rabbi spoke about good people and bad people and why good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.

One of the things he taught us was that a good person is like a tree rooted in a good place, with a branch that reaches out into a bad place.

G-d would rather knock off that branch to purify the tree so that it is wholly good.

Likewise, a bad person is like a tree rooted in a bad place, and if one of their branches reaches out into a good place g-d lets them be so that in the world to come they really have to pay.

Maybe I misunderstood something in this analogy.

I never get tired of looking at my cat.

North

2009-10-28T08:59:00.001-07:00

North is one of my Kansas City favorites. I keep finding my way back there every couple of months. Last night I tried their sangria, which was really delicious. I also tried the bruschetta which I had always avoided because of the big slices of ham on top but it was amazing, of course.
My friend had the scallops and said they were perfect. I tasted the pea orzo they were sitting on and was impressed.
Although I have come to always order this favorite: the mushroom, arugula, pecorino romano pizza, I realized last night that I could order anything at North and be happy and that is my standard of excellence for a restaurant.
We had the nutella torte for dessert and it was delightful, but I realized after that I should not have been shy to mention what I really like to do after eating dinner at North... which is head to Mochiyo for dessert. Ah well.
Now I have a question for my readers. Do you think a Foodie can be happy with a non-Foodie?

Or, do you think a Foodie will naturally turn anyone who spends time with her into a Foodie in their own right?

One of my dreams is to have a cooking partner and make all the glorious dishes I've ever had or wanted to have in my home with my best friend - and make them all kosher!

I wonder if Matt is up for that challenge. I hope so.

"Nobody ever died from eating raw pork"

2009-10-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

Except the people who did.

But I still thought that was the best quote of the evening. Because when you are making Julia Child's pate de canard en croute - which should look like this:

You end up saying stuff like, "nobody ever died from eating raw pork."

Let's start at the beginning shall we?

Two foodie sisters see Julie and Julia on the same night on dates with one husband and one potential husband.

Next time we talk we discuss what looked good. The stuffed duck in a crust, of course!

I don't recall ever suggesting we try to make it but I also don't recall what I said to anyone I talked to today so that's irrelevant.

However, please know it about me. Shall I decide there is something I want to do, I shall do it. And the fact that my sister and I discussed making this led me to comment early last week, let's plan to do this for Thanksgiving. Her response was, how about this coming Friday.

My mother got involved. So thankfully did a butcher at McGonigle's who boned the duck for us (he he).
The interesting part of this cooking experience was the various communication errors. My sister thought I would be able to properly make the pastry for this duck. I thought the point of our experiment was to make the thing regardless of whether we had any skills or talents.

I went over to her house the night before to make said pastry. It did not go well. She had a lot of confidence when it came to the meat stuffing, but who knew?

Check it: http://dinnersbyjodi.blogspot.com.

We did end up trussing that duck just fine...

Then Jodi browned it. She mentions that there might have been some yelling. When were not yelling and swearing at each other?

I don't know. But my favorite part was how grossed out my sweet daughter was by all the raw meat until she saw Auntie browning the duck.
Once she laid eyes on that beauty she declared it was what she would be eating for dinner. We explained that the chicken nuggets and pizza were for her and the 4 other kids because, hey, this duck? Not going to be ready until 8. But she waited.

I'd like to tell the story of the probe hanging out of the duck's butt but this blog post is already too long. It was some cooperation between me and brother-in-law and it sure was funny! I do hope it has nothing to do with why my sister's oven caught fully on fire tonight.
Yeah, yeah - our duck didn't look all beautiful like the one in the top picture but it tasted fantastic.

I think the raw pork comment came from all of us waiting and waiting for the probe to tell us the inside of this thing had reached 180. We couldn't wait and once we looked it up and found that 165 degrees would do, we pulled that sucker out of the oven so fast...

I'm kind of disappointed that I don't have a picture to show you of me and my sister sitting on the floor in front of the oven staring at it for 20 minutes.

The best part was how much the kids liked it and I thought we agreed we would make it again for Thanksgiving - but this time we would use store bought pastry and be sure to include the $45 black truffles.

However, I heard from my parents that this is not my sister's plan and that instead we are to have some kind of weird duck-off where everyone cooks a duck and brings it. Screw that.

I'll just make gyoza again. People always love them.

Houlihans

2009-10-20T18:57:00.001-07:00

I have some praises to sing tonight! First of all, it is great that they send out texts with free stuff.

I got the free small plate text so I decided to take my kids there for dinner after soccer. I love the food there but I don't normally bring my kids even though they have a good kids menu.

I can't believe how extensive the small plates menu is. And my daughter had filet mignon for dinner. My total bill for the three of us was $11.

Noah had a kids meal and I had a wonderful mushroom arugula pizza.

The best part was that the kids loved it. They thought the food was really good so we will be able to go back and try some of the other small plates.

I love how Houlihans is keeping up with the changing times by using text alerts to get people in the door and offering what is essentially tapas for those of us who would rather just have a few bites.

Thumbs up!

sunshine

2009-10-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

my natural state is joy
and light

my choice of words is laughter
and giggles

in love there is no room for tears
or pain

to hold on to this truth and keep it in front of my eyes like a beacon is my aim

I offer joy and light
and love

What a Day!

2009-10-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

I have so many great blog posts that are stacked up like my blockbuster queue which refuses to move or send me any damn movies.

There was Fusion last week, then the crazy Shabbat on Friday and I think I meant to take pictures today but that just didn't happen.

I did have 50 people over, which was great fun. And we made a totally delicious, KOSHER flour-less chocolate cake with homemade whipped cream which I thought I'd be bringing to work because by the time it was done there were maybe 15 people left - but we took that cake out!

We had a lazy day after the guests left. We had dinner and went down to the basement for some karaoke. We turned all the lights off and the two disco balls on and sang for 1/2 an hour.

It was fun but ended with me having a splitting headache. I took some Advil and sent the kids to bed.

Noah said he felt lonely and Grace was tagging along and my head was hurting so instead of getting up I invited them up to snuggle me for a little while ... and then I remembered to wiggle Noah's tooth.

This kid is approaching 7 and 1/2. I have been waiting 2 years to pull out a tooth. But, as I said, my head hurt and after a few tries I gave up.

When my daughter said she wanted to try I really didn't think anything of it. I said to my son, "let her try."

I really paid no attention, assuming that there was no way my little girl could pull her brother's tooth out. However, I think I underestimated the small finger advantage because she was on top of him one second with him squirming to get away from her and the next minute she was saying, "I got it!"

My son was under the covers hiding from her and she didn't have anything in her hands so I still thought nothing of it. But when he emerged that tooth was gone!

I'd like to say I remained calm but actually a great deal of yelling ensued.

"Where is the tooth?"

"Don't move!"

"Get away from there!"

"Get out of my bed!"

"Did you swallow it?"

To my daughter: "Do you have it?"

The kids kept jumping around and I kept yelling, "get out of my bed!"

And then I was screaming, "I'm going to kill you! This is his first baby tooth!!"

Eventually I calmed down and we said a prayer about firsts and then I asked the kids to step out of the room for a little while so I could find the tooth.

I knew I had to be careful. I couldn't rip my bed apart - it wouldn't help if the tooth went flying further.

Apparently Grace's extraction method mainly involved one finger, lodged on the inside of the bottom of Noah's mouth behind the loose tooth where she just yanked that sucker out and yes, it went flying.

I found it in the fold of my sheet on the side of my bed where it undoubtedly hit my bed curtain and fell to rest there. It was so tiny and cute. I called to the children that I had found it and they came running.

Noah couldn't believe it. Grace really didn't believe it.

Then Noah brought me his tooth fairy box that he has been holding on to for a year and we put it inside and placed it under his pillow.

Then the kids asked me about the tooth fairy. Noah was really worried about her showing up and I promised him that she would be in and out before he knew it. He fretted about it for awhile and eventually decided that he didn't want her to come.

I promised him that I'd let her know her services were not needed.

But she did come!

I hope he remembers to look in the morning.

Kosher Subway

2009-10-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'm having a rather lot of people over on Sunday so in an effort to keep my house spotlessly clean I have been taking the kids out to dinner every night.

Tonight was Subway, as we agreed upon yesterday but when we pulled up to said restaurant my son gasped in horror.

"But this is Kosher Subway!"

"We are Jews, we eat at Kosher Subway," I growled back at him.

He was in tears. They don't have cheese at Kosher Subway.

But it was good anyway. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow night. I might drag them to Fusion. I think I will. I love that smelly black bean fish so much.

Korma Sutra

2009-10-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

I love to cook. But I love to cook for those who love to eat. If it were just me I would cook once or twice a week and eat a lot of leftovers but I must feed two boisterous dolls with opposite tastes.

A regular dining spot of ours is Korma Sutra where Noah can be found bowing and saying, 'Namaste' and where he always poops at some point during the meal.

It was yummy per usual and I behaved myself and let the children take balloons from Mr. Singh and into my car.

When Noah asked if I would blow his up for him he simply laughed in response to my answer, 'no, but I will throw it out for you.'

Silly mother who hates balloons. It isn't anything they hold against me even though I am known to pop them if one floats near me. Especially in the kitchen.

What sweet angels I have to put up goodheartedly with my quirks.

Paranormal, The Movie or Misogyny Lives

2009-10-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

Walking into your house decked out with ghoulish creatures does not help your nerves after watching a movie like Paranormal.

On the other hand, it only took me halfway through this flick to realize how the writers come up with the idea.

I'm certain that some total weirdos recorded themselves asleep every night after bringing their newborn child home from the hospital. Thus, Paranormal was born.

I'm thinking these video-loving parents had a toddler based on the content of the film.

Check it: A loving, happy couple are disturbed from time to time by things that go bump in the night so they decide to record what his happening while they sleep.

They are woken up every night to strange noises between the hours of 2 and 4 until they are more and more sleep deprived, finally to the point of the mother killing the father.

Does this not sound like life with a newborn? I had to laugh once I noticed the similarity to the demise of the relationship and all semblance of sanity coinciding with repeated lack of sleep.

The strange way something seemed to sneak in under the sheets to get at the woman.

The way the woman would get up in her sleep and stare for hours at her sleeping man, surely thinking, "you did this to us with that man-thing of yours."

The demon in this movie followed around the woman - it was her negative energy that fed it and it was the woman it eventually possessed to do harm to the man.

Why do we so easily vilify women? Had I not seen Changeling yesterday I might not have noticed it in this movie. But that movie is a true story of how easy it was in 1928 to discount women as crazy and throw them in the nuthouse.

It seems to me that women are creatures to be utterly feared for most men. Women need to be protected and controlled or hey, they might just murder you in your sleep.

Hmmmm.

Thank goodness Jack is here to protect me. That movie was scary. But not as scary as it would have been if I hadn't been through raising a newborn. He was great material for movies like this. He wasn't the kind of newborn that had us any more sleep deprived than any other new parent. But man, when he was 2 he used to scare the shit out of us whispering about monsters to us at his bedtime, pointing just beyond our ears and gazing just over our heads.

"See it?" he'd say in his little voice while we took turns reminding each other that if we acted scared it might frighten him.

Ah children. Love them!

Garlic Delight!

2009-10-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight I made pizza for me and Noah. He got the boring side with cheese and no sauce.

My side had fresh mozzarella, Gouda and roasted garlic.

This week has been interesting.

I am constantly learning to be more humble. Sometimes I feel nothing more certainly than the forces of nature pushing my forehead down into the dirt.

For example, today.

A little background: I studied Linguistics, focusing on American Sign Language and sign languages in general. I love nothing more than communicating without speaking. Honestly.

So in our team meeting today when it was time for someone to do some charades as we played Cranium I jumped up like an ass and offered to do it. No sweat.

But suddenly I had to act out the movie "Dances with Wolves."

No. Please not in front of my boss. My face was red for 10 minutes and I couldn't stop laughing which didn't help anything.

Total humiliation.

Chapter 23

2009-10-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

Express yourself completely,
then keep quiet.
Be like the forces of nature:
when it blows, there is only wind;
when it rains, there is only rain;
when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.

If you open yourself to the Tao,
you are at one with the Tao
and you can embody it completely.
If you open yourself to insight,
you are at one with insight
and you can use it completely.
If you open yourself to loss,
you are at one with loss
and you can accept it completely.

Open yourself to the Tao,
then trust your natural responses;
and everything will fall into place.

Thai Cafe

2009-10-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night I had dinner in Houston at Thai Cafe. It was pretty good for what, as far as I can tell, is the capital of bad food of the world, second only to Branson, Missouri. And, it's a good thing Branson has such bad food because that's the only thing that keeps me from being miserable that I don't live there. But that's another story for another day.

This soup was so yummy. It was called gai tom gha or something.

This is the tiger cry beef. I like it at the Thai Place in Kansas City but it was only ok here. The meat was just regular steak. The sauce was really great but I want to take Matt to Thai Place here so he can have our tiger cry beef and try the lhad na grapow.

This dessert was crazy good. In part because it was half just a fresh mango. And I always say that fruit is g-d's candy and what I really mean when I say that is I'd rather eat fruit than anything else pretty much all the time.

I was describing this sticky rice in front of my 5-year old daughter and she almost passed out. She started screaming, "I want to eat that right now!" Her eyes rolled back in her head, I'm not kidding. All I said was, "this rice was really sticky and prepared with some sugar and coconut milk and a bit of salt and so it had this great flavor."
I miss Matt.

Houston, we have a problem

2009-10-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

And the problem is that you and my two little red-headed darlings need to be here with me and not there.

H1N1

2009-09-30T16:45:00.000-07:00

I think I might have it. Sore throat, fever and feeling yucky. But honestly, I hope I have it. Because this flu ain't too bad. I mean, yes I did sleep for 4 hours this afternoon and that was strange but I've had the flu before and if this is H1N1, I'll take it.

Maybe it's just a little bug that's going around all over the country... oh yeah, that's H1N1 isn't it.

The thing I don't like about it is that I can't think very well which means I'm writing a very boring post at the moment and that didn't help much at work today - hence the going home to sleep. I will show you what my parents brought me for dinner though. So nice of them.

The Golden Compass

2009-09-29T18:28:00.000-07:00

I made yaki soba for dinner. Sometimes people ask what my kids eat and I just don't have the energy to teach them about the diverse variety of foods Japanese people dine on every day. But that is the answer.

I like to make Japanese food every day.

When you are taking your son to soccer practice you either feel like a soccer Mom (not a chance) or you daydream about polar bears.

Two best scenes in golden compass involve slapping.

Polar bear 1 says, 'is that all?' and polar bear 2 literally slaps his face off followed by a calm, 'that is all.'

A distant second is when Nicole Kidman slaps her 'soul monkey' and her hand print shows up on her own cheek.

Is that all?

Lion King

2009-09-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

I decided today that I want to marry a younger man. Someone 5 to 10 years younger than me who is kind and humble and physically able. He will be looking for guidance. I will be the boss, because, after all a home can't have two heads and I am bound to be the head of my home.

I should have been a man I often think but I am a woman so now I have to admit that I will do better as the boss in my house and I should marry a younger man who wants to take care of my home and my kids and let me guide him along the way in life.

Oh, I may be just sort of kidding.

By the way, I love this song so much:

But, I have to admit that I hate the Lion King. I can't even watch this video, g-d forbid any clips of the broadway play without wanting to poke my eyes out.

I know, something is wrong with me. But at least I love this song. It's beautiful.

General Tso

2009-09-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

Last Monday I had a friend over for dinner so I decided to make a real meal. See below.

I made corn, green beans (pickled), rolled cabbage, bread, rice and general tso's chicken. It was really good.

I am way behind on posting food even though I have been taking pictures. I don't have a good excuse really, although I will once again blame it on my new phone that I cradle in my hands like a baby chick every day.

Actually I have a very exciting food story from yesterday and I may as well tell it right now.

I went to a picnic at Deanna Rose with a large group of people and for some bizarre reason I entered the dessert contest. I don't like dessert and I never make it but I do like the idea of a dessert contest so I just went for it.

I made a cherry chocolate pie and a raspberry chocolate pie. The raspberry pie was the real experiment because I used fresh raspberries. It turned out to taste good, for pie - which I don't like.

Anyway, there were 11 entries and many of them were incredibly beautiful and some were done by people who clearly do bake and know what they are doing. Unfortunately for me, my son was really adamant that I should win.

As they read out who got third place and then second, I knew for certain that I could not win against my competition, but alas. The announcer said, "and in first place, her first time entering this contest, the winner is ....." and he said my name.

My jaw fell open as he handed me the prize, which my son took out of my hands, proclaiming, "I knew it, I told you!"

But moments later, when I asked which of my pies had won, it turns out that number 11 (a cherry cheese pie) had won. My son was so angry and disappointed I thought he was never going to get over it.

But I think the excitement of being called out as first place was prize enough - even if I only thought it for a minute or two - it was great to think I won something like that.

Actually, I would have given first place to the chocolate bundt cake, followed by the rum cake and the third to the pound cake. I guess I like cake.