ECCO Low Table

We still haven't bought the ALBERO sofa, but this is the ECCO coffee (low) table that we want. I liked the glass on top :D



However I wonder why those low tables are so pricey... this one costs about 400 bucks!!! I looked for a cheap one, but the cheap ones look really cheap and they still cost about 200 bucks... sigh :'(

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Korokke (Croquette) - Video Recipe

Korokke (Croquette) is a parcel of food such as minced meat or vegetables, shaped into a cylinder or circle, encased in breadcrumbs and deep fried. 

My mom always mixes minced meat and boiled eggs to add richness, which makes the croquette really addictive! My darling loves it, so I always make tons of them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvfCPtdIJIM

Try out my recipe and you will know why ;)



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Korokke (Croquette)

Difficulty: Medium
Time: 30min
Number of servings: 16 croquettes

Ingredients:
4 egg
800g (1.8lb) potato
200g (7oz) ground beef and pork mixture
200g (7oz) onion
2 tbsp. butter
A
* 1tsp. salt
* cracked black pepper
* nutmeg
B
* flour
* beaten egg
* Panko (bread crumbs) vegetable oil for frying
Tonkatsu sauce
ketchup and/or mayonnaise if desired
vegetables of your choice

Directions:
1. Cook hard-boiled eggs and roughly mince them. Peel and cut potatoes into medium chunks and boil them until soften. Drain and mash them while hot.
2. Mince the onion and saute with butter until soft. Add ground beef and pork mixture and cook until done. Season with A.
3. In the pot of mashed potatoes (1.), mix chopped eggs (1.), and cooked onion and meat (2.).
4. Make the mixture flat in the pot and divide it into 16 equal portions.
5. Make flat and oval-shaped patties. Coat each piece with flour, dip in beaten egg, and coat with panko.
6. Fry them in oil at 170C (340F) until cooked golden brown.
7. Serve croquettes with ketchup and/or mayonnaise if desired, and garnish with vegetables of your choice.

My original recipe in Japanese is here.
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iPad2

My darling finally bought iPad2 and it arrived on the weekend :D



I envy him!!!

I own MacBook Pro and we both use iPhone (mine is still 3GS, though...).

Anyways, we both love Apple ;D haha

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Love Heart Cutlet - Video Recipe

I made a video of my favorite recipe :D

My darling loves tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) and he also loves sausage! So, I combined them together and made cute bite-size heart-shaped cutlets.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C13h7GRUUtY

It's really easy and kawaii (cute) recipe, so make some for your hun ;)



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Love Heart Cutlet

Difficulty: Easy
Time: 15min
Number of servings: 6 cutlets

Ingredients:
6 thinly sliced pork
6 sausage
salt and cracked black pepper
A
* flour
* beaten egg
* Panko (bread crumbs)
vegetable oil for frying
B
* 2 tbsp. ketchup
* 1 tsp. whole-grain mustard
* 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
tomato wedges
cabbage strips
watercress if available

Directions:
1. Work with one slice of pork at a time. Place the slice of pork so that the length of it is running flat and vertically towards you. Sprinkle a bit of salt and cracked black pepper onto one side and place the sausage on the end of the pork close to you and start rolling diagonally to cover the sausage. Repeat with the remaining pork slices and sausage.
2. Cut the rolls diagonally, join the cut sides reversely, and join them with toothpicks to look like hearts.
3. Flour the rolls, dip in beaten egg, then roll in panko. Fry them in oil at 170C (340F) until cooked golden brown.
4. Remove the toothpicks. Mix B well. Serve cutlets with B, tomato wedges, cabbage strips, and watercress if available.

My original recipe in Japanese is here.
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2 videos in a week is the best I can do! I don't know why, but I lack concentration, and it takes time to escape from being procrastinating, though I want to create the videos as soon as possible. Funny, right?! hahaha

I changed my microphone! I hope you realized it. It has less noise and volume ups an downs!!! I will try to learn a better technique for everything to improve my upcoming videos.

Have a good weekend!

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http://www.youtube.com/ochikeron

♥Please "Like" me on Facebook♥
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♥My Cookbook♥

Loco's TABLE MAHANA

For our 8th anniversary celebration, we've been to a Hawaiian restaurant called Loco's TABLE MAHANA in Ebisu :D



Dinner here is really Hawaiian with flowers and tropical seasonings :) Loco Moco rice bowl is a must order dish! And unexpectedly, the pork rib with BBQ sauce was pretty good!



Here there's a hula show and one of my hula teachers dances every other week!!! I shoot a video of the dance "Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai" which we are learning right now! I will share it privately at my YouTube soon!

It was such a wonderful night.

Have a good day!!!

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8th Anniversary on New York Time

8 years ago, on 6/7, I met my darling at my friend's party!!!

It was right at this time in New York (EST)! hehe

So tonight, we are going out for a dinner. Ya===y :D

We have many anniversaries over the next few months.

Are your anniversaries consecutive?!

Have a nice day!!!

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Osakana Kuwaeta Doraneko - Video Recipe

Hello! This video will show you a kawaii (cute) idea of presenting Wagashi (Japanese sweets)! I am using Dorayaki - consists of two small pancakes with azuki (sweet red bean paste) filling and Taiyaki - fish-shaped sweet cake with azuki filling.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz-dIfg0BN0

Wagashi sounds pretty formal but it is often eaten at home in Japan because it's healthy.

Anyways, do you know what "Osakana Kuwaeta Doraneko" means? Osakana is a polite way of saying fish. Kuwaeta is eating. And Doraneko is a stray cat.

So, it means "stray cat eating fish".

I think this phrase is pretty known to all Japanese since it's the words from Sazae-san's song, if you know ;)



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Osakana Kuwaeta Doraneko

Difficulty: Very Easy
Time: approx. 15min
Number of servings: 1

Ingredients:
1&1/2 dorayaki
1 taiyaki
chocolate pen

Directions:
1. Set the chocolate pen in a cup of hot water for a few minutes.
2. Meanwhile, cut 1/2 portion of the dorayaki and make 2 cat ears.
3. On the serving plate, open one round dorayaki, put taiyaki in between the pancakes, and place the ears.
4. Cut the tip of the chocolate pen and draw a cat face.
5. Put in the freezer for a few sec and harden the chocolate.
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Anyways, I hope my voice and all the sounds are clear at a comfortable volume... I am looking for a good microphone which has a air noise control (I don't know how to explain it, though) So, I care the noise more than what I'm speaking out, which is kind of pain in the neck...

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KYODO406 and My Artwork LOL

Summer is really here today! It is too hot though we must save on electricity in consequence of the earthquake X(

Anyways, on the weekend we finally were treated with good foods! (We eat out once on the weekend but the other 2 weekends were not really, and I thought it was better to eat at home. haha)

KYODO406 is known for natural vintage wines. Yes! Their wines were pretty good!!!



Also foods were delish :) The clams were huge and were a lot on top!!! The grilled chicken was not at all greasy and was high in protein which is my taste!



You know what!? This is something really funny that made me laugh. Remember that I tested my darling to see if he cares having a pile of paper tubes in our restroom? I finally asked him why and guess what he said?! He said he thought I was collecting them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How come?! But some of my artwork do use garbages... for example the table below is made by using packages of snacks...



He said he was scared of throwing them out. oh boy...

All for today :P

I am editing the next video!!!

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Rice Haul for a Healthy Diet

We Japanese don't simply cook white rice but we add something in addition. There are many different kinds of rice products in Japan. In this video, I will show you what I love to add in my rice daily with a quick tutorial :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaVN9mN1MPM

The first rice product is the cereal rice. We call it zakkokumai (雑穀米). It's a package with many different types of cereals. zakkokumai is high in fiber and very colorful :D

Then another product I love to add in my rice is mannanhikari (マンナンヒカリ). It is a rice shaped konjac food. By cooking the rice with mannanhikari, you can save calories (up to 33%)! This product is also high in fiber!!!



Please watch my How to Cook Steamed White Rice (Gohan) tutorial if you want to know how to cook rice in more detail :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUWV9rEme7c

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How to Cook Steamed White Rice (Gohan)

Difficulty: Super Easy
Time: approx. 30min
Number of servings: 4 (2 cups of rice)

Necessary Equipment:
suihanki (Japanese rice cooker)

Ingredients:
2 cups Japanese-style rice
water

Directions:
1. Measure the Rice:
Measure the rice with a measuring cup and put it into the cooking pot. Most of the time the measuring cup comes with your rice cooker!
2. Rinse the Rice:
With cold water, wash the rice. As for 2 cups, wash 4 or 5 times. Water does not have to be clear but somewhat clean.
3. Add Water:
Add water to the appropriate level indicated in the pot. If you have time, let the rice soak in the water at least 30 minutes.
4. Start the Cooker:
Place the pot into the rice cooker. Cover it, and press the button to start.
5. Steam:
When it's done, do not open and let it steam for about 15 minutes.
6. Toss:
Using a rice paddle, toss the rice lightly.
7. Serve:
You can keep the rice warmed until you unplug the rice cooker so serve when other dishes are ready.
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Have a good weekend :D

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My Accomplishments

For those of you who know my routine monthly updates, it's already June!!!

Here are my accomplishments in May :D

On 5/7, my Enoki Tantan Rice Bowl won a grand prix at mushrooms recipe contest. Tantan refers to the sesame based hot foods, such as Tantanmen (担々麺). The smooth texture of enoki mushrooms is amazingly delicious and went well with white rice :D

On 5/10, my Grilled Tuna with Cheese Sauce won a S&B prize at orangepage, where I update my food diary in Japanese :D If you remember from my curry and rice recipe, S&B is a company that makes spice products in Japan.

On 5/10, my Stir-Fried Ginger Pork and Cabbage received the 10th photo report at Cookpad. I already translated this recipe in English. Check it out HERE.




On 5/17, my Crunchy Salad Parfait won the outstanding performance award and was broadcast (5/17 23:30) on TV program called WBS (World Business Satellite)!!! However it was only for a few second, so I took a snapshot of the TV. LoL

On 5/27, my Non-Fried Crispy Croquette using rusk (toast) won a grand prize!!! My darling loves croquette, so this was a good idea to save time ;)




Last but not least, I thank to 250 people (at this moment) subscribing to my YouTube channel!!!

All for today!

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Beef Beer Curry and Rice - Video Recipe

Another video is up :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nusdJYSErw

In Japan, we use "curry roux" to make curry and rice. There are many different kinds of curry roux. In my tutorial, I used Golden Curry (Medium-Spicy) by S&B. It is made with 35 different spices which gives amazing oriental flavor to your curry!!! Also, it went perfect with KIRIN Ichibanshibori (beer)!!!

Try out!!! I hope you like it :D



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Beef Beer Curry and Rice

Difficulty: Easy
Time: 45min
Number of servings: 5

Ingredients:
200g (7oz.) thinly sliced beef
200g (7oz.) onion
200g (7oz.) shimeji mushrooms
200g (7oz.) frozen edamame beans in pods
600cc water
200cc KIRIN Ichibanshibori (beer)
110g (3.8oz.) S&B Golden Curry (medium-spicy) *Japanese curry roux
1 tbsp. cooking oil
5 servings steamed Japanese white rice
grape tomatoes if desired

Directions:
1. Use Golden Curry (medium-spicy) or you can substitute it with any other Japanese curry roux!
2. Cut thinly sliced beef into bite size pieces. Slice onion. Remove tough base of shimeji mushroom and break into bite-sized chunks. Thaw and remove the edamame beans from the pods.
3. Heat cooking oil in a large stew pot, saute the sliced onion over medium heat until it softens. Then add the beef and shimeji mushrooms and saute together.
4. When mushrooms get soft, add 600cc water, bring to a boil, skim the scum, add 200cc beer, and turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for about 15 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat, add Golden Curry (medium-spicy) curry roux, and mix well until completely melted. Then put on the heat and simmer for about 7 minutes until thickened.
6. Add edamame beans, stir, and cook 3 more minutes.
7. Serve on a hot bed of rice, garnish with grape tomatoes if desired.

My original recipe in Japanese is here.
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Have fun cooking!

P.S. can't believe half the year has passed already!!!

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Last Day

I used all my paid leaves to date. I thought quitting the job would give me more time but it was impossible. hahaha A month was pretty fast and I found I have a lot of things to do!!!

Last Friday, I went to work to see my co-workers for the last time. They gave me a flower and cookies. The flower was just the color I love :D





Great thanks!!!

I want to best use my time for my creations :)

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Kanpai Omurice | Japanese Cooking Video Recipe

Kanpai or Kampai (乾杯) means "cheers" in Japanese!

Quite some time ago, I made a funny Omurice, if you remember! Those fingers are sausages! I drew nails and the beer foam using mayonnaise. Simple yet entertaining!

Kanpai Omurice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpvBjmV5r28

Omurice is a fried rice wrapped with thin omelette. Usually, the rice is chicken rice (seasoned with ketchup) but you can use any kind of flavored rice (leftover is perfect!): Chinese-style fried rice, pilaf, Paella, etc…

In my tutorial, I used Chinese-style fried rice!

It can be a great father's day menu idea or a dish to surprise your partner ;D

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Kanpai Omurice

Difficulty: Easy
Time: 20min
Number of servings: 1

Ingredients:
8oz. (225g) flavored rice of your choice
1 egg
2.5 sausage
cooking oil
ketchup
mayonnaise

Directions:
1. Cut one sausage diagonally to look like your thumb. And chop the other two to look like the rest of your fingers.
2. Beat 1 or 2 eggs in a bowl. Heat cooking oil in a pan and make a thin omelette. If you don't have a rectangle omelette pan, you can make a circle thin omelette and cut it later.
3. Remove the omelette and cook sausages.
4. Cut the longer side of the omelette to make a thin strip.
5. Place the flavored rice of your choice on the plate and shape it like a mug.
6. Cover the rice with the thin omelette and make a handle with the thin strip.
7. Place the sausages to look like holding the mug.
8. Draw the fingernails and the beer foam with mayonnaise.
9. Write a message with ketchup!

My original recipe in Japanese is here.
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Enjoy!

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Abnormal Weather in Japan

The rainy season has started in Japan. It was 20 days earlier than last year. We see rain marks on the weekly weather forecast in Tokyo X(



And another abnormal weather we have is that the typhoon #1 passed by the Japanese continent earlier this month which was the first time in the record. Also typhoon #2 is approaching this weekend… so that means the rain on the weekend would be severe. oh boy…



How is the weather in your country?!

Today we still don't have rain yet! I'm glad it starts to rain from late in the evening because I have to go to work, which actually is going to be my very last day!

Have a good weekend!!!

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