December 5, 2009 at 6:35 am (Origami)
Tags: flowers, Japan, Origami
Origami Lilies
I finished up this project as a study break just now. I had the paper lying around from my first trip to Kyoto forever ago. Then my uncle gave me the vase when he moved out of his house, because it came from Japan. So I decided to put the paper to use: folded all the flowers (a few months ago), and finally arranged them with some stems. Not bad, ay?
June 4, 2009 at 2:29 pm (cooking)
Tags: cod, fish, Italian food, Japanese food, miso
Italian broiled whitefish is one of my favorite things to make. It’s simply delicious, and tastes just like home to me, being something my mother made for me often growing up.
Unfortunately, one of the things that makes it so tasty is butter. (Incidentally, I’ve been curious lately why we’d be engineered to find things that are SO bad for you, like butter and oil, to be SO TASTY. It’s just weird.) Anyway, I was looking to make an alteration on the recipe that involved no oil or butter. And thus, Miso Italian Whitefish was born!
Italian whitefish made with miso paste instead of butter and olive oil.
The preparation is almost exactly the same. To make the breading paste, I combined 1 1/2 tablespoons of miso paste with the lemon juice, added the chopped garlic, and simmered for a few minutes. Then I added the breadcrumbs, parmesan, and spices to make the paste, layed it on the fish and baked it. Before serving, I topped it with a little more parmesan. I served it with steamed vegetables with a soy-sesame sauce over it, and brown rice.
It came out really well! Of course it tastes different than the original, without the buttery goodness, but it was still extremely yummy and much, much healthier.
June 4, 2009 at 2:16 pm (cooking)
Tags: chicken, cod, cookbooks, fish, Japanese food, miso, pork, raw, sake, salmon, spicy, stir fry, wasabi
A friend here lent me his copy of Japanse Dishes for Wine Lovers, and it quickly became one of my favorite cookbooks. It’s a fusion book, combining Japanese ingredients or preparation methods with more Western recipes, and most are simple to make. And, whether you give a damn about wine or not, the food is fantastic.
Lately I’ve been on a kick of experimenting with some of its recipes, as the time to return the book to my friend was rapidly approaching (and now done). Here were some of my favorites.
Spicy Miso Simmer
Spicy Miso Simmered Pork
The recipe called for cod, but the first time I made it, I used some small cuts of pork. The sauce is made with miso, spicy miso, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and water, and is simmered with the meat in a covered pan for 10 minutes. I made a spinach and fried rice stir fry in sesame oil to go with. It is was amazing.
Spicy Miso Simmered Cod
The second time, I made it with cod. I was afraid the cooking method would produce rubbery fish, but it was perfect. I made an eggplant and broccoli stir fry to go with it, along with brown rice, and poured the remaining sauce over everything. I’m going to adapt this one for a barbecue this weekend, actually.
Raw Salmon with Sake and Lemon
Salmon in a sake/lemon marinade with dill.
I was a little hesitant at making a meal out of raw fish that isn’t balanced on rice, but this was seriously one of the nicest things I’ve tasted all year. The salmon is filleted super thin, and arranged on a plate.
The marinade is made mostly from sake and organic lemon juice. I used really good sake that my boyfriend and I bought in Iga; it has a light, almost fruity aftertaste. The original recipe called for shallots, but I bought the wrong vegetable at the grocery store, and didn’t feel like going out again. So I improvised by mincing some white onion and garlic instead. There is also some sugar and mirin in the mix. The marinade is poured over the salmon, topped with fresh dill, and then refrigerated for a few hours.
The flavor was sweet, tangy, and strong, and lemon juice mostly cooked the thinly-cut fish. I ate it with a then-favorite of broccoli, eggplant, and brown rice stiry fry.
Wasabi Chicken
Wasabi chicken lunch topped with ground sesame seeds.
I’ve also been on a quest lately to make good one-dish meals that I can bring into work. This one was super easy to make, though I think next time I’ll aim for a stronger flavor.
The chicken is boiled and then shredded, and the vegetable is chopped and also boiled. The recipe called for watercress, but I couldn’t find it, so I used spinach leaves and stalks. A dressing is made of soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and wasabi. Everything is tossed together well, and that’s it! I put some brown rice in the bottom of a tupperware container and put the mixture over it, topped it with ground sesame seeds, and toted it off to work. It was good, but not enough wasabi for my tastes. More next time!
March 26, 2009 at 1:26 pm (crochet, knitting, & spinning)
Tags: camel hair, fine merino wool, homespun yarns, nettle, spinning, Tussah silk
After I started to get the hang of spinning regular wool, I began to branch out and try fibers with really different textures.
My very “pretty” yarn (NOT one for the blanket of otherwise unusable yarns), was made from fine merino wool that was intended for felting. So I went from a bunch of this:
Fine merino fiber--it reminds me of a cloud. ^_^
To this:
My first pretty yarn!
100 gram of that was a serious spinning project, but I’m really pleased with the result. I’m going to try to make a fancy scarf or something out of it.
I’ve also had a go at some Tussah silk, a type of wild silkworm from China. At first, I could only manage the silk on the spindle. My first try at doing it on the wheel was a disaster, and I ruined a small amount of it. All it did was tangle and break off from my hand. But I sucked it up, read up on silk spinning techniques (low tension, lots of twist, and spinning off the fold), and was successful with my future attempts!
My first batches of wheel-spun silk. A bit lumpy, but strong and completely usable!
While merino wool and Tussah silk are both pretty common spinning fibers, last night I had the chance to sample some even more exotic fibers! The first was nettle. It was really messy, and full of debris, so it made a really scratchy, hairy yarn. But it’s super strong and not that difficult to draw, so if it were carded well and water was used during spinning, it could probably be a lot smoother. I Navaho-plied it, and basically got a small length of rope.
Rough but strong nettle yarn.
And finally, I ended with something that ended up being one of favorite things I’ve spun so far: camel hair! It’s only the soft down fur of the camel, probably from the belly. It’s extremely soft, but stronger than I expected it to be.
A small amount of fine camel down yarn.
If you read the post about the Evolution Blanket, you can probably see how much better my spinning is getting. Keep it coming!
March 26, 2009 at 12:52 pm (crochet, knitting, & spinning)
Tags: blanket, crochet, handspun yarns, spinning
As I’ve said earlier, I have a new-found love for spinning yarn. My friend Katie (Hotaru on Ravelry) has been teaching me, and I’ve been getting in as much practice as I can. Of course, my first several batches of yarn were bulky and ugly. So, what the heck do I do with them all? I decided to make a giant granny square throw blanket! It’s only lap-sized right now, but here’s the work so far:
Made in continuous rounds of my first handspun yarns, showing the evolution of my spinning skills.
I like doing it in a granny square because it shows the evolution of my spinning skills. The center is my very first homespun yarn, and progresses out to my most recent practice yarns. Here’s a look at the yarns I’ve made so far that have gone into the blanket, and how they’ve improved:
The center of the blanket and my very first homespun yarn, made from plain ol' wool. You can see how bulky and uneven this 2-ply yarn is. You can also see where it looks un-plied at the top of the photo; that was my *very* first (and very short) spindle yarn, which I crocheted doubled on itself to finish the center square.
The next layer is my first real spindle yarn, which I actually did after my first wheel yarn. On the spindle I can move as slowly as I want, so it's more even.
Next was the first few tries at the rainbow wool. This was my first extended practice at the wheel. I Navaho-plied it, and since it ws very lumpy and uneven to begin with, I ended up with a very chunky yarn. But, it was also my first Navaho ply, so I learned a new skill with this yarn!
In my later batches of the rainbow wool yarn, you can really see the improvements. You can see that the single strands of the yarn are much finer and much more even. I still Navaho-plied it, so it would thick enough to use in the blanket. Getting better!
So once you get used to spinning fine singles, spinning an even-width thicker single is really hard! Also, I had had so much practice with the rainbow wool, that switching to this less-matted mix wool was also difficult. I ended up with a kind of lumpy yarn, but I think the texture was actually pretty after it was crocheted up.
So, thus is the Evolution Blanket! After the yarns used in this project, I finally began to spin prettier yarns, and branch out into new fibers. The difference is really noticeable, and I’m actually not going to put them into the blanket, because I think I could make a nice project out of them. But, since this post is already way long, I’ll make a new post for the prettier, more exotic fiber yarns.
March 26, 2009 at 11:50 am (cooking)
Tags: eggplant, food, Italian food, Japanese food, marinara, parmesan, recipe, twisted classic recipe
Last night I was really in the mood for marinara, but wanted something with more nutritional value than pasta. I also didn’t feel like dealing with meat, and ended up creating a really tasty vegetarian variety of eggplant Parmesan with a Japanese twist:
Eggplant Parmesan with Japanese ingredients.
I bought some fried tofu at the store, and inspired Alex Storey’s grilled cheese in the previous post, I spread it with garlic paste, chili paste, oregano, basil, and lots of grated Parmesan. Then I put it under the broiler until it was nice and crispy.
Meanwhile, I steamed one Japanese eggplant and a sprig of Japanese cloud mushrooms in the microwave. I removed the skin from the eggplant, topped it with cheese (I wanted mozzarella, but I only had cheap cheese), and put it back in the microwave to melt the cheese.
I made a fairly traditional marinara, with flash-blended tomatoes (originally diced and canned), red onion, garlic, sugar, basil, salt, and black & red pepper.
I arranged everything on the plate, topping it with a fragrant Japanese shisho leaf, which tastes like a cross between mint and oregano.
I added a lot more sauce and grated Parmesan after I took the picture, and it was amazing!
March 25, 2009 at 10:34 am (cooking)
Tags: food, grilled cheese, inspiration, Italian food, twisted classic recipe
My friend Alex Storey, who does amazingly pretty and creative things with food, recently put an amazing and easy-to-reproduce twist on a classic grilled cheese sandwich:
Grilled cheese crusted with Italian ingredients and served with tomato soup. Photo and recipe by Alex Storey.
She covered the bread in garlic paste, chili paste, cilantro, and Parmesan cheese and broiled it (and made her own soup with stewed tomatoes). I didn’t have all those ingredients, but the idea of herbs and Parmesan cooked onto the bread was inspiring, so I made my own simplified version.
I used wheat bread, and spread a little butter on it. Then I covered it in oregano, basil, garlic powder, and grated Parmesan cheese, put some butter in a frying pan, and pan-grilled the sandwich using Gouda and cheddar cheeses in the middle.
I also used instant tomato soup, since I was feeling lazy.
But the result was amazing–the Parmesan crisps up the bread so much, and it was bursting with flavor, and blended so well with the tomato of the soup. I usually put a lot of hot sauce on grilled cheese, but not on this one, since it was overpowering and the sandwich already tasted so good on its own.
I highly recommend it!
March 17, 2009 at 3:51 pm (crochet, knitting, & spinning)
Tags: button-up hoodie, crochet, designing, sleeves, sweater
So in January, I started designing a sweater. It was hopping along quickly with the back, and then the front was slightly more difficult, as I had to make two panels that overlapped a bit, being a button-up design and all. I had to do proportion ratio math to determine the number of stitches and rows for each panel.
Then there were the sleeves.
See, it’s one thing to look at example shapes of sleeves in pattern books. But it’s another thing entirely to figure out why they’re shaped that way, and why things need to be certain lengths in certain places. And so, I hit a wall. Not really because I felt it was too difficult a task for me, but more because it involved a lot of thinking, and math, and I was lazy.
But after two months of sitting on the shelf, staring at me unfinished and inducing guilt, I bought some graph paper and gave it another go. All that algebra and geometry that you learn in high school and think you’ll never use? Well, proportions, ratios, and slope of a line were put well into use! I had to measure my arm and measure some example clothing pieces to determine a final length and width for the lower and upper parts of the sleeve. Then I had to determine how many rows and stitches were needed, and at what rate I needed to decrease to make the dimensions work. I also needed include the armhole diameter and how to shape it to the right size and length, AND include the armhole part in the overall length of the sleeve.
…Like I said, LOTS of math.
And I made sketches and used graph paper, and had to recalculate five times, because I kept forgetting to consider some point of the design.
But, I did it! I successfully designed a sleeve! Now I’m finally on my way to finishing this damn thing. Thanks to high school math class 9 years ago. :P
Sleeve in its open shape
Sleeve in its folded shape (how it will look on the sweater)
February 25, 2009 at 7:07 am (cooking)
Tags: breakfast, chicken soup, easy cooking, soup, spicy
I made one of my favorite quick breakfasts this morning, out of my Irish Soups & Breads book (by Nualla Cullen).
I made the soup part last night before I went to bed– it’s basically chicken soup with leeks and chilies. Just strong chicken broth, 1/2 a leek sliced in thin slivers, 1 clove of partially crushed garlic, and a lot of thinly-sliced dried chili.
In the morning, I toasted three slices of baguette bread and poached an egg. I put the the toasted bread in a shallow bowl with the egg on top, sprinkled with basil, and then loaded the re-heated soup into the bowl.
When the egg yolk breaks, it spreads over the bread and mixed with the soup, and the whole thing is delicious and surprisingly energizing and filling, albeit quite mushy.
Toasting bread and poaching eggs is so easy; it’s such a quick breakfast to make in the morning before work! And the soup will last maybe three mornings, so I’m set for the better part of the week. ^_^
February 19, 2009 at 10:00 pm (crochet, knitting, & spinning)
Tags: Angora rabbit, spindle, spinning, wheel, wool, yarn
This week, no less than two nights ago, my friend Katie gave me my first lessons in spinning yarn. She had me experiment on a spindle for about 10 minutes, and then moved me to the wheel.
…I had no idea it would be this much fun!
The second half of what I produced on the wheel wasn’t half bad, so we doubled it over and plied it. I blocked it, and now I have a small amount of what is my very first handspun yarn!
Crappy Photo Booth Shot!
Excuse the crappy quality photo, my camera is curently indisposed. But anyway, she also lent me her spindle and sent me away with a bunch of wool to practice with, and so the last two days has produced this:
I’ll have to go back to Katie’s to get some help with winding it off the spindle, but I’m pretty please with the result.
Spinning is completely relaxing and I really like it. It even has me dreaming about fiber sources, and now I really want an Angora bunny to compliment the hobby:
The fluffiest of the fluffy bunnies.
Buuut one thing at a time. :)
