Still here

No, I haven't been in hiding, nor sulking this time. Just been rather busy, and the school holidays have meant that by the time the kids are in bed, I am worn out and unable to string a sentence together, let alone remember what we've been up to. Back to school on Tuesday... WOOO HOOO! It's not that I don't enjoy having them all at home, not having to get up at 6.15am, etc., it's just that it's sooo noisy, and the house is a complete pigsty! Oh, and as they boys' favourite way to pass time is by playing 'explorers' out in the paddy fields, the washer has been running almost non-stop. Anyway, we have had rather a fun time over the last few weeks. For a start, we have added to our family:



Making their debut here today are Polly and Penny! Actually, their names could well change. K wants to call them Tinky and Winky (I don't think so), I quite like Thelma and Louise or Thomasina and Geraldine (Tom and Jerry), the boys want to name them after themselves... Any good suggestions?

I'm still trying to eat healthier, and came across some unusual choccie treats - vegetable chocolate! There was a whole range of different flavours, I picked up the following two to try out:



On the left is spinach and white chocolate, and on the right we have carrot and mandarin orange in dark chocolate. The verdict? A waste of money and calories! The carrot one was OK, couldn't taste much of the filling at all. The spinach one was absolutely disgusting, I took a small nibble and then passed it on to the children (who wolfed it down in seconds - I didn't tell them that it was made with spinach)!

I'd much rather eat my veggies in curry form - why ruin good chocolate? Speaking of curry, I made this healthy dish for dinner the other day (it was a Yoshikei recipe) and as it's so easy to play around with I will be making a lot more of the (I need to get my protein):



Tofu with curried vegetable sauce

2 packs of tofu, cut into large pieces
1 carrot, cut into juliennes
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 small bunch of nira (anyone know what this is called in English?)or spring onion, sliced thickly
1/2 tablespoon curry powder
240ml dashi (I used kombu)
30ml cooking sake
40ml soy sauce
40ml mirin
pinch of salt
1 rounded tablespoon cornstarch

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the vegetables and curry powder. Add all of the liquid ingredients and salt and heat to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat, mix the cornflour with a little water and stir into the vegetables. Heat again until thickened slightly. Arrange the tofu on plates and microwave to heat through, then top with the curried vegetables.

Meals on wheels

We recently had a leaflet through our door about a meal delivery service, Yoshikei. Not quite like ordering a take-away, the company offers a selection of 5 different menus on a daily basis, and delivers the ingredients at lunchtime in time for you to prepare the evening meal! Actually, my SIL has been using it for years and I was very interested, so with a trial offer too good to refuse K wanted to give it a go.

I received the first box yesterday. K had chosen pork stir-fried with garlic and miso, served with simmered dish of hijiki (a kind of seaweed) and daikon and a fusili pasta salad:



The box contained pretty much everything I needed (fresh meat and vegetables in just the right amounts!), and I was provided with the recipes to follow. Aha, this could involve a bit of trial and error - I'm not sure of all the kanji, but I can guess most of it. It was simple enough to throw together, the portions were very generous (we ordered enough for 2, which was enough for K and the boys, veggie dishes for me and some left over for breakfast the next day), there was no wasteage, and I hadn't had to go shopping - fantastic!

Today's meal was grilled fish (don't ask me what kind, but it was red!) served with a chicken and chinese cabbage stirfry and boiled and marinaded gobo (burdock root) tossed in ground sesame:



I'm very impressed with the whole set-up. You can pick and choose from the various menus, order as little or as often as you like, and they even provide a lockable coolbox to leave outside so that they can deliver without bothering you! And it's not that expensive, either - on average, for the option we chose, the cost is around 1,000 yen (about £6.50), although we are enjoying a special rate of 700 yen a day for this week. Although I wouldn't want to use this service every day, I think that this might be a good way for me to learn to cook with some of the local ingredients I tend to avoid as I have no idea what to do with them!