Wunpan makes lunchies.

My eating schedule is so messed up since I don't usually eat breakfast. By 2 oclock, I am starving and end up having a huge lunchie. Then I am full until 8 or 9, and eat a huge dinner again right before I go to bed...Now you can all see why I am in the shape I am in right now. Well, let's put this depressing issue aside, and talk about lunchies!!

Getting older does really weird things to you. I was never crazy about bread, cheese and deli meats. I wouldn't say I love them now, but I definitely eat more of them now than ever before. I bought this really nice, round focaccia bread from Panera, and got some meats from supermarket, and I made some kick-ass panini!! The picture below has prosciuto, ham, cheddar (American, maybe) cheese and basil. I heat up the pan with a little bit of butter and cook the panini a couple of minuntes on both sides until the bread is crisp and golden, and the cheese melts inside. It's always nice and fun to eat out, but it's so much cheaper (and often healthier) to make your own food. This, with some fries and a drink could easily cost you $10. Well, this time, I kept that $10 in my pocket!!

I made me and my friend some lunchie today. We were getting together to chant, but everything is more fun with food!! I made potato coroquettes with fontina cheese, salmon fried rice and beef roll with green beans and carrots. I bought prosecco and orange juice to make bellini. Prosecco is very affordable and makes everything a little more special. I hope my friend enjoyed it as much as I did. By the way, my husband is having the leftover for dinner tonight. Thank you and love you, leftovers!!

Feast in Little Italy

It's been such a long time since I wrote about food here!! I have been busy, but still trying to make some good stuff!! I went to the feast in Little Italy in NYC a few weeks ago, and I ate me some really good stuff!! I tried this goodie called "Mozzarepa". It looks like a silver dollar pancake made of polenta (cornmeal) and has mozzarella cheese in the middle. It was yummy. Since the cornmeal is sweet and mozzarella cheese is rich, you can't really eat the whole thing by yourself (at least I couldn't.) Good thing I was with my friend, we split it in half. I totally forgot to take a picture, but I will try to make it at home one day!! I also had angel hair with shrimp at the nice restaurant. It had some creamy, yet very thin tomato sauce on it. It was soooooo good, but was more than $12 for a tiny plate. How much does it cost to cook 1/10lb of pasta??? I understand it's about the experience, but even the shrimp was cut up in small pieces!! (Thanks to my generous friend, lunch was on him!!) We walked around some more, bought some delicious cannoli, fried Oreo and a pink cat (might be a mouse) hat in Chinatown and went home happy and full.

By the way, OMG, fried Oreo!! You must be one of the worst food people could possibly come up with, but damn, they are soooooo good!! Why did I not try them sooner? I was always a fan of zeppoli, but from now on, I will dedicate myself to fried Oreo, all mighty. Man, are thy good. I don't even like regular Oreo so much. But hey, what doesn't taste good dipped in batter and fried in grease?

They all had different flavor...strawberry, mudslide, peanutbutter and so on.

After I came home, I decided to challenge myself to make the pasta I enjoyed. I bought some cream, tomatoes and shrimp. I made thin spaghetti for myself instead of angel hair. This is really the beauty of making things on your own. You get to control the amount and quality of the ingredients that go in your dishes. Although I did not taste garlic, I added some, and to revenge (???) the shrimp, I added the WHOLE shrimp. Since I don't have to think cost effectively, my shrimp can dive into the pan without getting chopped up. And Voila!! You can see both below. Next time, I can add some more tomatoes because I ended up with no sauce...But maybe the restaurant might be using canned tomato/tomato sauce instead the fresh tomatoes...I have to try it that way next time.

from restaurant

by Wumpan

Instead of the nice view of the street of Little Italy from the balcony, I had 2 dogs staring at me, drooling, but I have to say, the pasta was quite successful!! It was nice and creamy and you can really enjoy the texture of the fresh shrimp, and basil really gave it a nice touch, preventing the pasta from being too rich and creamy. I know, and you know, this is now in my recipe box and I will keep on improving!!

Lunch vs Wumpan

I try to make lunch for my husband everyday. It can add up to a lot of money, and it is also healthier!! My husband is a good eater, so I enjoy cooking for him, but since this is everyday, sometimes I run out of things to make...recipe...I need more recipe...

This is lamb chops that I cooked with garlic and rosemary in the oven. There are sweet potato rounds and onions that I also baked in the oven on the bottom.





These are what is on the bottom of the lamb chops.

I make this one often...It's easy, just ground chicken, cooked in sake, soy sauce and sugar on top of white rice and scrambled eggs. I also put some soy sauce and pepper in the eggs.

This one is just sauteed green beans and carrots...I add a little garlic, and all you have to do is sautee them for a bit with salt and pepper. I can put them on the side of grilled chicken, burgers, and so on. They are yummy, crunchy and healthy!!

The last one is what I made for dinner a little while ago. My husband wanted to go to the Tex'mex place for dinner, so I made this...it was good, and I had pretty much everything in the fridge already.



Grilled skirt steak, chicken, rice, guacamole, cheese and low carb wraps



Pasta, Pasta, Noodle!!

One of Wumpan's favorite food is pasta & noodle!! These are a few of the stuff I have made!! (Just looking at these pictures make me happy...hungry...)

The first one is spaghetti with Tarako (cod roe). I like to add grated garlic (just a small piece because it's raw and really strong) and mayonnaise, and at the very end, you can put a little soy sauce. The black trips on top are nori (seaweed).

The next one is spaghetti with shrimp and mushroom in garlic and oil. As you can see, I am not crazy about tomato sauce. So whatever kind of pasta I make, it's usually garlic and oil sauce. You will be surprised though, how everything can taste differently depending on what you put in the pasta!!



There are 3 different kinds of mushroom in here!!

This is penne with broccoli and sausage in garlic and oil. (What did I tell you about not having tomato sauce?) I think every pasta I make tastes better the next day!! You have got to love leftovers!!

I like to add a good handful of parmesan cheese!

Next one is Chinese style noodles...You can find these fresh noodles in a regular supermarket. I tried to deep fry them before, but they are too thick, so I didn't like how they came out. I just stir fried a bunch of veggies, meat and shrimp, and added some sake and soy sauce. It was ok...this one is still work in progress. I want to make them into a tasty, and healthy version of lo mein.

This is the deep fried version...it was way too crunchy.



So, this last one...this is my "fake out" version of Linguini Raphael from Matteo's. It has broccoli rabe, garlic, fresh tomatoes, little neck clams and shrimp. It is soooo tasty, and I love this dish from Matteo's. HOWEVER!! The restaurant is a little far from me, and they serve family style meals. So a large dish of this can cost about $40. (You didn't actually think I would get a small one, did you?) So I try to make this every now and then, and it's pretty good. I really like cooking because you get to control the amount, quality, and it's much cheaper. This one came out very good, and I was happy, HOWEVER!! I over cooked the pasta!! How can I over cook pasta? I NEVER over cook pasta!! Especially when I make a dish like this, and the sauce I make out of garlic, chicken stock and the clams is soooo yummy!! I was soooo upset when I realized my pasta had no back bones...But just to teach me a lesson, I finished this all by myself...I know, Wumpan is tough on herself.

I made this some other time, same recipe though.

This one is the one with over cooked pasta...

And this is the original one from Matteo's!! Yum!!

Wumpan returns!!

     I have been taking a rest from my blogs since I felt badly about the earthquake in Japan. My sincere prayers go to all the people who have been affected by the tragic quake back in March.

     Well, I am back and well, and wanted to share the food I had in New Orleans!! I went to New Orleans from May 22 to 26. My uncle belongs to the Rotery club and he went to New Orleans to join the convention. He brought his wife (I am actually related to her...my mom's younger sister.). And I went down there to see them!! It was soooo hot and humid...definitely not Wumpan's kind of town, but it had very nice people and food...I got to see my arch enemy, the home of the Saints, Super Dome, too. (Super Bowl XLIV)

The bus driver explained a little bit about the Saints and the Super Bowl, and I had to clog my ears and sing, "lalalalalala!! I am not listening!!" (I know Wumpan is juvenile.)

Anyway, these are the things I had for the first day.

For lunch, I had a po-boy sandwich (shrimp) at the convention center with fries...nice and cold, soggy fries...but what do you expect from a convention hall? The shrimp was actually nice and crispy.

    

     For dinner, we went to the cafe called, "The Palm Court Cafe". They had some live music, and it was like screaming out New Orleans!! For starter, we had spicy shrimp, crab claws with herb dressing (kind of like pesto), shrimp/craw fish croquette. They were all yummy...I am getting hungry writing about it. The soup was oyster and spinach. Yummerz again. It was a pre-fix dinner and we all had a choice of seafood or meat (beef). For some reason, my aunt and uncle told me to have meat...(I won't ever understand why.) So I went along with it and had...pot roast...I can have pot roast anywhere...I can even make it at home...so while everyone at the table enjoyed some seafood in creole sauce with rice, I had...pot roast...yea...I guess it was good...sure, I would love to try some broccoli and potatoes in New Orleans since I never get to have them in New York...(I am still bitter about it.) Anyway, to wash these all down, I had nothing but the HURRICANE!! It is a drink made of dark and light rum and fruit punch. Pat O'brien's make the original and famouse hurricane, but this was very good as well. ご馳走様!!

Wumpan's busy day

I had such a busy day...I don't know how people do this...I don't even have kids or a job...So my day started at 8am, took a shower and went to pick up my friend to go to a toso together. (I go chanting every Wednesday morning...trying to be a good Buddha.) Then I dropped her off to visit another friend. We had lunch at this place called Duffy's on Forest Avenue, Staten Island. This place is famous for their burger and we went to try it out. I actually have been here before with my husband, I totally forgot about it. The burger is juicy and they use great quality meat enough to serve it rare. (I like my cow mooing.) I got today's special...burger with swiss cheese and mushroom. Again, very juicy, but...too under seasoned for me. I had to put salt and pepper on every bite of the meat. I also don't like rye bread which they serve the burger on, so I asked for english muffin instead. They serve every burger with potato chips...hmmm...potato chips...I like how the chips absorbed the juice from the meat, but I would still like french fries with my burger. I also thought that it might be a bit lazy to serve chips out of a bag. If they are proud of their burger, they should spend a bit more time on what they serve on the side, too. They also have crab claws cocktail for market price, which I tried with my husband. They were yummy, I remember. After the lunch, I went to give blood (I give it every 2 months!!) and then went grocery shopping...dizzy...I then went home and put the stuff away. I took a little snooze then off to a planning meeting. Then I found out it's been rescheduled, I went to see my friend for dinner. Since I had to pick up my husband at the ferry, we decided to go to this place called Pier 76 on Bay Street, Staten Island. It's a very nice Italian restaurant/bar and they were playing the Knicks game with a few excited Knicks fan at the bar. I had a chicken cutlet with broccoli rabe hero with fries. Since I don't like tomato sauce, I was happy this wasn't a chicken cutlet parm. The hero was very simple, 2 slices of chicken cutlet with boiled (maybe steamed) broccoli rabe. I LOOOOOVE broccoli rabe, and this was soooo good!! Nice and savory, but no bitterness from broccoli rabe. Maybe you could add a little parmesan cheese, but it was nice, fresh, hot and yummicious!! The only thing I don't understand is none of the panini and hero came with fries. C'mon, no fires? Really? No fries? Not even potato chips? So I ordered a side dish of fries. The volume of the fries was more than enough. I shared them with my friend, and we still couldn't finish it. With a drink each, 2 sandwichies and side fries for little less than 30bucks. Not too bad, eh? When I came home, it was already after 10pm!! That used to be my prime time when I was younger...My lights were out by 11:30. Nite nite, Wumpan, you did a great job!! (patting myself on the back) By the way, the last 2 pictures are from the joint called Burger Chef on Victory Blvd, Staten Island. I like their burger more than Duffy's. It came with FRIES (I am so hung up on the fries thing, I know.), onion rings, pickles and a choice of cole slaw/macaroni salad. It's about double the price from Duffy's, but I think it's worth it. I took those pictures with my cell phone, but for some reason, they look like pictures out of a magazine...don't they?

焼肉三昧

お友達に呼ばれた次の日、家でうちの旦那のお別れパーティをすることになっていて　（彼氏は金曜から出張でインド七日間とついでに観光でドイツ三日間行きます。）家でも焼肉することになっていたので昨晩のお友達の家でも焼肉が出たのでびっくり!!　歳も年だから焼肉二日連続はきつい...と思ったら全然平気でした。家では野菜、エビ、鳥、豚、牛、焼きそばなどしました。Targetで安い鉄板買って、皆でワイワイ夜遅くまで楽しかった。窓開けてやったのに、結構次の日も家が焼肉臭かったけど、またやろうね!!　写真には載ってないけど鳥はモモ肉を一口大に切ってバジル、レモン、にんにくとオリーブオイルに漬けて焼きました。デザートはアイスクリームや、チョコプリン、ゼリーにイチゴとラズベリーや生クリームを添えました。写真に取るの忘れたんだけど、赤ワインに果物とジンジャーエールをいれてサングリアも作ったよ。わんぱんお疲れ様...ちょっとぐったり。

豚肉と牛タンは塩コショウとレモンで

隣のワンタンは私の次の日のお昼

デザートはショットグラスに入れてみました

焼肉!!

お友達のお家に呼ばれて焼肉をご馳走になりました。焼肉機は本格的な網焼き!!　骨付きかルビと、豚肉と野菜と、ビールと梅酒でわんぱん大満足~!!　ちなみにデザートはあんドーナツ。おなかパンパンわんぱんは一番幸せなわんぱんです。お家もメチャクチャきれいだし、私も将来はこんなお家に住みたいな。

サラダもおいしかった♪

梅酒は沖縄産、黒糖、泡盛入りで甘くておいしかった。

Wumpan bakes...really?

As I mentioned before, I am not a baker...I wish I was. But I wanted to show a couple of things I baked. They don't need measuring, so as long as I paid attention to the temperature not to burn them, it's pretty much fool...Wumpan proof.

The first one is puff pastry (frozen) with apples...my version of apple pie. All I did was thaw the puff pastry and place sliced apples on top and sprinkle sugar on top. Bake it off in the oven with the suggested temperature that's on the puff pastry box. If you want a lot of texture and crunchness, you can slice the apples thick. After taking it out of the oven, I put a mixture of apricot jam, lemon juice, lemon zest and honey on top. If you like things sweeter, you can put more jam/honey and less lemon, but I suggest to put some lemon juice anyway to keep the pie nice and refreshing. Again, this recipe needs no measurement. You can control the amount of apples (in the picture, I sliced about 2 apples), jam, honey...everything. It would taste yummy with pears, too...even with peaches or pineapples...anything tastes good with puff pastry.

The second one is puff pastry (you've got to love this thing), spinach, bacon, garlic and ricotta cheese. Once again, NO MEASURING!! I made the spinach mixture first according to what I thought would taste good together, and put it on the puff pastry. The only thing to watch for is not to make whatever the mixture you make too wet. No one wants soggy puff pastry (or do we...?)
I also made puff pastry (This thing might be my best friend.) with grilled (baked) salmon with pesto sauce. I think I made this thing way too big, but it sure was yummy. I put the puff pastry and salmon on the same baking sheet and cooked them off. I like pesto, so I made it myself, but you can definitely buy some, or it would work with chutney or hummus.

The last one is something I made without my dear puff pastry...shepard's pie. I got the recipe from the cooking show called "Bitchin' Kitchen". It was a bit complicated since I had to make cream of corn and everything else from a scratch, but I could totally make some short cuts but the taste was worth the work!! The mashed potatoes on top is a mixture of regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. This tasted better the next day, and even better the following day!!

the jam mixture adds a nice shine



I love spinach!!

yummerz!!



the purple thingie is crushed tortilla chips



朝からわんぱん...ワンタン

今日は朝の８時からワンタンを揚げてみました...く、くどい...
１０時から友達の家で作戦会議。

いつもいつもお家を提供してくれるので、お礼のつもりで前に作ったときに彼の評判の

高かったNutella入りの揚げワンタンを作りました...やっぱりくどい...料理を作るのは好きでも、甘いものは食べるのも作るのもちょっと苦手なのでお勝手の窓全開で作りました。*説明しよう!!*　Nutellaとはヘーゼルナッツ、ココアとスキムミルク等でできている、

日本でよくみるパンにつけるチョコみたいなもので本当に

パンにつけてもおいしいのであーる。私の中ではワンタンといえばお肉を入れるもので、

お肉以外の、それも甘いものを入れると言う発想がなかったのでちょっと感動。

朝作ってて思ったんだけど、チャイブ（細い万能ねぎみたいなやつ）と

チーズ入れたりしてもおいしいかも。でも結構何でも油で揚げりゃおいしいんだよね。

最後にお砂糖をまぶして...喜んでくれるかな...?

Wumpan vs roasted veggies

I have been extremely busy since I came back from Japan, plus I was like a zombie from jetlag for a while. But I started to realize these excuses are getting too old for not making my husband dinners and lunches. So Wumpan goes to Stop and Shop...I started cooking around 5 and just finished everything...I didn't know you can actually get food comma from cooking...I made roasted chicken with veggies, but I guess I cut them too small, so they shrunk and most of them burned...Then I made turkey meatloaf, which was my husband's request for dinner, then I made bass my friend fished, and finally, I made some paella!!



Roast chicken with veggies



Turkey meatloaf with steamed broccoli



友達の釣ったバスを椎茸、にんにく、お酒とバターでホイル焼きにしてみました

シーフードパエリヤ（この中にもバス入ってます）

Wumpan misses Japan

I'm starting to appreciate how precious it is to have my parents in my life. We may not always get along, but I am so fortunate to have them as my mom and dad.