Pictures

Bananas do grow upside down.




Best Sashimi in the town (I've never had anything like this in America; there is no comparison and it's no wonder why I don't like it in America)




Caviar (why all the hype about it?)



Sweet fruit



Restaurant with a Chinese traditional theme

homemade fries

Tastes good, but too salty.
Tomorrow night, I will attempt fried chicken. We'll see how it goes.

beer

Does anyone know a good beer used for cooking brats? I want it to taste phenomenal.

culinary school

I know I'm going to dental hygiene school, but I really enjoy cooking. I find it to be an adventure everyday. It's just so fun. I think one day, maybe within the next ten years, I'll go to culinary school for fun. By then, maybe I won't need to work as a hygienist anymore and just stay home and cook all day. I look forward to it one day, maybe, if it ever happens.

I don't think I would want to be a chef at a restaurant because I would be limited in what I could cook. I would just love to cook what I want for my family. And when I mean cook, I mean a five course meal starting with appetizers and ending with desserts. And everything would be homemade from scratch.

The only part I don't like about cooking is cleaning up. When I'm done at the end of the day, there is a pile of dishes and utensils. My hubby says that I use a lot of unnecessary tools and dishes to cook. He may be right, but I feel what I do gets the job done the best. Like the pros say, you can't use a screw driver to hammer in a nail, so why compromise the same way when cooking? And if that means using three different cutting boards (one for garlic and ginger, vegetables, and raw meat), then so be it. I only have one cutting board by the way, and I've been bugging my hubby to get some more.

Hmm, well anyway, that was just a thought. I don't know if I'm serious, but it would be nice if I could go to culinary school one day. I was actually thinking about it while I was in college but I don't know why I never looked into it.

Cauliflower with Dijon Sauce

I found this recipe from allrecipes.com. I thought it was really good. I didn't know how else to cook cauliflower, besides the usual oyster sauce method. I think next time though, I'll cook it with yogurt instead, as suggested by one of the comments. Recipe can be found here. And instead of using the microwave, I boiled it for 5 minutes. Then I put it in the oven at 375 degrees for about another 5 minutes or until the cheese was melted. I hate using the microwave to cook food because that's not real cooking.

clipped from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1 head cauliflower, separated into florets
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Place cauliflower florets in a large glass bowl or casserole dish, and cover with plastic wrap. Poke a few holes in the plastic with a knife. Cook in the microwave for 5 to 7 minutes, or until tender.
2. In a cup or small bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, and Dijon mustard. Spread over the top of the cauliflower. Sprinkle shredded cheese over the top. Return to the microwave, and cook just until cheese has melted, about 2 minutes.

Steak, fries, and tomato

Yummy! Look what I cooked for my hubby. :)

New York Steak Strip with a side of fries and tomato onion garlic with cilantro. Good stuff.

food review

Critique on pork tenderloin with creamy mustard sauce.

It sucked. I wasn't impressed with the sauce at all. I think I'll stick to my breaded pork or ketchup worcestershire version.

For some reason, it came out all watery and very tasteless.

pork tenderloin with creamy mustard sauce

This recipe is taken from verybestbaby.com/recipes. This is a new recipe that I'll be trying tonight and I'm very excited because I was running out of ways to cook pork.

Ingredients:
1 pound pork tenderloin
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup Nestle Carnation Evap. Fat Free Milk
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 to 3 green onions, sliced

Cut pork into 1-inch-thick slices. Place pork between two pieces of plastic wrap. Flatten to 1/4-inch thickness using meat mallet or rolling pin. Season with salt and ground black pepper, if desired.

Heat oil in large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the pork; cook on each side for 2 minutes or until browned and cooked through. Remove from skillet; set aside and keep warm. Repeat with remaining pork.

Reduce heat to low. Add evaporated milk; stir to loosen brown bits from bottom of skillet. Stir in mustard and green onions. Return pork to skillet. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened, turning pork to coat with sauce.

critique on tonight's dinner

Pork
C-
Dry, not tender (I didn't tenderize it), sauce dried on pork (marinate for a few hours at most, not overnight because the sauce thickened), too gingery (will not add at all next time), not enough ketchup or worcestershire sauce.

Hearts of Romaine
A-
Needs a little more ponzu and needs to be a little crispier.

Nishiki Rice
A
It's good.

tomorrow's dinner menu

Pork slices
marinate in ketchup, worcestershire sauce, water (I don't measure, usu. do it by color)
add a spoon of sugar and desired amount of rice wine
add julienned ginger and minced garlic (optional-I don't always do this, depends on what I have on hand.)
bake in oven

Hearts of Romaine
wash and rip into bite size pieces
boil for a few minutes and drain
spike it with Ponzu (I like it better than soy sauce because of its citrus flavor)

Nishiki rice