Vegete

Hi! It is very sunny today!
Hope spring has come.

Yesterday, my supervisor was again very annoying.
He always comes to work late.
Also, he goes to lunch after the lunch break.
I hate him do that because no one knows where he went suddenly...
He says we can assume, but I think that makes no sense!

Anyway!

Last week, I didn't have a chance to write about my prize-winning piece so I will write about it today.

In March, Asahi (the 2nd largest beer brewery & soft drink company in Japan) gave out free samples of alcoholic beverage called "Vegete" and asked for recipes that goes good with it.
Vegete is low alcoholic beverage that contains 20％ each of vegetable juice and fruit juice.
It uses 21 different sorts of vegetables (such as carrot, spinach, asparagus, red bell pepper...) and 4 different sorts of fruit (such as orange, lemon...).
Asahi jointly-developed this product with Kagome (manufacturer of food and beverage products based on tomatoes and other various vegetables) combining their strengths.
Last Year, in September, they first launched tomato based alcoholic beverage, "Tomate" and was relatively successful.
Judging from it's reaction, they say that the new product "Vegete" will definitely appeal to and be a hit with health-conscious consumers!

I tried "Vegete" and was great!
It is uncarbonated and easy to drink :)
I think it will be hit with people of all ages!

So, my prize-winning recipe is "Ginger Marinated Bacon and Vegetables"!
Can you find mine at the linked page? :)
I used soy sauce and maple syrup to give a salty-sweet taste.
Also, I used a lot of grated fresh ginger to make it refreshing!
The recipe is here.
I will translate it in English if anyone wants :)

By the way, this week, I'm doing bad. Losing prizes...
I don't have time to bum out, so I'm gonna do my best!

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CNET Networks / ZDNet Japan

Hello!
I am writing again today, because I don't think I can write tomorrow.
Somehow, I don't get a chance to write my diary on Fridays and Mondays.

Good news.
On 4/1, my "Western Style Green Pepper, Carrot, and Egg Kinpira" was introduced at CNET Networks / ZDNet Japan!
There is a rabbit (?) character called Ziddy and she features a cafeteria at a company once in few weeks. This time, she visited Cookpad. They don't have a cafeteria but they have a kitchen, so they cooked their lunch for the feature, and mine was cooked :)
Here is the article and mine is this.

You know what?!
I run 2 websites at work, and wanted ZDNet to feature those.
I wouldn't have thought of my recipe (hobby) to be featured there first.

Tomorrow is my boyfriend's 33rd birthday!
I always give him a tie, so wondering what to give...
Hmm. Pajamas might be good because he always wears the same ones and I don't have a chance to wash, ha-ha.
Tonight, he is going to eat out with his business partner, so gonna get something!!!
Also, gonna get a cake for tomorrow morning, since it is not good for his health to eat sweets after dinner:)

@23:00

I got him this cake!
Don't you think it pretty with sakura prints?
Also, I got him pajamas :)

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Chinese Food

Hi!
Some of the cherry blossoms are already in bloom!
I took a picture of them on Saturday.
Unfortunately, it is raining and cold today, but once it gets warm, I guess they are going to be in full bloom!!!




Today, I have one good news.
Last week, I won the grand prize in the "Chinese food seasonings contest".
This contest was organized by Ajinomoto, maker of food seasonings, cooking oils and foods, drinks, and pharmaceuticals.
They asked for easy recipes using their Chinese food seasoning products.
My prize-winning piece is "Chinese Style White Miso Stir Fried Seven Vegetables".
I stir fried what I had in my refregerator.
For the seasoning, I used chicken stock with white miso which was leftover from the new year's day.
The chicken stock adds a nice rich flavor to slightly sweet white miso!
You could get addicted :)

The prize for this award was a meal voucher for chef Wakiya's "Turandot", where offers a new style of Chinese cooking inspired by the traditional food of Shanghai, Szechuan, Canton and Beijing.
He has a restaurant in NY, too!
I am excited to go there, but I wonder why I always win things not cash, ha-ha!

Luckily, I doubly won the second prize, too!
The recipe is "Spring Roll-Like Egg wrapped Steamed Rice".
It is very easy! I cooked rice with chicken stock and vegetables.
While cooking, I made crepe style fried egg (usuyakitamago) to wrap the rice.

The prize for this award was Chinese wok!!!
Oh my god, where shall I put...
I think I need a bigger kitchen someday.

I'm not gonna write in detail, but I lost prizes for some other big contests which are held every year...
This was my third trial but again I lost :(
Am I disliked?!

Okay, I have a lot more to write but I gotta stop now.
Goodnight!

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My Accomplishments

After the thunderstorm on Friday, the weather has changed to spring!
It is getting warm day by day! Hope it lasts.

Yesterday, I was so busy that I couldn't have a chance to write my diary. Actually, this week, I am going to attend PHOTO IMAGING EXPO 2008 on the 19th and we have a national holiday on the 20th, so I might not coming back to keep my diary, but don't forget about me :)

Anyway, yesterday, I was terribly out of luck :(
I found that I lost prizes at 4 contests held at cooking sites.
To tell the truth, I am doing poorly these few months...
Am I storing the luck???

Whatever!
I will list some of my recent events.

On 2/24, I won a special award at Valentine's Day egg recipe competition.
This competition was organized by Nosan Corporation, the producer of "Yodoran" Hikari brand of iodine-enriched eggs. I made White Chocolate Cranberry Brownies using 3 eggs to give a moist texture.
My sister loved it!
Might be good for Easter, too.

On 3/3, I won a fighting-spirit award at nabe photo contest.
This was organized by Commupla, the community site for women.
I made Cod Fish And Pork Nabe Flavored with Sichuan Pepper.





On 3/11, I won a B prize at sweet treats contest held by Kyoritsu Foods ( food manufacturer).
I decorated a chocolate bar with sugar sprinkles.



I have three more... but I'm not that satisfied with the results, so I won't write.

Different story.

Now my recipe, using Kagome's basic canned tomato sauce product, become a recipe sticker, and available on the can!
The recipe is Healthy Tomato Tantan Harusame.
It is sesame and the tomato sauce based stir fried harusame.


Okay, I wrote enough and kind of drowsy now.
See you again with happy news, hopefully.

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Aojiso Wrapped Chicken Teriyaki Balls

Hi!
Again, I didn't have a chance to write my diary on Friday.
That night, my boyfriend and I planned to eat out but my boyfriend had to work late so we gave up.
Instead, I could have written my diary, but I downloaded Adobe's Lightroom and played with it.
It was pretty cool that you can change room light to natural sunlight, but I couldn't get used to it right away... and still now as well...
There are too many functions!!!

On Saturday, same as last week, my boyfriend had to attend a training class at his work, so I had a breakfast with him at Dean & Deluca and stayed there for about few hours. At noon, I had an appointment with my orthodontist so I went out, but again I went back to cafe, this time Starbucks, and stayed there till 18:00.
After that, I had a dinner with my boyfriend and went home.
At the time I go to bed, I felt very dull and I couldn't get to sleep!!!
I wondered why and my boyfriend said that it could be "Economy class syndrome".
Right... I was sitting in a cramped space for a long time...
If anyone loves to spend a long time at cafe, I suggest you to find a wider seat!!!
Also, lack of exercise can be a factor!!!
To talk about this, lately, I haven't been getting enough exercise...
I am swollen like a pig :(
I love to exercise if I have time... but as you know, I use most of my time creating recipes.
I think I need to force myself to go to GYM, shortly.
I know I can keep up if I once start, since I do a short YOGA workout every morning since last year!

Okay, back to my fat factor!
On Sunday, I created 6 new recipes!!!
I have won many food product samples these days, so I needed to use them in return.
Also, there were some recipe competitions I wanted to try, so I was kind of pushed...
Anyway, I did my best.
I will write about those recipes if I get a chance!

Today, I wanted to write about the other recipe: Aojiso Wrapped Chicken Teriyaki Balls.
I made this on Thursday.
I mixed ground chicken, Riken's new non-oil Teriyaki dressing, minced long onion, grated ginger and bread crumb. Then I wrapped with Aojiso, and cooked in a microwave.
It was juicy & delicious!
Hope this dressing is available all over the world. I will write the recipe in detail if anyone wants.

Finally, today I won the second prize at Philadelphia's cream cheese competition organized by Cookpad.
To tell the truth, none of my cream cheese recipes up to now won a prize, so I am really happy with it!

Okay, I wrote enough!
Please ignore my spell and grammar mistakes!

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My Accomplishments

Hello!
Sorry again! I didn't have a chance to write my diary on Friday.
I was unexpectedly busy.

On Thursday, I could survive the party without feeling uncomfortable.
Since the restaurant was located in a department store, we didn't expect to eat delicious food, but the food there was pretty good!
I had a good time.

Anyway, today I want to write about my recent events.
There are many thing going on!!!

Last Friday, I won the "Angel Prize" at Megami's Recipe site!
I used to write about this site for many times, so please search my diary if you want to know about it in detail.
The prizewinning recipe was "Stir-Fried Salt Rubbed Chinese Cabbage".
I received a comment from Yukio Hattori, which made my day happy :)


Also, on that day, I got honorable mention for Sushi competition at All Japan Sushi.
They put out a call for new sushi menu and there were more than 400 submissions, so it was pretty competitive.
I created Fillet-o-Sushi.

Then the sad news (or good news?!).
On Saturday I received a message from Megami's site.
They say that they are going to stop the site for a while to renew the site.
It was on such short notice that I couldn't accept it for a while...
Hope they come back soon.

Then the bright news!!!
On Sunday my "Lucky Eho-Maki" recipe was posted on the front page of cookpad.com (No.1 recipe search/posting site in Japan).
I checked my statistics at cookpad this morning and realized that I had a lot of traffic on that day! Wow!!!



And today, I got honorable mention for "salt Zosui competition" at shio-navi.com.
shio-navi.com is the site to search & learn & evaluate about many different kinds of salt(mainly in Japan).
My piece was "Chicken Broth Zosui".
I boiled a Chicken Thigh Meat in water and flavored cooking liquid with salt and used for Zosui. You eat it with varieties of ingredients.

Also today, I passed the initial screening to go to the finals and create drink recipes using camu camu. I think I'm gonna be busy again this month!

Okay. I wrote enough today!
See you tomorrow :)

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Beef and Onion Ethnic Salad

To tell the truth, I have very little work to do this afternoon...
Maybe because it's Friday!
I wanna go home.

Anyway, every Saturday I have a lunch with my boyfriend at my favorite cafe near home, but I am thinking of switching to another cafe this weekend since it is very cold there.
Usually I stay there for about 5 hours to study and talk with my boyfriend but I don't think I can tolerate the cold...

Anyway, last Saturday I received a prize from @nifty (a company that operate Internet communication service).
They organized a cooking contest last year that asked for recipes which goes good with either white or red wine.
I created "Beef and Onion Ethnic Salad" for white wine.
I marinated boiled sliced beef and sliced onion & green pepper with lemon based hand made soy sauce dressing. Instead of adding nam pla (the fish sauce of Thailand), I sprinkled Ikura (salmon roe), which also has the taste of fish sauce.

Don't you think this is a good idea?
Try it out :)

Doing nothing is kind of tired.
It doesn't suit me...

I gotta find out something to do.

See you next week!!!

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Soy Collagen Jello with Lemon Marmalade Sauce

Hi!
It's already December.
It's my birth month!!!
I'm not that happy to get older, but I am looking forward to going out for a dinner with my boyfriend :)
He said we are going out on this Friday!
Actually, my birthday is the 9th but we might go out with my parents on the weekend, so that is why.

Good news!!!
On Saturday I won the highest award at Megami's Recipes site!
The award-winning recipe is "Christmas Tofu", that I posted here last week.
As I wrote before, the Megami's Recipes site is directed by Yukio Hattori, best known as an expert commentator on the Japanese television show Iron Chef.
I received a few comments from him, which is very valuable!!!

Writing about my work.
On Sunday, I created 5 new recipes.
One of them is "Soy Collagen Jello with Lemon Marmalade Sauce".
Recently, there are a lot of food products containing collagen (especially the food products that target women) in Japan.
As I get older, I become interested in skin care.
Lotte Japan sell a collagen powder that contains 10000mg with vitamin C! I used this powder to make the soy jello.

The recipe in Japanese is here.
I will write in English if anyone wants.

Tomorrow, I will write about another collagen-related recipe!
See you :)

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Diet Recipe Contest

Today Eriko(who retired and opened a cafe) visited our office, so we went out to eat lunch again.
Yesterday I visited her cafe, so this is why she came :)
Her cafe is very intimate and her way of making coffee is great!
I want all coffee lovers to try out her coffee.
http://www.katecoffee.jp/
Of course her food menu (especially her curry) is great, too!
I am sorry that this is located in Japan :(

Different story.
As I mentioned on Friday, I attended the awards ceremony on Sunday.
My boyfriend came with me :)
The contest was held by Bureau of Sewerage Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
They put out a call for diet recipes using less oil, that are good for our health and "the sewage system". They want to prevent people from dumping cooking oil waste into the drain of a sink.
(The candidates were limited to Tokyo residents.)

1 grand prize and 2 second prizes were awarded.
Mine was the second prize :)

The grand prize recipe was created by a high school student. She made potato croquettes using deep-fried been curd. Instead of frying, she pan-broiled them to reduce the oil usage. (pictured second from the left)

The second prize was mine and a housewife's.

My recipe was "Microwave Stir-fried Pork and Vegetables". I didn't use oil but I used pork loin and some bacon to make it tasty. (pictured third from the left)

The housewife's recipe was "Daigaku Imo (Japanese Candied Sweet Potatoes) Cooked in a Rice Cooker". We usually fry to make this, but she steamed! (pictured right)

All recipes were sampled by those people who attended this awards ceremony.

I had a TV interview :) -->

It was a busy morning, but in the afternoon, I didn't have that much to do.
I hung out with my boyfriend, went to Eriko's cafe and shopped around the town.
Compared to my usual artwork (cooking) day, it was a verrrrry relaxing day.

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